Bang Records told Morrison that he must deliver 36 songs to them over the course of a year (three per month) before he could get out of his contract. He wrote and recorded all of them in a single session. Each song was a farce, and about a minute long.
During the recording of Astral Weeks, as he was singing and strumming his guitar in a booth, the other musicians (bass player, drummer, etc.) asked Morrison what they should play. He replied, “Play anything you want.” And so they did.
There’s a long-standing rumor that Mozart was poisoned by Salieri. In reality, he most likely succumbed to illness—combined with the fact that 18th-century medicine wasn’t exactly top-tier.
Another myth? That he effortlessly scribbled down entire compositions without a single mistake. While he was insanely fast (sometimes getting it nearly perfect on the first try), his manuscripts reveal scratch-outs, corrections, and signs of real-time problem-solving. His speed was unreal, but not totally flawless.
Some folks claimed Beethoven was Black. But German records, which track his lineage in detail, show no evidence of African ancestry.
Chopin is often imagined as a delicate recluse who spent his days locked away, sobbing onto his piano. Yes, he was introverted and struggled with poor health, but the reality wasn’t that dramatic. He taught students, performed in salons, and had quite the complicated love life—just ask George Sand.
Liszt was often dismissed as a flashy showman, a shallow virtuoso, more rockstar than serious musician. Yes, he had fans literally fainting over him (Lisztomania was real), but he was also a deep thinker, a champion of new composers, and a forward-thinking innovator in harmony. He basically invented the solo piano recital as we know it and gave away huge sums to charity. He taught many students, often for free. Behind all the drama was a serious, benevolent musical genius.
And it’s often claimed that the part-Polish conductor Leopold Stokowski was a full-blooded Brit who changed his name from “Stokes” to sound more exotic.
I have a CD set which was intended to be used as a children’s introduction to classical music. Interspersed between the music were “interesting facts” about either the piece itself or the composer. One of these claimed that Mozart was once asked to compse a piece and he immediately replied, “It’s done! I just have to write it down.”
Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Webb, Robert Hunter, Stevie Wonder, Bruce and Billy Joel and often Van the Man could turn a phrase and write a great song. Paul McCartney would never be one to complain (John Lennon would) yet only such as he is in the lofty company of a Bob Dylan, whom I’ve seen about six times and understood about six words (and don’t recall him addressing the audience), yet for the most part knew what the lyrics were (though he changes them up sometimes).
I saw him once, back in the late 70’s, and I was so annoyed with his attitude and behavior that I essentially boycotted him for nearly half a century. I still don’t know what I think of him musically, because I still haven’t fully got past that anger.
As others have mentioned, he spent most of the evening with his back to the audience. His attitude gave the overall impression that audiences - this one at least - did not deserve his presence. I felt like I had paid good money to be treated with contempt.
IIRC there was a kind of split in the group I was with, some sharing my view, others saying, “Well, that’s Van for you!”
I kinda hold grudges. (Or was that obvious? )
j
ETA - I did listen to Astral Weeks over the winter. No strong memory of it.
I’ve only seen Van once or twice, and was aware he might not like the shirt somebody in the audience was wearing and storm off. Or was that Morrissey?
He was no Jimmy Buffet yet his performances went off fine. I’ve seen the Grateful Dead over a hundred times and maybe four of those were Dylan and the Dead, which for my money were the best performances of either band. Neither of their frontmen (Dylan, Weir, Garcia) engaged the audience much other than ‘we’ll be back soon’ for the set breaks. But that was all good and fine.
Just did want to mention that of course the Dead played a notable number of Dylan covers, lots of Beatle covers and even Van’s “Gloria” from when he was in the band Them.
The Jerry Garcia band played quite a number of VM covers: “And It Stoned Me”, “Bright Side of the Road”, “Tupelo Honey” and several others. It also seemed like Jerry would always play “Dear Prudence” so there’s some John Lennon. He loved that song.
And I couldn’t get a ticket, but was with my brother at a nearby pub watching the MSG Dylan 35th anniversary Tribute in 1992. Sinead O’Conner came out to do “I believe in you” and was booed, this being after tearing a picture of the pope on SNL regarding the priest sex scandals (which were all true). This is NYC - not Rome - and I could not believe people would go to a Dylan concert - in NYC - and boo her, or anyone really. She did a really quick version of Bob Marley’s “War” and Kris Kristofferson came out to console her. Just an example of the audience being prics, I guess.
ETA: I recall Neil Young, who came on after to do ‘Tom Thumb Blues’ said he’s been booed, Dylan has been booed (esp. when he plugged in an electric guitar at a Folk festival) yet they kept playing.
That reminds me… I’ve heard it said that, if you see Bob Dylan live, there’s a roughly 50/50 chance it will be a good or bad show, depending if Bob is sober (good show) or drunk (bad/boring show).
There was a Philadelphia station, 104.5 (classic/soft rock-pop mix) that for a while was “Sunny”, then it was “Star”, then it went back to “Sunny”. The day or so before it went back, it played the Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun” on a continuous loop for at least 24 hours.
I was headed home from work, was pleased to land on one of my favorite songs…and then it just kept playing and I didn’t have a clue why. I found out later what was going on.
That was in the 80s, when he was really in a slump, but his drinking days are long over (at least at stage). His voice though has been shot for more than 30 years though, but not because he’s still a drunk on stage.
I’ve read many times that the Dylan and the Dead shows were special concerts and some of the best performances both of them ever did. Dylan himself has often told that the work with the Dead had reinvigorated his own career, he also collaborated with Robert Hunter in songwriting afterwards, but the only document of these shows that ever was released, the album “Dylan And The Dead” is both the Dead’s and Dylan’s worst live album. They must have picked the worst show they ever played and released it as an album, and nobody knows why.
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