Bob Dylan's web site

jimcjimc
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Sat May 12, 2012 1:35 pm

I saw a blurb today in Barron's magazine raving about Bob Dylan's updated web site. The article is behind a paywall, but the preview begins:

Based on the latest incarnation of bobdylan.com, the times they are a-changin' for top musicians' Websites. The old guy has set a new standard: This fourth redo in 15 years leaves his site as the richest, most comprehensive of any modern-music artist's.

There's a page for all Dylan songs ever performed or recorded (we counted 521), most allowing you to listen ...


Lots of cool features including ability to see set lists for concerts over the years.

http://www.bobdylan.com


unclewalt
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Sat May 12, 2012 2:52 pm

The firewall has some holes designed into it - I searched Google News and there it was. Of course, the writer cliches his way through the thing - "the times they are a-changin'" has to be in the lede of any Dylan story. And does he really "rasp" on "Visions of Johanna?" Now, sure, but not when he first recorded it. And does he really wish he was there for the Live Aid performance? New site looks pretty great, though.

Here's Barron's:

Based on the latest incarnation of bobdylan.com, the times they are a-changin' for top musicians' Websites. The old guy has set a new standard: This fourth redo in 15 years leaves his site as the richest, most comprehensive of any modern-music artist's.

There's a page for all Dylan songs ever performed or recorded (we counted 521), most allowing you to listen to the tune, buy it, link to the history of the album and performance, and download the sheet music. It amounts to thousands of clickable ways to lose yourself in music's equivalent of a presidential library.

"Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial," rasps Dylan in Visions of Johanna. I can't speak to immortality, but I do know a killer relational database when I see one.

Every set list from every show is here, cross-linked with every song. All Along the Watchtower tops "Times Played" on the site, at 2,031 and counting, most recently this week on Dylan's tour in Mexico. Click and you can get tickets for Saturday night at the Pepsi Center in Mexico City. Or go back to the set list for May 7, when Dylan closed out a 17-song show with Blowin' In The Wind, and then click once more—you'll see the lyrics interspersed with more history of the song, which was first performed at Gerde's Folk City in the Village in New York City in April 1962.

The possibilities for searches are almost endless. The site will find all the lyrics with "wind," and every time Dylan played in Chicago or Osaka. I even found myself thinking about the shows I would like to have seen, like the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia when I had just graduated from high school nearby. Your move, thebeatles.com.


cosmicmechanic
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Sat May 12, 2012 6:40 pm

Quite a Dylan tidal wave there ... great link !


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