Sept 17: Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Spellbound

If there is a polar opposite of Mississippi John Hurt's take on blues, it might have to be Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who saw himself as much an over the top entertainer as much as a blues man. Really, blues was just the mode that allowed him to perform his emotionally charged music, and to do his theatrical shows. This compilation (early blues artists rarely did albums, but cut two sides at a time, making reviewing albums nearly impossible) covers some of his best known tunes and more obscure stuff (which makes up a majority of his catalog). His asphalt voice delivered at times emotionally tension, at times don't-take-me-seriously lightness. As his career progressed he walked the line between Bo Diddley/Chuck Berry rock and roll (Itty Bitty Pretty One, ) and the electric blues of his contemporaries like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters (Don't Deceive Me, Move Me), and R&B (It's Only Make Believe, I Don't Know), and even touching on the feel of big band jazz at points (Please Don't Leave Me). He had a voice with such a great range, both tonally and emotionally. He is most famous for I Put A Spell On You, which was never much of a hit for him, but that got covered by a wide variety of other artists, as well as Constipation Blues where his the sounds he makes can only be described as gross. In many ways his intense vocal tremolo is unmistakable, characteristically Screamin' Jay. His subject matter tends to cover the typical blues themes, good woman gone (Really Love You Baby), bad woman stays (She Put A Whamee On Me), drinking, but he also deals with his own mortality on Portrait of a Man, sings about making a love potion stew out of less desirable meat (Alligator Wine, which leads right into Feast of the Mau-Mau, that works the same blues riff, but uses different ingredients). He also sings about social relations on Same Damn Thing ("Materialistic/And sadistic," "From a slave to the grave/Instead of Emancipate").

Screamin' Jay Hawkins was the class clown of the blues world in many ways, but no one could easily dismiss his musicianship and vocal chops. He once said that black opera singer Paul Robeson was his favorite singer, and that he wanted to be an opera singer through the blues. His theatrics (rising from a coffin on stage to perform I Put A Spell On You, being rolled out on a toilet to perform Constipation Blues) showed this aspect of his performances. He was a serious singer who didn't take himself too seriously.

Listen:

I Put A Spell on You

Constipation Blues

Alligator Wine

Sept. 16: Mississippi John Hurt, 1928 Sessions

Probably fifteen years ago, I promised myself that if I ever had a free summer I was going to teach myself the entire Mississippi John Hurt catalogue.  Well, I've had lots of free summers, and haven't done it yet, but I also haven't forgotten that promise either.  The first time I heard Hurt it was one of those revelatory musical moments, when you hear something you've never heard before, and you'll never hear anything quite like it again.  After recording a number of sides in the 20's for the Okeh label that quickly went out of business, Hurt returned to sharecropping in Mississippi until these recordings were rediscovered in the 60's by a young musicologist, who went looking for and found Hurt living near Avalon, Mississippi.  Musicologist Hoskins brought Hurt to a wider audience where he played regularly for three years before dying in 1966.  

Hurt played delta and country blues reminiscent of the area.  He had a laid back vocal delivery, at times barely rising above a whisper.  This same delivery could be heard decades later in acts like M. Ward and Sam Beam of Iron and Wine.  But for me, it was Hurt's intricate finger-picking style that always drew me in.  He played the blues, which meant a lot of 1-4-5 progressions, but within that he had a melodic way of picking out guitar lines that at times made it seem impossible that only one guitar was being played.  He had a metric way of picking out bass notes, while doing quick runs on the higher strings.  This album consists almost exclusively of originals penned by Hurt, but early folk songwriting depended to a large degree on the deconstruction and reconstruction of well known stories and ideas.  Hurt's writing shows the richness of  that  early blues tradition, with songs full of double entendres, as he sings on Candy Man, "If you try his candy, good friend of mine/You sure will want it for a long long time."  He also does a treatment on the story of John Henry on Spike Driver Blues.  On Avalon Blues, one of his best known songs, he sings the praises of his hometown from the view of New York.  But in the end, there is only so much that words can describe.  Hurt made a niche for himself with his unique vocal delivery and guitar style.  

Listen:

Avalon Blues

Candy Man Blues

Big Leg Blues

Sept. 15: Fleet Foxes (2008)

Fleet Foxes are one of those bands that seemed to come out of nowhere, which is in some ways true. When they signed to Sub Pop in 2008 they had no formal management. They released on EP in early 2008, and followed it up with this, their full length debut. There are obvious comparisons to the harmonies of the Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills and Nash, while they work the rock-folk ground with instrumentation largely consisting of finger-picked or lightly strummed guitar, acoustic and electric bass, sometimes full trap set and sometimes sparse percussion, the occasional banjo, mandolin and flutes, and cascading voices singing in three and four part harmonies. They move easily between sparse, quiet moments and the full band treatment. There are nods to modern indie-pop and their progenitors like Nick Drake, as well as a Richard Thompson-ian like take on English folk music at times. But even though it draws from these sources, it doesn't really sound like any of them. Lead singer Robin Pecknold's expertly controlled voice has an ethereal quality to it, easily alternating between sounding like it is floating and being full of a deep richness. And the backing vocals from the rest of the band only enhance this quality.

The songs tend to move in and out of parts, with unexpected changes in both chords and instrumentation. White Winter Hymnal is the centerpiece of the album, with the strongest harmonies and a percussive vocal delivery. Ragged Wood has a strong Shins feel to it, with rolling snare and a James Mercer inspired melody, that has an unexpected breakdown in the middle before it builds back up to its indie-popness. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song is an English folk inspired rumination on death. On some songs lines are repeated through an entire verse (Quiet Houses), with concentration being placed on the vocal qualities versus the words being sung, while on songs like Heard Them Stirring the vocals only sing ohs and ahs. Like others working the indie-folk circuit, many of their lyrics are explorations of the physical world, especially wilderness scenes. Although they can turn a phrase, "Penniless and tired with your hair grown long/I was looking at you there and your face looked wrong/Memory is a fickle siren song/I didn't understand" on He Doesn't Know Why.

This was an ominous debut, sounding much stronger than their lack of experience would let on. If you're a fan of the freak folk of artists like Devandra Banhart there is a lot to love here. But it's also a great pop album, full of catchy melodies and solid musicianship.


Listen:

White Winter Hymnal

Ragged Wood (Video)

August 9: Ron Woods, I've Got My Own Album To Do (1974)

Sometimes unexpected albums come along and find their way into my player. This is Ron Woods' debut solo album, and is an album I would have never picked up of my own volition. It was recorded while Wood was still a member of The Faces, but the band members were moving in their own directions. They would break up the next year, after Woods had toured with The Rolling Stones. Once The Faces dissolved Woods became an official member of the Stones. His connections pay off on this album with guest appearances by Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart, and with Keith Richards and drummer Andy Newmark (from Sly and the Family Stone) playing on the whole album. It is pretty standard fare, full of groove heavy blues rock riffs, with the expected rock lineup, including lots of Hammond B3 and lots of guitar work. It is 70's radio ready rock, and is reminiscent of much of the Brit invasion blues rock of performers like John Mayall and Eric Clapton. It is full of big sing-along choruses and big guitar solos, with the occasional two guitar harmony solo thrown in. Woods voice has a rough around the edges quality to it, that adds a nice edge to the music, but makes the cameos by Jagger and Stewart stand out all the more. The song writing is solid if not spectacular, with the occasional great melody. Lyrically there isn't a lot to buy into. Mostly songs about women lost or wanted, but he does throw in the occasional non-sensical line that deeps things interesting. Rock music is littered, and becoming more and more so, with good but not great albums. This falls into that category. If you're a real British blues rockophile this would be a good album to check out, otherwise there are some nice moments and its an enjoyable listen, but probably not a lot to pull you in and keep you in.

August 8: Ry Cooder, I, Flathead: The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns (2008)

Ry Cooder is a ubiquitous presence in American music, from playing on Captain Beefheart's debut album, Safe as Milk, to doing to guesting on Rolling Stones' albums, to doing soundtracks like Paris, Texas, to bringing music from other cultures to American audiences, like the Cuban superstar group Buena Vista Social Club. He is also considered one of the best guitarists in the history of rock, with the Rolling Stone placing him at number 8. Yet despite such an omnipresence and endless accolades he has never received the large scale commercial success that lesser musicians revel in. I don't know much about his solo releases, but am more familiar with his work with other musicians, so I didn't quite know what to expect coming into this album. It's a pretty straight forward line up instrumentally, guitar, bass and drums, with the occasional add on (mariachi horns on the cleverly named opener Drive Like I've Never Been Hurt, strings on Pink-O Boogie, Spayed Kooley, Filipino Dance Hall Girl, and the occasional keyboards), and has an appearance by the accordion master Flaco Jimenez. Much of it is reminiscent of the 70's singer/songwriter folk rock, ala John Prine, JJ Cale or John Hiatt (Drive Like I've Never Been Hurt, Waitin' For Some Girl, Ridin' With The Blues). There are also other influences that show throughout, the Memphis country of Johnny Cash, spoken word delivery over a major key blues change on Can I Smoke In Here?, the country swing of Steel Guitar Heaven and Spayed Kooley, the gypsy horns and rhythms of Fernando Sez.

This is a concept album, and the third in Cooder's California trilogy. The original came with a novella, which might help explain the story. As best as I can figure it is the story of an old performer who loves cars and country music who is just getting by. There are the internal references (Spade Cooley being name checked in Steel Guitar Heaven). There is also the references to music and cars throughout, with the name dropping of California locales. Pink-O Boogie uses Pink in its political way. Fernando Sez ends with a conversation between the protagonist and Fernando, a used car salesman, as they fight over who is more in need. He draws on the What Is He Building In There side of Tom Waits on Flathead One More Time. The album moves through a number of influences and moods, and does it fairly seamlessly. It took a few listens for the album to start to open up, but I think it is deeper than initial listens would indicate. For Cooder being such a revered guitarist, there is little in the way of guitar being out front and center. This is an album about songs, some good, some ok, but all of them seem to work together to create a bigger whole. It won't be for everyone, but there are nice moments, clever moments, and some very interesting production, so there is a lot to dig into.

Listen:

Drive Like I Never Been Hurt

Listen to Samples here:

Recommended: Fernando Sez, Flathead One More Time, Steel Guitar Heaven

August 7: Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Play The Blues (1972)

I often find myself thinking that the blues are dead, as there are few innovations left to make within the blues form. There are some young bands who are taking the blues form and injecting it with a new vital energy (Hillstomp, North Mississippi All-Stars, Chris Thomas King), but I find most modern blues to be predictable to the point of being painful. But there are blues albums I really love, and this album, along with their Alone and Acoustic, is one of them. Buddy Guy is one of the best Chicago-style blues guitarists to come out in the generation after Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, and Junior Wells sits in the same company as James Cotton and Charlie Musselwhite as far as great harmonica players goes (oh, and both of them can sing the metal off of a microphone). This album was curated by Eric Clapton, who plays rhythm guitar throughout, and who also brought in heavyweights like A.C. Reed on sax and Dr. John on piano. Now despite the name of this album, it has as much in common with the R&B/soul of Stax than the traditional blues we think of. There is Sonny Boy Williamson's My Baby She Left Me (She Left Me With A Mule To Ride), Mel London's Messin' With The Kid and Willie Mabon's I Don't Know, full of Reed's driving sax and stride piano. It is delves deep into Chicago blues on songs like the Wells penned medley of Come On In This House/Have Mercy Baby, T-Bone Walker's T-Bone Shuffle, and Buddy Guy's This Old Fool. There is the juke joint blues of Wells' A Poor Man's Plea and Thomas Davis' Bad Bad Whiskey. The album closes with the easy moving instrumental Honeydripper by Joe Liggins. Like good blues, the album is full of stories of hard loving and hard drinking. But the blues is only peripherally about the stories it tells through words, and is much more about the hard scrabble and weathered personas that deliver the songs (something I think is lost in the overproduced modern blues). These two are giants that came out of that generation of blues artists. There are plenty of guitar and harmonica players who have mastered the blues riff and the pentatonic solo, and plenty of singers that can do the gruff blues delivery, but few that have that inherent power in their deliveries as a Mississippi John Hurt or Howlin' Wolf, or Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.


Listen here:

Recommended - Come On In This House/Have Mercy Baby, Messin' With The Kid, and Bad Bad Whiskey.

August 6: Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (2008)

Neil Diamond seemed to me to be a victim of the production values of the seventies. But even so, his songs always shone through the strings and horns and overwrought production that defined much of the 70's singer-songwriter genre. In the end he wrote pretty good songs that have, for the most part, survived the test of time. This Rick Rubin produced album seems to know that the thing that made Diamond relevant was his songwriting, and that is the focus here. There is nary a drumset to be found on this album, and little more than rhythm and lead guitars and bass (there is the occasional string and horn sections, but they are subdued in the mix). His signature baritone, that can easily rise a couple of octaves before returning, is still in place. And he is wordy on here, with the twelve songs filling up a full hour. Only one song clocks in at less than four minutes, with several hovering around the six minute mark, and the opening track, If I Don't See You Again stretching out to over seven. All of the songs move at slow to medium tempos, feeling meditative at times, as Diamond stretches out words, or just leaves space between lines. Most of the guitar is easy strummed guitar with non-obtrusive lead lines, making Diamond's voice the central aspect of every song. There are some light blues riffs here and there (Forgotten, Don't Go There), but mostly it is the light unplugged structure that defines the album. Lyrically, Diamond seems to be looking back at his life, examining different eras, aspects and relationships of his past, much of it celebrating his failed and successful relationships. But there are also stories of dangerous women (Don't Go There), his artistic self (Act Like A Man, One More Bite of the Apple), and enjoying what one has (Slow It Down). For the most part he avoids cliché, but also doesn't find a lot of inspired lines either. On the opener he sings what is typical of many of the lyrics, "I know it's crazy out there/I hated sleeping around/I went out looking for love/And never liked what I found," walking that middling space between clever and cliché. At times he delves further into the predictable than others, "Been away from you for much too long/Now I'm back where I belong," on One More Bite of the Apple. In the end it is a solid effort, if not completely inspired.

Listen:

Don't Go There

If I Don't See You Again

One More Bite of the Apple

August 5: Wilco, Sky Blue Sky (2007)

Having Yankee Foxtrot Hotel as one of my favorite albums puts me in a strange position when comparing other Wilco releases. YFH was a stretch for the band that made its name producing heartfelt and solid country influenced pop rock. It was experimental in its sounds and production, it was interesting sonically yet didn't lose what made earlier Wilco albums emotionally engaging. So when they return to their pop-rock on this album it tends to make me long for the strange blips on YFH. Not that this album isn't good. It's just a little too easy too listen to. There's been lots written about the 70's easy rock feel of the album, with its throwbacks to Workingman's Dead Grateful Dead and post Nashville Skyline Dylan. The album mostly revolves around Jeff Tweedy's voice, which still has the ability to rise and fall and break at just the right times, and Nels Cline guitar wankery, which I find out of place in most spots. On Impossible Germany, a song that moves slow and sad under Tweedy's vocals, only to turn into a prog-rock solo with ELO or Steely Dan inspired harmony guitar lines. Tweedy is a master craftsman, able to construct solid songs reliably time and again. This is the first studio album with Nels Cline as a full fledged member of the band, and it seems that the songs were put together in such a way as to allow him much space to explore his prog-rock leanings, which never seems quite to gel with the rest of Wilco's sound. As for the songs they still straddle a variety of influences, from the slightly uptempo Pink Floydish Shake It Off to the finger-picked Richard Thompson like Please Be Patient With Me.

Tweedy's lyrics mostly stray away from his signature heartbreaking imagery, although there are still nice moments here and there. On the title track he sings, "The drunks were ricocheting/Off the old buildings downtown empty so long ago." On Hate It Here the protagonist declares "I try to keep the house nice and neat/I make my bed, I change the sheets/I even learned how to use the washing machine/Keeping things clean doesn't change anything," like the more soulful side of Randy Newman with a Beatlesesque break. There are some good songs on the album that most songwriters would kill to write, but there are an inordinate amount of throwaway tracks here, Leave Me (Like You Found Me) and Walken, with its 70's ZZ Top meets Dr. John feel. And there are a few songs that will go down in the Wilco catalogue as some of their best, What Light and Sky Blue Sky.

August 4: Failure is imminent

I have to bring forth that "an album a day through 2009" passed away in its sleep sometime in the  last month.  Being too far behind to have any real hope for catching up, I will have to write off the last month, but start anew tomorrow, and see if I can finish off the year with a album review a day.

July 27: Interruptions

Been at a wedding in the woods, now headed to the beach for the week.  Hope to have a slew of new reviews when I return.

July 6: Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964)

This album, the follow-up to The Free Wheelin' Bob Dylan, was his third. On it Dylan embraces the role of protest singer, recording an album of only originals, his first, with songs full of political and social awareness, trying to capture the zeitgeist of the revolutionary spirit of the early sixties. It is an album of sparse arrangements, once again nothing more that Dylan, his guitar and his harmonica.

The title track, the opening song on the album, is the closest thing to an anthem created in the sixties, a clarion call that the world that the older generation had grown up in wasn't going to be the world that continued. With an Irish dirge feel Dylan would sing, "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land/And don't criticize what you can't understand/Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command/Your old road is rapidly aging/Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand/For the times they are a-changin'." It would be a defining moment in Dylan's long career, as the most clear voice of the cultural revolution that was brewing. Ballad of Hollis Brown is an unflinching look at rural poverty told through the title character and the family he couldn't save, "You looked for work and money/And you walked a rugged mile/Your children are so hungry/That they don't know how to smile," with a tragic ending. With God On Our Side takes a hard look, full of historical references, at the tendency of those in war to think that God is on their side, "I've learned to hate Russians/All through my whole life/If another war comes/It's them we must fight/To hate them and fear them/To run and to hide/And accept it all bravely/With God on my side." One Too Many Mornings is a slow take on a relationship that isn't going to work. North Country Blues is an Irish folk inspired melody, and a story told from the perspective of a miner's wife, where the reliability of work was slim and poverty was always around the corner, until one day the mine shuts down and the husband leaves, leaving the protagonist and their children to fend for themselves, with an early reference to globalization, "They complained in the East/They are paying too high/They say that your ore ain't worth digging/That it's much cheaper down/In the South American towns/Where the miners work almost for nothing." Only A Pawn In Their Game is a sociological take on the roles that people play in their lives, acknowledging that larger forces are at work that push a person one way or the other, with references to the murder of Medgar Evers, and the race relations of the south, "And the Negro's name/Is used it is plain/For the politician's gain/As he rises to fame/And the poor white remains/On the caboose of the train/But it ain't him to blame/He's only a pawn in their game." Boots Of Spanish Leather is alternating verses of a conversation between a man who is leaving to sea and the lover he leaves behind. When The Ship Comes In is an upbeat companion to the title track, a metaphor for the time when a new world has arrived, and the older generation must give way, "Then they'll raise their hands/Sayin' we'll meet all your demands/But we'll shout from the bow your days are numbered/And like Pharaoh's tribe/They'll be drownded in the tide/And like Goliath, they'll be conquered." The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll tells, in literal language, the real life tale of the death of a black barmaid after harassment by a young, white, wealthy and politically connected young man, who received a six month sentence. Restless Farewell ends the album, a reminiscing piece looking at one's past without regret, sung in free time, with a mixture of flat picking and strumming.

There is something powerful about these early Dylan albums, with their emphasis on Dylan's voice and songwriting, and nothing else. Lots of fun gets made of Dylan's voice, but there was an authenticity there that few musicians could ever match. He embraced his high nasally delivery, and at different points in his career would even play it up more so than normal. This was at a time when young songwriters didn't tend to sing, and young singers didn't tend to write. Dylan came along and, without trying to pretty up his voice, embraced both wholeheartedly. This was a shock at the time, and to some degree still is. There has, to this day, no one that has the voice of Dylan, both artistic and literal.

Listen:

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Ballad of Hollis Brown

North Country Blues

July 5: Bob Dylan, Desire (1976)

This follow-up to Blood on the Tracks found Dylan continuing his story song approach that he had been working on through most of the 70's. This album is a mix of wordy mid-tempo songs that for the most part eschew choruses, and shorter, more traditionally arranged songs, mostly about love and relationships. It also found him incorporating new influences and instrumentation, especially the ubiquitous fiddle that is all over this album, and Emmylou Harris, who does harmony vocals on quite a few of the tracks.

The album opens with Hurricane, a true life ode to Ruben Carter who was sent to prison for a murder that many people, and much of the evidence, say he didn't commit. At the time of his arrest he was working his way to challenging for the boxing heavyweight title. It is a mid-tempo song with a running fiddle line and a straight ahead style of story telling, "When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road/Just like the time before and the time before that/In Paterson that's just the way things go/If you're black you might as well not show up on the street/'Less you wanna draw the heat." Even though Dylan may have turned from his overtly political songwriting, this song is an indication that his social consciousness and his belief in the power of music is still alive and well. Isis is a thirteen verse story song about a man seeking relief in tough times with a decidedly Appalachian mountain music feel, with the title character only playing a minor role in the story. Mozambique has an island feel to, a take on Jimmy Buffet's beach bum melodies. One More Cup of Coffee is one of the more musically interesting songs of this period, a minor key piece with gypsy inspired inflections and percussion, and Dylan bending his voice, trying to imitate the Spanish flamenco singers. Harris is most prominent during the choruses. Oh Sister is a slow moving number, with Harris sharing vocals throughout, and is reminiscent of the country of Townes Van Zandt or Gram Parsons, with obvious christian overtones, "We grew up together/From the cradle to the grave/We died and were reborn/And then mysteriously saved." Joey is an eleven minute biography of the gangster Joey Gallo, told in a fairly straight ahead manner, complete with his jail house transformation. Some have criticized Dylan for his sympathetic portrayal of his title character. Romance In Durango finds Dylan using a southwestern flare, with Marty Robbins inspired country and Mexican ranchero inspired accordion and horns, and Dylan singing partially in Spanish, "No llores, mi querida/Dios nos vigila/Soon the horse will take us to Durango/Agarrame, mi vida/Soon the desert will be gone/Soon you will be dancing the fandango," the story of lovers trying to escape to the mountained landscape of southern Colorado. Black Diamond Bay is a series of vignettes about strange interactions in the place of the title with great, early country-rock melodies. The album closes with Sara, an ode to his wife, with small bits of poetry with self references, "I can still hear the sounds of those Methodist bells/I'd taken the cure and had just gotten through/Stayin' up for days in the Chelsea Hotel/Writin' 'Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' for you." It is an Irish inspired dirge in 6/8 time.

Dylan shows on this album why he was, and is, the most literate songwriter in rock, taking a novelists approach to song. He can write seven minute songs, and through his use of detailed story telling, keep them from feeling like they are dragging on (mostly). He also is looking to other musics for inspiration on this album, which keeps it interesting and engaging.

Listen:

One More Cup of Coffee

Romance In Durango (Concert Video)

Sara

July 4: Bob Dylan, Blond on Blonde, Sides 3 & 4 (1966)

Blond On Blond was the seventh studio release by Dylan, and was his first double album (sides 1 and 2 found here). The second disc of this double album has only songs, with the eleven plus minute Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands taking up the whole of side 4.

Side 3 opens with Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine with Memphis horns and has a lighthearted, cartoonish lead guitar part, a letter to a lover he's letting go, with cartoonish lyrics to match the lighthearted lead parts, "Well the judge, he holds a grudge/He's gonna call on you/But he's badly built/And he walks on stilts/Watch out he don't fall on you." Temporary Like Achilles is a slow moving Memphis blues number, with his exaggerated and nasally melodies on the bridge. Absolutely Sweet Marie has a Lou Reed-like delivery, a few years before Lou Reed would deliver the Velvet Underground's version of psychedelic blues rock. It is full of quick key changes, before changing right back, and image heavy, almost non-siensical verses, "Well, I got the fever down in my pockets/The Persian drunkard, he follows me/Yes, I can take him to your house but I can't unlock it/You see, you forgot to leave me with the key/Ah, where are you tonight, Sweet Marie?" 4th Time Around moves through a mid-period Beatles' Norwegian Wood inspired melody and lyrics, "So I forced my hands in my pockets/And felt with my thumbs/And gallantly handed her/My very last piece of gum." Obviously 5 Believers is more Memphis electric blues, with a twelver bar blues structure and two bar instrumental breaks between each verse, with harmonica and electric guitar sharing the riff. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands closes out the album. It is slow moving, literate and wordy, with a fair amount of use of poetic adjectives, and quick Beatles' inspired melodies, as it starts with "With your mercury mouth in the missionary times/And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes/And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes/Oh, who do they think could bury you?"

This may have been Dylan's most adventuresome album as far as length and ground covered is concerned, but as far as songs go I'd still take Highway 61 Revisited. This album found Dylan settling into his role as a pop song writer, dealing mostly with love songs, as well as perfecting his folkish version of blues rock with the help of The Band. This is one of the more powerful things about Dylan's career, is that he didn't have just one. From solo folky to purveyor of Chicago and Memphis blues, from the politically aware 'Voice of his Generation' to a writer of clever, heartfelt and sometimes cutting love songs. And all of that in well less than a decade. He leaves it up to the listener to gravitate towards the Dylan they like best.

Listen:

Most Likely You'll Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine

Absolutely Sweet Marie

Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

July 3: Bob Dylan, Blond on Blond, Sides 1 & 2, (1966)

This album, the seventh by Bob Dylan, is considered by many in the know to be Dylan's best. It is, in many ways, Dylan's last album that was this adventuresome. Two albums later he would record Nashville Skyline, where he would move more towards the predictability of country and blues-rock. Coming on the heels of Highway 61 Revisited, it still found Dylan pushing boundaries musically and lyrically. Rolling Stone ranks it as the 9th best album in rock history, as does the musician polled VH1. It was released as a double album, which seems to me to be the culmination of the creative genius of Dylan's early career.

The album opens with the loose raucousness of Rainy Day Women #12 and #35, with its marching band drums, tuba and trombone, and a joyful and twisted call and response while Dylan sings "They'll stone you when you're at the breakfast table/They'll stone you when you are young and able/They'll stone you when you're trying to make a buck/They'll stone you and then they'll say, 'good luck'/Yeah, but I would not feel so all alone/Everybody must get stoned," capturing the double entendre of that phrase, twisting and kneading it for every ounce of meaning, all the while acknowledging that there just ain't no getting ahead in this world. This album also solidifies Dylan's move towards blues forms, with the Buddy Guy/Junior Walker Chicago blues of Pleadge My Time and Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat, with its image heavy lyrics, "Well, the room is so stuffy/I can hardly breathe/Ev'rybody's gone but me and you/And I can't be the last to leave/I'm pledging my time to you/Hopin' you'll come through, too," and "Well, I asked the doctor if I could see you/It's bad for your health, he said/Yes, I disobeyed his orders/I came to see you/But I found him there instead/You know, I don't mind him cheatin' on me/But I sure wish he'd take that off his head/Your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat." The seven and a half minute Visions Of Johanna dances around the subject matter of lost love with heavy use of electric lead guitar, and is filled with small bits of poetic imagery, "In the empty lot where the ladies play/Blindman's bluff with the key chain/And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the D train," and ends with "The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain/And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain." Sooner or Later (One of Us Must Know) is a piano driven number with lead guitar and Hammond B3 filling out the sound, that moves at a medium tempo but finds energy in the chorus, an apology for a relationship gone wrong told through metaphor in the verses and a more straight ahead take in the chorus. I Want You, maybe the strangest song here with its talk delivery and chorus that seems to be just filler between verses of fantastical imagery, "Now your dancing child with his Chinese suit/He spoke to me, I took his flute/No, I wasn't that cute to him, was I?/But I did it because he lied." Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, one of the better known songs off this album, is seven minutes of mid-tempo and upbeat blues rock supporting incredible and unpredictable imagery, with the Dylan pattern of ending each verse with the same line, rather than writing choruses:

Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells,
Speaking to some French girl,
Who says she knows me well.
And I would send a message
To find out if she's talked,
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Just Like A Woman finishes off the first of this double album. The story of a relationship where both were in over their heads, and finds Dylan exaggerating the nasally quality to his voice.

Next entry will be sides three and four

Listen:

Rainy Day Women #12 and #35

Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat

Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again

July 2: Bob Dylan, Blood On The Tracks (1975)

After Nashville Skyline, it seemed that Dylan went into a bit of a hibernation mode. Not that he stopped releasing albums, because he didn't. Between 1969's Nashville Skyline and Blood On The Tracks Dylan still released five albums, but none of them caught much fire, which may very well had been to Dylan's liking. By the time this album came out he had effectively shaken the expectations placed upon him by the political protest and folk scenes, and was able to put together an album of great songs without the undue expectations that came with every Dylan release a decade earlier. This is an album often considered one of, if not Dylan's finest, with many considering it an exploration of his failing relationship.

Tangled Up In Blue, a medium tempo easy chord change many consider their favorite Dylan tune, opens the album. An exploration of lost relationships, their hopeful beginnings and tumultuous endings, and how individuals can run from and embrace them at the same time. It is a literal telling of a lover long lost, only to be reunited in the most unexpected of places, and the way a sense of nostalgia can cause us to want to return to long lost lives. On Simple Twist of Fate we see how Dylan has exchanged his pen dedicated to big social issues for one that explores life's smaller and more intimate moments, "A saxophone someplace far off played/As she was walking on by the arcade/As the light bust through a beat up shade/Where he was waking up/She dropped a coin into the cup of a blind man at the gate/And forgot about a simple twist of fate." You're a Big Girl Now shows off Dylan's maturing voice, which has rarely been more confident or soulful as on this album, as he sings something we have all had to say, either out loud or to ourselves at some point, "Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast/Oh but what a shame, that all we've shared can't last/I can change I swear/Oh, see what you can do/I can make it through/You can make it too." Idiot Wind, taking a turn from sad longing, opens up a vein of anger, "Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth/Blowing down the backroads headin' south/Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth/You're an idiot, babe/It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe," with verses that veer towards a ranting, angry inconsistency, only to turn his critical eye on himself in the last lines, "Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves/We're idiots, babe/It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves." You're Going To Make Me Lonely When You Go is an upbeat acoustic guitar and electric bass, with a surprisingly happy melody with a regular rhyming pattern and sad lyrics, "Situations have ended sad/Relationships have all been bad/Mine have been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud's/But there's no way I can compare/All them scenes to this affair/You're gonna make me lonesome when you go," and shows Dylan's ability to pull out cultural references is still alive and well, if it does make just the occasional appearance. Meet Me In The Morning has a heavy delta blues influence, with slide guitar and a subdued electric lead, and blues lyrical and musical schemes, "They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn/They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn/Honey you wouldn't know it by me/Every day's been darkness since you been gone." Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts is a fifteen verse, wordy and literate story with a country progression and rolling snare. It is peopled with shifty characters, a love triangle that would lead to one's death and another's hanging, all while a bank heist is going on, and all the while the ubiquitous Jack of Hearts is present. If You See Her Say Hello is a slow moving, broken-hearted ballad that finds Dylan over-emoting and seems to be the most out of place song, both in production and mood, with its arpeggiated 12 string guitar and a lack of conviction in Dylan's voice. It is quickly followed by one of Dylan's best melodies of his career on Shelter From The Storm. It is a story about a lover who saved him only to see the relationship deteriorate over time, told through sometimes fantastic imagery, "In a little hilltop village, they gambled for my clothes/I bargained for salvation an' she gave me a lethal dose/I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn/'Come in,' she said, 'I'll give you shelter from the storm.'" Bucket Of Rain is a Mississippi John Hurt inspired finger-picked blues with an upbeat, traditional sounding folk melody, and might be the most beautiful song on an album full of beautiful songs. It is an acceptance of hard times, and an olive branch after so much hurt, "I been meek/And hard like an oak/I seen pretty people disappear like smoke/Friends will arrive, friends will disappear/If you want me, honey baby/I'll be here," and closes with "Life is sad/Life is a bust/All ya can do is do what you must/You do what you must do and ya do it well/I do it for you, honey baby/Can't you tell?"

This album found Dylan in full story teller mode, and utilizes Dylan's unique lyric structure, where he forgos choruses and instead ends each verse with a repeating line. There is a lot of heart, and a lot of heartbreak throughout this album, and is what in the end gives it its staying power. It is an album full of honest sentiment, and Dylan's unmatched songwriting ability.

Listen:

Idiot Wind

Tangled Up In Blue

Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts

Buckets Of Rain

July 1: Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline (1969)

By the time 1969 had rolled around, Dylan, as if pointing the way of the future, had made politics and social issues less and less important in his music. With this album, coming in at less than half an hour, he had traded in his wordy and righteous indignation for a chance to write and record an album of pretty songs that weren't going to be automatically dissected for their every nuanced meeting. It seems to me that at this point in his career he really just wanted to be Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard, good songwriters and performers who weren't loaded down with the baggage Dylan had been since his early days. Dylan just wanted to make a good country record, so he went to Nashville and went into the studio with some big (or would become big) names in the country scene, including Norman Blake, Earl Scruggs, and Charlie Daniels. Dylan uses his voice in a way that had rarely been heard before, exchanging his high nasally warble for a tenor croon.

The album's opener is a return to a track off of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Girl From The North Country is done as a duet with Johnny Cash. It is a loose performance with a fair more life than the original recording. Nashville Skyline Rag is a fast moving, major key instrumental with a swing blues progression and a melodic theme visited by pedal steel, dobro, flat picked guitar, piano, all so expertly delivered it leaves the usually confident harmonica of Dylan feeling flat in comparison. To Be Alone With You is a soulful, upbeat country rock number with busy piano. I Threw It All Away is a Ray Price like Nashville ballad, a slow moving number with a soulful vocal delivery and Hammond B3 in the background. Peggy Day has an easy moving pedal steel and dobro taking turns, and along with One More Night is a mid-tempo country swing number. Lay Lady Lay, the most well known song from this outing, a soulful slow moving number with a heartbreaking delivery that shows Dylan still has an affinity for a well delivered line, "Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed/Whatever colors you have in your mind/I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine." Tell Me That It Isn't True is a classic country heartbreak number about a man who is willing to take the word of his woman about her fidelity despite stories to the contrary, and is the most interesting song lyrically on the album, "They say that you've been seen with some other man/That he's tall, dark and handsome, and you're holding his hand/Darlin', I'm a-countin' on you/Tell me that it isn't true." Country Pie is a quick moving number with non-sensical lyrics in between his proclamations that "Oh me oh my/I love me some country pie." Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You is full of imagery about not leaving a lover long after he should have been gone.

More than anything this album is a testament to how diverse Dylan's influences are, and how capable he is to jump genres and put together as good a country album as any coming out at that time. There isn't really a stinker on this album, which considering the jump Dylan was taking isn't guaranteed. There is a looseness throughout, and a sense in Dylan's voice that he is just having a good time, which helps make this album so listenable. For those that had become accustomed to Dylan's cutting wit and socially aware lyrics, this album must have been shocking, as there is none of that here. The album is actually filled with clichés, both musically (the perfectly placed bridges) and lyrically. But the fullness of Dylan's voice and experience makes these all the more acceptable.

Listen:

Peggy Day

Tell Me That It Isn't True

Lay Lady Lay

June 30: Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

By the time this album, Dylan's fifth studio release, came out he was already rejecting the 'voice of his generation' label that had been placed upon him because of his protest songs like Blowin' In The Wind and Masters of War on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and the title track and Only a Pawn in Their Game on The Times They Are A-Changin'. It's not that he turned away from socially conscious music, there is still plenty of his anarchist and cultural revolution leanings on here. But he is doing it in a more obtuse way, giving up his straight ahead protest songs and burying gems of meaning in avalanches of words. This would coincide with him turning towards a full rock band sound as well, with the album divided between the acoustic music of his earlier albums and the country/blues rock band lineup that would dominate his future recordings. This was his fifth release in less than three years, and Highway 61 Revisited would come out shortly after.

Subterranean Homesick Blues, one his most fiery songs, opens the album. It's two and half minutes of lyrical explosions over upbeat and noodling guitar and a bass that sounds like a tuba. It shows his anti-authority and anarchist leanings and in my mind has two of his best and most insightful lines. When he says "Don't follow leaders/Watch the parkin' meters," he at once expresses a political philosophy, and in his new style, just as quickly dismisses it and moves on. And when he sings "Keep a clean nose/Watch the plain clothes/You don't need a weather man/To know which way the wind blows," you can't help but wonder if the weather man he refers to is himself. Dylan has been one of the most reliable and original writers of love songs, and he continues that here, with songs like She Belongs To Me, with it's twelve bar blues progression and lyrical pattern and poetic imagery, as well as Love Minus Zero/No Limit with its opening stanza "My love she speaks like silenc/Without ideals or violence/She doesn't have to say she's faithful/Yet she's true like ice like fire. Maggie's Farm may be one of the most discussed songs of his career. It is an upbeat cacophony with blues guitar, tambourine, piano and bass. On its face it seems like a declaration of independence, a Marxist critique about working for other's benefits. Some think it is a declaration of independence for Dylan from the protest folk movement. In the second verse he sings "Well, he hands you a nickel,/He hands you a dime/He asks you with a grin/If you're havin' a good time/Then he fines you every time you slam the door/I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more," while in the last verse he sings as if about his audience, "Well, I try my best/To be just like I am,/But everybody wants you/To be just like them/They sing while you slave and I just get bored." Dylan does his best Howlin' Wolf on Outlaw Blues with its blues harp and blues progression, "/I got my dark sunglasses/I got for good luck my black tooth/I got my dark sunglasses/I'm carryin' for good luck my black tooth/Don't ask me nothin' about nothin'/I just might tell you the truth." If there is a throwaway track on here it might be On The Road Again, but even Dylan's throwaways are more inventive and creative than other's best tracks, "Well, I ask for something to eat/I'm hungry as a hog/So I get brown rice, seaweed/And a dirty hot dog/I got a hole/Where my stomach disappeared," all over Chicago blues. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream has the infamous mis-start that finds him laughing after the second line, only to start again. It is six and half minutes of Dylan collapsing time and space, tying the Mayflower, Moby Dick parking tickets, and the bums of Bowery (to name just a few) together in one large narrative. The last four songs make up the acoustic side of the album, with mostly just Dylan's voice and guitar, and has three of his most well known songs. Opening with Mr. Tambourine Man, a veiled reference to the drug culture. On the Gates of Eden the first half of each verse is full of angry fire, while the second half has a more major key ease to it. Each verse is poetic metaphor deep with meaning and imagery. It's All Right Ma, I'm Only Bleeding is an angry, wordy explication full of doubt and disillusionment, taking on the war machine, advertising, religion, the education system, "Advertising signs that con/You into thinking you're the one/That can do what's never been done/That can win what's never been won/Meantime life outside goes on
All around you." It finds Dylan declaring and independence in the face of this, "But though the masters make the rules/For the wise men and the fools/I got nothing Ma, to live up to." After his dismissal of the alienation of the modern world, he also acknowledges that these forces are too strong sometimes and his powerlessness or refusal to what is expected, "But I mean no harm, nor put fault/On anyone that lives in a vault/But it's alright Ma, if I can't please him." The album closes with It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, another declaration of independence, although it's unclear who the antagonist really is (a lover):

Leave your stepping stones behind there, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

The weight Dylan must have carried prior to making this album would have destroyed lesser men. As the 'voice of his generation,' a burden was placed on him that no one could carry. It would make sense that Dylan would run from this as quickly as possible. Even though this album finds him declaring his freedom from all types who would make demands of him, he doesn't escape what made him the best songwriter this country has produced. His cutting wit, his deep cultural knowledge, his social consciousness are all on display, even if he has taken to burying them within imagery and metaphor a little more than he did previous.

Listen:

Subterranean Homesick Blues (Video)

Maggie's Farm (Video, Live 1965)

It's All Right Ma, I'm Only Bleeding

June 29: Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

This was Dylan's second studio album, but the first where his songwriting was put front and center, with eleven of the thirteen tracks being originals. The production, much like his debut, is simple. It is Dylan's guitar, Dylan's voice, and Dylan's harmonica, and only very occasionally something more than that. It was this album that established him as a songwriter with a social awareness and possessing leftist politics. In the context of the times this was not all that unusual. Folk artists like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie had been walking that ground for a while before Dylan picked up a guitar, and he had contemporaries in songwriters like Phil Ochs and Joan Baez. This album also explored Dylan's affinity for delta blues, which he touched upon on his eponymous debut.

This album has some of his best known songs, and some of his most cutting and insightful protest songs. Blowin' In The Wind opens the album, one of the most ubiquitous songs in protest circles throughout the sixties. He poses philosophical questions and establishes himself as a thinking person's songwriter, "Yes 'n how many years can some people exist/Before they're allowed to be free?/Yes 'n how many times can a man turn his head/And pretend that he just doesn't see?" But he refuses, because he can't, to answer these questions, and the answers are just "Blowin' in the wind." He also does a number of love/relationship songs. The lonely, finger-picked Girl From The North Country and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, showing he can aim his razor wit at x-lovers as well, "So long, honey babe/Where I'm bound, I can't tell/Goodbye is too good a word, babe/So I'll just say fare thee well/I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind/You could have done better but I don't mind/You just kinda wasted my precious time/But don't think twice, it's all right." Masters of War, one of Dylan's most impassioned performances, a dark minor key track calling out all of those that design the weapons and the wars that others must die in:

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
While the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
While the young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies and is buried in the mud

He has an unequivocal stance, and isn't afraid to tell how he feels about these dealers of war:

An' I hope that you die
And your death will come soon
I'll follow your casket
On a pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your death bed
And I'll stand over your grave till I'm sure that you're dead

Down The Highway is a sparse delta inspired 12 bar blues guitar riff and 'down on my luck' lyrics, "Well, I'm bound to get lucky, baby/Or I'm bound to die tryin'./Yes, I'm a-bound to get lucky, baby/Lord, Lord I'm a-bound to die tryin'/Well, meet me in the middle of the ocean/And we'll leave this ol' highway behind." Bob Dylan's Blues provides a little light relief in the middle of an otherwise very serious album, with an upbeat 1-4-5 progression and a lighthearted vocal delivery, "Lord, I ain't goin' down to no race track/To see no sports car run/I don't have no sports car/And I don't even care to have one/I can walk anytime around the block." A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall gives some indication as to the direction his songwriting would take, a literate and wordy approach that would have as much in common with the poetry of Yeats and Pound as it does the songwriting of Guthrie. Verse upon verse filled with loosely connected imagery, leaving it to the listener to make the missing connections:

And, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
And the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and speak it and think it and breathe it,
And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it,
And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Bob Dylan's Dream is a small piece of nostalgia for friend's from long ago, and is characteristic of Dylan's loose interpretation of even his own songs, where each line moves at its own pace. Oxford Town is a major key exploration of race relations at the time, "Oxford town around the bend/Come to the door, couldn't get in/All because of the colour of his skin/What do you think about that my friend?" Talkin' World War III Blues is the first in a series of 'Talkin Blues' songs that Dylan would do throughout the sixties, songs which are recited as much as sung. On this one he talks about imagining WWIII in his brain and his recounting it to a psychiatrist, "Well, the doctor interrupted me just about then/Sayin, 'Hey I've been havin' the same old dreams/But mine was a little different you see/I dreamt that the only person left after the war was me/I didn't see you around.'" Corrina, Corrina, his first of two covers, is an old blues standard that he takes out of that context, adding a major key guitar lead and basic drums. The second cover, Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance, is an upbeat country tune that Dylan sings in his loose vocal delivery style. I Shall Be Free closes the album and is eleven unconnected verses, just quick ideas explored and forgotten, "Well, I got a woman four feet short/She yells and hollers and screams and snorts/She tickles my nose pats me on the head/Rolls me over and kicks me outta bed," and "Now, the man on the stand he wants my vote/He's a-runnin' for office on a ballot note/He's out there preachin' in front of the steeple/Tellin' me he loves all kinds-a people."

This album shows a Dylan still firmly entrenched in the folk music of the time, but still putting a spin on it that is firmly his. He perfectly at ease exploring ideas of power and politics, as well as love lost. He shows an ability to be deadly serious (Masters of War) and lighthearted and humorous (I Shall Be Free). In many ways this album was a clarion call for what Dylan was capable of and what he would deliver over the next series of albums.

Listen:

Masters of War

Talking WW III Blues

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

June 28: Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Despite Steve Earle's proclamation that Townes Van Zandt is America's best songwriter and he would stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table and yell it out, to me there is no doubt that Bob Dylan is still the best songwriter this country has ever produced. There are pitfalls when writing about Dylan, as there are already chapters, books, movies about every aspect of Dylan's career. Despite this, and as much as an influence Dylan is on my own songwriting, there are many great Dylan albums I haven't sat through. There are few artists that divides people along the lines of which album is their favorite, but Dylan does that. From various friends I have heard that Blond on Blond, Nashville Skyline, and The Freewheelin Bob Dylan are all favorites, but for me it is Highway 61 Revisited. Dylan has also called this the favorite album of his, but Dylan says lots of things. This was his sixth release in the three years since his debut in 1962, which makes the depth and scope of these songs all the more amazing. This was his first album with a full rock lineup, and came out shortly after his controversial performance at the Newport Folk Festival, where he played with an electric guitar.

This album is peopled with characters full of desperation, facing an uncertain world. It opens with what many consider to be the best song in rock history, Like A Rolling Stone. The story of a young woman from a privileged background now having to scramble to make a living on the streets. I always thought the woman left her life of privilege for a life in the counter-culture, only to find herself abandoned and alone. Dylan has no sympathy for the main character, at once mocking her privilege, "Ah, you never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns/When they all did tricks for you/You never understood that it ain't no good/You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you," but having no compassion for her once she leaves that life, "You say you never compromise/With the mystery tramp, but now you realize/He's not selling any alibis/As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes/And say, 'Do you want to make a deal?'" Along with Ballad of a Thin Man, make up the two most cutting portraits of people out of their element. On Ballad, Dylan fills verse after verse exploring a new language and a new way of looking at the world, and those that can't keep up are left behind, as our protagonist Mr. Jones, representing the culture left behind, discovers:

Now you see this one-eyed midget
Shouting the word "NOW"
And you say, "For what reason?"
And he says, "How?"
And you say, "What does this mean?"
And he screams back, "You're a cow
Give me some milk
Or else go home"

And you know something's happening
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

It's on this album that Dylan so nimbly ties his vast collection of references into cohesive narratives, weaving historical, musical, mythical and literary figures into a singular vision of the world. On driving and upbeat Tombstone Blues, Dylan sings:

The ghost of Belle Starr she hands down her wits
To Jezebel the nun she violently knits
A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits
At the head of the chamber of commerce

Mama's in the fact'ry
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for food
I'm in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues

He quickly and easily takes a jab at business interests (and their head guy, Jack the Ripper), tying their interests with the poverty of the family, and just as quickly moves on. Later in the song, he imagines Beethoven and Ma Rainey as tramps on the road together. On the title track, an upbeat and lighthearted blues riff with its crazy whistle sound at the beginning of each verse, he delivers what may be might my favorite verse in rock, tying together biblical myth with Highway 61, a road that follows the Mississippi River and was the path so often traveled by African Americans escaping the south:

Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son,"
Abe say, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No," Abe say, "What?;"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run;"
Well Abe said, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God said, "Out on Highway 61."

Just like Tom Thumb's Blues and Queen Jane Approximately deal with a world that is only full of disappointment, "I started out on burgundy/But soon hit the harder stuff/Everybody said they'd stand behind me/When the game got rough/But the joke was on me/There was nobody even there to bluff/I'm going back to New York City/I do believe I've had enough," on the former, and "When your mother sends back all your invitations/And your father to your sister he explains/That you're tired of yourself and all of your creations/Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?" on the latter. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry and From A Buick 6 anchor the middle of the album with two blues rock numbers, easy stories told in a way only Dylan can, "Well, she don't make me nervous, she don't talk too much/She walks like Bo Diddley and she don't need no crutch/She keeps this four-ten all loaded with lead/Well, if I go down dyin', you know she bound to put a blanket on my bed" on From A Buick 6. The eleven and half minute Desolation Row closes the album, a summation of what was happening on the rest of the album, a mid-tempo track with a Spanish inspired guitar lead, where Dylan sings through the entire song (and it doesn't have a chorus). Desolation Row is the place where dreams go to die, and apparently where everyone ends up at some point, "Cinderella, she seems so easy/'It takes one to know one,' she smiles/And puts her hands in her back pocket/Bette Davis style." The album ends, as if saying goodbye to the acoustic folk of his earlier career, with this verse:

Yes, I received your letter yesterday
About the time the door knob broke
When you asked how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke?
All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they're quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now I can't read too good
Don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row

The revolutionary spirit of Dylan's earlier work seems to have faded to a jaded spirit where everyone is lost, no matter which side of the revolution you were on. His cutting wit is honed to a sharp point, and everyone could be subject to it. Some of the best lines of Dylan's career came off this album, full of social commentary and an endless array of cultural references. People have dedicated better parts of their lives trying to decipher Dylan's career, and there is much to be said that I could never get to, but I always thought part of Dylan's power was his ability to say non-sensical things, to construct sentences on rhyming patterns and rhythms only, and make it sound like it's the deepest thing you'll ever have heard. This album, probably my second favorite of all time, seems to have come at a turning point in his career, where he was examining his own approach to his music, instrumentally, politically, and lyrically. And that sense of everything being up for grabs shows through in every aspect and line of this album.

Listen:

Ballad Of A Thin Man
Highway 61 Revisited

Desolation Row (first half)

It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry

June 27: Conor Oberst (2008)

Conor Oberst made his name as the front man for indie-folksters Bright Eyes in the late nineties and early 2000's, based in Omaha, Nebraska. Oberst has been in and out of bands since the early nineties, and released solo albums prior to the success of Bright Eyes, but this is his first solo release after that success. The band that backed him on this album, which was recorded in Mexico, later became The Mystic Valley Band, which is the band he now tours with. He is often considered emo, which is a label I still don't understand to this day. To me he has always seemed to make an updated Dylan-esque sort of music, with a literate country/folk that more closely aligns with Townes Van Zandt and Dylan that the radio friendly alt-rock that seems to get labeled emo most often.

Cape Canaveral opens with an easy strummed guitar and a single quarter note drum beat. A number of images all lined up, explicating a number of relationships, all set against a backdrop of the title, "Like the citrus glow off the old orange grove/Or the red rocket blaze over Cape Canaveral/It's been a nightmare for me, some 1980's greed/Gives me parachute dreams like old war movies." Sausalito is an upbeat country tinged track, and like many of the lyrics here, tends to bounce around the heart of the story, filling it with imagery and metaphor, "I know that trouble's been your good friend/Kept you company on the weekends/Kept you company even once your mind was made." Get-Well-Cards is full of beach imagery and has a Joe Strummer like delivery on the choruses. Lenders in the Temple is a finger-picked then easily strummed guitar with a subtle organ underneath, a rough relationship told through disconnected imagery, "There's money-lenders inside the temple/That circus tiger's gonna break my heart/Something so wild turned into paper/If you love me, then that's your fault." Danny Callahan has a country-ish Belle and Sebastian like indie pop feel, with choruses that change slightly each time they're repeated, with the title character being given a verse, a small boy that died of cancer. I Don't Want To Die (In The Hospital) is a country/cajun upbeat number about someone trying to escape the confines of said hospital before he dies, "They don't let you smoke and you can't get drunk/All there is to watch are these soap operas/I don't wanna die in the hospital/You gotta take me back outside." Eagle On A Pole has that emotive high warble that is more associated with his vocal delivery in Bright Eyes. NYC-Gone Gone has a distorted bluesy riff, stomps and hand claps, and a twisted children's song type of delivery. Moab is a Tom Petty influenced roots rock number with the refrain "There's nothing that the road cannot heal." Valle Mistico (Ruben's Song) is just the blowing of a conch shell by one of the locals in Mexico. Souled Out! has a Replacements rock out feel, and is a loosely recorded with conversation by the band being recorded as they are recording, with a big chorus, and woman speaking Spanish words in certain spots. Milk Thistle closes the album, an easy finger-picked guitar and lazily delivered lines, "Lazarus, Lazarus/Why all the tears/Did your faithful chauffer just disappear/What a lonesome feeling."

Oberst has turned into a reliable purveyor of country-rock. He has a penchant for good, sometimes great, lyrics, has an ear for a melodic hook, and a loose approach to recording that is reminiscent of early Dylan. And more importantly, he's gotten rid (for the most part) of that over the top vocal delivery that defined so much of the Bright Eyes sound. His intermittent use of Spanish could come across as a bit gimmicky, but he pulls it off without much interference with what's going on the rest of the song, giving it a feel of respect for his surroundings more than a cheap shot. Here he pulls out his Dylan and Petty and Van Zandt influences, gives free rein to his backing band, and in the process creates a solid piece of folk/country rock.

Listen:

Souled Out! (Video)

Cape Canaveral

I Don't Want To Die (In The Hospital)

June 26: Townes Van Zandt, For The Sake Of The Song (1968)

Townes Van Zandt is a religious figure in some circles, considered to be one of the best songwriters of the last half century. But this high regard never resulted in commercial success. He never had a hit record or album, although a number of his songs have been recorded by other artists, most famously Pancho and Lefty which Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings took to #1 on the country charts in 1983. Although his work is little known outside a cult following, within those circles naming Van Zandt an influence is critical. Firmly within a folk and country tradition, he wrote literate songs full of poetic imagery and stories mostly about people on the rougher side of life. With obvious influence from Bob Dylan and other singer-songwriters of the early to mid-sixties, he would go on to shape the sound of the singer-songwriter genre of the 70's as heard in people like Harry Chapin and John Denver. Although he moved around as a kid, at heart he was a Texan, and resided there throughout his adult life. His manic depression and substance abuse posed problems for his recording career, and he was mostly concerned solely with the writing of songs and turned over recording authority to his producer Jack Clement. This is his debut album and has some of his most well known songs like Tecumseh Valley and Waitin' Around to Die.

The focus is on his acoustic guitar and his voice, but the production of Clement also was grounded in the singer/songwriter aesthetic of the time, which means lots of strings, flutesand oohs and aahs of back up singers (which Clement later stated he regretted). It gives the album a dated feel, where as the songs by themselves don't feel dated at all. The album opens with the title track, which showcases his gentle and sad voice. It is a song about how hard communication in a relationship is, and that "Maybe she just has to sing, for the sake of the song/And who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong." Tecumseh Valley is a finger-picked guitar and a story about a free-spirited woman who found herself in the namesake valley, looking for work in order to return home. Things don't turn out the way she had hoped, and in metaphor Van Zandt tells of her choices, "She turned to walkin' down the road/From all the hate inside her/And it was many a man/Returned again/To walk that road beside her." Many A Fine Lady is about the lovers he's had, and Quicksilver Daydreams of Maria shows Van Zandt's ability to turn a phrase, "One stood among them I remember most clearly/Well her sorrows were heavy and her laughter was slow" on the former, and "So the serpent slides slowly away with his moments of laughter/And the old washer-woman has finished her cleanin' and gone/But the bamboo hangs heavy in the bondage of quicksilver daydreams/And a lonely child longingly looks for a place to belong." Waitin' Around To Die is full of diminished chord sadness and tension, with each verse ending with the title, "Sometimes I don't know where/This dirty road is taking me/Sometimes I don't even know the reason why/But I guess I keep a-gamblin'/Lots of booze and lots of ramblin'/Well it's easier than just a-waitin' around to die." I'll Be Here In The Morning is the closest thing to a straight ahead country song on the album, mid-tempo with a Hank Williams melody, strummed bass and harmonica, and a four piece backing chorus. Sad Cinderella is mostly plucked harp and light snare rolls, and is a take on Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone, "When the bandits have stolen your jewelry and gone/And your crippled young gypsy, he's grown tall and strong/And your dead misconceptions have proven you wrong/Well then, princess, where you plannin' to turn to?" Talkin' Karate Blues is another take on Dylan's talkin' blues series, a not so politically correct track about visiting a Karate school run by a "Jap" named Lee Hung Chow. All Your Young Servants is a story about someone who has lost what they once had, but maintain the facade, "Your castle is dingy and dirty and dismal/Your carpets are faded, your walls are all grey/There's dust on your silver and cracks in your crystal/And all your young servants have drifted away." Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls closes the album with an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western feel, another showing of Van Zandt's poetic approach, "She died few in years with breasts still small/Seeing sixteens summers and fifteen falls."

For a debut this showed how much promise Van Zandt had as a songwriter, with his clever use of words and rhythms, and why he is so revered by other songwriters. Even as bad as the production is at points, the album is still highly listenable and highly enjoyable, and there is a lot to dig into as far as his lyrics go. There was a constant sadness and tension that ran through his music, even though on the surface it could seem gentle and pretty. Maybe that was one reason he never reached a larger audience. But that emotion that is built into the soul of every song is the thing that made Van Zandt Van Zandt.

Listen:

Tecumseh Valley

Waitin' Around To Die

I'll Be There In The Morning