Dylan IV - The Quest for Peace

Wow, it's been way too long in between drinks here. I got the Dylan CD box set for my birthday last year, and I still haven't listened to all the albums. I got distracted by things like The X-Files and the passing of David Bowie. Seeing as the man himself turned 75 recently, I thought it was a good time to jump back in. Rolling Stone published an online article offering up the 100 Greatest Dylan Songs to coincide with his birthday too, so I've been dipping my toe into some of those tracks as well. Anyway, let's start with one I prepared earlier and look at the soundtrack side of Dylan first...

12. PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID (1973) 4/2/16
Dylan's foray into the soundtrack world is interesting, but not essential listening. The movie itself is notable for also casting Dylan in the role of Alias. Even though the album is not vital, it is very easy to listen to. Fairly perfect for being in the background of a small social gathering perhaps, except for the semi-raucous banjo frenzy of Turkey Chase. Amongst the instrumental tracks lies the true jewel in this offering: Knockin' On Heaven's Door; a song that has nearly been covered to death, ironically enough. This remains my favourite version, as it's stripped-back and pithy. There's a real sense of melancholy that is missing from other renditions, except for maybe Warren Zevon's cover. The various takes of Billy throughout the album are also highlights.

[Side note: in November 1971, between the releases of New Morning and Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, Columbia issued the double album compilation Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II. The excellent set contains five songs not on any other release at that point; I'm sure they'll turn up on the double CD Side Tracks which makes up the 46th and 47th CD of the Dylan box set.] 

13. DYLAN (1973) 26/5/16

Apparently this album was released without any input from Dylan. Columbia simply grabbed two outtakes from Self Portrait and seven from New Morning and issued a new Dylan record! All nine songs are covers too, so there is no new original material here either. Further probing led me to discover that this album was never released on CD in the US market, at Dylan's request. Its inclusion in this box set is one of the only ways to obtain the album on CD. While an album of covers might not be what we turn to Dylan for, this is still an enjoyable offering. There's nothing earth-shattering here, but his versions of Mr Bojangles, Big Yellow Taxi and Can't Help Falling In Love are pretty good. I also liked the opening track, Lily Of The West (and old traditional folk tune) and Spanish Is The Loving Tongue. The latter was previously issued as the B-side to the 1971 single Watching The River Flow, albeit a different version, which I'd heard before on the Masterpieces compilation. I think the Dylan take is nicer. 

14. PLANET WAVES (with The Band) (1974) 27/5/16
This was the first album in a while that felt like a real Dylan record. Aptly backed up by The Band, this is probably the most enjoyable listening experience since New Morning. It's certainly the first album since Blonde On Blonde where you could apply the term 'rollicking'. Right from the opening track, On A Night Like This, you are assured that this is Dylan back in form. Although they don't lend any harmonies to the songs, The Band do serve up plenty of grooves and gentle funk. Sometimes you get lost in the instrumentation and think that you're listening to an album of The Band's, until you hear Dylan sing again. Aside from the slightly overlong Dirge, this album is all killer. My favourite tracks would be the aforementioned On A Night Like This, Wedding Song, Going Going Gone and the truly stellar Forever Young. I'm not sure why they included an alternate version of the latter straight after the version we're all familiar with, but whatever. It was the seventies, I guess, and perhaps a bit of a precursor into how Dylan's back pages of tunes would shape-shift as his career moved forward. Forever Young holds a special place in my heart for a few reasons. I first heard it played by Perth muso Rick Steele in a pub in Kalgoorlie during the mid-90's. When Rhones and I got married, a very good friend of her family wrote the entire first verse in our 'congratulations' book. Dylan ended the first two live shows I saw him perform with Forever Young as well. It's such a great song, and I absolutely love the last lines of the third verse: 

"May your heart always be joyful

May your song always be sung

And may you stay forever young"

15. BEFORE THE FLOOD (with The Band) (1974) 4/6/2016
The first official live release from Dylan sees him paired up with The Band again. Documenting their joint US tour, this double album offers four sides of those shows. Side 1 is Dylan and The Band rolling through some classics (of Zimmy's), while Side 2 is The Band sans Dylan. The first half of Side 3 is Dylan solo, with the second half featuring The Band on their own. Side 4 is Dylan back with The Band again. Phew! Got it? For the most part, it's an enjoyable affair, albeit a little unhinged in places. The arrangements of Dylan's songs are certainly different, with Knockin' On Heaven's Door managing to sound upbeat. The Band bring a swagger that sets fire to classics like All Along The Watchtower, Ballad of a Thin Man, Highway 61 Revisited and Lay, Lady, Lay. Opening track Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine) is almost unrecognisable until the chorus, but it's still great. The Band's Dylan-less performances are excellent with the standout tracks for me being The Night They Drove All Dixie Down, The Shape I'm In and When You Awake.

16. BLOOD ON THE TRACKS (1975) 13/6/2016
This is the only album out of these five that I'd listened to in its entirety before writing this blog post. I reviewed it during my time with the afyccim blog, and wasn't as impressed with it as I assumed I would be. It's touted by many as Dylan's finest work from the 70's, and some even cite it as his best album. I like it much more than I did when I first listened to it, but I don't fall into the latter category; but I'm getting closer to being in the former. Give me a few more years and I might just adore it as much as the album's strongest admirers. I still struggle with the overlong Idiot Wind and the fairly pedestrian Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts, but I pretty much like the rest of the album now. My strongest loyalties lie with the more acoustic numbers, with my favourites being Buckets Of Rain, Shelter From The Storm and the gorgeous Simple Twist of Fate. There's no denying the awesomeness of opening track Tangled Up In Blue though (hands off, Hootie!). I remember seeing a live and solo version of it on RAGE late one night when I was a teenager, with Dylan wearing mascara, faded white face makeup and a hat. Unfamiliar with the song, I was drawn into its narrative and just loved the title! I heard Dylan perform it in a totally different arrangement at the old Burswood Dome in 2007. It took a while for the crowd to cotton on to what they were hearing, but come on! If you don't know those opening lyrics, what kind of Dylan fan are you? He played it again at the Fremantle Blues n Roots Festival in 2011 as well, and the arrangement had changed again! Hehehe...Dylan doesn't look back very often. But getting to back to the album at hand, Blood On The Tracks remains a hugely influential and important record. As with many artists, emotional upheaval can ignite bursts of creativity and as Dylan's marriage to Sara was disintegrating, he wears his heart on the album sleeve. 

Okay, well, that will do it for now. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going and get through a few more albums sooner rather than later. 

Cooking With Dylan III

Right, well, let's get on with the third installment of my Dylan adventures. After a bit of a gap (about three months), I have renewed my mission to listen to every album of The Complete Album Collection Vol. One CD box set. I also managed to sneak in an entry from his Official Bootleg series; the fourth volume, to be precise. It was suggested to me by another Dylan enthusiast that the Royal Albert Hall Concert from 1966 would make for a fab companion piece after revisiting Highway 61 Revisited on its 50th anniversary. 

It sure did. 

The first side is just Dylan solo, which was simply transcendent. There were only seven songs, but they were all killer picks. The real revelation is listening to the audience during the electric second side. I don't think I appreciated just how vitriolic his folk fans were. Such a melodramatic sense of betrayal and dismay at the fact Dylan was playing with a full band and sporting an electric guitar. When that guy yells out "Judas!" it's a validation of the myth. It almost feels just like an urban legend, until you realise that it actually happened. The response of the then-25-year-old Dylan is quite jarring too, as he is clearly taken aback: "I don't believe you! You're a liar!" The musicality is great though, and all the songs have that ramshackle bounce you'd expect of that era. I hope that the promise of a second Dylan box set comprising of all the Official Bootleg albums comes off. I'd really like to dive through them once I'm done with all the actual records. But, I digress!

Let's just jump right in here...

8. JOHN WESLEY HARDING (1967) - 20/8
This was my first listen of this album, and I had only heard two of the songs before. After the galloping rock of Highway 61 Revisited and majesty of Blonde On Blonde, this is quite a mellow affair. It was released nearly a year and half after BOB, as Dylan had injured himself in a motorcycle accident during July 1966. While convalescing, he recorded a lot of songs with members of The Hawks (who would go on to become The Band) at his house in Woodstock, New York. These sessions would be extensively bootlegged until 1975, when a selection were officially released as The Basement Tapes. None of those recordings would make it onto JWH, but Dylan arrived in Nashville to put down some tracks of a similar pithy vein. This album is mostly acoustic, and probably one of the earliest releases of the burgeoning country rock genre that would be taken to the next level by The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers. All Along The Watchtower and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight are the songs that everybody knows, but I was just as enamoured with tracks like I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine and As I Went Out One Morning. I don't really get the story, but The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest was another big highlight for me. This album pleasantly surprised me, as I liked it much more than I expected to.

9. NASHVILLE SKYLINE (1968) - 23/8
Apologies to fans of Johnny Cash, but I think this album's opening track is a bit horrendous. I don't know what possessed Dylan to re-record Girl From The North Country with Cash, but it strikes me as hugely unnecessary, and more of a vanity project. It also seems to go on for longer than it needs to. Ugh, give me the original from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan any day. The next track is an instrumental, Nashville Skyline Rag, which is okay. At this point, I was a little worried about what the rest of the album might entail, but happily, it all turned around from there. Singing in what some call his "country croon", Dylan continued where he left off with JWH, but added a little more bounce. Songs like To Be Alone With You and the excellent closer Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You are so breezy and fun that you almost forget that you're listening to Dylan; particularly when he's using THAT voice. Home to the classic track, Lay, Lady, Lay as well, I really enjoyed this album, for the most part. 

10. SELF PORTRAIT (1970) - 5/9
Unfairly branded as being one of the worst albums in rock history, Dylan's second double album is a mix of folk & contemporary covers,  live tunes and instrumentals. There are also a handful of original tracks on offer. It must have baffled fans on its release, particular after a stellar run of records. Even forty five years later, it is still a little puzzling, but by no means unpleasant. According to some interviews I've read, Dylan's intention was to well and truly shake the "spokesmen for a generation" label that he'd been stuck with. He was hoping to put out an album that would disappoint those who were waiting for his next big statement, figuring that they'd just get bored with him and move on. The backlash he got was fierce, and many music critics piled on the scorn. Rolling Stone magazine's Griel Marcus famously started his review with "What is this shit?". I think if he had whittled it down, there would be a really good album here. The live versions seem unnecessary as well, but they add to that "aural scrapbook" kind of vibe. Bits of pieces of what he was doing or feeling, perhaps? The covers were probably meant to reveal his influences, but I don't know why he picked Paul Simon's The Boxer. The way he harmonises with himself seems like he's making fun of Simon & Garfunkel's intertwining voices. There are some great cuts here though, my highlights being Copper Kettle, Days of '49, Early Morning Rain and the strangely haunting instrumental Wigwam, which is one of the few original songs. 


11. NEW MORNING (1970) - 10/9

Released only a few months after Self Portrait, this short and laidback album makes for pleasant listening. It's perfect for a Sunday morning. The songs are all Dylan originals this time around, and it's very similar in production and feel as his three previous offerings. The most famous song in here is probably the lovely ballad If Not For You, which has been covered by George Harrison and Olivia Newton-John, among others. If you're a big fan of The Big Lebowksi (a Coen brothers movie), like I am, then you'll probably also know the excellent deep cut The Man In Me. Other highlights for me included the title track, If Dogs Run Free and Time Passes Slowly.


When I pick this up again, I'll be looking at Dylan's first (and only? - I'm unsure) soundtrack. 

Back II Dylan

Yeah, so I've been a bit slack with my Dylan listening and blogging. Since my last post in February, I've only managed to get through another six more albums, three of which I was already pretty familiar with. He also released a new record, Shadows In The Night, which I nabbed a copy of in April. I was going to leave it until I had listened to the entire box set, but I was too impatient. It's a fascinating album of covers, all of which were performed by Frank Sinatra. Unlike anything else he's done, I think it was a remarkably brave move to make. But hey, Dylan will do what Dylan wants. 

Okay, I'll do my best to catch up in one fell blog post right here and now! Although, I might cut in half. I might not. Hey, let's just see where this takes us, yes?

4. ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN (1964) - 6/3
Shedding his protest venom in favour of love songs and ballads, the title of this album certainly delivers. Again, we have Dylan exclusively performing solo on guitar and harmonica, except for Black Crow Blues which he hits piano on. Aside from a handful of Dylan classics like All I Really Want To Do, It Ain't Me Babe and Chimes of Freedom, I feel that it's a bit of a filler record. Not to say that it's a bad album, it's just hard to listen to yet another group of solo Dylan tracks, particularly when his first Holy Trinity of albums are just around the corner. While this also includes the excellent My Back Pages, his rendition of it seems somewhat unenthusiastic. 

5. BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME (1965) - 15/5
The first of a trio of quintessential Dylan records, this is overflowing with classic tracks. It's almost like a mini best-of album, boasting such gems as Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Subterranean Homesick Blues, It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding, Gates of Eden, She Belongs to Me and Mr Tambourine Man. The first side of the record features songs that all have full band arrangements, even the slower numbers. By comparison, the four tracks that make up the second side are predominately Dylan solo; the exception being the brilliant album closer It's All Over Now, Baby Blue which features some bass work from William E. Lee. Although there's one or two tracks which haven't really revealed themselves to me, this is an absolute corker.

6. HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED (1965) - 15/5
Recently coming in at No.2 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time poll, this is one of Dylan's most enduring albums, and some would say it is his best. This also marked the start of his collaborations with producer Bob Johnston. From the opening snare of Like A Rolling Stone to the final harmonica notes on the stunning Desolation Row, this is a killer collection of songs. I've listened to this album a lot of over the years, and I'm still picking up new things to love. I can't get over the fact that it came out just five months after BIABH. The title track's opening line: "God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son'" is one of my favourite moments and I love its use of the siren whistle in place of Dylan's trademark harmonica. The eerie Ballad Of A Thin Man, with its saloon-like piano (played by Dylan himself), is possibly my favourite track on the album. Other highlights for me include Queen Jane Approximately and Tombstone Blues. On August 30, this record celebrated its 50th anniversary. I couldn't resist blasting it through our lounge room last Sunday morning, much to the chagrin of our kids. He he he...education by force!

7. BLONDE ON BLONDE (1966) - 16/5
Yes, I listened to these three albums in two days. I found it very hard to stop once I'd started. To have three absolute blinders in a row is a rare feat for any artist, but Dylan manages to repeat this success again later in his career. If push came to shove, I'd name BOB as my pick of the three. Being one of the first double albums ever released there's more music on it, for a start. It's positively overflowing with fantastic tracks: Visions of Johanna, One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later), 4th Time Around and the raucous opener Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 to name a few. Like any good double album, there are a variety of moods and styles. You can be stomping your feet to infectious groove of Most Likely You'll Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine one moment, and then be soaking up the melancholy shuffle of the exquisite Just Like A Woman the next. Incredibly, the iconic cover featuring a blurry Dylan does not feature his name or the album's title. The Beatles left their name off the cover of Rubber Soul in 1965; I wonder if that influenced that decision at all.

Well, I might wrap this up here. There was quite a big gap between listening to these albums and getting back on the horse again. So, there it is. When I continue, we shall start with John Wesley Harding.