Shit music for wankers
2 Likes
and his best song in general
Someoneās got it in for me,
Theyāre planting stories in the preeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssss!
8 Likes
Idiot Wind probably has my favourite vocals - or line deliveries more specifically - of any song ever
4 Likes
Planet Waves catch up before BOTT. V good album, excellent artwork imo - benefits massively from having The Band back on board filling out the sound and cramming in all these little ideas under and around the melody rather than just basic backing. Robbie Robertson said it was as good as they could make it given how last minute the sessions were, with Dylan not having the songs written ahead of it.
I even like Dirge - the piano backing was apparently a late switch, and I imagine works better than a strummed version would.
7.5 rounding up to an 8 given the high points and the step up again from the last few.
5 Likes
Back to Planet Waves
Warm, loose, easy ā all the good stuff from this era. Great organ playing all over this.
On a Night Like This is such a fun opener, almost danceable for Dylan. Tough Mama is similar, great groove and energy and some of Bobās liveliest vocals. That one is really great, up there with anything else from this time for me
Forever Young fast is clearly superior, dunno what the rest of you are hearing. But do like both versions and they work weirdly well as a pairing ā probably even better when theyāre the closing/opening tracks of different sides of vinyl too. Also sure Iāve heard the lyrics plenty before but didnāt realise it was a Dylan track somehow
Wedding Song is a good capper too. Stylistically feels like a proper 60s throwback but with him bluntly declaring how heās moved on from that time. Very effective
Itās never been my duty to remake the world at large
Nor is it my intention to sound the battle charge
Cos I love you more than all of that with a love that doesnāt bend
And if there is eternity Iāll love you there again
Dirge bad, rest good. Quality b-tier (or c-tier) Dylan
2 Likes
Not really listened to BOTT for ages, and for some reason I had it in my mind that it tailed off a bit in the second half, but Iām totally wrong, āIf You see herā¦ā and āShelter from the Stormā are on there!
Canāt think of it as anything other than peak. As others have said, some of his strongest singing and lyrics on Idiot Wind. Beautiful, heart breaking tracks like āYouāre a Big Girl, Nowā, and maybe his greatest ever song in āTangled up in Blueā.
2 Likes
Also, itās an old joke about him changing the way he does his songs live, but thereās also this, sounding like the Clash!
7 Likes
There are some small signs of him picking up and getting a bit more focussed on Planet Waves, but still feels absolutely nuts that he put this out at this stage in his career.
Was clearly starting a run of inspiration here as the next 2 are great as well IMO, but to just come out with one of the greatest albums of all time a couple of years after dicking about with When Dogs Run Free, songs about cowboys chasing turkeys around and absolutely pointless covers of Big Yellow Taxi etc feels wild to me
7 Likes
definitely agree, keep getting carried away by lovely lead guitar sections on PW even when the songs arenāt his very peak - Never Say Goodbye having that effect on me just now
2 Likes
Absolutely love this version 
2 Likes
Yeah agree with this. Always knew this was the big comeback but itās quite striking after you listen to them in row. 4-5 unfocused records in a row followed by something so musically and lyrically tight. Amazing what heartbreak will do eh?
3 Likes
Dirge is good
4 Likes
Yeah, I started a post along these lines last night, but didnāt get chance to finish itā¦and youāve put it better than me anyway.
As I imagine is the same for most people, my first Dylan listening was front loaded with all the big hitters - BoB, Freewheelin, Highway 61 & BOTT. You can hear the progression and evolution of his sound from album to album with those first three but listening chronologically really underlines in a way Iāve never appreciated before just what an incredible, and Iām sure unexpected return to form BOTT was.
Even as someone who enjoyed Planet Waves, it was more of a sign that he was writing solidly again, not trying to self-sabotage and allowing the arrangements to be fleshed out than an indicator his next great record was just round the corner.
5 Likes
why do you insist on getting Dylan wrong
hmm
6 Likes
that Airline guitar is cool as fuck, goddamn
1 Like
The whole album is dirge
Just catching up on the last few weeks. āPat Garrett & Billy the Kidā did very little for me, āKnocking on Heavenās Doorā aside; guess I need to see the film. I actually quite liked a lot of āSelf Portraitā and āDylanā on first listen, although thereās obviously a lot of guff on them too, and the back-stories for each are probably more interesting than the music.
I can see why these albums got such a bad rep at the time because itās so far removed from his āimperial phaseā material and there was no indication he was going to bounce back so emphatically with āBlood on the Tracksā (same thing with the 80s albums and āTime Out of Mindā, I guess). As a Manchester United fan I can relate to the frustration of not knowing whether your former hero is ever going to recapture his glory days. With the benefit of hindsight, though, theyāre just a couple of fairly inessential albums where heās obviously having a laugh with the pressure off.
āPlanet Wavesā, for example, would probably have been bitterly disappointing as āthe new Dylan albumā in 1974, but in the context of the Listening Club itās nice enough, with some cool musical foreshadowing of the next album. And āBlood on the Tracksā is just outstanding, some of the best songs and lyrics ever written by anyone. āTangled Up in Blueā is his best song, for me, and āIdiot Windā comes close too.
6 Likes
Really nice way of putting it (as a fellow long-suffering United fan as well).
2 Likes