CD Odyssey Disc 69: Bob Dylan

I am sad to report that the next disc rolled in the CD Odyssey does not at any point have the lyric "like a rainbow in the dark."

Disc 69 is...Planet Waves
Artist: Bob Dylan

Year of Release: 1974

How I Came To Know It: Like most people, I've heard Bob Dylan since I was a kid. I bought my first Dylan record (Times They Are A' Changin') in about 1988 so I am a late bloomer, but since then I've really gotten into him. Planet Waves is one of the most recent ones I purchased, maybe a year ago or so.

How It Stacks Up: I have seventeen studio albums of Dylan. They are all good (we are talking about Bob Dylan here) but Planet Waves is not one of my favourites. I would say bottom three of those seventeen - maybe 15th?

Rating: 3 stars. When I first listened to this album I think I might've gone 2 stars/thumbs up, but owing to a variety of factors I couldn't blog yesterday and did a lot of driving. I ended up hearing it about 4 times I guess it grew on me. Either that or I have Stockholm Syndrome.

I love Bob Dylan. He is one of the greatest songwriters of all time and I would proudly stand on Townes Van Zandt's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say so. If course, I'd only do this because Van Zandt is dead. Otherwise, I'd be afraid of him - and rightly so. Also, with him Townes long gone, who knows what's happened to his coffee table. With my luck, Steve Earle inherited it and would kick my ass if he caught me standing on it. Then again, Steve's put on some weight - I think I could probably outrun him. But I digress...

Anyway, I love Bob Dylan - and not in the kiss-ass blind way that Rolling Stone does, but in an appreciative way irrespective of his monolithic standing in 20th century music history.

Having said that, this album is just a little uneven, and not up to his usual standards. A lot of his seventies stuff have that transitional sound from his early folk feel to his later rock feel. Often this works, but on Planet Waves it just comes off a little disjointed.

I particularly find the slow version of "Forever Young" followed by the peppier version of exactly the same song a little self indulgent. It isn't even the best song on the album - not even close to the best song on the album.

For those, I like Dylan's love songs on this album, in particular "Something There is About You", "Never Say Goodbye" and "Wedding Song". Without knowing Bob's history in 1974, he seems to be in a pretty good place on these songs - if not he fakes it well.

I also like the high guitar sound complimenting a rolling piano, really noticeable in "Something There is About You" and "Never Say Goodbye". That could be the Robbie Robertson influence, as I notice similar arrangements on the one Robbie Robertson album we have.

As an aside, the album art for this album is particularly atrocious. Looks like a charcoal drawing by someone using their wrong hand.

On the plus side, when Dylan's albums were remastered, he focused on making the sound good, and didn't add a bunch of "bonus" tracks that ruin the original flow like so many artists do. Planet Waves is as it was on record - and that is how it should be.

Best tracks: Going Going Gone, Something There is About You, Never Say Goodbye, Wedding Song