Bob Neuwirth may be the rock ‘n’ roll legend that the most people have heard about but not actually heard. A veteran of the folk-rock scene of the 1960s, he became a key figure in the lives or careers of friends like Janis Joplin, T Bone Burnett and Patti Smith — and you’ll see someone playing him in the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” just as you might have seen him on the periphery of the ‘60s documentary “Don’t Look Back.” But given his enormous renown among the cognoscenti, it’s always surprising to look at his actual discography and see how thin it is: When he died in 2022 at age 82, he’d recorded only six albums in his lifetime.

So if one of those albums happened to be compromised in any way, that counted for more than it might have in a more prolific recording career. Which brings us to his arguably overbaked debut album, the self-titled “Bob Neuwirth,” released on David Geffen’s Asylum label in 1974. He had already achieved a level of fame some years prior to that first album, and it would be another 14 years after that before he went into the studio to make a second album, so it’s the only representation of him as a fairly young musical artist. And the general consensus, at least among himself and his inner circle, was that it was more of a lost opportunity than blazing introduction. The fact that the record was an all-star affair made the irony greater: It’s only slightly hyperbolic to say there might’ve been more big names joining Neuwirth in the studio than there were people who bought the subsequent LP...

RIGHT UP UNTIL his death in 2022, Bob Neuwirth was known to cognoscenti as a songwriter (“Mercedes Benz,”famously recorded by Janis Joplin), painter, recording artist, and onetime member of Bob Dylan’s inner hipstercircle. The last thing he was known for was being famous, which his longtime partner, music executive Paula Batson,says was intentional. “He was very self-effacing in a way,” she says. “He didn’t believe in blowing your own horn. Heloved promoting other people and helping them, but he wasn’t good at self-promotion.”

Two years after he died of heart failure at age 82, Neuwirth’s profile is about to increase beyond his appearance inD.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back. In December, actor Will Harrison (who played Graham Dunne, the lead guitaristin the streaming series Daisy Jones & the Six) will be seen playing Neuwirth in A Complete Unknown, the Dylanbiopic starring Timothée Chalamet. A documentary on Neuwirth’s life, co-produced by Batson and currently in theworks, will incorporate footage from a posthumous 2022 tribute concert that featured covers of his songs by EricClapton, T Bone Burnett, Maria Muldaur, the late Happy Traum, and many others....

Bob Neuwirth Remembered by His Friends T Bone Burnett, Steven Soles and David Mansfield

The late singer-songwriter-painter has been described as indescribable. He comes into focus as the subject of short essays by three prominent musicians who played with him on Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour and in decades to follow.

By Randy Lewis

READ ARTICLE