It's May, his birthday month. Bob Dylan gave us a little early present today by sliding a new single onto his official website, bobdylan.com, along with the teaser photograph above.
Is the new track from a forthcoming album? A good guess. The single is a cover of "Full Moon and Empty Arms," smoothly produced and sounding mighty fine. The song is almost Dylan's age, written by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman in 1945 and most notably recorded, that year, by Frank Sinatra.
Sit back and enjoy the sweet nostalgia, and anticipation, in the song. And hope that Shadows in The Night indeed turns out to be a record, of covers of classic American nightclub, nighttime songs Dylan likes -- from Rudy Vallee to Sinatra to Patsy Cline, Taj Mahal, and Sarah Vaughan. In a 2009 interview here with Bill Flanagan, Dylan said he liked Randy Newman's "Bordello songs." Maybe we now can look forward to Dylan's versions of lounge standards, Storyville swings, music, martinis, and memories.
Anne Margaret Daniel 2014