Listened to BOB 4 times yesterday, which is more than I’ve listened to it in the past 10yrs. Done with it now.
JWH is the one I listen to most, advantage of being a classic with any of the big hits, so no song has been overplayed
A rich-t Bob Dylan record if ever there was one 
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I can’t be objective about Blonde on Blonde. It was the first Dylan album I heard and remember being so excited when a friend from college said her mum had a copy I could borrow and tape. This along with another tape with Bryter Layter on one side and Nevermind on another became the soundtrack to college bus journeys over the next 2 years.
Never liked Rainy Day Women from the beginning, so that never made it onto my cassette, from track two onwards I love everything about it - the surreal, often funny lyrics and that weird strung out country sound.
Visions of Johanna might be my favourite song ever - the little drum fill into the first verse, the organ floating in and out under the melody, casually throwing out lines like “the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face” and “lights flicker in the opposite loft/in this room the heat pipes just cough”. Amazing.
An easy 10/10
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Fucking absolutely adore both lines 
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Also love how he switches between sublime lines like these, and really silly/funny ones like “Hear the one with the moustache say, ‘Jeez, I can’t find my knees’” and “He’s sure got a lotta gall/to be so useless and all” 
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Obviously Five Believers is a great rock song, one of Dylan’s biggest ‘bangers’ imo.
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I think it being underrated in his cannon is maybe true on this forum or for casual observers but it like appears of best albums of all time lists and is generally seen as one of his essential albums and by many as his best.
It used to be my favourite re-listening to it I realise how particular it is. It is definitely his most self indulgent album and the politics is basically completely gone.
It’s a collection of songs about various relationships and sexual encounters basically. It’s cool that it’s explored in a very non flattering way at a with off kilter almost beat post lyrics. But when you look at the intentionality and lyrical precision of something like It’s Alright ma it leaves me a little wanting in places. Apparently some of the songs were written in the studio overnight and recorded the next day. Which it sounds
I think in terms of the backing band though it’s really stepped up a notch in terms of the variety of sounds and textures. A lot of the ambition.
Don’t get me wrong it’s still one of my favourite albums by anybody and I tend to go to it more then Highway 61 for sort of this era Dylan. But I prefer his earlier stuff (and some of his later stuff as well!)
Dylan is my most listened last fm artist so all of these golden Dylan albums I obviously think are extremely good
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Listened to this in full yesterday and the bad songs were slightly better than I thought (except ‘Temporary Like Achilles’) but I had to turn off ‘Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands’ after eight minutes. Musical backing is poor and directionless, his lyrics are nowhere near his best too.
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the out of focus cover annoys me
Not getting much from Rainy Day Women or Pledging My Time, then the run of Visions of Johanna to Just Like a Woman is just great. Not a fan of Leopard beyond the fun imagery, but overall it’s an undeniable collection of tracks
Visions is good and get into it more with each play. But compared to some of his other longer tracks of this time it feels a little one-note, not quite enough musical variation. But could see it being a fav in time just as easily
Chorus of Sooner or Later is excellent, the quick snare fills and the honky tonk piano bashing away. Plus the long drawled held notes are just fun to imitate – generally an album full of fun stuff to sing along to
Always dug I Want You, even way before I could appreciate Dylan in general. Lovely melody, those silverquick guitar runs always make me grin, and some of the absolute best Dylanisms with his phrasings and inflections. “I wasn’t that cute to him …. was IIIIII”
The little cymbal break post-chorus in Stuck Inside of Mobile always makes me happy. Love how he almost yowls “ohhhh, mama” in the final chorus, he’s having such fun with his voice. Just such a bouncy earworm track, doesn’t feel 7 mins long at all, the time flies by
Side 3 generally is a step down, feels like run-of-the-mill Dylan that I’d be happy to hear if they were outtakes but don’t stand up to what we’ve just heard. 4th Time Around is very good though with the punchy drums over the mellow acoustic melodies, always a combo I enjoy
Sad Eyed Lady is long but manages to hold interest the whole way musically, more so than some of the 8 min folk ballads with just three chords did for me. Has this subdued laidback air to it which is weirdly moreish
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also some of his best harmonica playing! more tasteful and melodic
And also, on “Pledging My Time”, some of his worst harmonica playing!
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Agree with the general consensus here that the last two are better. Definitely more vital.
Kind of feels like the Another Side to the two weightier LPs that preceded it in terms of his mid-60s peak electric period.
In that sense it’s kind of weird that this one is so high in the critical canon, so frequently cited as his best/masterpiece when a lot of it feels relatively throwaway in comparison to some of his other albums.
…all of which sounds like I’m doing it down, but tbh I’ve still loved listening through properly. Love the production, the band, the looser feel and the sense of him having fun (again like Another Side). Some incredible hooks, melodies a d lyrical passages.
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Fully agreed, it’s some terrible stuff.
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Love this bit in Absolutely Sweet Marie, where Bob tries to let on that he can play the trumpet, and gives himself away almost immediately
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It’s taken me a long time to get Blonde on Blonde - I think this is maybe because the Dylan 3 disc compilation I started with only had Rainy Day Woman and Just Like a Women from it which are pretty much the worst songs.
From re-listening I don’t think it’s quite up there with Highway 61 but that’s barely a knock. I do kind of see why he needed to switch it up after this. Sad Eyed Lady definitely feels like as far as he could take this style.
It’s funny, to me who got into this via CD, this never felt like a double album. It flies by.
This is the record of his I go back to the most, because there’s a brilliant variety of bangers. It’s a mixtape record! I can find him quite annoying when he’s being more playful (like Another Side), but the woozy production and band are so good and more varied than before that it only adds to the charm.
Currently getting through the audiobook of Howard Sounes’ Down The Highway. Now in sync with the listening club and will try stay so until wherever it goes up to. Thoroughly recommended for extra context on the writing and recording of the songs.
For example, quite funny that Bob sent out for “leprechaun cocktails” at a local Irish bar for the recording of Rainy Day Women because he didn’t want the Nashville session musicians “recording a song like that straight”
Also didn’t realise it was chosen as a single and reached No.2 in the charts. I think that makes it his joint-highest charting song until Murder Most Foul. Find that mad.
Also quite like the quoted Al Kooper line: “Nobody captures the sound of 3am better than that album”
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Score it! Blonde on Blonde
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