Andy Miller

11/28/21 • 58 min

Author, editor and podcaster Andy Miller is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore: “Bob Dylan is not a safe option!” “The heritage industry around the Beatles and Dylan is neutering the anarchy of the music. The world sees me as just another bloke buying a Dad Rock box set at Christmas. But it’s not a hygienic vision of what rock ‘n’ roll used to be. It is what rock ‘n’ roll used to be!”. Other trenchant Miller observations include: “Tarantula is an incredibly rewarding book. Take a hit!” And “I loved the Highway 61 album for its absolute sledgehammer horrible noise. The whole sound is assaulting you.” And “Shadow Kingdom. Why wasn’t it called Masked And Anonymous?” Crank up your stereo and take a bracing 58-minute hit with the Dylan Fan’s Dylan Fan. Andy Miller’s most recent book is The Year of Reading Dangerously (“High Fidelity for bookworms” – The Telegraph). He has also written books about how much he likes the Kinks (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, for the 33 1/3 series) and how much he dislikes sport (Tilting At Windmills). He is the co-host of Backlisted, the popular literary podcast that gives new life to old books. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Times, the Telegraph, the Spectator, Esquire, Mojo, Sight and Sound and more. He has toured the UK with his motivational lecture 'Read Y'self Fitter' and appears regularly on BBC Radio programmes such as The Verb (Radio 3), The Museum of Curiosity (Radio 4) and Open Book (Radio 4). Website Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter @isitrollingpod Recorded 27th October 2021 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts

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Kate French-Morris

Music journalist Kate French-Morris, 29, found her calling in a University of California class taught by Greil Marcus (“he gets closer to Bob’s mind than anyone can, with his sideways thinking and his cattiness”). Kate shares a birthday with Dylan, but her main man might be Bruce Springsteen, who figures strongly in this, our first studio recording for over eighteen months. From her discovery of Hurricane over the speakers of an LA coffee shop to her in-depth consideration of Lay, Lady, Lay, Most Of The Time and I Want You (first heard as a Springsteen concert bootleg), Kate charts Bob’s entry into her life (“you know those mirrors that magnify your face? Listening to Dylan feels like that: oh god, this is too much!”). A fresh look at the canon by someone who has yet to see him in concert (but can’t wait). Kate French-Morris writes about and reviews music for Record Collector Magazine and online for The Forty-Five. She writes artist biographies and has worked extensively at the Green Man and End of the Road Festivals. Kate graduated from University College, London, in 2018, including a year at U of C, Berkeley, studying “America Song By Song” with Greil Marcus. Record Collector interview with Steve Van Zandt The Forty-Five Other writing work Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter @isitrollingpod Recorded 29th September 2021 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts

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Richard Strange

Writer and musician Richard Strange insists “If you don’t want to be Bob Dylan, you shouldn’t be writing songs”. He takes us on a journey that starts in his Brixton comprehensive (“I was always bunking off, going to art galleries and the haunted, dingy Soho flesh-pot folk clubs”). He discovers “the boy band of Beat literature: Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg”. And he reminds us that Another Side of Bob Dylan still provides “an embarrassment of riches, lyrically and emotionally”. From witnessing a 1964 Kinks concert (“it blew my mind and changed my life”) to eventually working with Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg, Mr Strange proudly concludes that “Bob Dylan still haunts me”. Richard Strange is a writer, musician, composer, nightclub host, curator, actor and adventurer. His proto-punk rock band Doctors of Madness first performed in 1975 (supported by the Sex Pistols). He founded the influential mixed-media Cabaret Futura in 1980 and has subsequently worked as an actor, appearing extensively in films (Batman, Mona Lisa, Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves, Gangs of New York and Harry Potter) and on television. His many stage appearances include Tom Waits’ musical fable The Black Rider. His memoir, Strange - Punks and Drunks and Flicks and Kicks was published in 2005. Richard currently presents the weekly radio show Dark Times Radio and is recording again with Doctors of Madness. Website Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners: please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter @isitrollingpod Recorded 10th November 2021 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts