How Paul Kelly celebrated the release of Bob Dylan’s new album

A new Bob Dylan album is a cause for celebration as far as Paul Kelly is concerned.

Bob Dylan on stage at The Hollywood Palladium in 2012. Picture: Getty Images

A new Bob Dylan album is a cause for celebration as far as Paul Kelly is concerned, and when Rough and Rowdy Ways — also reviewed here today — was released on June 19, the songwriter made a day of it with an old friend and fellow Dylan fan named Chris Langman. The two men were sharehouse mates when Kelly first moved to Melbourne in 1977, and they used to write songs together, including one that has since become a fan favourite and live staple in Leaps and Bounds. They see each other only once or twice a year, but Langman made the trip down from country Victoria to Melbourne, stopping in at a record store and picking up other essential supplies such as falafels, wine and whisky.

“We knew the first two songs, I Contain Multitudes and False Prophet, because they’d been pre-released,” Kelly told me this week. “We were probably talking a little bit over them while eating, but as soon as we got to stuff we hadn’t heard, it was dead silent — except for the occasional laugh-out-loud at some of the lines. Listening to Dylan records, there’s always lines that jump out at you and make you laugh, either because they’re so good or they’re just very funny — often both at the same time.

“We had to stop halfway through, at the end of I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You, to take a bit of a deep breath. That was a beauty, that one. We talked a bit, then played the rest of the record, and went back and played a few on repeat. Then we pulled out our guitars and we worked out I’ve Made Up My Mind — pretty easy chords — and had a little play, and ended up playing for a couple of hours together, like we used to do. It was a really good day.”

Most serious music fans know someone who reckons everything that Dylan touches is gold, and won’t hear a word to the contrary. Kelly isn’t one of those people.

“Some of his songs are better than others, and he’s written some pretty average songs, but I think his strike rate’s pretty good,” he says. “We listened through it not with any great expectations, but I guess with a feeling of excitement. Hearing the prereleases, it sounded like this was going to be a good record, and overall I think it’s a really good record. Dylan’s always been like a giant antenna; he just sort of picks up everything. Part of the fun of listening to the record is spotting the references; the lines from other songs, titles of other songs, references to history, references to Shakespeare. I think that’s what’s really great about songwriters like [Leonard] Cohen and Dylan: they’ve produced really strong late work. Writing great songs in their 70s? That’s something to aspire to.”