Bob Dylen Went To #1 On The US Album Charts On September 16, 2006

Bob Dylan entered the US Album charts at #1 with Modern Times on September 16th of 2006. One year ago today.

It was Dylan's first #1 album in the US since 1976's Desire. With this album's commercial success, Dylan became the oldest living musician to have an album top the charts in America. He was 65 at the time (and those of you good at math know this means he is now 66.)

Modern Times also went to to #1 in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland. It reached #3 in the UK.

It won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album.

"When the Deal Goes Down" is one of the songs featured on the album. A promo video was made for this song featuring actress Scarlett Johansson. Listen & watch below:


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The Beatles & Bob Dylan Meet For The First Time On August 28, 1964

The Beatles & Bob Dylan met each other for the first time on August 28th of 1964. It was during this meeting at a hotel in New York that Bob Dylan introduced the Beatles to marijuana.

Ringo was the first to try it and he started laughing quite a bit, this made the others want to get in on it. They soon did and there were laughs all around. The Beatles manager Brian Epstein was also taking part and kept saying "I'm so high I'm on the ceiling, I'm up on the ceiling."

Paul McCartney was particularly thrilled by marijuana. He said "I'm thinking for the first time, really thinking." He had Mal Evans (the Beatles friend & roadie) follow him around writing down everything he was saying for posterity. Evans kept these notes until his death in 1976. Unfortunately they were confiscated and lost by the police.

Although the this was the first time the Beatles smoked marijuana they were already no strangers to drugs. They had been taking "prellies" (Preludin) for years. Prellies are a stimulent which the Beatles would use to keep a high energy level for their long shows during their early career. Prellies are now an illegal Schedule II drug in the United States, the same class that Cocaine & Meth are in.

Below are John Lennon & Bob Dylan on something. The videos are out takes from the Dylan documentary Eat The Document which is a documentary of Dylan's 1966 tour of Europe.

Part 1:



Part 2:

Bob Dylan played his first non-acoustic show on July 25, 1965

Bob Dylan played his first non-acoustic show on July 25th on 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival. The audience was mostly very hostile to his new sound.

The video below is a performance of "Maggie's Farm" from this July 25, 1965 show:

Bob Dylan went to #1 in the UK album charts with Self Portrait on July 11, 1970

Self Portrait became Bob Dylan's 5th UK #1 album on July 11th of 1970.

The album is seen by many as Dylan's worst. Rock critics Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell go beyond saying it's Dylan's worst album to saying it's the 3rd worst album of all time.

The album features mostly cover versions of pop and folk songs. It also contain a few instrumentals, original compositions, live recordings of older songs ("Like A Rolling Stone" for example) with The Band.

The intent of the album has been debated with Dylan giving various explanations for why he made the album over the years. At some points he says that it was a basically a thrown together "bootleg" record since he was being heavily bootlegged at the time.

In other interviews he seems to be saying he made the album to purposely alienate some of his fans: "There'd be crowds outside my house. And I said, 'Well, fuck it. I wish these people would just forget about me. I wanna do something they can't possibly like, they can't relate to. They'll see it, and they'll listen, and they'll say, 'Well, let's get on to the next person. He ain't sayin' it no more. He ain't given' us what we want,' you know?"

In the same interview when asked why it's a double album Dylan replies: "Well, it wouldn't have held up as a single album — then it really would've been bad, you know. I mean, if you're gonna put a lot of crap on it, you might as well load it up!"

Bob Dylan Record Harmonica For Harry Belafonte On April 24, 1961

On April 24th of 1961 Bob Dylan recorded harmonica for Harry Belafonte's album Midnight Special. This was the very first recording of Bob Dylan on a professional recording. He was paid $50 for his services as a harmonica player.

Belafonte is best known for his 1956 album Calypso which introduced America to calypso music and became the first album in American history to sell over one million copies. It spent 31 weeks at #1 on the charts.

Bob Dylan's first album "Bob Dylan" was released on March 19, 1962

Bob Dylan has arguably been the most influential and important solo music artist of the last 50 years. It was 45 years ago today that he got his start with his very first album being released. His first album was self titled and features mostly folk standards but it also includes 2 original songs. One of the covers was "House Of The Risin' Sun" which would later be a hit for The Animals.

Here's Dylan in 1963 playing an original composition from his next album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The song is the classic "Blowin' In The Wind."



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Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks Hits #1 On The US Album Charts On March 1, 1975

Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks hit #1 on the US album charts 32 years ago today, March 1st.

The album stayed at #1 for the next week as well before being replaced in the top spot on March 15th by Olivia Newton-John's Have You Never Been Mellow.

Blood On The Tracks includes the single "Tangled Up In Blue" which hit #31 on the US singles charts.

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See the video below of Dylan performing "Tangled Up In Blue" during his 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue Tour: