The second season of HBO’s hit series “True Blood” is coming to an end. Last spring, Bob Dylan's song, "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'", announced the upcoming return of the show, in a video-styled commercial.The track was from Dylan’s latest studio album, “Together Through Life”.
The season finale of “True Blood” is scheduled for September 13. The title ? “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’“. Music has been an integral part of the program from the start, with a spooky, almost-"psychobilly" theme song “Bad Things”, by Jace Everett, setting the tone. The soundtrack ranges from obscure blues and country, to more popular fare like The Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers” and the ubiquitous hit single “Keep Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis. Familiar songs take on a new meaning in the context of the show. It seems likely that the Dylan track, which has a swampy arrangement similar to the Otis Rush-Willie Dixon tune, “All Your Love”, will be used in some context.
Bob Dylan has also contributed two Woody Guthrie covers, “Do Re Mi” and “Vigilante Man”, to an upcoming television special entitled “The People Speak”. Eddie Vedder also covers Dylan’s “Masters Of War”, while Bruce Springsteen performs Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”, and the Guthrie-inspired “The Ghost Of Tom Joad”. It is unclear how many of these songs will make it to the final two-hour version, which songs will only be available on-line, and if any of the extra material will be included on any future DVD or Blu-Ray version. The Chris Moore-directed special is expected to premiere on the History channel this fall.
In other TV news, this week, in between plenty of Beatles programming, VH1 Classic is scheduled to broadcast Bob Dylan’s “MTV Unplugged” special today (Monday) at 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. Martin Scorsese’s film, “The Last Waltz” , features Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Dylan, and many others, at a 1976 farewell bash for The Band. It will also be shown tonight, on VH1 Classic, at 8 p.m., then again at 4 p.m. Tuesday. (Eastern time)
There is a Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame 9 DVD box set being released on September 11. While he is not listed, it is known that Dylan was inducted in 1988. It is assumed that Dylan did not allow any of his performances to be used here. However, he can probably be seen on stage with Mick Jagger, Springsteen, and the Rock Hall Jam Band, performing “I Saw Her Standing There” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”. Included elsewhere in the set is a tribute to Jimi Hendrix from 1992 , featuring an unlisted Neil Young, performing Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower”.
Dylan recently appeared at an AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards ceremony, honoring Michael Douglas. Dylan won an Academy Award for the theme song from Douglas' film, "Wonder Boys". If you missed the recent TV Land broadcast of the performance, here it is:
If you have any information on future Bob Dylan television appearances, please let me know! .
For more info: Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame DVD, Bob Dylan on TV, Songs of Woody Guthrie,The Last Waltz., NY Times on "True Blood".
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