Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, and Everything That Sticks
I have been on a major Bob Dylan deep dive for about a month now, and it has crossed over into Gram Parsons, the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, the Basement Tapes — all of it. Right after college I had a huge phase with this stuff, thanks mostly to Evan Dando accidentally introducing a lot of us to Gram Parsons, which led straight into Sweetheart of the Rodeo. I was already deep into anything connected to The Last Waltz.
During my more recent electronic phase in the early 2010s, I remember feeling a little regret that I'd dropped the analog circuits of my youth so hard due to all the then catching up I (then) had to do. But it occurs to me now that all of these influences were always in there, the roots sitting right along side the euro-synths. Time spent listening critically pays off always.
This morning I was trying to write, came up with a great chord sequence, and had an interview playing in the background. “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” came up — Dylan’s version — which I had been thinking about recently because of the Byrds. It is amazing how it's all connected when you open the door. The bigger inspiration is how portable these songs are across any genre.
I have talked before about the ridiculous Bob Dylan reggae album idea. But the point is the same: if the song stands up, you can play it in any style. As much as you have to watch out for your influences, they really do hold up, and you just have to trust they are in there.
Guilty pleasures are not nothing. Everything you listen to eventually comes out somewhere. So that time in the early 80s when I was listening to Chipmunks records — I guess we will see how and where that shows up.