Bob Dylan and the story of his “sword queen”

The meeting between Bob Dylan and Scarlet Rivera is one of the most intense and romantic moments in the history of rockalso told in Martin Scorsese’s film dedicated to the legendary tour of the “Rolling Thunder Review”. “The Queen of Swords”, “The Queen of Spade”, is the nickname that the director has attributed to the mysterious red -haired violinist who conquered one of the greatest songwriters ever. From 28 to 30 August, in the historic center of Calitri in Irpinia, Rivera will be the protagonist of Vinicio Capossela’s “Sponz Fest” with two concerts: Thursday 28 August with “This Land is your land: the other America” and Saturday 30 August in the homage “Bob Dylan Gates of Eden”. Rivera has collaborated and still collaborates with great artists, collecting prizes and nominations for Grammy Awards, e He opened a passage in the history of rock as a pioneer of the electric violin.

Its story seems an ancient fairy tale. In 1974, Eric Clapton had recorded all the solo parts of electric guitar for the “Desire” album. After a long studio session, Dylan took the car and made a night ride In the Greenwich Village, in New York. He saw a young woman pass with a violin on the shoulder: instead of inviting her to drink something as many would have done, she brought her to the recording studio and recorded the parts of violin for the game, silently silent. In the end, Dylan wanted it with him on tour and decided that that violin would have been the key tool of “Desire”. It was a crucial moment in the history of rock: Clapton’s electric guitar was replaced by the violin of a girl met by chance on the street. Dylan, once again revolutionarymade magical an ancient tool like the violin, classic and popular at the same time, in rock music.

The sound of Scarlet Rivera thus became the most important “voice” of “Desire”a record released in 1976 full of suggestions, which evokes the Mexican border and other scenarios, starting from the overwhelming “Hurricane”, dedicated to boxing Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. The latter was unjustly condemned for a triple murder occurred on June 17, 1966 at the Lafayette Bar, in New Jersey, and was released only in 1985, when the judge of the Federal Court Haddon Lee Sarokin established that he had not had a fair trial, stating that the accusation had “based on racial motivations”. Dylan was the first to discover Scarlet’s talent, immediately recognizing its genius and considering her a musician capable of playing the violin as a solo guitarist. The two illuminated each otherchanging the trajectory of their human and artistic existences. At the “Sponz Fest” Scarlet Rivera will perform several songs by Dylan liveincluding “Senor” and “Blowin ‘in the Wind”, in a musical journey that will pay homage to great authors such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Fabrizio De Andréof which he translated the poignant “Hotel Supramonte”.