On his 71st birthday, I thought I’d share one of my favorite covers of Bob Dylan’s classic song “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” which he wrote during the solitary period following his motorcycle accident in 1967.
In 2010, outside Radio City Music Hall, I watched as Glenn Hansard and Marketa Irglova of The Swell Season busked and sang this song alongside their opening act, one of my favorite performers, Josh Ritter. They’d recorded the song for Todd Haynes’ film I’m Not There, which pays tribute to Dylan in a way only Mr. Haynes could’ve imagined. That experience watching three people busking on a busy New York street, simply for the love of the song, rivaled the concert itself.
While there are many cell phone captures of that experience, I much prefer the warts-and-all performance in this video taken at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall for WBEZ’s Sound Opinions.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Dylan. To many more.
