Psych.
I have a cold, and I am tired and grumpy. I am going to keep my thoughts as brief as I can, which isn't promising much.
Dylan's Blood on the Tracks is an undisputed classic, but it has never been one of my personal faves. It always leaves me feeling blah and slightly depressed. Maybe that's what it's supposed to do, being Dylan's-infamous-relationship-disintegration album and all.
"Tangled Up In Blue" has been partially spoiled for me by all the Dead-Head hippies who dance to it at live Dylan shows, as well as by a fleeting reference to it in Hootie and the Blowfish's "Only Wanna Be With You". Ugh. I like how "Idiot Wind" rocks, but Good Lord, Dylan just sounds so mean here. What an arse. However, I absolutely adore "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go". "Simple Twist of Fate" and "Shelter From the Storm" are real keepers, too. The End.
Uncle Eric's Estimated Album Rating: 4-ish
I have already made my distaste for most things Sufjan-ish known, and so it should come as no surprise that I found myself less than enthused while listening to Anathallo's Canopy Glow. These folks are obviously talented singers and musicians, but what they're doing just ain't my bag, baby. It sounds to me like the hipsters from the high school band got together with the cool kids from the glee club and made an album of fey, twee, campy (but in an earnest way) pop. Oh my. It's all very pretty, I suppose, but there are just one too many glockenspiels in the line-up for my taste.
Uncle Eric's Approximate Album Rating: 2.5-ish
Dylan and his bloody tracks take it.
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Idiot Wind, yeah, mean. Petty. Untruthful.
ReplyDeleteAdditional comments requested, on Meet Me in the Morning and L, R, and Jack of Hearts.
I like "Meet Me in the Morning" and the album closer "Buckets of Rain" quite a bit, too, Karl. No great insights; I think I just like the music. As for LRATJOH, it just goes on forever, and I can't quite get into it; it almost feels like it belongs on a different album to me.
ReplyDeletefirst of all, i'm pretty sure idiot wind is supposed to be mean...for a more nuanced and i think far superior version, check out the version from the original new york sessions for blood on the tracks...it is on first bootleg series box set, volume 2 i believe...
ReplyDeleteright before it was schedule to be released, dylan scrapped most of this album and re-recorded it at his brother's studio in minneapolis...the original new york version of tangled up in blue and idiot wind, are better, especially the lyrics...tangled up in blue has been ruined by the live performance from the 1990's and beyond, but it's still a pretty cool song...
lilly, rosemary and the jack of hearts is fairly worthless, i think...
I suspect you are right, A. Spaceman...I actually read most of the allmusicguide reviews for the individual songs on Blood on the Tracks...They made frequent reference to the re-recorded Minnesota versions of several songs. I could not believe how in-depth Dylan's music was analyzed...There was much discussion of his changing use of pronouns in various versions of TUIB and the various verb tenses in one of the other songs, as well as comparisons of how the different recordings of each song compare to each other...Geez, Louise. I felt like an outsider looking in, catching a glimpse of true Dylanology.
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