The Bob Dylan Thread

[ronmac]

That recent Sinatra release showed that Bob can still sing if he chooses to.

[Adm.Kirk]

I think Street Legal gets dumped on for the poor sound. The production wasn't great but the songs were. Slow Train Coming had far superior production and some great songs too so I think it was better overall but it is one of his religious albums so some take issue with that. Still, Mark Knopfler played great on the record and Bob would have him back along with Mick Taylor for the under appreciated Infidels album in 1983. Infidels would be in my top 5 of great Dylan records for Jokerman alone but I think the rest of the album is killer.

I haven't been quite as keen on his great American songbook albums. I don't mind covers. Dylan's done his share. World Gone Wrong and Good As I Been To You were both covers albums but these were folk songs and it was Dylan and his guitar. He started as a folkie so these were OK but the Sinatra song book really isn't where I wanted to see Dylan go. Not that the two records are terrible, they aren't. Beautifully produced and played, Dylan sings well too, it's just not what I wanted to hear from him. McCartney did one too and it isn't my favorite record by him. Van Morrison did a country album a number of years ago and I get they want to pay homage to the music of the era and that's cool. Dylan, McCartney and Morrison are all great songwriters and that's what I want to hear them do. McCartney does the occasional early rock and roll songs album and those tend to work better for him and old jazz and blues tunes work better for Morrison. I think when they step away from what they do best is when it gets a bit off for me.

The Rolling Stones new album, in December, will be an album of Chicago blues and that seems like a perfect fit. I wouldn't want them to do a great American songbook album either. Besides, Charlie Watts does a lot of that stuff on his solo records anyway.

I hope Bob gets back to giving us some new material. I thought Tempest, his last album of original material, was very good. I suspect part of the reason he's done the American songbook records was to allow him the chance to build up some quality original material for his next record.

Bill

[JJ88]

The Rolling Stones new album, in December, will be an album of Chicago blues and that seems like a perfect fit. I wouldn't want them to do a great American songbook album either. Besides, Charlie Watts does a lot of that stuff on his solo records anyway.

Bill

Not for me...I really find it hard to get excited about a covers album. But I think those guys really don't have much gas left in the tank, creatively speaking- A Bigger Bang hasn't held up for me and the last two new songs 4/5 years back were by-the-numbers. Dylan is at least still trying.

[ronmac]

I hope Bob gets back to giving us some new material. I thought Tempest, his last album of original material, was very good. I suspect part of the reason he's done the American songbook records was to allow him the chance to build up some quality original material for his next record.

Bill

I wish he would get Chronicle Vol 2 done and out. He ain't gonna be around forever. And there are supposed to be three volumes.

Not for me...I really find it hard to get excited about a covers album. But I think those guys really don't have much gas left in the tank, creatively speaking- A Bigger Bang hasn't held up for me and the last two new songs 4/5 years back were by-the-numbers. Dylan is at least still trying.

I also think it's a perfect fit for them. That's where they began and, IMO, did some of their best work. I do think Mick is terrible at singing the blues, unless you want it without soul. But, their early BBC recordings are pretty great, nonetheless.

[Jerjo]

I don't mind artists doing a covers album but can often mean one of three things: contractual obligation, muse has temporarily run dry, muse has permanently run dry and I need to pay some bills. Given how productive Dylan has been in the last two decades I've got nothing against him doing an album of standards or whatever. God knows how many songs he has written in his lifetime. Some times you just want to sing something you like to sing. However, this does not give him permission to do a Christmas album.

[Vic2012]

I didn't know Bob did a Sinatra tribute album. Eh, not sure what to think of that.

[Oreb]

I don't mind artists doing a covers album but can often mean one of three things: contractual obligation, muse has temporarily run dry, muse has permanently run dry and I need to pay some bills. Given how productive Dylan has been in the last two decades I've got nothing against him doing an album of standards or whatever. God knows how many songs he has written in his lifetime. Some times you just want to sing something you like to sing. However, this does not give him permission to do a Christmas album.

All through his career (or at least pretty regularly since the motorcycle incident) Bob has taken time for a retreat into his roots. In general he's emerged creatively invigorated. I suspect it's a strategy that has kept him alive.

I love the Christmas album. It makes me laugh sing along and laugh all the way down to my nuts. That's a gift in these times: one more from a career that IMO has been incredibly generous.

[ronmac]

Dylan always seems to take himself less seriously than his fans do.

[Vic2012]

^ He's not supposed to be covering Frank Sinatra. ..........

[ronmac]

^ He's not supposed to be covering Frank Sinatra. ..........

Dylan loves Sinatra. In fact, one thing they both have in common (and I'm no Sinatra fan) is their great phrasing.

[Adm.Kirk]

Definitely agree on the phrasing. Dylan is a master of that. No matter what one may think of the tonal quality of his voice, the phrasing is impeccable.

Don Was states the Stones did the new album in three days all in a circle without any effects, overdubs or fixes. He said that it's really a raw album. I think this could be a good move for them. Jagger is a brilliant harp player of the Little Walter school so I have high hopes that if Mick is into it the rest of the band are excited too because it's really Jagger's show. The Stones don't really do anything unless Jagger green lights it.

Bill

[Dan Marsh]

He played an old fashioned style (non Frank) set for the first time in over 3 years (I think) at Desert Trip on Friday.

[davis]

Dylan always seems to take himself less seriously than his fans do.

Probably because we don't really know him, even if we think we do. And he likes to keep it that way.

[jkelman]

For me, Street Legal is the last album with the real magic touch IMHO. That was a big seller in the UK at the time.

Well, I'm not completely in agreement. While the subject matter of his "Born Again Trilogy" is not his best, lyrically speaking, since it was really just Bob trying to get into some Christian woman's pants, the bands and music on Slow Train Coming, Shot of Love and Saved are all top notch. So, in a rare move for Dylan (and as a relative latecomer to him), I ignore the words and just focus on the bands and the terrific grooves.

My favourite work is from the '60s, especially his work with Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield, and The Band (before and after they became known as such), so i can't wait for the 1966 box coming soon. But complaining that he is just streams of words over 12-bar blues is (a) not entirely correct; and (b) diminishes his real strength: his words.

Long before I began to actually "get" Dylan (thanks to my wife), I always looked upon him as an exceptional wordsmith...but an average singer and average musician. Still, some albums are captivating,. at least to me. Here are my personal faves:

Highway 61 Revisited
Bringing it All Back Home
Blonde on Blonde
John Wesley Harding
Nashville Skyline
Planet Waves
Before the Flood
The Complete Basement Tapes
Blood on the Tracks
Desire
Street-Legal
Slow Train
Shot of Love
Saved
Infidels
Empire Burlesque
Time Out of Mind
Love & Theft
Modern Times
Tempest

Live is another story. If he's in a good mood he can be transcendent, with a great band. If he's in a bad mood, and this comes from one personal experience, he runs through the setlist as quickly as possible (I mean: significantly upped tempos) and doesn't engage with the audience at all. So I don't go see him live now. But man, I cannot wait for the upcoming '66 tour box with The Band.

[Jerjo]

But during that Christian period he did write Every Grain of Sand which might be his best lyrics of 80s

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet floods every newborn seed
There's a dying voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and the morals of despair
Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment I can see the master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand
Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beams down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay
I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I'll always hear my name
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand
I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

[Oreb]

While the subject matter of his "Born Again Trilogy" is not his best, lyrically speaking, since it was really just Bob trying to get into some Christian woman's pants,

That's beneath you.

[Adm.Kirk]

But during that Christian period he did write Every Grain of Sand which might be his best lyrics of 80s

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet floods every newborn seed
There's a dying voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and the morals of despair
Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment I can see the master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand
Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beams down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay
I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I'll always hear my name
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand
I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

Great lyrics. I have heard this song done by others but no one pulls it off like Dylan.

Bill

[philsunset]

Bob Dylan just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Well deserved.

[Zeuhlmate]

He just got the Nobel prize in litterature - no fooling !

[ronmac]

Well deserved, IMO. He changed poetic expression and was the voice of a generation.

[Jandyce]

Utterly ridiculous.

First off , they are likely giving it only for his folk period of 4 decades ago. The latest drivel is 'Lay Lady Lay"-type.

Ever read his first "book", Tarantula? Right, give him nobel for that alone.
They played Subterranean Homesick Blues as a tribute (example of his advanced lyrics?) on CBC this morning. Like Tarantula that is just stream-of-consciousness nonsense-rubbish slapped together to rhyme, disguised in somesort of purported "depth" and meaning.

They rationalize: yeah but poet-Greeks like Sappho and wotnot, made their words to be sung.


Disgusting.

Fuck-off.

[JKL2000]

When I was a kid in the late 60s/early 70s we were singing Blowing in the Wind in day camp right along with Woody Guthrie and traditional folk songs, so I think Dylan definitely deserves this.

[Jandyce]

"Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't want to be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles"

Musta bin fun to sing.
Flows trippingly off the tongue.


Top song.

But literature?

[JKL2000]

Utterly ridiculous.

First off , they are likely giving it only for his folk period of 4 decades ago. The latest drivel is 'Lay Lady Lay"-type.

Ever read his first "book", Tarantula? Right, give him nobel for that alone.
They played Subterranean Homesick Blues as a tribute (example of his advanced lyrics?) on CBC this morning. Like Tarantula that is just stream-of-consciousness nonsense-rubbish slapped together to rhyme, disguised in somesort of purported "depth" and meaning.

They rationalize: yeah but poet-Greeks like Sappho and wotnot, made their words to be sung.


Disgusting.

Fuck-off.

Welcome to PE - hope you enjoy it here!

[ronmac]

Utterly ridiculous.

First off , they are likely giving it only for his folk period of 4 decades ago. The latest drivel is 'Lay Lady Lay"-type.

Ever read his first "book", Tarantula? Right, give him nobel for that alone.
They played Subterranean Homesick Blues as a tribute (example of his advanced lyrics?) on CBC this morning. Like Tarantula that is just stream-of-consciousness nonsense-rubbish slapped together to rhyme, disguised in somesort of purported "depth" and meaning.

They rationalize: yeah but poet-Greeks like Sappho and wotnot, made their words to be sung.


Disgusting.

Fuck-off.

Please, don't contain yourself.