Expecting Rain

Terrible news just coming to light. The Dylan community has lost a dedicated and selfless servant. Sincere condolences to his wife and family.

Really gutted to read this news this morning. A real gentleman whose unselfish work for the Dylan community was outstanding. I've had so many great memories following Dylan in the last 20 years or so that I wouldnt have had but for him.

Deepest condolences to his family

Very sorry to hear this.

A few years ago, as a symtom of my perennial Dylan obsession, I drove up to the lovely village where he lived to drop off my ISIS/Desolation Row ticket buying form in person. He opened the front door as I was posting the envelope through and invited me in. We sat in his kitchen drinking tea, and had a very enjoyable chat about all things Dylan for 45 mins. He didn't know me from Adam, but what a hospitable guy to do that, on top of the extraordinary lengths he was going to, in order to help us all with the ticket allocation exercise.

RIP John Baldwin.

RIP John Baldwin. A true gentleman who worked with passion and integrity to share his love of Bob Dylan with all. Thank you, John. You will be missed.

A sad loss.

Sincere condolences.

R.I.P. John Baldwin

RIP John, thanks for that you did for us Bob fans.

Sad news when anyone dies but I must confess I don't know who this was.

A dark day indeed. John was a legend among the global Dylan community and a great friend to us all.
RIP

John was the publisher of Desolation Row Publications, and also negotiated a fan-allocation of tickets for UK Dylan shows, which he provided at no extra cost, save postage. He did this for more than 20 years, I'd say, and always went out of his way to help anyone who needed a ticket.

Really sad to hear this

RIP John. Thanks for your your dedication.

Thank you for that information. Sounds like he was a real Gentleman. Condolences to his wife and family.

What a sad message! Thanks John! You were a real good man and helped a lot of other Dylan fans. We will for sure miss you!

Steinar Daler

I never dealt with him directly but his legend spread far and wide. My sincere condolences to his friends and family.

Sad news.

R.I.P., Mr. Baldwin.

I add my condolences. I wrote to the family right away and didn't really know what to add here. I still don't, as it will seem so ineffectual; however, I will say that, for all his other work, I feel that the best achievement of John's was the "Fiddler Now Upspoke" interview collections and tapes.

Paul Williams was as big a fan of those as me, and I wanted to write something positive as well as acknowledge the sadness of the tidings.

I have never met him, but back in the late 90s, when I did not know yet what the internet was, and I was still living in my native Germany, I was regularly calling his "desolation row information line" on the phone, to check the set lists via his voice mail recording. So it was his very voice which informed me, that Dylan started singing gems like "Rock Of Ages", "Pass Me Not", "Hallelujah I'm ready to go", and "Somebody touched me".

When a friend and I decided to fly across the pond for shows in 2001 rather last minute, John, who we'd never met, provided us with tickets for the UK shows. It was such a relief. Then at one show we were standing right below the stage with rain pouring down on us, chatting to the nice guy next to us about how we got there when he says, "well I'm John Baldwin." So we were so thrilled to meet him and thank him in person. A sad loss indeed.

John very kindly published some work of mine in Dignity fanzine which he edited some years ago.

He wasn't particularly well at that point in time, if I remember rightly--or maybe he was just struggling with a cold; anyway, regardless, he was patient, supportive, considerate.

R.I.P John.

RIP John, another hero gone.

RIP

Hi, Foggy, you do remember rightly. It wasn't a cold though, it was narcolepsy - which he suffered from pretty severely at that time.

A great man gone. I never met him in person- id have loved to- but he provided my tickets for many years. He felt like a friend- which he truly was to all of us in the Dylan communitu.

RIP my friend.

Thanks to John my wife and I had great seats at the Cardiff 2015 show. Thank you. RIP.

I never met him but I enjoyed receiving his Desolation Row Information email to keep me up to date with all things Dylan. I also got my last ticket from him which was in the 3rd row. Thanks for everything John. RIP.