There’s a bar in Dublin called Bruxelles
and back in the glory days, it was a regular hangout for me. Upstairs was more of a lounge bar with live acts playing jazz or blues and food being served, but downstairs was a sweaty, smoke filled rock bar with faded denim, worn out leather, dodgy tattoos, brave hairstyles, bad habits, Harley Zippos, JDs, Southern Comfort, snakebites in a row and regular selections from the best jukebox in the world. It was on this jukebox that I first heard Voodoo Chile
by Hendrix, Sympathy for the Devil
by The Stones, Lola" by The Kinks, “One
by Metallica and so many others. I was a green-horned townie buck, up in the Big Smoke looking for adventure, devilment and two of whatever it was you were having.
One soggy Sunday afternoon, the jukebox made its selection-that snare hit and the glorious sounds of Like a Rolling Stone
filled that basement and blew my mind to smithereens. I was smitten. Bob Dylan. Within a month, I had acquired copies of Highway 61 Revisited, Bringing it all Back Home and Blonde on Blonde and I was forever changed.
Around this time, my first serious relationship hit the rocks and I was given a copy of Blood On The Tracks by a friend. To paraphrase the great man - Every one of those words rang true
and I listened to it over and over, til it was written inside my soul. I learned how to play every song on that sacred slice of wax and it soaked into my very being. I am not shy to admit there were some dark nights that those songs pulled me thro’.
Every one of Dylan’s albums that I have come to possess, seem to reflect my life at that time. I didn’t collect them in any linear sequence; it was random. Infidels, Time Out of Mind, Desire, Slow Train Coming, Another Side Of, The Bootleg Series 1-3, Modern Times, Love And Theft,, Rough and Rowdy Ways, The Freewheelin’ , Oh Mercy! Street Legal, Planet Waves, Slow Train Comin', John Wesley Harding, The Basement Tapes and the list goes on…
So all that being said, I recently joined The Muddy River Band who play the songs of Bob Dylan as well as Neil Young and Tom Petty. We are a 7 piece band and are playing a few shows in Ireland over the coming months. Check out https://linktr.ee/themuddyriverband. .
One of my favourite Dylan songs is Not Dark Yet" from Time Out of Mind.
Here, I perform it solo, with an acoustic guitar and a racked harmonica and I thank Conor O'Connell, stage manager at The Moat Theatre, for capturing the moment live. At the show, it's a full band arrangement. A night not to be missed I can assure you!!
What artist blew your mind and how did you discover them?
Go raibh maith agat.