Bob Dylan 980225 at the Grammy Awards

He won all three categories and performed "Love Sick" to a background of hired
extras. During the performance, one of the extras added his own unscheduled
solo appearance, dancing with his shirt off and the words "SOY BEAN" written
on his chest. Bob Dylan did not let that influence his performance, and even
played a memorable guitar solo.

The "Love Sick" performance can be heard at bobdylan.com under Performances.

In his thank you speech he mentioned Buddy Holly:.

And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went
to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet
away from him...and he LOOKED at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that
he was---I don't know how or why---but I know he was with us all the time we
were making this record in  some kind of way.


Subject: a whiter shade of pale...
From: Christine Consolvo (consolvo@ix.netcom.com)
Date: 27 Feb 1998 13:17:28 GMT



Don't miss the (rather ghostly) photo of Bob at an after-Grammys party
in the USA Today (27 Feb). He's standing with arms around Shawn Colvin
& Sheryl Crow. In the accompanying article:

"Some artist's reps complained about lax security and noted the slow
reaction to both outbursts. A perplexed but unflappable Bob Dylan
continued to sing Love Sick while a man with "Soy Bomb" painted across
his bare chest gyrated beside him for 30 seconds. Dylan shot the dancer
a withering glance, then moved aside as a security guard [NOT!] lifted
and carried him offstage.

Organizers ejected the crasher but declined to press charges. Outside,
he identified himself as Michael Portnoy, an almost-vegetarian
"multigenre mastermind artist" and budding superstar.

"Soy is protein and life and energy, and bomb is explosive and
propulsive," he told New York's Daily News. "All art should be soy
bombs."

Afterward, big winners Dylan (three Grammys) and Colvin (two) were
feted at Sony's bash in the Hammerstein Ballroom, where grammy host
Kelsey Grammer also partied.



Subject: Re: Love Sick staging
From: Rsweener (rsweener@aol.com)
Date: 27 Feb 1998 08:23:01 GMT

 mblankman@pipeline.com (Matthew Blankman) wrote:

>So the real question is: who the hell staged Bob's performance at the
>Grammys?   What was the concept?  A late 90's gen-x, heroin chic
>version of Hulabaloo?   Crazy dancing hipsters on stage surrounding
>Bob?  Its a wonder there was only one Soy Bomb.   Did they really feel
>it necessary to beat us over the head and show us that Bob is "hip"?  

My sentiments exactly.  A very over-the-top effort to sell Bob
to a younger audience.  Does he really need the sell?
And who made the call, the Grammys or Sony?  I'm
sure Bob just showed up and said, "yeah, fine, whatever."
That irritated me a hell of a lot more than Soy Bomb.  He
was an oddity.  Going so far as to have the kids in black follow
Bob out to accept his award, that was absurd.

Rick



Subject: Grammy speech (reposted)
From: DH (theatron@xtra.co.nz)
Date: 6 Mar 1998 20:33:37 GMT

Bob Dylan said:

Well, I've got to mention them, Columbia Records, Tommy Mottola, Don
Ienner --- Don Ienner heard these songs way back when and convinced me to
put it out --- although his favorite songs aren't on it --- but he put it
out anyway. [laughter behind Bob] Larry Jenkins has been down in the
trenches all the way from Italy to England and back again...Daniel
Lanois, who helped produce this, and Mark Howard --- can't forget that. We
got a particular sound on this record which you don't get every day.
Everybody worked extra-special hard, even the musicians
[laughter]...Augie Meyers from San Antonio...Jim Dickinson, my brother
from Mississippi...and Cindy Cashdollar, Bucky Baxter, Tony Garnier,
Jim Keltner, just every old body, David Kemper...everybody worked really
hard on this and we didn't know what we had when we did it but we did it
anyway. 

And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen
years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard
Armory and I was three feet away from him...and he LOOKED at me. And I
just have some sort of feeling that he was --- I don't know how or
why --- but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record
in  some kind of way. In the words of, you know, the immortal Robert
Johnson, "the stuff we got'll bust your brains out", and we tried to get
that across. And this man right here, he was sort of instrumental in
helping that out; I'm going to let him say a few words---Daniel Lanois
[applause]. 

February Setlists