Another masterclass Ray. You asked all the questions I would have wanted to as always. Thanks for the great post and thanks to Parker too for his insight.
Ray, this was a fascinating interview. You’re right no matter how arcane your question your man Parker had a great answer. Thank you for making that connection and sharing it with us!
Great work Ray!! Also if they need to know how to set up the emulator for hwy61 CD-ROM I’m happy to send them the details. As I created one for the YouTube PSB Archives video capture I did of the CD-ROM and it works a treat.
Great interview. The best article I have read about Tulsa so far. Very frustrating that it is all so curated, though. Why do they not have listening/viewing booths? Earlier reports/plans said they would. And why are the Supper Club shows so secret? No disrespect to that guy but no, a 90s computer I can put a CD-ROM into and squint at a terrible quality clip of one song is *not* what I want.
One more thing - love seeing Bill Pagel so warmly embraced as a Dylan authority. I'd have suspected they might lean on published Dylan authors like Greil Marcus, Clinton Heylin, David Hajdu, Sean Wilentz or so many others. Which would also be cool. But it makes me very happy to see a guy like Bill - who just plugs away, day after day of tours, year after year, quietly doing the good work of sharing setlists and reviews in an unpretentious manner. I know he's also done bigger things behind the scenes, like purchasing one of Dylan's childhood homes. But mostly I appreciate his unshowy diligence - and what I'm sure is as much archival knowledge of Dylan this side of Olof Björner.
One more note:
Have you ever interviewed Bill? Have you ever interviewed Olof?
HOLY CRAP. This interview kinda knocked me out, and I wasn't really expecting it to. Fantastic job. You have a gift as an interviewer, which is a combination of quickly expounding on chance references made by the subject, while also stopping to let them fill up the air with things only they could know.
And when I say "I wasn't really expecting it to," what I mean is - I hadn't expected to be this interested in The Dylan Center. The concept felt too academic, too studied, compared to, say, the feeling I get being at a Dylan show or blasting his music. But I now get how cool the Center is, and what it can expand to in the future.
But back to your interview. You ask a number of questions that literally every Dylan fanatic would want to know, so thanks - the top one being to try to understand what's in the archives (of both Dylan, and the Center, which it sounds like are merging) that we haven't heard. We all wanted to know if they've been recording every show forever, and you finally got an answer from someone who should know! I'm disappointed that some of the late-80s and early-90s stuff wasn't as thoroughly preserved; but joyous to hear that most things from 1997 onwards are there, because 1997-2005 is my favorite time of the whole NET - probably my favorite live Dylan years of all.
Another masterclass Ray. You asked all the questions I would have wanted to as always. Thanks for the great post and thanks to Parker too for his insight.
Ray, this was a fascinating interview. You’re right no matter how arcane your question your man Parker had a great answer. Thank you for making that connection and sharing it with us!
Great work Ray!! Also if they need to know how to set up the emulator for hwy61 CD-ROM I’m happy to send them the details. As I created one for the YouTube PSB Archives video capture I did of the CD-ROM and it works a treat.
Wow, what a great interview, thanks! Really interesting stuff.
Ray, this is fantastic. Will we be getting a full write-up of your visit to the Center as well?
A great read that I managed to miss the first time around.
Some wonderful information in there. Many thanks.
Great interview. The best article I have read about Tulsa so far. Very frustrating that it is all so curated, though. Why do they not have listening/viewing booths? Earlier reports/plans said they would. And why are the Supper Club shows so secret? No disrespect to that guy but no, a 90s computer I can put a CD-ROM into and squint at a terrible quality clip of one song is *not* what I want.
Great job!
Congratulations on making it to the Tulsa summit, Ray. Fine interview and thank you for your good work!
One more thing - love seeing Bill Pagel so warmly embraced as a Dylan authority. I'd have suspected they might lean on published Dylan authors like Greil Marcus, Clinton Heylin, David Hajdu, Sean Wilentz or so many others. Which would also be cool. But it makes me very happy to see a guy like Bill - who just plugs away, day after day of tours, year after year, quietly doing the good work of sharing setlists and reviews in an unpretentious manner. I know he's also done bigger things behind the scenes, like purchasing one of Dylan's childhood homes. But mostly I appreciate his unshowy diligence - and what I'm sure is as much archival knowledge of Dylan this side of Olof Björner.
One more note:
Have you ever interviewed Bill? Have you ever interviewed Olof?
I'd looooove to read an interview of those guys.
HOLY CRAP. This interview kinda knocked me out, and I wasn't really expecting it to. Fantastic job. You have a gift as an interviewer, which is a combination of quickly expounding on chance references made by the subject, while also stopping to let them fill up the air with things only they could know.
And when I say "I wasn't really expecting it to," what I mean is - I hadn't expected to be this interested in The Dylan Center. The concept felt too academic, too studied, compared to, say, the feeling I get being at a Dylan show or blasting his music. But I now get how cool the Center is, and what it can expand to in the future.
But back to your interview. You ask a number of questions that literally every Dylan fanatic would want to know, so thanks - the top one being to try to understand what's in the archives (of both Dylan, and the Center, which it sounds like are merging) that we haven't heard. We all wanted to know if they've been recording every show forever, and you finally got an answer from someone who should know! I'm disappointed that some of the late-80s and early-90s stuff wasn't as thoroughly preserved; but joyous to hear that most things from 1997 onwards are there, because 1997-2005 is my favorite time of the whole NET - probably my favorite live Dylan years of all.
Thanks again Ray!