Donovan reviews new Dylan album!

On the 15th May 1965, British singer/songwriter Donovan, sat down with Richard Green from The Record Mirror and played Bob Dylan's new LP Bringing It All Back Home.

Donovan gave Green a track-by-track rundown of his impressions of the album.

Here are Donovan's notes on Bringing It All Back Home.

Track 1 - "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

"This is a gas. First time I heard it I liked it. Chuck Berry rhythms and Dylan words go well together."

Track 2 - "She Belongs To Me"

"Yea, it's beautiful. His Buddy Holly influence comes out. Very pretty harmonica on it, it's nice."

Track 3 - "Maggie's Farm"

"This is the... (Turns volume up and laughs). It's a good send-up. It's just amusing. You know, all these things he does they're just personal, you can't understand them. It's just to make one person laugh, probably Maggie. Don't like this much." (Takes it off).

Track 4 - "Love Minus Zero/No Limit"

"He played this one to me without accompaniment, it's good (Sings along). A lot of people have said it's a bit crappy with his accompanists, but they're very sympathetic really."

Track 5 - "Outlaw Blues"

"He could do something completely new with this. He could be termed a pop form. Can't imagine the groups doing it. But him, yes. His music now doesn't fill up too much of his day. Don't think it ever did, he was writing poetry more than songs. This John Hammond thing is festering in America."

Track 6 - "On The Road Again"

"Him and his buddies, they're having a good session. It's just a gas for them."

Track 7 - "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"

"That's Al Grossman. He keeps playing this in his pad. He hadn't read the words for six weeks. He just put them in front of him and read what he'd written. Apart from that, the group hadn't started with him." (Takes it off).

Track 8 - "Mr. Tambourine Man"

"This is beautiful, this one. When I first heard this about a year and a half ago, I wrote my 'Tangerine Eyes' from it, but I didn't ever record it because I didn't want to steal it. I didn't know what the lyrics were I've sung it to him, he digs it. (Sings along). That's the best one on the LP, man. I've not heard the rest of them, but..."

Track 9 - "Gates Of Eden"

"He's got a place outside New York called Bearsville. The bears come up to his window and he feeds them. He stays there and goes into town once a month and does a concert for ten thousand. That's why he gets bitchy with all these reporters, he doesn't care two figs. There's a cinema in this little town and every time he goes there, it makes the papers. They get all excited. That's good that. That's his classical sort of stuff, where his poetry comes in. It's hard, for people to dig it."

Track 10 - "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

"He's written a lot of poems and he's just picked these few to put to songs. You've got to be a genius to understand them. To me he's just a guy that writes poems and puts a lot of feeling in them. It's hard for me to say what I think of him. I couldn't write a story on what I think of him for any paper. I like him because he shoots down a lot of people who shoot a load of crap."

Track 11 - "It's All Over Now Baby Blue"

"Yea! He played this one as well. It's a great one, dig this one."