So, I went to one of the 23 Starbucks locations that are within two blocks of my house and purchased the latest edition in their “Artist’s Choice” series of CDs, where famous musicians pick their own favorite recordings made by other people. This new one contains the selections of Bob Dylan. It cost me $15.95, which I thought was pretty darned steep. I mean, you can almost buy a cup of coffee for that price.

The tracklist of the CD has already been reported, including in a previous post here. Aside from enjoying the music, which is indeed highly enjoyable, Bob fans will be interested in the liner notes which he contributes for each song. His tone is just a tad more personal than he usually gets on his “Theme Time Radio Hour” show. He explains from the outset that when he was asked to put together the collection, he …

… just grabbed a bunch of things I was into recently. Some people have favorite songs, but I’ve got songs of the minute — songs that I’m listening to right now. And if you ask me about one of those songs a year from now, I might not even remember who did it, but at the moment it’s everything to me.

Writing about the Stanley Brothers’ The Fields Have Turned Brown, Bob recalls seeing them play in a field in Virginia, where the only lighting was from the headlights of people’s trucks. He says:

I bet you cash money that I wasn’t the only one there who had the hair on his neck standing up. I used to have a really scratched up copy of this record; sounded like they were singing in a windstorm. Someone gave me a real clean version on CD a few years ago. I miss the wind.

Regarding the track Tezeta by Gétatchéw Kassa, Bob writes:

There’s this guy named Harold who usually shows up when I play Fort Worth, and he always gives me a bag of CDs. He never writes down what’s on them. I had to wait till the next time I was in Fort Worth to ask him what this track was. I found out it’s an Ethiopian record from this series of records made during that short window of time when popular music was allowed in Ethiopia. But when I heard it I didn’t know any of that. I thought it was some kind of Cajun record played backwards. There’s something great about hearing music that’s so obviously passionate and so obviously good, and not being able to understand the words. I like to imagine this is what my records might sound like to someone in a country that doesn’t speak English.

And it does sound exactly like a Cajun record played backwards.

The CD can also be ordered online.

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