A shorter than usual show tonight was entirely devoted to the newest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Most of the show were live or alternate takes of great works by Bob Dylan and it was clear that it would take a few more shows to adequately cover his entire career. Be that as it may, we got a lot of the more poetic mid-60s stuff, culminating in nearly an hour of variations, rehearsals, individual tracks and misfires of what some say is the greatest rock song, “Like a Rolling Stone.”
Maybe he’ll play it in Oslo too.
Here’s what I played on the radio tonight:
Friday Night Rock, 10-14-2016, 10 p.m.- 1 a.m., Radio CPR, 101.7 FM, Washington, D.C.
- “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “Sooner or Later One of Us Must Know” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” (demo), Bob Dylan
- “Song to Woody,” Bob Dylan
- “Masters of War” (live), Bob Dylan
- “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (live), Bob Dylan
- “When the Ship Comes In” (live), Bob Dylan
- “Mr. Tambourine Man” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “Chimes of Freedom” (live), Bob Dylan
- “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “My Back Pages,” Bob Dylan
- “Ballad in Plain D,” Bob Dylan
- “Spanish Harlem Incident,” Bob Dylan
- “She Belongs to Me” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “Maggie’s Farm” (live), Bob Dylan
- “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “Desolation Row” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “Highway 61 Revisited” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “Ballad of a Thin Man” (live), Bob Dylan
- “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (alternate take), Bob Dylan
- “Like a Rolling Stone” (19 takes), Bob Dylan
Friday Night Rock returns Oct. 21 on Radio CPR, 101.7 FM, Washington, D.C. or online at www.tinyurl.com/radiocpr.