Bob Dylan describes Tempest, his 35th studio
album (out September 11th), as a record where "anything goes and you just
gotta believe it will make sense." But it isn't the record he set out to
make. "I wanted to make something more religious," he says. "I
just didn't have enough [religious songs]. Intentionally, specifically
religious songs is what I wanted to do. That takes a lot more concentration to
pull that off 10 times with the same thread – than it does with a record like I
ended up with."
The "anything goes" album he ended up with is full
of big stories, big endings and transfixing effect. The disc was recorded in
Jackson Browne's studio in L.A. with Dylan's touring band – bassist Tony
Garnier, drummer George G. Receli, steel guitarist Donnie Herron, and
guitarists Charlie Sexton and Stu Kimball – as well as David Hidalgo on guitar,
violin and accordion. "Tin Angel" is a devastating tale of a man in
search of his lost love; the doleful "Soon After Midnight" seems to
be about love (but maybe it's revenge); the vengeful "Pay in Blood"
has Dylan darkly repeating, "I pay in blood, but not my own."
Tenderness finally seals Tempest, in "Roll On, John," Dylan's
heartfelt tribute to his friend John Lennon.
The title track is a nearly 14-minute depiction of the
Titanic disaster. Numerous folk and gospel songs gave accounts of the event,
including the Carter Family's "The Titanic," which Dylan drew from.
"I was just fooling with that one night," he says. "I liked that
melody – I liked it a lot. 'Maybe I'm gonna appropriate this melody.' But where
would I go with it?" Elements of Dylan's vision of the Titanic are
familiar – historical figures, the inescapable finality. But it's not all
grounded in fact: The ship's decks are places of madness ("Brother rose up
against brother. They fought and slaughtered each other"), and even
Leonardo DiCaprio appears. ("Yeah, Leo," says Dylan. "I don't
think the song would be the same without him. Or the movie.") "People
are going to say, 'Well, it's not very truthful,' " says Dylan. "But
a songwriter doesn't care about what's truthful. What he cares about is what
should've happened, what could've happened. That's its own kind of truth. It's
like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play.
I think they just use his name."
Dylan's mention of Shakespeare raises a question. The
playwright's final work was called The Tempest, and some have already asked: Is
Dylan's Tempest intended as a last work by the now 71-year-old artist? Dylan is
dismissive of the suggestion. "Shakespeare's last play was called The
Tempest. It wasn't called just plain Tempest. The name of my record is just
plain Tempest. It's two different titles."
This story is from the August 16th, 2012 issue of Rolling
Stone.
The legend goes like this: In 1963, producer Lee Mendelson made a documentary about Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, for which he needed music. One night, Mendelson was driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, tuned into a San Francisco jazz station. "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" came on the air, a drifting cut where melodies appear and then disappear, and bouncing elation is matched by tiny moments of despair. The track was pianist Vince Guaraldi's mini-hit that year, and Mendelson was struck by how it sounded simultaneously adult and childlike.
SiriusXM's exclusive Grateful Dead station, channel 23, will broadcast the band's final "Fare Thee Well" concerts from Soldier Field in Chicago on July 3rd, 4th and 5th starting at 9:15 p.m. ET. The shows will also be available on the SiriusXM app and website.
The White Stripes will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their 2005 LP, Get Behind Me Satan, with the first commercially available vinyl pressing of the album, which arrives on Record Store Day, April 18th, via Jack White's Third Man Records. 
