And so on to 1975 which sees the usual round of coups and revolutions. Various African and Indonesian nations become independent from European colonial powers, and nearly always have a bit of a civil war after. North Korean forces take Saigon. The Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia and initiate the “killing fields” genocide. There are several foiled assassination attempts on President Gerald Ford, and Margaret Thatcher becomes leader of the Conservative party. Greece and Spain shake off their dictatorships.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft, NASA launches the Viking 1 probe to Mars, and Benoit Mandelbrot coins the word “fractal”.
And so to the music itself, and a return from His Bobness. Since about 1972 there have been more and more albums on this list that I have listened to at least once, and some that I have listened to a lot. This is another from my mother’s extensive Bob Dylan collection.
The production on Dylan’s Seventies albums is much more complete and polished compared to his Sixties albums, with a great rounded sound to the mix. This is often cited as his best work. Perhaps. There are certainly a few tracks on here that rank among my favourite Dylan songs. And it’s not a double album either, so doesn’t outstay its welcome even though it has lengthy tracks on it.
Tangled Up In Blue made me once remark to a friend “How many lives has this man led?” It’s a classic troubadour style song about a long-lasting on-off relationship where the Dylan character works and travels in disparate parts of the USA. Simple Twist Of Fate is one I learned on the guitar – it's pretty easy underneath, but good fun. Another track about relationships, this one touching on the thrill of first love through to the loss of ending. I’d always assumed that it describes the events of a single day, but each verse could easily be after a longer period of time, no idea why I never made that connection.
But oddly, aside from these two tracks and the polemic Idiot Wind, in which Dylan takes aim at both his soon-to-be-ex wife, the government, and the press, I didn’t really remember any of these other tracks. Not the bluesy Meet Me In The Morning (which has an electric guitar solo at fade out from Charles Brown III – shocking!) Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts is a typical Dylan troubadour epic, a kind of Western tale of gamblers, saloon girls, crimes of passion, a robbery, and a mysterious stranger. Compared to Peter Gabriel’s obtuse wanderings in The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, it’s nice to have a straightforward narrative told in song (albeit one with a fun twist).
Of the Dylan albums so far, I think I still prefer Blonde On Blonde, even though the sound quality of this one is just gorgeous. For me, the best Dylan is Desire, which I don’t think makes the list – I may need to rectify this when I get to my planned series of “Albums that ought to have been on the list”, but that will be subject to listening to it again just to check.
Comments
Post a Comment