This next entry is precipitating a change to Creative Maelstrom's format, albeit a minor one. For the last year or so, I've had a "best albums...so far" colum on the side, tracking the absolute best five reviews so far.
This next album belongs in there, but that would mean I'd be removing Various Positions, Who's Next, Billion Dollar Babies, Volume IV or News of The World. I'm not doing that, and I'm not excluding this record, so I'm just dumping the list. If you want to see the greatest reviews so far, just click on the 5/5 link on the side from here on in.
Disc 233 is...Blood On The Tracks
Artist: Bob Dylan
Year of Release: 1974
What’s Up With The Cover?: A drawing of Bob Dylan. This cover is OK, but I think it is the album's iconic nature that makes it so recognizeable - without the material inside the cover isn't much to talk about.
How I Came To Know It: For years I only owned one Bob Dylan album - "Times They Are A'Changin'". I liked it plenty, but I wasn't sure where to go next so one day driving with my buddy Casey (who I knew had a lot of Dylan) I asked him. He said "Blood On The Tracks" and so I took his advice, and I haven't looked back.
How It Stacks Up: I have seventeen Bob Dylan albums and this is as good as any, and better than most. I think it is likely the best, but I'd say two or three other ones are close enough to make it interesting.
Rating: 5 stars
Bob Dylan in the sixties is a can't miss proposition - even including the weakest of those records (his first) the man just delivers classic record after classic record.
This becomes less true as you enter the seventies, where you can get the occasional average offering (think "Planet Waves" for example, which I reviewed back at Disc 69).
Bob made up for "Planet Waves" on his very next release, with "Blood On The Tracks"; one of the finest records it has been my good fortune to be introduced to.
The record has all of the poetic qualities of Dylan's sixties work, and while still solidly in the folk music genre, has a bit more of a rock edge to the production. In his later years, Dylan can sometimes (often?) experiment to the point that he begins to drown his own songs in an effort to make them novel.
"Blood On The Tracks" avoids this problem, while still sounding fresh thirty-seven years after it was first released. There are so many tracks to single out, but in the interests of brevity I'll just mention a few.
The album begins with "Tangled Up In Blue", a hit that is as beautiful a song today as it was the first day I heard it - likely when I was a kid and had no idea what was going on.
What is going on is a bittersweet tale of star-crossed lovers, driven apart by circumstance:
"She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam, I guess
But I used a little too much force
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out West
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin’ away
I heard her say over my shoulder
'We’ll meet again someday on the avenue'
Tangled up in blue"
Like most of the love songs on "Blood On the Tracks", "Tangled Up In Blue" has a constant tone of hope, but for all that it doesn't end neatly wrapped up with a bow - life is messy, and the song reflects this.
If "Blood On The Tracks" masterfully captures love, it equally delivers enmity, with "Idiot Wind", one of the best 'airing of grievances' songs I've heard:
"Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth
Blowing down the backroads headin’ south
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe"
I'm not sure who "Idiot Wind" is about, I'm just glad it isn't me. Of course, if the song is at all about music critics, then it is about me. Bob never did like critics, and I can hardly blame him. I forgive Bob even so, since this is my favourite song on the record - possibly my favourite Bob Dylan song of all time. It even alludes to one of the great country and western songs ever sung, Tex Ritter's "Blood On the Saddle". Enough said about that for now, though; I'll talk about Tex when I roll him.
The final song I'll note is so filled with great turns of phrase, I couldn't do it justice by picking one or two lines. Besides, "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" is a narrative too complicated to describe in the space afforded here. Let's just say it is about a game of cards, a heist, and an abused woman. Someone gets knifed, someone gets hanged and someone gets rich, and it all unfolds at pretty much the same time.
My copy of "Blood On The Tracks" is the remastered one, which I heartily recommend. A lot of Dylan when it was put on CD lost the more mellow, soft edges of the music, resulting in Dylan's voice sounding more screechy than even you would expect. This problem is fixed on the remasters, which sound a lot more like the original vinyl (i.e. better).
My only regret with "Blood On The Tracks" is now that it is reviewed, it will be at least a couple years before it is in my car again. That's OK, though - I'll be working it into heavy rotation on my CD carousel at home many times over before the Odyssey is over.
Best tracks: All tracks, although if I had to quibble I'd say "You're A Big Girl Now" is the runt of the litter. That leaves you nine other tracks to enjoy though, so hardly a problem.
This next album belongs in there, but that would mean I'd be removing Various Positions, Who's Next, Billion Dollar Babies, Volume IV or News of The World. I'm not doing that, and I'm not excluding this record, so I'm just dumping the list. If you want to see the greatest reviews so far, just click on the 5/5 link on the side from here on in.
Disc 233 is...Blood On The Tracks
Artist: Bob DylanYear of Release: 1974
What’s Up With The Cover?: A drawing of Bob Dylan. This cover is OK, but I think it is the album's iconic nature that makes it so recognizeable - without the material inside the cover isn't much to talk about.
How I Came To Know It: For years I only owned one Bob Dylan album - "Times They Are A'Changin'". I liked it plenty, but I wasn't sure where to go next so one day driving with my buddy Casey (who I knew had a lot of Dylan) I asked him. He said "Blood On The Tracks" and so I took his advice, and I haven't looked back.
How It Stacks Up: I have seventeen Bob Dylan albums and this is as good as any, and better than most. I think it is likely the best, but I'd say two or three other ones are close enough to make it interesting.
Rating: 5 stars
Bob Dylan in the sixties is a can't miss proposition - even including the weakest of those records (his first) the man just delivers classic record after classic record.
This becomes less true as you enter the seventies, where you can get the occasional average offering (think "Planet Waves" for example, which I reviewed back at Disc 69).
Bob made up for "Planet Waves" on his very next release, with "Blood On The Tracks"; one of the finest records it has been my good fortune to be introduced to.
The record has all of the poetic qualities of Dylan's sixties work, and while still solidly in the folk music genre, has a bit more of a rock edge to the production. In his later years, Dylan can sometimes (often?) experiment to the point that he begins to drown his own songs in an effort to make them novel.
"Blood On The Tracks" avoids this problem, while still sounding fresh thirty-seven years after it was first released. There are so many tracks to single out, but in the interests of brevity I'll just mention a few.
The album begins with "Tangled Up In Blue", a hit that is as beautiful a song today as it was the first day I heard it - likely when I was a kid and had no idea what was going on.
What is going on is a bittersweet tale of star-crossed lovers, driven apart by circumstance:
"She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam, I guess
But I used a little too much force
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out West
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin’ away
I heard her say over my shoulder
'We’ll meet again someday on the avenue'
Tangled up in blue"
Like most of the love songs on "Blood On the Tracks", "Tangled Up In Blue" has a constant tone of hope, but for all that it doesn't end neatly wrapped up with a bow - life is messy, and the song reflects this.
If "Blood On The Tracks" masterfully captures love, it equally delivers enmity, with "Idiot Wind", one of the best 'airing of grievances' songs I've heard:
"Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth
Blowing down the backroads headin’ south
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe"
I'm not sure who "Idiot Wind" is about, I'm just glad it isn't me. Of course, if the song is at all about music critics, then it is about me. Bob never did like critics, and I can hardly blame him. I forgive Bob even so, since this is my favourite song on the record - possibly my favourite Bob Dylan song of all time. It even alludes to one of the great country and western songs ever sung, Tex Ritter's "Blood On the Saddle". Enough said about that for now, though; I'll talk about Tex when I roll him.
The final song I'll note is so filled with great turns of phrase, I couldn't do it justice by picking one or two lines. Besides, "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" is a narrative too complicated to describe in the space afforded here. Let's just say it is about a game of cards, a heist, and an abused woman. Someone gets knifed, someone gets hanged and someone gets rich, and it all unfolds at pretty much the same time.
My copy of "Blood On The Tracks" is the remastered one, which I heartily recommend. A lot of Dylan when it was put on CD lost the more mellow, soft edges of the music, resulting in Dylan's voice sounding more screechy than even you would expect. This problem is fixed on the remasters, which sound a lot more like the original vinyl (i.e. better).
My only regret with "Blood On The Tracks" is now that it is reviewed, it will be at least a couple years before it is in my car again. That's OK, though - I'll be working it into heavy rotation on my CD carousel at home many times over before the Odyssey is over.
Best tracks: All tracks, although if I had to quibble I'd say "You're A Big Girl Now" is the runt of the litter. That leaves you nine other tracks to enjoy though, so hardly a problem.
1 comment:
Thanks for the warning (ha ha) that this will be in rotation.
Great review - this makes me want to upload some Dylan to my mp3.
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