Episodes
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Can I interest you in a vintage year for this podcast episode, maybe a 1965, perhaps?
No more Bowie dominance in the year 1977, no more personal rock bottoms for poor, lost Bob Dylan, and even more so his embattled family. Just sweet, pure, unadulterated, mythic, apocryphal, top of the world musical dominance from Bob Dylan that will last forever and ever, er, I already forgot about my opening metaphor, which if I remember correctly was a bottle of wine, so...maybe...Dylan fans will drink it up heartily while Bowie fans will swish it around for a sec then spit it out onto their couches. Does that satisfy the metaphorical requirements?
What's that you say? What was Bowie doing in Dylan's best year, whoops spoiler alert? Ummm, was he even David Bowie yet? Weren't there some flailing attempts at bands and singles and...other stuff? What's that you say? Who cares?
Charlie and all the other Bowie fans out there care, that's who, on this edition of Bowie vs. Dylan.
Wednesday Apr 15, 2020
Wednesday Apr 15, 2020
Setting: The year 1968, A 4th-rate comedy club called "LAFFS!!!", late at night (or early in the morning), quiet and mostly deserted, and not because of social distancing orders.
Emcee: Ladies and germs, our next act needs no introduction, he's mop-topped and just flew in from England, you know the rest, it's...DAVID JONES! (light applause)
David Jones: Erm, it's actually David BOWIE now.
Emcee: Whatever, say it don't spray it, man.
David Bowie: I just flew in from England, and boy, are my arms tired! (crickets chirping)
Emcee: Good one! I hate to cut into your explosive set here, bub, but let's get this over with, don't you have a special guest or something you'd like to bring on, or something?
David Bowie: Right, here he is from Woodstock, NY, USA, it's...Bob Dylan!!!
Bob Dylan: (talking in a strange half-croon, half-nasal whine) I just flew in from Woodstock, and boy are my arms tired! (half the crickets roaring in approval over nothing, half the crickets yelling "Judas!")
David Bowie and Bob Dylan: Let's see, what else? What else...has been goin on? Hmmm, let's see, on this edition of Bowie vs. Dylan.
Monday Jul 01, 2019
Monday Jul 01, 2019
Setting: Newly minted Bowie tries to achieve early Bowie in England, while Bob Dylan is at the height of his Dylan-ness, also in England for part of the year, getting "Judas!!!" yelled at him by wankers.
Bowie answers an advert in the paper, whereby he pays good pounds to climb into a tiny door presented to him by a very young John Cusack. He inexplicably transforms into Bob Dylan's body and mind for 15 minutes, and then is deposited on the side of a freeway in New Castle. Whilst embodying Dylan, Bowie goes to dinner where everyone, including him, looks like the majestically frizzy Dylan of 1966.
Dylan #1: Blonde on Blonde?
Dylan #2: Blonde on Blonde.
Dylan #3: Blonde on Blonde? Blonde on Blonde? Blonde on Blonde!
Dylan #4: Blonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on Blonde.
All Dylans: Blonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on BlondeBlonde on Blonde.
Bowie (once deposited on the freeway): It will be mine...Oh yes, it will be mine. In 1972, or thereabouts.
Friday Apr 05, 2019
Unboxing Baby Bowie
Friday Apr 05, 2019
Friday Apr 05, 2019
Hey! Some early Bowie demos came out today and for some reason they were released as a quadruple 7" vinyl box set! But the box set looks pretty swanky and the music is rather fascinating. So watch your pal, Charlie, unbox it for you after the jump. And if you're feeling really saucy and decide to buy the bugger, use our Amazon affiliate link and support the show: https://amzn.to/2YGVASp.
Read the rest of this entry »Saturday Dec 15, 2018
Ep19: 1967 - David Bowie (Eponymous 1.0) vs. John Wesley Harding
Saturday Dec 15, 2018
Saturday Dec 15, 2018
Take a trip back in time with Chaz and Jake to rehash the beginnings of Bowie and the middles of Dylan as they navigate the mid-late-60's in the aplombic fashion that only they themselves can muster. Dream, dear listeners, of a simpler time when rock albums came out every 6 months and you were a failure for daring to take a longer break than thus, when wild frizzy hair grew without a thought on the heads of men both Napoleonic and Goliathic, and when cryptic all-telling images helpfully appeared at the tops of trees on comeback folk rock albums. And of course, dare to inhale the sweetest vapor of them all, the Rosetta stone that defines both Bowie and Dylan and once and for all reveals the reasons for not only their intertwining existence and their apparent counter-magnetic repulsion, but also the lingua franca of the mysteries of the musical univ...you know what, go ahead, go ahead and do it, stop listening and go dial up "The Laughing Gnome", you know you want to. You just had to hear for yourselves, didn't you? We'll wait. There, are you happy now? Well, are you? I bet you're not. It seemed like a fun idea until about halfway through, right? And now you're strangely soured on both Bowie AND Dylan somehow. Great, have fun listening to the rest of this 1967 edition of Bowie vs. Dylan.
And when you're all done, take a spin of our custom 1967 Spotify playlist at bit.ly/BvD-EP19. You GNOME you want to! Hehehehehehehe!!! Oh, dang. Even Bowie wouldn't have used that one.
Saturday Sep 01, 2018
Saturday Sep 01, 2018
It's a "Secret Origins" Episode of Jones vs. Zimmerman, so don't tell anyone, it's a secret...unless...you want to recommend it to literally everyone you know across all social and media platforms so we can pump our SEO to the MAX ahead of our IPO. But maybe only share the part that's not a secret, which are the travails in 1964 for David Jones (still not Bowie) and Bob Dylan (continuing to be Dylan). Dylan releases ONLY two stone-cold classic albums and plays the New York Philharmonic, while Jones sifts through his 10-12 active bands for the magic hit-making ingredients that would ultimately yield his first released single, a monumental, towering, explosive, earth-shattering run of the mill English-by-way-of-American R&B tune. We here at Bowie vs. Dylan don't typically share the results of the hotly debated points breakdown, but, I mean, I think it's pretty obvious in this case who won...it's Jones in a landslide.
And of course, if you're into this kind of thing, give a listen to our custom 1964 playlist at bit.ly/BvD-EP12.
Monday Jun 25, 2018
Monday Jun 25, 2018
I'm Jake, and I love Dylan-
So much so in fact that I'm already weighing whether to purchase immediately the new, old, upcoming, affordable, is it essential or even worth it, previously released but where, Japan-only singles maybe, wait do I own some of these, I must, but no, not too many, disc 2 looks pretty choice, but disc 1 might be too larded with his earliest years, I mean anything from 65-66 is tasty, I think Columbia/Sony proved that with "The Cutting Edge" box, should I just listen to that instead, or right now, it's so good, or more relevantly any one of the shows from the massive "Live Recordings 1965-1966" box, will I like this new old one enough to throw it on while I'm making dinner some nights, and what caliber dinner might that be, am I grilling (and need a jam) or just pressure-cooking soup (and just need to pass the time), and wait, what was I talking about again?
Right, attempting to preview "Live 1962-1966: Rare Performances from the Copyright Collections".
Read the rest of this entry »
Sunday Apr 15, 2018
Sunday Apr 15, 2018
Jake and Charlie discuss Dylan crooning his way through the 27 minute magnum opus Nashville Skyline, while Bowie releases his minor novelty single, "Space Oddity", and spends the remainder of his second self-titled album trying to imitate a Bob that Bob himself had already moved past. Bowie mimes his way onto the scene while Bob gets busy making the one truly great creative contribution that he ever managed to muster: the conception and virgin birth of his 5th child and pop music's truest heir, Jakob Dylan of the still wildly relevant band, The Wallflowers, playing a casino near you.
ALSO: We can't bring you to 1969 so instead we're bringing 1969 to you. When you're done with the podcast, check out our BOWIE VS. DYLAN 1969 Spotify playlist at bit.ly/BvD-EP03.