Agent Palmer

It’s hard to believe that there’s someone out there who hasn’t heard some version of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” My cursory research revealed almost 100 official covers of the song and I believe that to be soft. 

But GNR’s version along with Warren Zevon’s edition got me thinking about what else is out there. I’m not talking about Dylan’s own preoccupation with playing his own songs at different tempos and phrasings live, never performing the same things twice. After all, that could be its own thing for almost anything Dylan sang.

Photograph,as defined by my trusty Funk & Wagnalls, is a noun: “A picture taken by photography.” Ok, sometimes the simplest definitions just work. But I start there because we’re about to undertake a very photograph-heavy playlist with 15 songs simply titled “Photograph.”

The first two songs from Def Leppard and Nickelback were a kernel of an idea that started this playlist.

I don’t know if this is the correct takeaway from Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, but it seems to me the “loud hate” minority is much more powerful than the massive “love and let live” majority.

By all accounts, Lilith Fair was an outrageous success. Yes, it took its toll on founder Sarah McLachlan. After all, in three years, it played 134 dates across 54 cities and raised more than $10 million for women’s shelters and non-profits.

It’s easy for the uninitiated to look at Tim Minchin’s Time Machine as an odd assortment of greatest hits. But it really is an emotional and artistically brave revisiting of older material.

Minchin’s announcement on his website about the album states, “All 11 songs were written in my 20s, now reimagined and finally properly studio-recorded for the first time. Some have been played on stages all over the world, and some have barely ever been heard; some are pretty silly and some are very chill; but all are tunes that I think have stood the test of time… ish.”

I’ve prided myself on separating the artist and their art. On a whole, it generally makes things easier to enjoy. 

The art is the art, and any baggage that may come with the artist can be left at the door.

There is an exception that changes the perception of the artist and can change the art, which is based on digging deeper into the artist.