Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan
11" x 8.5", 2013
ink, watercolor, pencil

Here he is again, Bob Dylan, standard fare every year, plus I've done 4 watercolors of him over the Summer (The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever), and I may have to do another before the Top 100 2012 paintings are completed. I've listened to his new record Tempest and I liked it, but it's not what makes this year's list. Instead it's two songs from the live album Before the Flood recorded with the Band in 1974, an album that somehow got separated from the other 30 records I have of his, and was placed in a stack of records right next to my player. The first of the two songs illustrated is It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding, a classic, one of his many. He performs it acoustic on Before the Flood, and receives a huge cheer from the audience when sings the lines "But even the president of the United States—Sometimes must have to stand naked". That the area right under his nose is painted red is purely coincidental, I wasn't thinking about the song at all when I did that. I would never take his lyrics that literal, would I?