Dylan Pays Tribute, Springsteen Holds Firm, Plus 'SNL' Finale

And our usual cartoons.

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Final cold open. “Habibi, what a word….” “The women are all hiding, it's like a nation of Melanias."

And the Update.

I haven’t been so touched by an offbeat Bob Dylan song choice in quite awhile. A few nights ago, on his latest never-ending-tour, he pulled out, for the first time ever, Rick Nelson’s “Garden Party” from the early 1970s. I think it was Rick’s birthday. Now, in my particular mind, this was notable for several reasons.

First, Ricky (as he was first known) was my favorite rock ‘n roller back in the late-1950s, at least partly because I got to watch him on TV almost every week with his folks, Ozzie and Harriet. Then there was the interesting story behind the song, which you may not know about if you are, let us say, slightly younger than yours truly. Rick had made a kind of “comeback” in the late-1960s riding the crest of the new “country-rock” trend (well before The Eagles) with a fine band and album or two. He took part in one of the early “rock revivals” at Madison Square Garden, with legends like Chuck Berry etc., and heard boos, or at least grumbling, from the audience when he dared to mix in some of his current songs along with “Hello, Mary Lou” and “It’s Late” and other old hits.

So he wrote a song about it, “Garden Party,” which became a hit. Certainly Dylan could relate to the famous refrain, “You can’t please everyone / so you’ve got to please yourself.” The song even refers to Bob attending that Garden show in disguise, and mentions one of the Dylan songs Rick covered in a recent album, “She Belongs To Me.” Anyway, here is Bob this week, video quality not so hot but sound quality okay. Since it’s someone else’s song, he even sings it straight so you don’t have the usual problem of trying to figure out what song this is. The audience loves it:

On the other hand…..Making its debut on PBS on Friday, and now available to stream, is the recent hit musical “Girl From the North Country,” which made its way to Broadway and abroad and earned Tony nominations. It draws on a wide variety of Dylan songs to help tell its boarding house story. I caught it just before it went from off-Broadway to Broadway with another ultra-Dylan fan, and we both….disliked it….the songs often far from apt, even absurd. A trick. But you can judge yourself—and let me know. Obviously, a lot of people had a different view. Here is one of the stars, you know her from Hollywood movies, Mare Winningham, singing, yes, “Like a Rolling Stone.”

We covered The Boss’s skewering of Trump and Trumpism the other day at his tour opener in Manchester. Then Trump ranted an infamous reply (also directed at “no longer hot” Taylor Swift). Last night Bruce returned there for a second show and repeated his strong critique, at length, leading to this headline in his local Asbury Park Press:

Bruce Springsteen stands his ground after President Trump calls him a 'dried out prune'

Including: “In my home, they’re persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent.”.

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy had already offered his support:

I think it’s obvious why I picked a Bruce Springsteen song to cover today. I don’t really care what political persuasion you might be. Surely none of us can tolerate a president threatening someone for freely speaking. Among many, many other things that none of us should tolerate….

We have a lot of work to do. I’m not here to talk about that. I don’t have a lot of solutions. I have a lot of heart, feeling, and love for my country and my fellow citizens. I don’t see how what is happening is helping anybody other than the people who seem to have everything and whine about it. And that’s just intolerable.

We’re going to love each other. And a singing army—John L. Lewis’s phrase—can’t be defeated. So here we go. Carry on.

And then there’s this:

Cartoons Weekend