A New York state judge has ruled that the co-writer on many of Bob Dylan’s songs on the Desire album is not entitled to any further compensation as the result of Dylan’s sale of his catalog to Universal Music Group.
Claudia C. Levy, the widow of co-writer Jaques Levy, filed suit in January following the sale of Dylan’s catalog to UMG, claiming the estate was owed at least $1.75 million from the sale for the 10 songs on Desire, which I have ranked as Dylan’s third-best album. Levy has collected over $1 million since 1975 for his contributions to the record.
But following arguments in July, Justice Barry R. Ostrager of the New York Supreme Court granted the motion by Dylan and Universal to dismiss the case, writing that a 1975 agreement between Dylan and Levy grants Dylan copyrights to all of the songs they co-wrote together.
“The Court determines that the plain meaning of the 1975 Agreement is that the Dylan Defendants owned all copyrights to the Compositions, as well as the absolute right to sell the Compositions and all associated rights, subject only to plaintiffs’ right to receive the compensation specified in the 1975 Agreement,” Ostrager wrote.
For those of you who enjoy the very fertile early 1980s Dylan output, as I do, you will be glad to hear that the next chapter in the Bootleg series will cover outtakes, rehearsals and alternate cuts from 1980 to 1985.
This period sees Dylan emerging from the Gospel era with the transitional Shot of Love and the outstanding back-to-back releases of Infidels and Empire Burlesque. The new “Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Volume 16” will cover all of those albums in a 5-CD volume, and a pared-down 2 CD set.
Of particular note are the Empire Burlesque cuts that have the Arthur Baker remix-heavy trimmings removed, and a live version of the amazing “Dark Eyes.” None of the material on the new collection has been released before in other Bootleg Series editions or compilations, save for a couple of international releases.
You can pre-order the package and read in more detail about it by visiting Dylan’s website.
Bob Dylan’s “Shadow Kingdom” streaming event debuted today (7/18/21) and as great as the music and vocals sounded, the performance keeps Dylan’s status as an enigma intact and leaves many questions unanswered.
First off, this was not your typical live-streamed concert, but a pre-recorded, film noir presentation of Dylan in a supper-club atmosphere of the late 50s/early 60s (The Bon Bon Club in Marseille, according to the credits). There was no live audience per se, but actors portraying the integrated club-goers seem disinterested at first, more concerned about smoking and drinking than the music, but become livelier as the show nears its conclusion.
Subtitled “The Early Music of Bob Dylan,” the setlist bore that out, except for the Oh Mercy track “What Was it You Wanted.” Does this mean there will be a Volume 2 of the later music?
Opening with “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” Dylan was onstage with his band, sans drums, presenting his music to well-dressed patrons of the smoky club. I can’t imagine Dylan actually being in amongst all the smoke, so there must have been some type of film trickery.
The staging reminded me a lot of the album cover for Rough and Rowdy Ways, his remarkable 2020 album that emerged just as the pandemic exploded, but not surprisingly nothing from that album was actually played.
The show segued from one song to the next, although there was an annoying title card announcing each song name as it began. Since I like to be surprised and pick up the vibe of the band as they move from song to song, I found myself closing my eyes so I could work my way into the next tune myself, instead of being blasted with the title.
Each Dylan tour seems to have its own unique feel, and this show was no different. In many ways it reminded me of the “Sinatra Years” sound, but with a small folk-blues combo instead of a Big Band, but Dylan performing the material in a crooning voice.
This is where this show was revelatory; his voice has not sounded this good in a live setting for a long time. His last performance was in December 2019, with the pandemic keeping him from the road since then, which seems to have provided much-needed rest for his vocal chords. Mostly Dylan was either standing and singing, or seated, but he did occasionally strum an acoustic and played some harmonica.
Often in Dylan shows you can’t always understand the words, but in this setting, every word was clear and pronounced. It would be great to see a show like this in a small, intimate theater. Is that what is on the horizon? We won’t know until that day comes, but for now “Shadow Kingdom” is another worthy entry into the Dylan lexicon.
Shadow Kingdom is available on veeps.com, and will be until the latter part of July. Technically I had no issues with the platform, and I used a laptop plugged into an HDMI port on my surround sound video system, which made it sound rich and vivid.,
Bob Dylan has emerged from the shadows of the COVID-19 lock-down with a scheduled live performance in July to be live-streamed on the Veeps platform.
The show, dubbed Shadow Kingdom, “will showcase the artist in an intimate setting as he presents renditions of songs from his extensive and renowned body of work created especially for this event,” a press release explains.
What this means is anyone’s guess. Will he be performing material from “Rough and Rowdy Ways” or will it be a typical show from the Never Ending Tour where he barely touches his current release? Bob being Bob, it’s anyone’s guess.
Tickets for the live-stream are $25, and will allow the viewer to watch the show for 48 hours after it’s debut on Veeps at 5 p.m., July 18, EDT. It’s still uncertain whether this will be an actual live performance or something he recorded ahead of time, but it is a current show, not an archived one.
One of my favorite performers, Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders, has announced the release of her Dylan covers album, Standing in the Doorway, to coincide with Bob’s 80th birthday.
While there have been a million Dylan cover albums over the years, I’m excited about this one because the song selection is not typical, and the ones chosen seem to suit her voice perfectly.
The album was recorded during lockdown, after Chrissie heard “Murder Most Foul” and was inspired to do something instead of staying in her “morose mood.”
“I remember where I was sitting the day that Kennedy was shot – every reference in the song. Whatever Bob does, he still manages somewhere in there to make you laugh because as much as anything, he’s a comedian. He’s always funny and always has something to say.” Hynde said in a statement.
Many of the songs had already been released online as they were recorded, but have been cleaned up and compiled for the album release. It is available for pre-order now and will be on streaming services May 21.
Denny Freeman performs with Antone’s All-Star Revue during Antone’s 40th Anniversary Celebration at Blues on the Green. (Photo by David Brendan Hall)
If you love the Modern Times record, or saw Dylan live between 2005 to 2009, you probably appreciate the guitar stylings of Denny Freeman, whose sound is heard all over the record and live shows of that era.
Freeman, while not a household name, was a member of the Austin Hall of Fame and performed with the Vaughn brothers and Taj Mahal, among other notables, and co-wrote songs with Blondie and Percy Sledge.
Of his years on tour with Dylan, he told the Austin Chronicle:
“It was totally unpredictable. We had a set list for each night and we even rehearsed before every show, but when we’d get the set list on the way to the stage, it wouldn’t be unusual for a song to appear that I’d never heard of, much less played.
“Musically, it’s kind of hard to talk about playing with Bob Dylan because nothing was ever the same. The only thing that didn’t constantly change was the uncertainty about everything.”
For me, it’s hard to think of Welsh crooner Tom Jones in the same contemporary category as Dylan, but in fact they are both basically the same age, started off in the early ’60s, and are still putting out new records.
In fact, Jones covers Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee” from the great Desire album on his latest release Surrounded by Time. The performance by Jones is more brooding than Dylan’s and lacks a bit of the musicality of the original, but makes up for it with its sincerity. I kinda like it.
You can view Jones performing the song on the BBC here.
Got a cool million to spare? If so, you can get a piece of history by bidding on the Fender XII String Electric Guitar played by Dylan on the Blonde on Blonde sessions in 1965.
The item is up for auction at the Gotta Have Rock and Roll website, and the listing describes the item as being authenticated by a Fender rep who witnessed the recording sessions, and is also backed-up by a letter from Dylan’s management.
The item is appraised at $1 million, although bidding starts at $250,000. Me, I’ll just listen to the album….
I recently reported on the lawsuit filed by the widow of Desire co-writer Jacques Levy, seeking a portion of the profits from Dylan’s $300 million-plus catalog sale to Universal Music.
Now Dylan (or at least his lawyers) have responded to the accusations, claiming in a New York court filing that Levy was working under a work-for-hire contract, meaning he would receive royalties but not a portion of copyright sales.
Levy’s widow, Claudia, was seeking $7.25 million from the sale’s proceeds for her late husband’s work on Desire, which is my No. 3-ranked album by Dylan, and features the song “Hurricane,” about the legal issues faced by boxer Rubin Carter.
But Dylan’s legal team from Gibson Dunn argue that Levy is trying to double dip, stating in the document that the suit was “an opportunistic attempt to re-write a 45-year-old contract to obtain a windfall payment.” They further stated that Universal was responsible for maintaining any royalty payments that were due, but not a share of the copyright sale.
Levy’s contributions certainly helped make it the great record that it is, and my sentiments are that the estate should get something from the sale as well. I expect this will be quietly settled for much less than the $7.25 million the estate is seeking.
Just got finished watching “Trouble No More,” the documentary chronicling Dylan’s “Gospel” tour of 1980. Although short at 90 minutes, the live performances are amazing, with heart-wrenching emotion throughout.
Dylan’s band at the time was stellar, featuring some of the finest studio and touring musicians of the time including Jim Keltner on drums, Fred Tackett on guitar, the late Tim Drummond on bass and Spooner Oldham on keyboards, as well as a six-member choir who really brought it home.
A still taken from the Dylan documentary “Trouble No More.”
The documentary was in limited theatrical release in 2017 and was included as a DVD on the nine-disc deluxe box set of the same name that focused on the ’79-’81 era Dylan, but is now widely available on the new Amazon Prime Video channel Coda Collection, which you can watch for free for seven days.
A downside of the film is that it features actor Michael Shannon in the part of an evangelical preacher giving sermons that appear between songs. And while the sermons are actually pretty good, I would rather see more singing and less talking — the songs speak for themselves — but it’s not all that terrible and the outstanding quality of the rest of the video makes up for it.
Added to the original theatrical release are tour rehearsal footage, news clippings and interviews with fans (not all favorable), and an amazing duet performance of “Abraham, Martin and John” with Clydie King and Dylan alone at the piano at the very end of the film.
I highly encourage everyone to get a free trial of the Coda Collection, if only to see this movie, although there are some other Dylan items on the channel as well including Newport Folk Festival performances.
