A test of faith

BOB DYLAN ’ S 18th BOOTLEG SERIES INSTALMENT – THROUGH THE OPEN WINDOW – IS AN AUDIO ANALOGUE TO A COMPLETE UNKNOWN: AN UNFURLING DOCUMENT OF A SEARING YOUNG TALENT IN THE ACT OF BECOMING. BUT BECOMING WHAT? ROCKER? FOLKIE? LOVER? POET? POLITICIAN? DIGGING INTO PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED MUSIC FROM 1956 TO ’63, MOJO MARVELS AT DYLAN’S FIRST GREAT PHASE ALONG WITH ITS STILL-STUNNED EYEWITNESSES. “IT WAS EARTH-SHAKING,” THEY TELL DORIAN LYNSKEY .

No one notices Bruce Springsteen. He makes no effort to hide—black T-shirt, blue jeans, Wayfarer sunglasses, honky-tonk cowboy boots—but for a few minutes, the most famous son of the Jersey Shore achi

D uring the first half of the 80s, OMD were a regular presence in the upper reaches of the UK charts. Enola Gay, Souvenir, Joan Of Arc and Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc) made the Top 10, whil

Post-American Utopia, DAVID BYRNE is continuing to put a positive spin on the global omni-shambles. That includes engaging constructively with his Talking Heads legacy, but don't confuse it with looking backwards. "Even if something is going well and you know how to do this thing," he tells DAVID FRICKE , "I gotta leave it behind."

A few years ago, Charlie Burchill and Jim Kerr were interviewed for a BBC documentary about music’s messiest break-ups. Which may seem like an odd booking, given the pair’s famously adamantine bond. B

SLASH WAS THERE when, in the aftermath of Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 debut album, Appetite for Destruction, the band suddenly exploded onto a chaotic arc from Sunset Strip hopefuls to one of the biggest, mos