What About Bob?
An (unplanned) Dylanecentric edition of the newsletter
Hello from Bizarro Studios North.
The past week was busy and at times stressful, but I took Monday evening off to grab a bite with a friend and go to a Bob Dylan concert. Next month, Dylan will be 84 years old, so his age has caught up with his contrarian and cantankerous persona.
As a performer, he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and part of the experience is trying to identify the songs, since he loves to deconstruct and rearrange his music. I got all but one, from an album I haven’t listened to as much as others over the years.
The two songs that opened the nearly two-hour set could be interpreted as a snarky comment on audience expectations: “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” followed immediately by “It Ain’t Me Babe.”
Even with some (relatively) uptempo numbers, the show's vibe was low-key, almost hypnotic.
I’ve seen Dylan four or five times over the past thirty years. This week’s concert wasn’t my favorite, but it was worthwhile, and reminded me to make the time to hear live music at every opportunity.
Today’s blog entry includes this week’s panels, a couple of strip versions, a reference photo, a musical pipe pic and an appropriate bonus track.
I wrapped up a new week of gags bringing us into early July. This pile included a few superheroes (some well-known and some of my invention), dogs, gamers, a fortune teller, and a humpback whale.
Looking Ahead & Looking Back
This aquatic mammal seems to be waiting for a krill delivery.
Today’s historic work is a 2004 portrait of Bob Dylan based on a 1965 promotional photo. It was one of 150 portraits of musicians I did for Rhino Records & Warner Music earlier this century. My illustrations were typically humorous and cartoony, but this series was executed in a “simplified realistic” style, transforming photos into line drawings. I had a great time working on the multi-year project, and was proud of some of my brushwork. At the time, high-quality inking brushes weren’t as scarce as they are today.
One of My Back Pages
As I began my second year doing the daily Bizarro panels, I featured Dylan from 1965, his signature polka-dot shirt reimagined as pajamas.
Do you sense a theme in this week’s newsletter?
Newsletter Bonus Track
Wilko Johnson’s Solid Senders": “Highway 61 Revisited”
John Peel Session, September 1978
We’ll close with a high-energy version of one of Bob Dylan’s most durable numbers by the late Wilko Johnson. Wilko was a founding member of the British pub rock band Dr. Feelgood. I wish I’d had the chance to see the original Dr. Feelgood live, or any later band that included Wilko.
Thank you for your support and readership, and for indulging this week’s musical rabbit hole.
With best wishes from your cartoonist,
Wayno
It's pretty clear that Dylan has never felt that he owed anything to his fans. Maybe he's right, but it's annoying to attend a concert and have the musician challenge you to accept his distortions of his own work. Back in the '90s, he played at the pavillion in Waikiki's Kapiolani Park and a fair number of people started walking out by about the fourth song. I was among them, so I don't know how things went after that. My favorite thing about the first few numbers was that the audience would sit quietly for several bars and then applaud when they figured out what song it was they were hearing.