I remember when I first discovered the power of the Internet to introduce me to music I hadn't known. It was specifically "Idiot Wind" the first Dylan song that I know whole-heartedly came from this album, and wasn't something playing in the background I forgot about, that made me pay attention to this man's wit and sense of sarcasm. The way he wrings words--whether for a more philosophical or mundane purpose--is downright artful, and say what you will about the length and repetitiveness of these songs, but I still think "Wind" is his best angry put-down statement of the 1970s. Would trim a millisecond off.
Now then, let's look and see what lies next Sund
...oh. OH.
...ooh, I'm sorry George. May your sanity be granted safe travels.
"I know of no other case where an artist's second creative peak, coming after an alleged period of lull, would be conventionally rated just as high as his first one, if not higher." "Conventionally" of course is a handy escape route - how are we going to determine what the convention is regarding creative peaks? Still.
Ritchie Blackmore, Made in Japan and Live in Germany. Rory Gallagher, Tattoed and Calling Card (though the related live albums are of course the real peaks). Surprise: Dutch band Golden Earring, Moontan and Cut. Granted, the peaks of GE are not that high, but still there aren't that many non-American bands who reached nr. 1 on the Billboard top-100 (Radar Love and Twilight Zone).
Surprised that neither you nor George thought of Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Dark Side of the Moon. Or The Cure's Pornography and Disintegration. What about Swans, who came back from a decade and a half's hiatus with some of their most respected and vital albums ever (and certainly their most popular)?
Let's give a shout-out to Tony Brown. To my ears, his bass-playing on the New York sessions songs is about as good as bass-playing gets—just in terms of "sympathizing" with the meaning of the songs. Just wonderful.
"Eeeeeee-daaa-deeeuhd weeeeeeind!" I have never been able to figure out why the word "idiot" is extended to something like a yodeling "i-de-diot" See my comments on the blog from 11/26/13. Why he makes this choice Bob only knows. He doesn't do it onn the NY version or any of the live versions I've heard.
the pseudo-naive folksy nonchalance of "buckets of rain, buckets of tears..."," Ditto.
I discovered this album along with Desire about five or six years ago out of curiosity to discover 70s Dylan, and while BOTT did indeed impress me as the "vulnerable" Dylan record, I think I prefer the epic weirdness and bombast of Desire, it has a lot more of the Rolling Thunder feel.
"Idiot Wind" gave me real "Cinnamon Girl" moment (see NY's liner notes for Decade for that story) when I had a sort of fever dream about a popular TV actress riding a chestnut mare and me exclaiming "I'm Seeing Stars!"--two days before I heard the song for the first time. I was convinced for a while that Bob was the Voice of God. Like I said, it was a fever dream...
I remember when I first discovered the power of the Internet to introduce me to music I hadn't known. It was specifically "Idiot Wind" the first Dylan song that I know whole-heartedly came from this album, and wasn't something playing in the background I forgot about, that made me pay attention to this man's wit and sense of sarcasm. The way he wrings words--whether for a more philosophical or mundane purpose--is downright artful, and say what you will about the length and repetitiveness of these songs, but I still think "Wind" is his best angry put-down statement of the 1970s. Would trim a millisecond off.
ReplyDeleteNow then, let's look and see what lies next Sund
...oh. OH.
...ooh, I'm sorry George. May your sanity be granted safe travels.
2nd October, 2016: In which George Starostin attempts to review an album from a genre he cares little for.
ReplyDeleteУдачи!
"I know of no other case where an artist's second creative peak, coming after an alleged period of lull, would be conventionally rated just as high as his first one, if not higher."
ReplyDelete"Conventionally" of course is a handy escape route - how are we going to determine what the convention is regarding creative peaks? Still.
Ritchie Blackmore, Made in Japan and Live in Germany.
Rory Gallagher, Tattoed and Calling Card (though the related live albums are of course the real peaks).
Surprise: Dutch band Golden Earring, Moontan and Cut. Granted, the peaks of GE are not that high, but still there aren't that many non-American bands who reached nr. 1 on the Billboard top-100 (Radar Love and Twilight Zone).
Surprised that neither you nor George thought of Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Dark Side of the Moon. Or The Cure's Pornography and Disintegration. What about Swans, who came back from a decade and a half's hiatus with some of their most respected and vital albums ever (and certainly their most popular)?
Delete27 more albums and then...the stones . F you RYM!
ReplyDeleteLet's give a shout-out to Tony Brown. To my ears, his bass-playing on the New York sessions songs is about as good as bass-playing gets—just in terms of "sympathizing" with the meaning of the songs. Just wonderful.
ReplyDelete"Eeeeeee-daaa-deeeuhd weeeeeeind!" I have never been able to figure out why the word "idiot" is extended to something like a yodeling "i-de-diot" See my comments on the blog from 11/26/13. Why he makes this choice Bob only knows. He doesn't do it onn the NY version or any of the live versions I've heard.
ReplyDeletethe pseudo-naive folksy nonchalance of "buckets of rain, buckets of tears..."," Ditto.
I discovered this album along with Desire about five or six years ago out of curiosity to discover 70s Dylan, and while BOTT did indeed impress me as the "vulnerable" Dylan record, I think I prefer the epic weirdness and bombast of Desire, it has a lot more of the Rolling Thunder feel.
"Idiot Wind" gave me real "Cinnamon Girl" moment (see NY's liner notes for Decade for that story) when I had a sort of fever dream about a popular TV actress riding a chestnut mare and me exclaiming "I'm Seeing Stars!"--two days before I heard the song for the first time. I was convinced for a while that Bob was the Voice of God. Like I said, it was a fever dream...