Latest news with #BobDylan
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Noted Machine Gun Kelly Fan Bob Dylan Narrated MGK's New Album Trailer
In the spiritual sequel to his legendary 2004 Victoria's Secret commercial, Bob Dylan has provided narration for a new trailer announcing Machine Gun Kelly's next album, Lost Americana. 'Lost Americana is a personal excavation of the American dream — a journey to find what's been lost,' Dylan drawls in the short clip. He goes on to describe the album as 'a love letter to those who seek to rediscover' and 'a sonic map of forgotten places, a tribute to the spirit of reinvention, and a quest to reclaim the essence of American freedom.' More from Rolling Stone Joan Baez on America Under Trump: 'It Feels Like Torn Fabric' Troubadour Eric Andersen on New Album and Why 'A Complete Unknown' Was a Tad 'Sugarcoated' It's the Perfect Time For a Pulp Reunion Dylan's narration is accompanied by a montage of home movie footage of MGK and friends, including some shots of the musician riding a motorcycle decked out in a custom Lost Americana biker jacket. There's a snippet of music, too, at the end of the clip, a wild synth arpeggio that jumps out after Dylan says: 'From the gold neon diners to the rumble of the motorcycles, this is music that celebrates the beauty found in the in-between spaces. Where the past is reimagined and the future is forged on your own terms.' Along with sharing the trailer, MGK said Lost Americana would arrive Aug. 8. The album will be his first in three years, following 2022's Mainstream Sellout. MGK has yet to reveal the full track list for Lost Americana, but the album will feature his recent single, 'Cliché.' 'Cliché' is actually one of several songs MGK has dropped this year, along with 'Your Name Forever,' 'Come Pick Me Up,' and a cover of the Goo Goo Dolls' 'Iris' with Julia Wolf. It's unclear if any of these songs will also appear on the album. As for Dylan's involvement in the trailer, it comes after the legendary singer-songwriter posted, seemingly out of nowhere, a video of MGK rapping on his Instagram earlier this year. Even MGK was astounded, revealing he learned of Dylan's post while discussing with friends some of his concerns and reservations about his next album. 'Just the originator of doing everything opposite of what people wanted him to do, randomly posting a video of me back in the day rapping in a vinyl shop,' MGK said. 'I'm just like, 'What the fuck?' Just trust the signs, man. That was so cool. I'm so grateful.' For those looking for some insight into the ever-mysterious movements of Dylan's taste and artistic predilections, who crave some explanation for how he even became aware of Machine Gun Kelly in the first place, Dylan scholar Ray Padgett shared a theory on Bluesky that is as hilarious as it is believable. 'All because the dude has the same name as an old gangster Bob was googling. What a ride,' Padgett wrote. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Troubadour Eric Andersen on New Album and Why ‘A Complete Unknown' Was a Tad ‘Sugarcoated'
It's taken a few months, since he lives in the Netherlands, but Eric Andersen finally found time to watch A Complete Unknown. And the troubadour legend, who haunted those same Village clubs during that same time, was…a bit underwhelmed. 'It seemed a little sugarcoated,' he says. 'It was a little two-dimensional. But I found it quite amusing and quite entertaining. I was looking at it more like a cinematic situation than something I knew. I was watching a movie. So, I enjoyed it from that standpoint.' More from Rolling Stone It's the Perfect Time For a Pulp Reunion Watch Bob Dylan Perform a Stunning 'All Along the Watchtower' With Billy Strings Watch Bob Dylan's Shocking Cover of Ricky Nelson's 'Garden Party' Then again, Andersen has a right to critique. At this point, many of the songwriters and musicians from that hallowed Greenwich Village scene have either died (mostly recently Peter Yarrow) or retired from touring (like Tom Paxton last year). Only a handful of those who helped make the Village a musical hotbed are still out performing and even making new albums — Bob Dylan, of course, along with Judy Collins, Carolyn Hester, Noel Paul Stookey, and very few others. Andersen, who turned 82 this year, is also still on that list. Although he's never had a Top 40 hit, the American-born songwriter has written a handful of songs that are part of that new American folk songbook — 'Violets of Dawn,' 'Thirsty Boots' — and albums like 1972's Blue River are considered high-water marks of the genre. His impact was especially felt on the recent tribute album Songpoet: Songs of Eric Andersen, which includes renditions of his songs by Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Amy Helm, Lenny Kaye, Dom Flemons, Willie Nile, the duo of Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, and the late Rick Danko (who formed a band with Andersen shortly before his death). In the last few decades, Andersen, who moved to Norway for a period and then relocated to Amsterdam 20 years ago, has occasionally returned to the U.S. for shows. In those years, he's made albums based on the words of Lord Byron, Albert Camus and German writer Heinrich Böll; released a collection of his own spoken-word pieces; saluted his peers with recordings of Village covers (The Street Was Always There); and cut a full-album, live-recreation of Blue River. But last month, he finally rolled out his first new set of songs, Dance of Love and Death, in over 20 years. With its ruminative ballads and rhythms, the album is very much of a piece with the territory Andersen began carving out for himself when he arrived in New York in the Sixties. Like Dylan, he was championed by New York Times music critic Robert Shelton, which also helped Andersen land a record deal. With songs like 'Close the Door Lightly When You Go' and 'Come to My Bedside,' Andersen injected an air of mystery and sensuality into the scene. He befriended the likes of Paxton, Collins, and the late Phil Ochs and witnessed an increasingly isolated Dylan spar with his peers at the Kettle of Fish bar. He was so ingrained in that world that, he says, he missed Dylan's historic Newport 1965 show because he was booked into the Gaslight Café, one of the essential Village venues. Talking about the way that community has been recreated in films, Andersen feels that another recent movie rings a bit more true than A Complete Unknown. '[Inside] Llewyn Davis was much more of the scene that I remember,' he says. 'Even to the point where I went up to Vanguard Records to get some money, and the guy actually handed me a $20 bill. I was living on the Lower East Side cooking for junkies and I needed the money to go to the vegetable market to buy stuff for them. I was walking back home, and I just stopped at the Vanguard offices. There's a scene identical to that in Llewyn Davis. It couldn't have come from me, but the vibe, the scene, and the lighting was more realistic than the other film.' Along with many of his peers at the time, Andersen isn't a character in A Complete Unknown, although he took heart in Ochs' 'There But for Fortune' heard in one of Monica Barbaro's Joan Baez performance scenes. 'That was really beautiful,' he says. 'That came out being the best song in the film, which is hard to believe, because there are so many great songs. What was a little bit tragic was that Bob was such a word guy. He can talk. Not chatty, but he said things, you know. Usually talking about writing and stuff like that. None of that seemed to come through. But you can't do much in a movie. You got to gloss things over.' Whether it's the result of those movies or a degree of rediscovery, Andersen has felt more openness to his style and that era than he has in a while. 'I remember playing a couple of shows in Boston, when parents took their kids,' he says. 'And they were the ones who came up to talk to me. Maybe it blew their minds that somebody could stand up there and sing songs about things they think about. Maybe there's some kind of deprivation going on in terms of their musical world. I don't know. But even though their parents dragged them to this show, they were the ones who got it, which was funny.' Starting during that period and continuing over the decades, Andersen very much lived the life of the wandering, nomadic poet-writer. He was featured in an early Andy Warhol film, appeared on Johnny Cash's TV variety show, wrote songs about his close relationships with Janis Joplin ('Pearl's Goodtime Blues') and Patti Smith ('Wild Crow Blues'), and asked Joni Mitchell to be the godmother to his daughter. He's also had his share of disappointments: signing with Beatles manager Brian Epstein right before Epstein's death and having the tapes for his all-important follow-up to Blue River lost. (They were finally discovered and released, but 20 years later.) Over its 17 songs, Dance of Love and Death reflects on some of those past times, most movingly in 'Every Once in a While,' about his wife Debbie Green, who died in 2017. 'Were you jealous of my future? Was I jealous of your past?' he sings. 'Yeah, that was about her,' Andersen says. 'I think everybody has a situation where you think about somebody every once in a while and that person comes back, and I just sat down and that song poured out.' The album also has moments of harrowing storytelling ('River Spree [Berlin],' about a junkie), relative lightheartedness ('After This Life'), and his signature deep-voiced intimate romanticism (the title song). Although Andersen isn't known as a topical songwriter, he also ventured into that topic with the climate change-inspired 'Season in Crime (Crime Scene),' spurred on by a California tour with violinist and Dylan alumnus Scarlet Rivera. 'She was living in Topanga Canyon and her house was going to burn down,' he says. 'We were talking about sparks and embers in the air. It started to write itself. It doesn't take much to start a song.' Thanks to producer Steve Addabbo and contributing musicians like Kaye and Dylan bassist Tony Garnier, the music is a mix of chamber-folk beauty and galloping rock & roll. In early September, Andersen will return to the States for a month of shows on the East Coast. He's read or heard about international musicians who've supposedly had their visas revoked or have had to deal with profit-depleting tariffs when they arrive. 'So far, it's full steam ahead,' says Andersen, who has American and Dutch passports. 'But things are evolving very rapidly. Everybody's on edge. I want to come over with my guitar and maybe they'll say, 'Well, you know ….,' because I'm a resident overseas. It'll be interesting.' About any unlikely detainment, he jokes, 'If I have one call to make, it'll be to you.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Machine Gun Kelly Jokes He Got Bob Dylan to Do His Album Trailer Through ‘Pure Desperation'
Machine Gun Kelly has officially confirmed the obvious — that it was Bob Dylan narrating his recent album announcement trailer. But in Dylan-esque fashion, MGK declined to give a straight answer as to how the collaboration came about. When asked point blank about Dylan's cameo on Today, MGK quipped, 'A magician never reveals his secrets.' He then continued with something resembling an answer, but still clearly jokey: 'Pure desperation. Just knocking on his door relentlessly, not going away.' More from Rolling Stone Joan Baez on America Under Trump: 'It Feels Like Torn Fabric' Noted Machine Gun Kelly Fan Bob Dylan Narrated MGK's New Album Trailer Troubadour Eric Andersen on New Album and Why 'A Complete Unknown' Was a Tad 'Sugarcoated' That's not to say Machine Gun Kelly wasn't extremely grateful for Dylan's contribution to the Lost Americana trailer. 'I have been blessed with… I don't know, maybe it's just one pioneer seeing something that I am doing that, in the long term, will be looked back [at] and be understood,' MGK said, before quickly adding: 'Not calling myself a pioneer, but him.' Despite not knowing many specifics, it is possible to paint a pretty broad picture of the MGK-Dylan relationship. Earlier this year, Dylan, seemingly out of nowhere, posted on a video on Instagram of MGK rapping at a record store. One (very believable) theory as to how the singer-songwriter stumbled across the clip in the first place was floated by Dylan scholar Ray Padgett, who suggested on Bluesky, 'All because the dude has the same name as an old gangster Bob was googling.' Then in May, evidence emerged of an in-person meeting when MGK attended the Los Angeles stop of Willie Nelson's Outlaw Festival Tour, which Dylan is a part of. The day after the show, MGK tweeted not-so-cryptically, 'i met and had a conversation with someone last night that i never thought i'd get the honor to meet all because of a video of me rapping in a music store 10 years ago. i love music.' MGK released the Lost Americana trailer earlier this month. The clip features a montage of home movie-style footage, with Dylan delivering koans such as, 'Lost Americana is a personal excavation of the American dream — a journey to find what's been lost' and, 'From the gold neon diners to the rumble of the motorcycles, this is music that celebrates the beauty found in the in-between spaces. Where the past is reimagined and the future is forged on your own terms.' Lost Americana is set to arrive Aug. 8. The album marks MGK's first in three years following 2022's Mainstream Sellout. The musician has yet to reveal the full track list for the album, but it will feature his recent single, 'Cliché.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Economic Times
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Economic Times
Death of👍was highly exaggerated
Three years ago, many social commentators from socially acceptable platforms had declared that Gen Z had jettisoned some emojis they reportedly found to be insolent. Just how confident this prognosis was, can be made out in headlines like, 'Gen Z Have Cancelled the Thumbs Up Emoji and Here's Why You Should Worry'. Not only did we not need to worry, but no one worried. Because the thumbs up - considered by pundits to be considered by Zoomers to be 'rude' - and heart emojis ('also verboten') have not only survived Z ire, but have happily proliferated, even among the hyper-hieroglyphical here's a question we're parking for you today: how does one become so sure about what Gen Z or Gen Alpha - and the upcoming Gen Beta (aur Beti) - 'think'? So, here's our answer. Like Bob Dylan refusing to be tagged as 'the voice of a generation', most generations in the alphabet soup aren't one, single composite entity as if attending the same decadal Nuremberg/Taylor Swift rallies/concerts. But here's the thing: lumping demographic groups under one 'trending' behavioural category can do wonders for the morale and pay bump of market research divisions of companies. After all, who goes back to check the veracity of people who confidently stated in 2022 that the thumbs up emoji would be as dead as the typewriter in 2025? (Answer: We do.)
The Guardian
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Brian Shuel obituary
As the British folk revival expanded and developed through the 1960s and 70s, many of the leading performers were photographed by Brian Shuel, who has died aged 90. His early photographs were often taken indoors, in darkened folk clubs held in upstairs rooms in pubs, which required him to push the film to its limits, resulting in grainy but atmospheric images. He combined his artist's eye with often being in the right place at the right time. In December 1962, Brian was at the King & Queen folk club in central London to photograph Martin Carthy, but he also captured one of the floor singers – Bob Dylan on his first visit to Britain. Three days later, he photographed him again at the Singers' Club, with the folk revival founding fathers Ewan MacColl and AL Lloyd in the audience. In those early years, Brian photographed folk performers such as the Watersons, Fairport Convention, Shirley Collins and Pentangle, as well as visiting Americans including Pete Seeger and the Rev Gary Davis. In 1963, at the Edinburgh festival, he photographed the Dubliners when they were still known as the Ronnie Drew Ballad Group. He photographed performers both on and off stage, including those at the first Keele folk festivals in 1965 and 1966. Brian was born in Dublin, to Beatrice (nee Oulton) and Ronald Shuel, who served in the colonial police in Nigeria. Brian was brought up by his mother's two unmarried sisters in County Wicklow. He was educated at the Royal School Armagh in Northern Ireland, and then, from 1954, at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. After completing his graphic design course, he did national service as a cartographer in Singapore; it was there that he bought his first camera. On his return in 1958, Brian married Sally Boswell, whom he had met on his first day at college. His father-in-law, the illustrator and artist James Boswell, was editor of Sainsbury's in-house magazine and Brian became its designer, soon also photographing many aspects of Sainsbury's operations. Through his leftwing activism, James Boswell became a director of Topic Records, Britain's pre-eminent folk record label, which had its origins in the Workers' Music Association. Boswell had illustrated many of their early record sleeves and in 1962, to learn more about the music, he and Brian embarked on a nationwide tour of folk clubs, travelling as far as Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Newcastle and the Spinners' club in Liverpool. Brian's photographs featured on Topic record sleeves and the quality of his work spread his reputation among the still-developing folk scene. He told Nathan Joseph of Transatlantic Records that he did not think much of their sleeve designs and was challenged to prove he could do better. A hundred or so sleeves followed, including the early records of Ralph McTell, Billy Connolly (with Gerry Rafferty as the Humblebums) and Mike and Sally Oldfield as the Sallyangie. Many of the sleeves featured Brian's photographs; he also designed the label's logo, as well as sleeves for American reissues on Transatlantic's Xtra label. Brian's photographs brought him into contact with the English Folk Dance and Song Society, whose librarian, Ruth Noyes, encouraged him to photograph the Bampton Morris Dancers from west Oxfordshire on their traditional Whit Monday tour. The visual attraction of such seasonal customs was obvious, and Brian set about a nationwide pilgrimage to photograph them: the Abbots Bromley Horn Dancers, Padstow's Obby Oss, Ashbourne Shrovetide football – more than 200 in total. In 1972, he was the adviser for a BBC film by Barrie Gavin, The Passing of the Year. In the 80s, Brian revisited many of the customs for a book, The National Trust Guide to Traditional Customs of Britain, which was published to critical acclaim by Webb and Bower in 1985. He also wrote descriptions of the customs: unlike many similar books, Brian had actually visited all the events featured. His approach was to capture the fun, sheer enjoyment and pride of the participants, whose confidence he quickly gained. The full extent of Brian's archive of folk musicians and customs was revealed only when he digitised hundreds of images and uploaded them onto his Collections Picture Library and personal websites. His photographs continue to be admired and eagerly sought after. Brian's assessment that his pictures were 'simple, straightforward, honest and well designed' was typically modest. Although best known for his folk music and customs photographs, Brian also built considerable portfolios of images of bridges and London. His freelance photography work for Sainsbury's continued, and other commissions came from, among others, British Steel, Daily Mirror, the prison system (he photographed in more than 40 prisons), Kodak and the Central Office of Information. From 1985, Brian edited the journal of the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies (Bapla). His wife Sal was Bapla's administrator, as well as a freelance illustrator. Brian is survived by Sal, their two sons, Simon and Ben, and grandson, James. Brian Courtenay Oulton Shuel, photographer and designer, born 4 March 1935; died 12 June 2025
