Gord W. introduced me to an early nineties industrial metal act called Sister Machine Gun. They are very cool, and remind me of my clubbing days. Good dance music with a lot of energy, if you like that sort of stuff.
Josh A. mentioned contemporary folk act Bill Callahan, and more specifically his work with the band "Smog." This took me down the youtube rabbit-hole of his solo stuff as well. I like me some Bill Callahan, and could see myself buying it down the road.
Greg W. also put me on to more traditional folk music, with a CD he loaned me by Steeleye Span from the late eighties. This one's only for hard core fans of folk music but I liked it quite a bit.
Ross A. sent me the band name of Manilla Road and let me look them up. They turned out to be a kick-ass eighties metal band along the lines of Iron Maiden. My youtube journey from here took me to contemporaries Cirith Ungol (which I checked out simply because they are named after a tower in Lord of the Rings). Both Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol are good, and I'm looking forward to hearing more.
Finally, Patrick V. noted a band called Warsaw Pact, which he said were along the lines of Rage Against the Machine. Regrettably, I came up empty on this one on youtube, so I'll have to check back with Patrick on this one.
Thanks to everyone for helping me expand my musical horizons. And now on to this week's review, and a man who has done as much to expand musical horizons as anyone in my collection.
Disc 367 is...Highway 61 Revisited
Artist: Bob Dylan
Year of Release: 1965
What’s Up With The Cover?: Bob shows off some sixties fashion that is just a little to slick to look good on him. His hair is looking sweet, though, so that makes up for it. Behind him, some guy with a camera provides a presumably false sense of spontaneity.
How I Came To Know It: Just another example of me drilling through Bob's collection. I got this one pretty early on, however, because let's face it, it is pretty famous.
How It Stacks Up: I have 17 Bob Dylan albums, which is apparently about half of them. I'm not done yet. At this point, "Highway 61" stacks up pretty highly. I'll say 3rd or 4th best.
Rating: 5 stars.
Listening to this record, I kept marvelling at how great the songwriting is. All over the map, from the subversively easy rolling "Like A Rolling Stone" through his classic triple-rhymed structures on "Tombstone Blues" and the pseudo-rockabilly of "Highway 61 Revisited."
Could the introspective, thoughtful piano on Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness At the Edge of Town" exist without "Queen Jane Approximated"? Would Mark Knopfler have thought to work flamenco guitar into his rock music if he hadn't heard "Desolation Row" do it first? These things are certainly possible, but I can't help but think Dylan doing it all fifteen to twenty years earlier made all the difference when these guys were growing up.
Every song is different and distinct, but through it all there is Bob's signature voice. You could argue these songs would sound better in the hands of a more skilled vocalist, but I like the way Bob sings them, and I have a hard time imagining them any other way. I have heard covers of both "Tombstone Blues" and "Highway 61 Revisited" but right now I can't remember who did them. By contrast, Dylan is unforgettable.
The only criticism you could level would be the excess use of harmonica on this record. True, it can grate on even the initiated ear. At the same time the free flowing, yet painful harmonica is like a perfect emotional time machine to the mid-sixties. Walking to work listening to Bob blast away on the mouth harp made me feel like I was heading to the station to take the first train out of town, regardless of destination, with nothing but my guitar to pay the bills. Never mind that I live on an island and can't even play an instrument - the peal of the harmonica makes you think anything is possible.
And of course, lyrically, Dylan remains a master of being clever and insightful at the same time, which is no easy task when writing. Clever usually comes off as trite, and insightful often results in heavy-handed. Dylan never falls into either trap. This from my favourite on the record, "Desolation Row":
"They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row"
This is only the first of ten stanzas of this masterpiece, each equally provocative to the mind. This song clocks in at over eleven minutes , each time I hear it, I find myself wishing it were twice as long.
Add to this the scathing character study of "Ballad Of A Thin Man" and the social commentary wrapped up in a catchy pop song in "Like A Rolling Stone" which is still dropping half-unnoticed wisdom about the ever-turning wheel of fortune over forty years since its release.
Forget that you might have some greatest hits package with three or four songs from this album on it, and think you're done. If you like music, this is an album you should own and listen to in its entirety. In doing so, you will hear a folk legend not only mastering his genre, but actively expressing his own discontent with that mastery. Dylan experiments with his own sound, and create something that is altogether unique and as fresh today as it was in 1965.
Best tracks: all tracks, although sadly there are only 9 of them.
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