Is It Rolling, Bob? Talking Dylan – Details, episodes & analysis

Guardian/Observer staff photographer Sarah Lee first watched Dont Look Back whilst perched on a crowded bed in a Camden flat with a struggling rock combo called Coldplay. As she’s now a BAFTA photographer, Sarah checks plenty of other names in this episode, including Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston, Austin Butler and Cate Blanchett. On celebrity photography: “I like having no control. I like pressure. I’m always terrified”. On Dylan album cover photography: “He knows why it works. He doesn’t need Christopher Ricks to write 4000 words on it.” We also focus our telephoto lens on Sarah’s love of Joan Baez and her admiration for Cat Power’s recreation of Dylan’s 1966 gig at the Royal Albert Hall (“It felt like witchcraft”).

Sarah Lee has been a photographer for The Guardian/Observer since 2000, specialising in portraiture, features and the Arts. Her work has appeared on the covers of Time magazine, Weekend and Billboard as well as in Rolling Stone, The Sunday Times and Vanity Fair. Commercial clients have included Leica, Visa, Apple and Transport for London. In 2012, she shot most of the portraits for Coldplay’s MX album. Sarah is a fellow of the British American Project and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. With the writer and broadcaster Laura Barton providing the introduction, her photography book West of West was published in 2020.

Website

Twitter

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 21st April 2023

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebecca Slaman, writer and social media guru, is a fan of Bob Dylan’s “perfect random meme humour.” Twitter? “Girls lust after him! But I’ve seen some pretty egregious stuff. Old people don’t understand the platform.” Dylan’s 1987 film Hearts of Fire? “He cannot act. How can he not act? He’s been acting his whole life. So bad - but so entertaining!” Songs like My Own Version of You? “They clue us into his mind palace. He radiates this energy.” We know you’ll enjoy this energetic episode from a born-again Dylan obsessive.

Rebecca Slaman is a New York City-based writer. She graduated from Fordham University Lincoln Center in 2020 with a BA in English and Classics and has spoken at Bob Dylan conferences in Tulsa and Miami. Her subjects include Dylan fan culture and Dylan’s visual art. Rebecca has been a staff writer at The Fordham Observer, Grain of Salt Magazine and theatre satire publication The Broadway Beat. She likes “Wiggle Wiggle”.

Website

Twitter

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 26th January 2023

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prize-winning poet and playwright Caroline Bird reminds us that “we’re all poets when we’re asleep. Writing is trying to find a way to dream while we’re awake”. On Bob Dylan: “You always hear him choosing the dark side of the road”; “What I love is that his songs are full of denial. Whenever the emotion gets too real, he runs away” and “He’s so naïve about love”. On Mr. Tambourine Man, first heard at age eight: “It goes past the point where he’s trying to find a truth”. On Dylan’s lyrics: “He holds the pain lightly in order for it to resonate”. On a characteristic she shares with Dylan: “Writing is like dancing on hot sand. You can’t stand still”.

Simon Armitage said of Caroline: “You don’t know if a bullet will come out of the barrel or a flag with the word 'BANG' on it”. We do know that we’ve rarely had more fun recording a podcast.

Caroline Bird was one of the five official poets at the 2012 London Olympics. A two-time winner of the Foyle Young Poets Award, her first collection, Looking Through Letterboxes, was published in 2002 - when she was fifteen. Her 2020 collection, The Air Year, won the Forward Prize and was chosen as a Book of the Year by The Guardian and The Telegraph. Her most recent book, Rookie: Selected Poems (2022) is taken from her first six poetry collections. Caroline’s plays include her version of Euripedes' The Trojan Women, The Trial Of Dennis the Menace, Chamber Piece, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Iphigenia Quartet and Red Ellen.

Website

Twitter

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 13th July 2022

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patti Smith Group guitarist and author Lenny Kaye reminds us that “Bob Dylan is still experimenting, seeing who he might be, putting on the weirdest shows ever, upending barriers”. Almost in one breath, Lenny gives forth on working with or listening to Suzanne Vega, John Coltrane, Gayle, The Stooges, Brian Eno, The Byrds, Bing Crosby and Janis Joplin (“I wanted her to be my girlfriend”). His colleague Patti Smith fought for “the freedom to have a field of noise, beyond language. But also: a hit single.” Elvis “is an extraterrestrial: a mutation”. And after two tours supporting Dylan, he confirms that “Bob is private backstage. You’re instructed not to look at him. But that was OK. I don’t want to meet my idols”. A wise man. And a perfect podcast guest.

Lenny Kaye has been the guitarist for The Patti Smith Group since the band's inception in 1974. He produced Patti’s first single and worked on the band’s hugely influential 70s albums: Horses, Easter, Radio Ethiopia and Wave. Lenny has also produced and/or played with dozens of artists such as R.E.M., James, Soul Asylum, Kristen Hersh and Allen Ginsberg. His seminal anthology of 60s garage rock, Nuggets, defined the genre. His first book was Waylon, The Life Story of Waylon Jennings. You Call It Madness: The Sensuous Song of the Croon was published in 2004. His current book is Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll. Lenny also wrote the liner notes to the accompanying double CD (he has been nominated three times for Grammy awards in the liner notes category). As a freelancer, he has written for a wide range of periodicals, including Melody Maker, Creem and Rolling Stone.

Instagram

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Dark Eyes (duet between Dylan and Patti Smith)

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 28th June 2022

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Film director/screenwriter Justin Trefgarne talks about Dylan, but also about fathers, sons, archetypes and coincidence. “Bob has been the guardian angel and surrogate father for my entire adult existence,” he tells us. From his first encounter with Like A Rolling Stone (which he played for five hours straight), “everything was up for grabs”. Hear how young Justin paid off a bouncer in Seattle to get seats to his first Dylan concert. How he won a Dylan soundalike contest in Las Vegas. And that time he and Bob had a close encounter in the doorway of the Grateful Dead Tattoo Parlour on Venice Beach.

For the first time on this podcast, we tackle Robert Bly (author of Iron John), Joseph Campbell (author of The Hero’s Journey) and Federico Garcia Lorca’s concept of duende. Oh and - Justin’s pilot father flew three of the Beatles to see Dylan perform at the Isle of Wight Festival (probably).

Justin’s debut feature film as writer-director was the 2015 sci-fi thriller NARCOPOLIS, starring Jonathan Pryce (with a cameo from Kerry Shale). The film spawned a successful graphic novel spin-off. He was head writer on the Nickelodeon reboot of children’s classic PETER RABBIT, for which he was nominated for an Emmy. Justin devised and wrote all ten episodes of the YouTube Original series SHERWOOD, which has had over 70m views. Other writer/director credits include DESIRE, starring Damian Lewis, which opened the Sundance Film Festival. He has also written screenplays for Film4, The BFI and Ruby Films. Justin recently wrote and directed on THE RAZUMOV FILES, a six-part audio-series starring Jessica Brown Findlay.

IMdB

Twitter

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 16th June 2022

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Singer/Songwriter/Actor John Doe tells terrific tales: hanging with Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder in Memphis, gigging with Nick Lowe in London and hearing his voice come out of Christian Bale’s mouth in Todd Haynes’s Dylan biopic I’m Not There.

Did John’s appearance with LA punk band X on the Letterman Show in 1983 inspire Dylan’s wild 1984 set with The Plugz? What did he say when he suddenly found himself face-to-face with Bruce Springsteen at that Grammy thing? Did Jerry Lee Lewis actually call him a "fucking asshole" the first time they met? John raves about Tulsa’s new Bob Dylan Center and answers all the above questions, as he presses on…

John Doe and his bandmates in X made 6 studio recordings from 1978-1993. He has recorded 9 solo records, collaborating with Patty Griffin, Dan Auerbach, Aimee Mann, Don Was, Kathleen Edwards, Dave Alvin and Greg Liesz. Doe has acted in over 50 films and television productions including Road House, Great Balls of Fire, Pure Country and Roswell. His musical side projects include work with The Knitters and The Sadies. Doe co-wrote the definitive book about the LA punk rock scene, Under The Big Black Sun. His new album, Fables In A Foreign Land, was inspired by John Wesley Harding. John currently lives in Austin, Texas.

Website

Twitter

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 13th May 2022

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Belfast’s Steven Cockcroft (co-host of leading Beatles podcast Nothing Is Real) offers unexpected takes on The Boys and Bob: “Roll On John isn’t about an individual, it’s about the sanctification of Lennon” and “The Travelling Wilburys was a calculated move by George”. Also on the menu: Dylan’s questionable harmonies on an obscure Ringo album track and his controversial cover of Paul’s Things We Said Today. Plus: did you know that John asked Bob to play piano on Cold Turkey? Have you discovered the reference to Ringo on Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight? Ever hear Dylan’s in-concert cover of The Long and Winding Road? Or hear about the accusatory T-shirt he was gifted by George?

How good is our Beatles episode? This Englishman said fab.

Steven Cockroft is a partner in a law firm in Belfast. He co-hosts Nothing Is Real, the best Beatles podcast out there. Born in 1963, he grew up firmly believing the 1960s were the Golden Age. In the late 1970s, he sat out the 'punk wars', listening to Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Van Morrison. Hosting the podcast came about after Steven and co-host Jason Carty won the Beatle Brain of Ireland competition. They have interviewed Kevin Godley, Mark Lewisohn and several ex-members of Wings but are best known for their humorous and forensic following of the Fabs and their post-Beatles projects.

Twitter

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 25th February 2022

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our special culinary episode with critic Eric Asimov includes the story of long-time Dylan bass player Tony Garnier’s delicious Christmas gumbo and Dylan’s wine-making venture, Planet Waves (“the wine has aged better than the album”). A fan since hearing “I Want You” the age of eight, Eric is “drawn to the atmosphere Bob creates. It’s misty. It’s archaic. You can’t place it in time. It stretches back into history”.

Eric’s take on the live performances is simple: “his devotion to his art takes precedence to his devotion to entertainment”. Although Oh Mercy is not a favourite (“too thick and oozy”), there are plenty of Five Star moments in his tasty overview. He concludes, “I can’t think of any other artist who has had that span of creativity. An 80 year-old guy doing his new songs? It’s unheard of”. Bob Dylan is clearly food and drink to Eric Asimov.

Eric Asimov is the chief wine critic of The New York Times. His freelance work as a wine and food critic has appeared in Food and Wine Magazine, Details and Martha Stewart Living. For a number of years, he was co-author of The New York Times Guide to Restaurants and other books and guides. At the NYT, he was also editor of the Living section and Styles of The Times. Eric is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Manhattan.

'No-Sweat Answers To Some Basic Wine Questions', December 30th 2021

Twitter

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 19th January 2022

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Singer, songwriter and saxophonist Curtis Stigers tells us true stories with a cast of characters including Van Morrison, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. A fan from way back (“Bob is the perfect creation. He’s an art form in himself”), his jazzy cover versions include Things Have Changed (“people go nuts for that song. Their heads explode”). A committed conversationalist with a huge wealth of musical knowledge, Curtis has strong opinions about Shawn Colvin, Jim Croce, The Carter Family, Neil Diamond, Jimmie Rodgers, Frank Sinatra, Bertolt Brecht and Larry Klein (who produced both Joni Mitchell and Curtis). His cover of Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right “always lights up the room”, he says. We feel the same about Mr. Stigers.

Born in Los Angeles, Curtis Stigers grew up in Boise, Idaho. His interest in music began as a teen when he played in punk and blues bands. He moved to New York to pursue rock music but attracted label attention as the saxophonist/vocalist of a jazz trio, signing a deal with Arista and releasing his self-titled first album in 1991 (the multi-platinum album included the Billboard Top Ten single I Wonder Why). He contributed a cover of (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding to the soundtrack of The Bodyguard, which spent 20 consecutive weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard album chart. Curtis’s third album, Brighter Days, featured appearances by Jackson Browne and Benmont Tench. From 2001, he began to concentrate on jazz albums, including Real Emotional and Lost In Dreams. In 2012, he released the country-tinged album Let’s Go Out Tonight, featuring covers of songs by artists like Steve Earle and Richard Thompson. One More For The Road, a live salute to the Sinatra At The Sands album was another big success. Curtis is currently touring the UK, promoting his new album This Life.

Website

Songs From My Kitchen

Tour Dates

Twitter

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 8th February 2022

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comic actor Thom Tuck discovered Bob Dylan when, growing up in Bangladesh, he caught the promo for Subterranean Homesick Blues on MTV Rewind. His family eventually returned to Leeds, where his outsider status was made even worse/better by his obsession with all things Bob. At university, he didn’t improve his lot by writing a play called “One More Layer of Skin”. Despite it all, Thom maintains that Dylan remains his “prism by which to understand the world”.

Opinions: Thom reserves a special place in hell for songs like Make You Feel My Love (“Adele heard the Billy Joel version and now every idiot does it”), whilst continuing to rate Under The Red Sky (“as an album to go to sleep to”). Along the way, we swap dozens of the best Dylan cover versions, from bluegrass to hard rock to the “deep thunder” of Tom Jones.

Thom Tuck is an actor, writer and comedian. He is currently on tour in the acclaimed Birmingham Rep production of The Play What I Wrote. His theatre work includes Death Of A Salesman (Royal & Derngate), Three Sisters (Southwark Playhouse), Brexit (Spontaneity Shop), A Slight Ache (Pleasance) and Gutted!: A Revenger’s Musical (Assembly Theatre). Thom’s television work includes The Crown, Fresh Meat, Horrible Histories, Babylon and Drifters. As a comedian, Thom was nominated Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe for his show Thom Tuck Goes Straight-To-DVD, which was adapted for BBC Radio and is now out on DVD. His other solo shows are Thom Tuck Flips Out, The Square Root Of Minus One and An August Institution. Thom is one third of the acclaimed sketch troupe The Penny Dreadfuls.

https://britishtheatre.com/the-play-what-i-wrote-tour/

Twitter

Trailer

Episode playlist on Spotify

Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating.

Twitter @isitrollingpod

Recorded 14th December 2021

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.