Getting back to the original topic of this thread - Robbie Robertson - have always loved his musicianship and songwriting - not just with The Band, but also his soundtrack stuff - particularly that opening to Raging Bull, which is an incredible piece of a cinema. His solo album 'Storyville' is well worth a listen too.

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This thread may be ready to sink but I wanted to share one more story found behind a song. The one Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen penned together:

https://americansongwriter.com/becau...elQJMS3uuzv0W0
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Hey Jim, the link wouldn't open for me. Bruce had some killer moments. He's on and off for me, but, yeah some great moments. The 80s was a ruthless decade for musicians who came before. Even Bowie had difficulty navigating that. It destroyed Billy Joel, thank god. Because the night, right? It still hasn't been done right in my very honest opinion. Though a bit cheesy and overdone, 10000 Maniacs, her voice, was I think right for the song.

"Badlands" is as great a song as any ever written. And how about Dylan and Joan Baez extending their relationship. Dylan wrote an almost perfect song, a love song that exemplifies his prodigious skills as a rhymer, and Baez sang it with a voice that could break glass with its purity. She also sang beautifully on her cover of The Band's signature song, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." The link is her version of a song that Dylan never recorded himself, "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzCBjrLw-0Y

When I get to this line of Joan Baez's truly great "Diamonds and Rust"...

     My poetry was lousy, you said.

...I want to smack Bob Dylan upside the head.

When you get into Dylan before you've really listened to Bruce (or Leonard for that matter), it's always gonna be hard to compare those two favourably to Bob, but I must say I love those 2 Bruce tracks 'Backstreets' and 'Jungleland' - back to back preferably. Bruce is just on fire.

'Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word' is beautifully done by Joan Baez. I love her album of Dylan covers 'Any Day Now' where it appears (I always wondered if she included an extra verse at the end of the song where she's talking directly to Dylan - that verse doesn't appear in any of Dylan's lyrics).

Julie, I love Dylan, but I have to agree: his treatment of Joan Baez was absolutely appalling, particularly on that 1965 tour. Dylan was a very arrogant dude at the time, mind you he was only 23-24, just a kid.

She might have written it, Damian. She had her own musical instincts and may have felt it needed another verse.

Strange it is to be beside you
Many years, the tables turned,
You probably wouldn't believe me
If I told you all I've learned...

You're right that it isn't on The Official Bob Dylan Web Site. Dylan, I think, always had the upper hand in the relationship. But if he wrote it in '65 and she recorded it in '68, enough time may have passed to give her the perspective of wisdom and experience that the last verse seems to convey.

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Julie: When I get to this line of Joan Baez's truly great "Diamonds and Rust"...
My poetry was lousy, you said.

...I want to smack Bob Dylan upside the head.

I'll be right behind you, Julie.
The song lyric Diamonds and Rust is as unadulterated, unpretentious, clear a lyric as any vaguely profound lyric that Dylan ever wrote (and the mood of the melody is fantastic). The lyric speaks directly and is drenched in a woman's intellect and strength of conviction. Did Dylan ever respond?


Still, all is forgiven when I hear this version of Mr. Tamborine Man performed at the Newport Folk Festival.
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Yes, that's the one.

That version of Mr. Tambourine Man from Newport is magical, truly magical, and I wonder if this was the first time Dylan ever played it live. I often wonder if 'songwriter' is the right term - to me that doesn't say enough about Dylan and the like - I think 'songmaker' is a more apt term. The greatest misconception about Dylan is that he is just about the lyrics. He is so much more - listen to the beautiful melody here, the sublime chord changes, the phrasing and timing of the vocal, and the rhymes, the glorious rhymes - Dylan is an emperor of rhyme. It all comes together here. Thanks for posting Jim. This has made my day.