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5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home



5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller



5.18.11
Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever



5.17.11
FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy



5.17.11
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5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21



5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm



5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF



5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend



6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....



5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak



5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
Lenox boutique launches new e-tail site



5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy



5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy



5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy



5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy





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Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style

5.18.11


There is probably no better way to get inside Bob Dylan’s songs to really appreciate them -- their meaning, their layers, the wordplay, the melodies -- than learning to play and sing them yourself.

This is how I got into Dylan as a teenager – I bought his album Planet Waves, recorded with the Band, as soon as it came out in early 1974, and from that moment on, it was goodbye John Denver, hello Bob Dylan.

Dylan’s songs were just so much more fun to sing – the incredible vocabulary that required deft phrasing, the emotional range (and the songs on Planet Waves ranged from the celebratory fun of “On a Night Like This” to the desperate lovesickness of “Dirge,” to say nothing of the prayerful “Forever Young” – which also had a countrified, sped-up version on the album – and the ecstatic “You Angel You”), and the melodic and harmonic twists and turns.

So there’s no better way to celebrate Bob Dylan’s genius – and his seventieth birthday – than by picking up your guitar and harmonica and singing his songs, which is what I’m going to be doing this coming weekend and early next week (along with, undoubtedly, thousands across the world in various clubs and venues and living rooms and front porches and back porches) at Club Helsinki in Hudson, N.Y.

On Sunday, May 22, 2011, at 7 p.m., I’ll be presenting my multimedia program, The Kabbalah of Bob Dylan – which is sort of the 50-minute live version of my book, Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet, delivered in spoken word, pictures, video, recorded and live music.

The program will also include a brief tribute concert to Dylan, in which I’ll play about a half dozen of my all-time favorite Dylan songs – sort of imagining I’m 14, back in my bedroom in Islip, N.Y., banging on my guitar after school with my door closed – except on the stage at Club Helsinki, hopefully in front of many of you reading this.

Spotty Dog Books will also be on hand to sell copies of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet, which of course I’ll be more than happy to inscribe and sign on the occasion of Dylan’s 70th birthday. What could be more appropriate?

Well, what could be more appropriate is what’s happening at Club Helsinki on Tuesday, May 24, 2011 – Dylan’s actual birthdate – when a community of musicians from all over the region will join together in celebrating the single most influential rock songwriter in the history of the music by performing a freewheeling tribute concert of his songs.

I’ll take part in that one, too, along with many of the area’s most talented performers. It’s something that Helsinki has been hosting for many years now – that Dylan is still around doing his thing at age 70, and that we can pay tribute to him while he is still a vital performing and recording artist, just makes it all the more worthwhile.

I hope to see you all at one or both of these events.






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