Wire from the Bunker: RIP Bob Neuwirth

I was so saddened to learn of the passing of the great Bob Neuwirth yesterday. I wrote a long piece about him for Phawker a couple years back but it is no longer available. But the point of it was that Neuwirth was a lot more than just Dylan’s sidekick in the mid-60s (if you’ve ever seen Don’t Look Back, you’ve seen Neuwirth!). Neuwirth was an accomplished painter and also a fine songwriter who did some of his best work in the late 80s and into the 90s after a long long hiatus. T-Bone Burnett once called Neuwirth “the best pure songwriter of any of us.” High praise! Here’s T singing Neuwirth’s Annabelle Lee:

I urge you to track down Neuwirth’s Havana Midnight lp if you can find it. It puts that stuff Ry Cooder did over there to shame.

Jon