Bob Dylan corner

[felser]

57 minutes ago, medjuck said:

I'd have liked it better if he'd  exchanged some of the songs he left out from those sessions with some he used.

Agreed, especially "Blind Willie McTell", which is one of his greatest ever.  I read that he left that off because he thought it would overwhelm the rest of the album.

[gvopedz]

3 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

...He always had the weakness I describe, of confusing cleverness with intelligence; it's not the same thing. Lots of bad lyrics....

Well, some people (not me) thought Dylan was good enough for the Nobel Prize in Literature.  In my opinion, Dylan should have followed the example of Jean-Paul Sartre and declined the Nobel Prize.

[T.D.]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

The main period that interested me is the four-album run from Another Side (1964) through Blonde on Blonde (1966).  He wrote a few amazing songs later, including "Tangled Up in Blue" and "You're a Big Girl Now."  That said, I haven't really listened to Dylan in decades.  

 

[Emphasis added] Me neither. I agree with the above sentiment that John Wesley Harding was the peak, and Blood on the Tracks is my personal line in the sand. But as a youth I was so heavily into those early albums that it became impossible for later releases to have the same magic or live up to my expectations. So while there have been many good and worthwhile Dylan albums over the years, my attention drifted elsewhere. Hear plenty of his music on the radio, but don't play recordings at home.

[AllenLowe]

4 hours ago, gvopedz said:

Well, some people (not me) thought Dylan was good enough for the Nobel Prize in Literature.  In my opinion, Dylan should have followed the example of Jean-Paul Sartre and declined the Nobel Prize.

well,  I think one could make the argument that he accomplished enough in his early years.

[felser]

7 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

The main period that interested me is the four-album run from Another Side (1964) through Blonde on Blonde (1966).  He wrote a few amazing songs later, including "Tangled Up in Blue" and "You're a Big Girl Now."  That said, I haven't really listened to Dylan in decades.  

 

Check out especially "Blind Willie McTell", also "Highlands" and "Murder Most Foul".

[Teasing the Korean]

5 minutes ago, felser said:

Check out especially "Blind Willie McTell", also "Highlands" and "Murder Most Foul".

Will do!

[JSngry]

There's definitely a market in making people feel good about themselves for feeling bad about themselves!!! 

[felser]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

There's definitely a market in making people feel good about themselves for feeling bad about themselves!!! 

Especially when the music sounds so good.

[JSngry]

[Guy Berger]

Some things I believe

1) the “magic” mostly ended w/John Wesley Harding

2) Nashville Skyline is a great album

3) Self Portrait is fun to listen to

4) Blood on the Tracks is a classic

5) Desire is wildly overrated w/the exception of “Isis”

6) I’ve found myself enjoying a lot of the later stuff

[jazzbo]

I agree with most of this except Nashville Skyline does very little for me, and I enjoy all the later stuff.

[dicky]

On 9/16/2023 at 10:20 AM, AllenLowe said:

this is a really unfair way of disagreeing with me,

You have a point. I should have expounded. And for that I apologize.  

I once shared your perspective, borne out of mostly only listening to his post Desire albums in passing, if at all. My ears heard a voice that increasingly sounded like a bad impession of Dylan. How come Bob couldn't/ wouldn't sound the same?!

Then one night a friend played the entire Tell Tale Signs Bootleg Series release for me. I was stunned, and slowly began catching up with all I had previously wrote off.

For starters, Street Legal, Love & Theft, and Modern Times stand on equal footing with the JWH and prior recordings we both admire. I could make a case for others but whatever one's preference, there are sublime tracks on (nearly) every release. Add to the mix unreleased tracks from the Bootleg Series and elsewhere, and it's apparent Bob has been a vibrant artist through every phase of his career. Giants walk amongst us, and he is most certainly one. 

He addresses subjects in a manner that, when not overt, may elude a secular listener or at least a listener unprepared to listen to Dylan through a biblical lense. If one is unwilling to engage Dylan from that angle you simply will miss out on much of what animates him.
 
Musically, with passing years, he's employing more sophisticated changes. His vocal delivery and vocal timbre has undergone multiple iterations (like any singer) due to artistic choice and necessity of age. He's no longer mimicing Ralph Stanley, for example, but he never, ever lost his artistic instinct for delivery - amongst his greatest musical contributions - despite his diminishing instrument.

Like Lon, I tend to listen to "latter day" Dylan these days but like Ellington's canon I wouldn't want to be without any of it. Each part of their respective careers enriches the whole.... warts and all. 

[dicky]

On 9/16/2023 at 10:20 AM, AllenLowe said:

I was there listening, possibly even before you were born.

I was born Nov 1964. So as Maxwell Smart would say, "missed it by that much".

[AllenLowe]

15 hours ago, dicky said:

I was born Nov 1964. So as Maxwell Smart would say, "missed it by that much".

well, you were 4 years old - close enough -

[mjzee]

I've been mulling over what Allen wrote.  Dylan's oeuvre through Blonde On Blonde was extraordinary - I'd extend that through the Basement Tapes.  It started to fade on John Wesley Harding - were these songs deep or merely riddles?  Then began his long decline.  There are certainly tracks or albums that I've loved, and it's interesting that often those differ from what "most" people think: I loved Nashville Skyline, New Morning, Planet Waves, Desire, Infidels, Knocked Out Loaded, The Traveling Wilburys...but it's obvious that those are the work of a different artist, one possessed of an increasing self-consciousness and sense of self-importance and, yes, self-righteousness.  His work became less interesting, at least to me, as the man became less interesting and more creepy.

I saw him at Foxwoods in the early 2000s.  There was a banner projected behind the stage before the band came on.  I wish I had a picture of it.  It showed an eye (as in an all-seeing eye) and text describing Dylan in a semi-messianic way.  Yuck.  

As his voice deteriorated, it was stunning to hear that cracked voice placed up front and center on albums like Modern Times, Together Through Life and Tempest.  I found it unpleasant to listen to, and I was uninterested in the songs' subject matter.  It was time for me to get off the bus.

[ornette]

Apologies if this is old news but I couldn't find it on a search.

I've been reading Uncut 320 which has an article on Dylan's 1978 tour of Japan.

Apparently Walter Davis Jr. was first choice as pianist but he got tired of waiting for Bob to show up and left. He was replaced by Alan Pasqua who later played piano on Dylan's Nobel acceptance speech and then on Murder Most Foul. Pasqua is also on Street Legal.

[mjzee]

Saw the Reagan movie last night (excellent movie, btw; well worth watching).  Over the closing credits, a crooner sings "Don't Fence Me In."  Turns out the singer was Dylan.

[jazzbo]

Yes, I saw elsewhere that he was performing that song on the soundtrack. I always think of Ella Fitzgerald or Ella Mae Morse when I think of that song, but I bet Bob does it well. 

Makes me hope for another studio album.

[JSngry]

I first heard it done by Vanilla Fudge.

[medjuck]

I first heard it by Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters.

Edited September 3 by medjuck

[mjzee]

My favorite version is by Rosemary Clooney.

[felser]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

I first heard it done by Vanilla Fudge.

Half speed with extended organ and drum solos?

[JSngry]

44 minutes ago, felser said:

Half speed with extended organ and drum solos?

Nope. As part of the "20th Century" medley on Side 1 of The Best Goes On, done pretty much totally straight.

[felser]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

Nope. As part of the "20th Century" medley on Side 1 of The Best Goes On, done pretty much totally straight.

I have that album, haven't listened to it in many years and have never put the cuts on it to memory.  It was pretentious career suicide for a group coming off a huge hit single and album, though not uninteresting, and it did chart well based on the momentum of the first album.  But the group broke up two years later, with the bass player and drummer off to form Cactus (that group was the antithesis of this album), then join up with Jeff Beck.

[JSngry]

Aren't they all dead now?