Bob Dylan's six-minute Like a Rolling Stone was nearly shelved, then reached No. 2

pop & funWikipedia1965 · New York City, USA

Bob Dylan's six-minute Like a Rolling Stone was nearly shelved, then reached No. 2

the gist

Like a Rolling Stone grew out of a long, bitter verse Dylan wrote in June 1965 after an exhausting tour of England, which he distilled into four verses and a chorus. Recorded as the opening track of Highway 61 Revisited, it was an electric rock song running about six minutes, and Columbia Records hesitated to release it. A leaked copy reached influential DJs, and it was issued as a single, reaching No. 2 on the US Billboard chart and No. 1 in Cashbox. Al Kooper's improvised Hammond organ riff gave it its distinctive sound, and the song helped turn Dylan from folk singer into rock star.

so what

Rolling Stone magazine ranked it No. 1 on its 2004 and 2010 lists of the 500 greatest songs, and it is widely counted among the most influential postwar pop compositions. Dylan's handwritten lyrics sold for $2 million at auction in 2014, a record for a popular music manuscript.

fun fact

Al Kooper was a rookie session musician when he improvised the organ part that defined the record.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗