Week in Music: Rolling Stone Pays Tribute to Bob Dylan
This week, Rolling Stone celebrated the 70th birthday of Bob Dylan with an enormous tribute to the man and his incredible body of work. We got stars such as Bono, Bob Weir and Lucinda Williams to reveal their favorite Dylan tune, listed off the living legend’s 10 best and 20 most underrated songs, and put together a challenging Dylan trivia quiz. We also listed off the 10 best Dylan bootlegs, his funniest and most inscrutable lyrics, as well as other musicians’ finest cover versions of his songs. You can also check out the very first Rolling Stone interview with Dylan from back in 1969.
Photos: The Evolution of Bob Dylan
We also caught up with Billy Corgan about his plan to write a “spiritual memoir” about the Smashing Pumpkins, talked to Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason about the band’s forthcoming wave of reissues, had Motörhead‘s Lemmy Kilmister tell us about his new rockabilly band the Head Cat, learned about Sleigh Bells’ plans for the next album and chatted with the Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz at the Museum of Modern Art. Rolling Stone was also at some of the week’s most exciting concerts, including Kanye West’s intimate benefit show at MoMA, the kickoff of Adele’s North American tour in Washington, D.C. and the Cars’ ferocious set in Los Angeles.
The Hottest Live Photos of the Week
Plus, singer-songwriter Ryan Bingham performed a brief acoustic set at our office, Southern rock sister act Those Darlins were named our latest Band to Watch, we analyzed this week’s pop charts, looked back on this week in rock history and, as always, we reviewed all the week’s biggest new releases.
Photos: 2011 Cannes Film Festival
On the pop culture front, Peter Travers chatted with Rob Lowe about his funny and revealing new memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, and reviewed Bridesmaids, the first – and probably only – great Hollywood comedy starring women this summer. Also, in her recaps of American Idol, Mallika Rao commented on Lady Gaga’s mentorship of the contestants and said goodbye to James Durban. Rao also checked in on the progress of NBC’s new singing competition The Voice, and Erica Futterman reviewed this week’s prom-themed episode of Glee.
Peter Travers’ Dozen Must-See Summer Movies
The third round of the Choose the Cover of Rolling Stone contest is about to end! You have only until 11:59 p.m. ET on May 13th to vote for your favorite band vying for the cover of Rolling Stone – as well as an Atlantic Records contract. You can get to know all of the bands by downloading new songs they recorded with big-name producers. You can also watch videos in which they open up about what inspires them to make music and confront the ways that winning the contest could change their lives forever. Once you’re up to speed on the contenders, can then vote for your favorite.
We also posted a gallery of your Top 10 favorite ballads of all time, as determined by your votes on Facebook and Twitter. Our question for you this weekend is: What is the best Bob Dylan song of all time? You can answer on our website, on facebook.com/rollingstone or on Twitter with the #weekendrock hashtag.
LAST WEEK: Wilco, Robert Plant and Arcade Fire Rock New Orleans Jazz Fest