“Under the flag of a greenback dollar or a peso down Mexico way.”
A few weeks back I had the good fortune of catching Steve Earle live. He was backing his Townes Van Zandt cover album titled “Townes”. One of those situations that sort of fell into my lap at the last minute. The show was going to be solo acoustic and I doubted if Steve Earle would be able to carry a show all by himself. I wasn’t a big fan, casual at best, knew of his songs most folks know like Copperhead Road, Guitar Town, and some new stuff I heard like Jerusalem.
My expectations were far surpassed. Steve Earle is a hell of a performer, the show was great and it left me hungry to check out his records. My brother in law who went with suggested I check out Train a Comin’ and thanks to the often mentioned music case / collection my brother Brian made for me I gave it a go and it hasn’t left the player since (except to come inside the house so I could work on the opening part of Mercenary Song on guitar).
Looking back this was the second time Earle surprised me. The first time was on the great (my favorite as a matter of fact) soundtrack for the movie Dead Man Walking. I’m a Springsteen guy all the way and so it was an automatic to purchase a copy. The artists for this soundtrack included:
Springsteen
Johnny Cash
Tom Waits
Lyle Lovett
Suzanne Vega
Michelle Shocked
Eddie Vedder
Patti Smith
Mary Chapin Carpenter
And Steve Earle. I remember listening in complete wonder to the song Ellis Unit One. It was the best song on the soundtrack, a loaded soundtrack with great songs but no question Ellis Unit One was the standout. That seemed like a crazy notion at the time. After getting to know Train a Comin’ it doesn’t seem so surprising.
Train a Comin’ has the great dichotomy working that paralleled what I saw live. It is acoustic and relaxed AND KICK ASS. Now kick ass is an overused term, under the ownership of a different type of listernership you might say. When you hear the term kick ass in regards to music, bands like Skynard or Bon Jovi or Aerosmith come to mind. These bands have never by my definition kicked ass. My kick ass is Waylon Jennings, or Hank III, or Unknown Hinson.
And these are not acoustic affairs like Train a Comin. I think this is that special something that hardcore troubadour Earle fans love. Genuine kick ass; pure, deep, moving kick assification.
A perfect example of this is the song Tom Ames Prayer.
Here is a verse:
“You don’t owe me nothing and as far as I know Lord I don’t owe nothing to you.
I ain’t asking for a miracle, just a little bit a luck will do.
You know I ain’t ever prayed before but it always seemed to me
That praying is the same as begging and I don’t take no charity”
There’s a mouthful right there. Tom Ames Prayer is a classic, a song I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard before.
Train A Comin’ is loaded with great players including Peter Rowan, Norman Blake, and Roy Huskey. Had I known about it, this one would have made a strong run at my Top Ten of the 90’s list.
So now when someone asks me about Steve Earle I’ll say.
“Steve Earle, man he’s great. Have you ever heard Train A Comin? That’s a masterpiece right there.”
As my playing and singing develop (so slowly…) I recorded myself doing a couple of songs off Train A Comin. I keep a video record to reference my progress (hopeful progress) whenever I get pissed and feel like I haven’t got anywhere. I put a couple up on youtube for the hell of it.
You can see that here but please don’t judge the album on it:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ole5anddimer
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Blood On My Tracks.
All right, this list will be for the total Dylanologists.
The following will be a list of an all time per track 20 song Dylan double album. I will take what will be in my opinion to be my two favorite (NOT what are the most important, best, etc..) track ones, twos, threes, etc from Dylan’s catalog (CD’s! – Album track listings are different) up to ten with one caveat, there can’t be more than one song off of any record. This is important because one record might have the all time favorite track one and five in my opinion but I will have to choose one or the other. I will be working from all original studio albums and the Bootleg Series Volume 1,2, and 3 and Tell Tale Signs (excluding alternate versions of previously released songs). I will exclude live recordings, compilations, greatest hits.
I did not include Together Through Life. Not enough time to soak it in yet.
This should end up being (for me) a definitive Bob Mix CD 2-fer.
The following will be a list of an all time per track 20 song Dylan double album. I will take what will be in my opinion to be my two favorite (NOT what are the most important, best, etc..) track ones, twos, threes, etc from Dylan’s catalog (CD’s! – Album track listings are different) up to ten with one caveat, there can’t be more than one song off of any record. This is important because one record might have the all time favorite track one and five in my opinion but I will have to choose one or the other. I will be working from all original studio albums and the Bootleg Series Volume 1,2, and 3 and Tell Tale Signs (excluding alternate versions of previously released songs). I will exclude live recordings, compilations, greatest hits.
I did not include Together Through Life. Not enough time to soak it in yet.
This should end up being (for me) a definitive Bob Mix CD 2-fer.
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 1
Track 1. Jokerman
Yeah I know, looks a little crazy to me too, but the “only one song from an album” caveat is a real challenge. This should not, however, under sell how great this lead off track from 1983’s Infidels is. Mark Knopflified, a little bit of a Reggae groove, and a song out there many believe refers to the man himself, but in his ever elusive way we’re just not sure. It also kicked off the third part of the best live show I have ever been to:
Bob Dylan in Biloxi Mississippi on the 95’ Tour.
After my list was assembled I attempted to arrange the songs in a certain way that gives each disc it's own pace etc.. (Reference John Cusack in High Fidelity about mix tapes here). I like kicking it off with Jokerman.
Infidels is now off the board (slow tear falls for License to Kill).
Yeah I know, looks a little crazy to me too, but the “only one song from an album” caveat is a real challenge. This should not, however, under sell how great this lead off track from 1983’s Infidels is. Mark Knopflified, a little bit of a Reggae groove, and a song out there many believe refers to the man himself, but in his ever elusive way we’re just not sure. It also kicked off the third part of the best live show I have ever been to:
Bob Dylan in Biloxi Mississippi on the 95’ Tour.
After my list was assembled I attempted to arrange the songs in a certain way that gives each disc it's own pace etc.. (Reference John Cusack in High Fidelity about mix tapes here). I like kicking it off with Jokerman.
Infidels is now off the board (slow tear falls for License to Kill).
Monday, June 8, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 2
Track 2. Day of the Locusts
In my head there are two different worlds (sort of simplified I know) of Bob Dylan songs there is world (A), the Desolation Row, It’s Allright Ma, Ain’t Talking world and then there is world (B), the When I Paint My Masterpiece, Silvio, Day of the Locusts world. I first got into Bob Dylan via Greatest Hits #1 which is ALL (with the exception of Rainy Day Women) world A.
Day of the Locusts is the first world B song I remember loving. Supposedly this is about the day Dylan received an honorary degree from Princeton. Unwanted formality in the way of the outlying, omni-present muse. There is something in it that just makes me giddy. Disc 1 is starting out pretty funky.
New Morning is now off the board (slow tear falls for Sign on the Window and Winterlude).
In my head there are two different worlds (sort of simplified I know) of Bob Dylan songs there is world (A), the Desolation Row, It’s Allright Ma, Ain’t Talking world and then there is world (B), the When I Paint My Masterpiece, Silvio, Day of the Locusts world. I first got into Bob Dylan via Greatest Hits #1 which is ALL (with the exception of Rainy Day Women) world A.
Day of the Locusts is the first world B song I remember loving. Supposedly this is about the day Dylan received an honorary degree from Princeton. Unwanted formality in the way of the outlying, omni-present muse. There is something in it that just makes me giddy. Disc 1 is starting out pretty funky.
New Morning is now off the board (slow tear falls for Sign on the Window and Winterlude).
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 3
Track 3. Visions of Johanna
Is this the part where I am supposed to try to actually attempt to comment on Visions of Johanna? A Dylan pillar, a “this is what I hope they dig up 10,000 years from now and judge our artistic culture on.” song, a masterpiece, a just shake your head in disbelief if you’re a songwriter tour de force.
I remember bringing home Time Out of Mind and just thinking to myself (34 at the time of this entry) that I was able to get a new Dylan record with the same potency of stuff like Visions of Johanna.
What it must have been like to bring home Blonde on Blonde and have this one come at you.
Blonde on Blonde is now off the board (slow tear falls for Obviously 5 Believers, Just Like a Woman, Absolutely Sweet Marie, Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine, I Want You).
Is this the part where I am supposed to try to actually attempt to comment on Visions of Johanna? A Dylan pillar, a “this is what I hope they dig up 10,000 years from now and judge our artistic culture on.” song, a masterpiece, a just shake your head in disbelief if you’re a songwriter tour de force.
I remember bringing home Time Out of Mind and just thinking to myself (34 at the time of this entry) that I was able to get a new Dylan record with the same potency of stuff like Visions of Johanna.
What it must have been like to bring home Blonde on Blonde and have this one come at you.
Blonde on Blonde is now off the board (slow tear falls for Obviously 5 Believers, Just Like a Woman, Absolutely Sweet Marie, Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine, I Want You).
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 4
Track 4. Blood In My Eyes
The most influential songwriter living and I am going to put a cover on a super compilation mix-cd. You’re damn right I am and I should.
Myself, my older brother Brian and our friend Rhett put together a best albums of the 90’s top ten list. This was serious shit and we’re gearing up for the aughts. Rhett had World Gone Wrong at #1, what a choice! Having seen the work that followed, all that mining and exploration by Dylan of the original influential stuff it is obvious (NOW) that World Gone Wrong is an extremely pivotal and important record in the pantheon of Dylan’s catalog. Rhett was able to see the future from the power of this record full of songs from the past.
Freewheelin set the tone for folk master hard-rain calling young prodigy stage.
Bringing It All Back Home set the tone for game changer, rock/country/pop music will never sound the same again stage.
John Wesley Harding set the introspective surviving the failed revolution stage.
Slow Train coming set the tone for the “Born Again” stage.
Infidels set the stage for the wandering through the 80’s and looking phase up until it was found with Oh Mercy.
World Gone Wrong set the conduit to a bygone sound and time excavator of that Old Weird America phase.
Here is what Bob had to say about Blood In My Eyes in the liner notes for World Gone Wrong:
"BLOOD IN MY EYES is one of two songs done by the Mississippi Sheiks, a little known de facto group whom in their former glory must've been something to behold. rebellion against routine seems to be their strong theme. all their songs are raw to the bone & are faultlessly made for these modern times (the New Dark Ages) nothing effete about the Mississippi Sheiks."
World Gone Wrong is off the board (slow tear falls for Delia, Two Soldiers, and Lone Pilgrim)
The most influential songwriter living and I am going to put a cover on a super compilation mix-cd. You’re damn right I am and I should.
Myself, my older brother Brian and our friend Rhett put together a best albums of the 90’s top ten list. This was serious shit and we’re gearing up for the aughts. Rhett had World Gone Wrong at #1, what a choice! Having seen the work that followed, all that mining and exploration by Dylan of the original influential stuff it is obvious (NOW) that World Gone Wrong is an extremely pivotal and important record in the pantheon of Dylan’s catalog. Rhett was able to see the future from the power of this record full of songs from the past.
Freewheelin set the tone for folk master hard-rain calling young prodigy stage.
Bringing It All Back Home set the tone for game changer, rock/country/pop music will never sound the same again stage.
John Wesley Harding set the introspective surviving the failed revolution stage.
Slow Train coming set the tone for the “Born Again” stage.
Infidels set the stage for the wandering through the 80’s and looking phase up until it was found with Oh Mercy.
World Gone Wrong set the conduit to a bygone sound and time excavator of that Old Weird America phase.
Here is what Bob had to say about Blood In My Eyes in the liner notes for World Gone Wrong:
"BLOOD IN MY EYES is one of two songs done by the Mississippi Sheiks, a little known de facto group whom in their former glory must've been something to behold. rebellion against routine seems to be their strong theme. all their songs are raw to the bone & are faultlessly made for these modern times (the New Dark Ages) nothing effete about the Mississippi Sheiks."
World Gone Wrong is off the board (slow tear falls for Delia, Two Soldiers, and Lone Pilgrim)
Friday, June 5, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 5
Track 5. Red River Shore
Red River Shore is now the front-runner for best Dylan song that did not make the initial cut. See my earlier blog entry The Red River Shaman, that about sums it up. This was a first listen masterpiece, dwarfing my expectations of Tell Tale Signs (which were pretty darn high).
Further hyperbole:
http://www.rightwingbob.com/weblog/archives/1719
Tell Tale Signs is off the board (slow tear falls for Red River Shore, wait nevermind).
Red River Shore is now the front-runner for best Dylan song that did not make the initial cut. See my earlier blog entry The Red River Shaman, that about sums it up. This was a first listen masterpiece, dwarfing my expectations of Tell Tale Signs (which were pretty darn high).
Further hyperbole:
http://www.rightwingbob.com/weblog/archives/1719
Tell Tale Signs is off the board (slow tear falls for Red River Shore, wait nevermind).
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 6
Track 6. A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall
When you hear this song you can understand why the hardliners in the folk community wanted so desperately to keep Bob Dylan. As Hard Rain poured out it seemed as if he were some answer to a promise, an exponential Woody Guthrie. If you came from a place where you believed that folk songs could change the world outside the individual, the political landscape, and social hierarchy, then this song and this Bob Dylan would certainly have been exhibit “A” proof.
That infamous tag he has spent a lifetime dodging, “The Voice of a Generation” is understandable when you listen to A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall. In an interview with 60 minutes Bob seemed at a loss himself as to where songs like Hard Rain came from. He was asked if he could write songs like it anymore. “No” was his answer, that comes once and you’re lucky if you receive it at all.
This is the Wiki entry:
Dylan was only 21 years old when he wrote one of his most complex songs, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", often referred to as "Hard Rain". Dylan is said to have premiered "Hard Rain" at the Gaslight Cafe, where Village performer Peter Blankfield was in attendance. "He put out these pieces of loose-leaf paper ripped out of a spiral notebook. And he starts singing ['Hard Rain']...He finished singing it, and no one could say anything. The length of it, the episodic sense of it. Every line kept building and bursting".
Dylan performed "Hard Rain" days later at Carnegie Hall on September 22, 1962, as part of a concert organized by Pete Seeger. Seeger was so impressed by "Hard Rain", he covered it himself in his own set.
Many critics interpreted the lyric 'hard rain' as a reference to nuclear fallout, but Dylan resisted the specificity of this interpretation. In a radio interview with Studs Terkel in 1963, Dylan said,
"No, it's not atomic rain, it's just a hard rain. It isn't the fallout rain. I mean some sort of end that's just gotta happen... In the last verse, when I say, 'the pellets of poison are flooding the waters', that means all the lies that people get told on their radios and in their newspapers."
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan is off the board (slow tear falls for Girl From the North Country, Bob Dylan’s Dream, Masters of War, Talkin’ World War III Blues, Blowing in the Wind).
When you hear this song you can understand why the hardliners in the folk community wanted so desperately to keep Bob Dylan. As Hard Rain poured out it seemed as if he were some answer to a promise, an exponential Woody Guthrie. If you came from a place where you believed that folk songs could change the world outside the individual, the political landscape, and social hierarchy, then this song and this Bob Dylan would certainly have been exhibit “A” proof.
That infamous tag he has spent a lifetime dodging, “The Voice of a Generation” is understandable when you listen to A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall. In an interview with 60 minutes Bob seemed at a loss himself as to where songs like Hard Rain came from. He was asked if he could write songs like it anymore. “No” was his answer, that comes once and you’re lucky if you receive it at all.
This is the Wiki entry:
Dylan was only 21 years old when he wrote one of his most complex songs, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", often referred to as "Hard Rain". Dylan is said to have premiered "Hard Rain" at the Gaslight Cafe, where Village performer Peter Blankfield was in attendance. "He put out these pieces of loose-leaf paper ripped out of a spiral notebook. And he starts singing ['Hard Rain']...He finished singing it, and no one could say anything. The length of it, the episodic sense of it. Every line kept building and bursting".
Dylan performed "Hard Rain" days later at Carnegie Hall on September 22, 1962, as part of a concert organized by Pete Seeger. Seeger was so impressed by "Hard Rain", he covered it himself in his own set.
Many critics interpreted the lyric 'hard rain' as a reference to nuclear fallout, but Dylan resisted the specificity of this interpretation. In a radio interview with Studs Terkel in 1963, Dylan said,
"No, it's not atomic rain, it's just a hard rain. It isn't the fallout rain. I mean some sort of end that's just gotta happen... In the last verse, when I say, 'the pellets of poison are flooding the waters', that means all the lies that people get told on their radios and in their newspapers."
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan is off the board (slow tear falls for Girl From the North Country, Bob Dylan’s Dream, Masters of War, Talkin’ World War III Blues, Blowing in the Wind).
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 7
Track 7. True Love Tends To Forget
I have an unabashed fetish for Street Legal. If you check my all time top ten albums list from an earlier blog you will see Street Legal sitting pretty at number 6. This track embodies that whole record. It is funky, the soul singing back up is there. Bob’s vocal is really forceful and yanks your arm. It is wrapped up in a curious mysticism that underpins Street Legal:
“I was lyin' down in the reeds without any oxygen
I saw you in the wilderness among the men.
Saw you drift into infinity and come back again
All you got to do is wait and I'll tell you when.”
For me you couldn’t create a larger hole in Dylan’s catalog then if you removed Street Legal. I just have never heard anything like it. I love that through the process of elimination this song made the cut. It fits perfectly.
Street Legal is off the board (slow tear falls for all of the above).
I have an unabashed fetish for Street Legal. If you check my all time top ten albums list from an earlier blog you will see Street Legal sitting pretty at number 6. This track embodies that whole record. It is funky, the soul singing back up is there. Bob’s vocal is really forceful and yanks your arm. It is wrapped up in a curious mysticism that underpins Street Legal:
“I was lyin' down in the reeds without any oxygen
I saw you in the wilderness among the men.
Saw you drift into infinity and come back again
All you got to do is wait and I'll tell you when.”
For me you couldn’t create a larger hole in Dylan’s catalog then if you removed Street Legal. I just have never heard anything like it. I love that through the process of elimination this song made the cut. It fits perfectly.
Street Legal is off the board (slow tear falls for all of the above).
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 8
Track 8. Mr. Tambourine Man
In reviewing Bob’s discography I notice that this is the side two for the vinyl Bringing It All Back Home:
Side two
1. "Mr. Tambourine Man" – 5:30
2. "Gates of Eden" – 5:40
3. "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" – 7:29
4. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" – 4:12
I am of the era of Compact Discs so this is the first time I had that fact register in my brain. My God, is this the greatest side in vinyl history? For you vinyl folks out there give me some competition.
That is a stunning thing to look at really. So heavy the ship starts sinking and the rats start climbing the mastheads.
If my memory serves me well, this is the first Dylan song I loved. It falls right in line with the imaginations of a young man and is determinedly some of the most beautiful lyrics Bob Dylan ever pinned. It’s a difficult song to come back to after you have taken the time to let the breadthof it sink in. I listened to it a thousand times, probably in a row in an obsessed fashion as a kid. I go back but rarely, it kind of haunts me in a way – weird.
Bringing It All Back Home is off the board (slow tear falls for Gates of Eden, It’s Allright Ma, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, Love Minus Zero No Limit, She Belongs To Me).
In reviewing Bob’s discography I notice that this is the side two for the vinyl Bringing It All Back Home:
Side two
1. "Mr. Tambourine Man" – 5:30
2. "Gates of Eden" – 5:40
3. "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" – 7:29
4. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" – 4:12
I am of the era of Compact Discs so this is the first time I had that fact register in my brain. My God, is this the greatest side in vinyl history? For you vinyl folks out there give me some competition.
That is a stunning thing to look at really. So heavy the ship starts sinking and the rats start climbing the mastheads.
If my memory serves me well, this is the first Dylan song I loved. It falls right in line with the imaginations of a young man and is determinedly some of the most beautiful lyrics Bob Dylan ever pinned. It’s a difficult song to come back to after you have taken the time to let the breadthof it sink in. I listened to it a thousand times, probably in a row in an obsessed fashion as a kid. I go back but rarely, it kind of haunts me in a way – weird.
Bringing It All Back Home is off the board (slow tear falls for Gates of Eden, It’s Allright Ma, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, Love Minus Zero No Limit, She Belongs To Me).
Monday, June 1, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 9
Track 9. Desolation Row
Track ten on disc one better be ridiculous if it actually follows Desolation Row. I had a real real hard time with what song to use off of Highway 61 Revisited. From my earlier favorite ten albums of all time blog you will find Highway 61 at numero uno. This album is the big cheese, the trifecta of where the sound met the songwriting met the meteoric Dylan. It came down to Like A Rolling Stone, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues and Desolation Row. In the mixing and matching with the one per album rule Desolation Row came out of the wash.
I have over the last year been waste deep in learning the ins and outs of playing guitar. So being a Dylan fan it lead me (of course) to the incredible dylanchords site run by Eyolf Østrem. To my surprise this most epic song is only three simple chords, so I started strumming and singing the song entertaining myself and then, abruptly, I stopped.
I laughed all by myself, who the hell did I think I was to play Desolation Row? This has always been for me the most mind-boggling song of them all. In the song I Walk the Line Revisited, Rodney Crowell sings about hearing, for the first time, I Walk the Line and he says:
“Sounded like the whole thing came right down from outer space.”
I know exactly how he feels. I mean seriously, some guy mixed the final of Desolation Row and then a group of guys listened to the final cut before releasing it for the record.
Record Producer: “I think that’s a keeper Bob.”
Bob: “I’m happy with it.”
Record Producer: “Let’s go get some Chinese take out.”
Bob: “I’m gonna head back to the hotel for a swim.”
Me: “Pbbbbbbbbbbbbffffffffffffttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!”
The accenting guitar that Charlie McCoy plays throughout absolutely sets Desolation Row. Desolation Row, arguably Bob Dylan’s greatest song on what is my all time favorite album. Yikes!!! Should I just stop here?
Track ten on disc one better be ridiculous if it actually follows Desolation Row. I had a real real hard time with what song to use off of Highway 61 Revisited. From my earlier favorite ten albums of all time blog you will find Highway 61 at numero uno. This album is the big cheese, the trifecta of where the sound met the songwriting met the meteoric Dylan. It came down to Like A Rolling Stone, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues and Desolation Row. In the mixing and matching with the one per album rule Desolation Row came out of the wash.
I have over the last year been waste deep in learning the ins and outs of playing guitar. So being a Dylan fan it lead me (of course) to the incredible dylanchords site run by Eyolf Østrem. To my surprise this most epic song is only three simple chords, so I started strumming and singing the song entertaining myself and then, abruptly, I stopped.
I laughed all by myself, who the hell did I think I was to play Desolation Row? This has always been for me the most mind-boggling song of them all. In the song I Walk the Line Revisited, Rodney Crowell sings about hearing, for the first time, I Walk the Line and he says:
“Sounded like the whole thing came right down from outer space.”
I know exactly how he feels. I mean seriously, some guy mixed the final of Desolation Row and then a group of guys listened to the final cut before releasing it for the record.
Record Producer: “I think that’s a keeper Bob.”
Bob: “I’m happy with it.”
Record Producer: “Let’s go get some Chinese take out.”
Bob: “I’m gonna head back to the hotel for a swim.”
Me: “Pbbbbbbbbbbbbffffffffffffttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!”
The accenting guitar that Charlie McCoy plays throughout absolutely sets Desolation Row. Desolation Row, arguably Bob Dylan’s greatest song on what is my all time favorite album. Yikes!!! Should I just stop here?
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 1 Song 10
Track 10. Dark Eyes
We knew you had it in you Empire Burlesque. So disc one begins with Jokerman and ends with Dark Eyes. Take that Bob in the 80’s critics! I have to admit that Empire Burlesque would be way down low on my Bob Dylan Album rankings (this could be my next list no one reads). That’s the thing about Dark Eyes though, it is separate from the rest of the record in sound, depth, and tone. This is also the quality that allowed it to follow Desolation Row. If Bob can stick this bad rascal on the end of Empire Burlesque, then I can do the same for disc 1 of Blood On My Tracks.
I would say Dark Eyes is the best (maybe one or two other songs) unheard song off an original Dylan album by sort of hip into Dylan, quasi casual yet appreciative of his Bobness, folks out there. It is my go to when many times I’ve been asked (sort of):
“Hey man, Time Out of Mind blew my brains out and I love all those albums from the 60’s and Blood on the Tracks, what song that I haven’t heard yet would kick my ass like that?”
“Have you ever heard Dark Eyes?”
“Dark what?”
“There you go, Dark Eyes all the way.”
Here is what Disc One looks like:
Disc 1
1. Jokerman - Infidels
2. Day of the Locusts – New Morning
3. Visions of Johanna – Blonde on Blonde
4. Blood In My Eyes – World Gone Wrong
5. Red River Shore – Tell Tale Signs
6. A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
7. True Love Tends To Forget – Street Legal
8. Mr. Tambourine Man – Bringing It All Back Home
9. Desolation Row – Highway 61 Revisited
10. Dark Eyes – Empire Burlesque
Hot damn that looks fine to me.
Pretty wild that I have the “big three” all on disc one – Bringing It All, Highway 61, and Blonde on Blonde. What could possibly be in store for Disc two, which could only pale in comparison (or maybe not).
Empire Burlesque is off the board (no tears to be found).
We knew you had it in you Empire Burlesque. So disc one begins with Jokerman and ends with Dark Eyes. Take that Bob in the 80’s critics! I have to admit that Empire Burlesque would be way down low on my Bob Dylan Album rankings (this could be my next list no one reads). That’s the thing about Dark Eyes though, it is separate from the rest of the record in sound, depth, and tone. This is also the quality that allowed it to follow Desolation Row. If Bob can stick this bad rascal on the end of Empire Burlesque, then I can do the same for disc 1 of Blood On My Tracks.
I would say Dark Eyes is the best (maybe one or two other songs) unheard song off an original Dylan album by sort of hip into Dylan, quasi casual yet appreciative of his Bobness, folks out there. It is my go to when many times I’ve been asked (sort of):
“Hey man, Time Out of Mind blew my brains out and I love all those albums from the 60’s and Blood on the Tracks, what song that I haven’t heard yet would kick my ass like that?”
“Have you ever heard Dark Eyes?”
“Dark what?”
“There you go, Dark Eyes all the way.”
Here is what Disc One looks like:
Disc 1
1. Jokerman - Infidels
2. Day of the Locusts – New Morning
3. Visions of Johanna – Blonde on Blonde
4. Blood In My Eyes – World Gone Wrong
5. Red River Shore – Tell Tale Signs
6. A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
7. True Love Tends To Forget – Street Legal
8. Mr. Tambourine Man – Bringing It All Back Home
9. Desolation Row – Highway 61 Revisited
10. Dark Eyes – Empire Burlesque
Hot damn that looks fine to me.
Pretty wild that I have the “big three” all on disc one – Bringing It All, Highway 61, and Blonde on Blonde. What could possibly be in store for Disc two, which could only pale in comparison (or maybe not).
Empire Burlesque is off the board (no tears to be found).
Friday, May 29, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 1
Track 1. Tangled Up In Blue
We all knew this was coming right? Right. My brother Brian and I have discussed on many separate occasions the importance of an opening track for an album. Sometimes I think I hide like a scared little baby from this album. It did not make my top ten list, and it could very well be better than all of them. The previously mentioned Eyolf Østrem who runs the dylanchords (click on Self Ordained Tab on the left and scroll down to Blood on the Tracks) site certainly thinks so.
I caught Springsteen a couple of times on the solo Ghost of Tom Joad tour. One show was in Birmingham and he started out with a preposterous version of The River. Bossman set the bar wayyyyy up there for that show like a challenge to himself and the intensity never waned from there. That’s exactly what Tangled Up In Blue does for Blood on the Tracks. It stands alone as probably my favorite first track (yet another future list…) and opens the doors to this classic album.
If I go with someone to see Bob Dylan live and they have never seen him this is the one I hope he plays. It never fails to ignite an audience and there has been many different lyrical incarnations of the song live. It’s a line of demarcation song for me, a black and white, which side are you on song. If you don’t like, hell if you don’t really like Tangled Up In Blue I simply will be unable to communicate with you about music nor would I want to. Right or wrong Tangled Up In Blue means that much to me.
Blood on the Tracks is off the board (slow tear falls as I go out of my mind with a pain that stops and starts like a corkscrew to my heart for If You See Her Say Hello, Idiot Wind, Simple Twist of Fate, Lily –Rosemary - and the Jack of Hearts, Shelter From the Storm, You’re a Big Girl Now).
Man I am so scared of Blood on the Tracks, I need a pacifier.
We all knew this was coming right? Right. My brother Brian and I have discussed on many separate occasions the importance of an opening track for an album. Sometimes I think I hide like a scared little baby from this album. It did not make my top ten list, and it could very well be better than all of them. The previously mentioned Eyolf Østrem who runs the dylanchords (click on Self Ordained Tab on the left and scroll down to Blood on the Tracks) site certainly thinks so.
I caught Springsteen a couple of times on the solo Ghost of Tom Joad tour. One show was in Birmingham and he started out with a preposterous version of The River. Bossman set the bar wayyyyy up there for that show like a challenge to himself and the intensity never waned from there. That’s exactly what Tangled Up In Blue does for Blood on the Tracks. It stands alone as probably my favorite first track (yet another future list…) and opens the doors to this classic album.
If I go with someone to see Bob Dylan live and they have never seen him this is the one I hope he plays. It never fails to ignite an audience and there has been many different lyrical incarnations of the song live. It’s a line of demarcation song for me, a black and white, which side are you on song. If you don’t like, hell if you don’t really like Tangled Up In Blue I simply will be unable to communicate with you about music nor would I want to. Right or wrong Tangled Up In Blue means that much to me.
Blood on the Tracks is off the board (slow tear falls as I go out of my mind with a pain that stops and starts like a corkscrew to my heart for If You See Her Say Hello, Idiot Wind, Simple Twist of Fate, Lily –Rosemary - and the Jack of Hearts, Shelter From the Storm, You’re a Big Girl Now).
Man I am so scared of Blood on the Tracks, I need a pacifier.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Bullying the Jukebox Volume 1 The Mayhaws - Lonely Places
Bullying the Jukebox Volume 1 The Mayhaws Lonely Places
I decided to take a little break from my by the numbers Dylan mix to start a new series entitled Bullying the Jukebox. This term comes from a song of the same name by The Bouncing Souls off of their CD Hopeless Romantic. I am beginning to see that I am becoming a prisoner of my time. I am hopelessly tied to the Compact Disc. I-Pods etc. be damned.
From time to time a bully comes around in the old CD case I carry in my car and is downright hateful towards its well respected brethren. When this fortunate for me, unfortunate to the other abandoned discs event happens I’m going to try to chronicle it here. For the last two weeks Mr. Bully has been in the surprising form of Lonely Places by Tallahassee locals The Mayhaws (bumping the former tough guy Together Through Life by Bob Dylan).
As chronicled I am knee deep in learning acoustic guitar, lots of calluses on fingers and blank stares from my Daughter Ireland and Hound Dog Cooper. As part of this I made up my mind to go out of the way to see if there were folks around Tallahassee playing the kind of stuff I eventually wanted to learn. In the newspaper (yeah newspaper – CD’s…old…) I saw a listing for an open bluegrass / folk session held at a local Irish themed joint called Finnegan’s Wake on the first Sunday of the month.
I went and I liked what I heard. Actually I really liked what I heard. There was a good mix of players; some near beginner, some midland, some hot. They all seemed to know each other pretty well and there was an open friendly vibe with the whole thing. Sitting and watching I wasn’t made to feel like an intruder or eavesdropper, which was nice.
Flexing my Google skills and simply asking folks “Hey who is that person?” I discovered The Mayhaws. A couple of the members had been there – Carrie Hamby and Dave Leporati. I liked the way Carrie sang and I liked the way Dave played mandolin. But mostly I dug their energy, it was all over them that they really loved the music.
I made it to a couple of Mayhaws shows (too infrequent!) the most recent being the CD release party for Lonely Places at Bird’s Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack. Don’t worry ma’ it’s a pretty friendly place. The show was real good and the place was stuffed. There was even an accordion fest during the break.
Despite another real good show I wasn’t too inclined to pick up a CD. Then I heard that distant whispering voice of my bride Tracy.
“Bet it’s good you cheap bastard.”
I’ve learned to listen to the inner wife voice (sometimes) so I picked up a copy for a fair price of ten dollars. My inner wife voice knew what it was talking about.
I do my fair share to support local music but on the same front if I don’t like it, I don’t like it. There is something in me incapable of tolerating music I don’t care for. It’s a character flaw and one I fear will show it’s ugly face as my daughter grows into her Hanna Montana years. When I’ve gone out locally most of the stuff is uninspiring, a rare surprise here and there but most of the time not so much when it comes to local bands, especially the records. The older I’ve got in my musification the more I appreciate the importance of record production. May be a good band or singer or whatever but the low budget record just doesn’t have the sound.
Then we have Lonely Places a big old 14-song collection of really enjoyable tunes. Of the 14 songs only 4 are covers leaving us ten possible insights into the collective spirit of the Mayhaws.
Some initial thoughts: Cheer up you guys. On second thought cheer down the title track really is a whopper, on third thought stop all medication, increase all drinking quotas and listen only to Townes Van Zandt or Johnny Paycheck records, Ride the Pine is great. The songs on the album written by Dave Leporati rejoice in the wonderful mystery that is head hung low honky tonk that makes one ask that eternal question: “Why do I love listening to songs that are so damn depressing? And are they depressing if they bring joy to my ears?”
A few highlights –
Track 1. Bite the Bitter – The info out there on Sharla June, who wrote and sings on this one, mention phrases like weird, quirky, strange but infectious. Well shit, I hear what they’re saying. First time around on Bite the Bitter I thought “that’s cute” second time around “this ain’t so cute.” third time around and after “that’s just a real good song.”
Track 2. Lonely Places – Yes! Unashamed to deliver a shameful, lonely, pathetic, Haggardy like song about drinking and misery. Carrie Hamby sings her you know what off on this.
“To make the only lonely face in this place fade awaaaaayheyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.”
Pop, fizz, gulp, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Track 3. Drivin’ on 9 - I just love the way Sharla June sings this, holding on to some words just long enough to keep them alive. Cool cover of a song I’ve never heard before.
Track 10. Ride the Pine – I played basketball in High School, well I didn’t play much I sat the bench which they called riding the pine. This song has nothing to do with High School Basketball folks. Iris Dement wrote “I live just the way I want to and that’s the way I should.” This is a eulogy for someone who lives that creed. Unapologetic and raw and really well played by the band here.
Track 11. Hard Times – No not that Hard Times, the ones lingering around this cabin door are of the self inflicted variety. This song is a good lesson for the kiddies and a truckload of fun. I played it for my Dad over in Lynn Haven and he busted out the infamous Jerry shuffle. When the old man breaks into “the most embarrassing aspect of being me” you have the official O’Dell stamp of approval.
Yeah, I know you’re probably a little wishy washy but go ahead and buy Lonely Places and you can thank me later, just buy me a couple of beers at the next Tallahassee Mayhaws show (whenever that is – hint hint). Make sure you apologize to your other CD’s, they will probably get a little bit jealous.
I decided to take a little break from my by the numbers Dylan mix to start a new series entitled Bullying the Jukebox. This term comes from a song of the same name by The Bouncing Souls off of their CD Hopeless Romantic. I am beginning to see that I am becoming a prisoner of my time. I am hopelessly tied to the Compact Disc. I-Pods etc. be damned.
From time to time a bully comes around in the old CD case I carry in my car and is downright hateful towards its well respected brethren. When this fortunate for me, unfortunate to the other abandoned discs event happens I’m going to try to chronicle it here. For the last two weeks Mr. Bully has been in the surprising form of Lonely Places by Tallahassee locals The Mayhaws (bumping the former tough guy Together Through Life by Bob Dylan).
As chronicled I am knee deep in learning acoustic guitar, lots of calluses on fingers and blank stares from my Daughter Ireland and Hound Dog Cooper. As part of this I made up my mind to go out of the way to see if there were folks around Tallahassee playing the kind of stuff I eventually wanted to learn. In the newspaper (yeah newspaper – CD’s…old…) I saw a listing for an open bluegrass / folk session held at a local Irish themed joint called Finnegan’s Wake on the first Sunday of the month.
I went and I liked what I heard. Actually I really liked what I heard. There was a good mix of players; some near beginner, some midland, some hot. They all seemed to know each other pretty well and there was an open friendly vibe with the whole thing. Sitting and watching I wasn’t made to feel like an intruder or eavesdropper, which was nice.
Flexing my Google skills and simply asking folks “Hey who is that person?” I discovered The Mayhaws. A couple of the members had been there – Carrie Hamby and Dave Leporati. I liked the way Carrie sang and I liked the way Dave played mandolin. But mostly I dug their energy, it was all over them that they really loved the music.
I made it to a couple of Mayhaws shows (too infrequent!) the most recent being the CD release party for Lonely Places at Bird’s Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack. Don’t worry ma’ it’s a pretty friendly place. The show was real good and the place was stuffed. There was even an accordion fest during the break.
Despite another real good show I wasn’t too inclined to pick up a CD. Then I heard that distant whispering voice of my bride Tracy.
“Bet it’s good you cheap bastard.”
I’ve learned to listen to the inner wife voice (sometimes) so I picked up a copy for a fair price of ten dollars. My inner wife voice knew what it was talking about.
I do my fair share to support local music but on the same front if I don’t like it, I don’t like it. There is something in me incapable of tolerating music I don’t care for. It’s a character flaw and one I fear will show it’s ugly face as my daughter grows into her Hanna Montana years. When I’ve gone out locally most of the stuff is uninspiring, a rare surprise here and there but most of the time not so much when it comes to local bands, especially the records. The older I’ve got in my musification the more I appreciate the importance of record production. May be a good band or singer or whatever but the low budget record just doesn’t have the sound.
Then we have Lonely Places a big old 14-song collection of really enjoyable tunes. Of the 14 songs only 4 are covers leaving us ten possible insights into the collective spirit of the Mayhaws.
Some initial thoughts: Cheer up you guys. On second thought cheer down the title track really is a whopper, on third thought stop all medication, increase all drinking quotas and listen only to Townes Van Zandt or Johnny Paycheck records, Ride the Pine is great. The songs on the album written by Dave Leporati rejoice in the wonderful mystery that is head hung low honky tonk that makes one ask that eternal question: “Why do I love listening to songs that are so damn depressing? And are they depressing if they bring joy to my ears?”
A few highlights –
Track 1. Bite the Bitter – The info out there on Sharla June, who wrote and sings on this one, mention phrases like weird, quirky, strange but infectious. Well shit, I hear what they’re saying. First time around on Bite the Bitter I thought “that’s cute” second time around “this ain’t so cute.” third time around and after “that’s just a real good song.”
Track 2. Lonely Places – Yes! Unashamed to deliver a shameful, lonely, pathetic, Haggardy like song about drinking and misery. Carrie Hamby sings her you know what off on this.
“To make the only lonely face in this place fade awaaaaayheyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.”
Pop, fizz, gulp, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Track 3. Drivin’ on 9 - I just love the way Sharla June sings this, holding on to some words just long enough to keep them alive. Cool cover of a song I’ve never heard before.
Track 10. Ride the Pine – I played basketball in High School, well I didn’t play much I sat the bench which they called riding the pine. This song has nothing to do with High School Basketball folks. Iris Dement wrote “I live just the way I want to and that’s the way I should.” This is a eulogy for someone who lives that creed. Unapologetic and raw and really well played by the band here.
Track 11. Hard Times – No not that Hard Times, the ones lingering around this cabin door are of the self inflicted variety. This song is a good lesson for the kiddies and a truckload of fun. I played it for my Dad over in Lynn Haven and he busted out the infamous Jerry shuffle. When the old man breaks into “the most embarrassing aspect of being me” you have the official O’Dell stamp of approval.
Yeah, I know you’re probably a little wishy washy but go ahead and buy Lonely Places and you can thank me later, just buy me a couple of beers at the next Tallahassee Mayhaws show (whenever that is – hint hint). Make sure you apologize to your other CD’s, they will probably get a little bit jealous.
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 2
Track 2. Mississippi
The home of Jimmie Rodgers and Robert Johnson on that Highway 61 that leads right up to Hibbing Minnesota. I've got to say that Bob Dylan has written a grand statement for anyone in love with American Roots music.
“Only one thing I did wrong. I stayed in Mississippi a day too long.”
There is so much in that line, it really does say it all if you too are in love with those old songs. Like a Rolling Stone had the fire of someone on the way. Mississippi is just as alive with the fire of someone who has been there.
“My clothes are wet, tight on my skin
Not as tight as the corner that I painted myself in
I know that fortune is waitin' to be kind
So give me your hand and say you'll be mine”
The melody is one of his best, Mississippi is just a great song.
Love and Theft is off the board. Slow tear falls for High Water, Summer Days, Cry a While, Po Boy, Moonlight.
The home of Jimmie Rodgers and Robert Johnson on that Highway 61 that leads right up to Hibbing Minnesota. I've got to say that Bob Dylan has written a grand statement for anyone in love with American Roots music.
“Only one thing I did wrong. I stayed in Mississippi a day too long.”
There is so much in that line, it really does say it all if you too are in love with those old songs. Like a Rolling Stone had the fire of someone on the way. Mississippi is just as alive with the fire of someone who has been there.
“My clothes are wet, tight on my skin
Not as tight as the corner that I painted myself in
I know that fortune is waitin' to be kind
So give me your hand and say you'll be mine”
The melody is one of his best, Mississippi is just a great song.
Love and Theft is off the board. Slow tear falls for High Water, Summer Days, Cry a While, Po Boy, Moonlight.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 3
Track 3. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
Oh man do I love this one. It is my favorite song to sing along to. From the first time I heard this off of John Wesley Harding it was pure magic. I’ve been to a number of Dylan shows (somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30) and I always do a list of five songs I would like to hear. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine has been on each one. This was last played on 11/26/05 in Dublin (per the great last time Bob played a song blog).
Never did get a chance to see it live, but there’s always next show.
John Wesley Harding is off the board. Slow tear falls for I Pity the Poor Immigrant and The Wicked Messenger.
Oh man do I love this one. It is my favorite song to sing along to. From the first time I heard this off of John Wesley Harding it was pure magic. I’ve been to a number of Dylan shows (somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30) and I always do a list of five songs I would like to hear. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine has been on each one. This was last played on 11/26/05 in Dublin (per the great last time Bob played a song blog).
Never did get a chance to see it live, but there’s always next show.
John Wesley Harding is off the board. Slow tear falls for I Pity the Poor Immigrant and The Wicked Messenger.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 4
Track 4. Chimes of Freedom
Recently Murray Lerner released a time capsule bombshell documentary film entitled The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. It chronicles the performances by Bob Dylan from 1963-64-65 at the festival. It is hard to fathom the change from the first performance, a sit down version of North Country Blues (where he looks like what he was, a very young kid engrossed in the folk idiom) to the final performance including the infamous going electric set with Maggie’s Farm, Like a Rolling Stone rattling the cages.
Bob jokes on the Scorcese Documentary No Direction Home that he went to the crossroads. That old Robert Johnson blues legend of selling your soul to the devil to be able to play “it”. When you watch this documentary the concept doesn’t seem so ridiculous.
The apex for me was not the electric set but instead the earth moving, hollering version of Chimes of Freedom that closes out the 1964 session.
After seeing this on film in that setting I now believe that Chimes of Freedom is the best song he has ever recorded which would mean it is possibly the greatest song in recorded history. How is that for over the top hyperbole!
Here it is…
Chimes Of Freedom
Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An' the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an' cheated by pursuit
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
If you haven’t seen the documentary the performance actually DOES THIS SONG JUSTICE.
Another Side of Bob Dylan is off the board. Slow tear falls for Ramona, Bob Dylan’s Dream, My Back Pages, I Don’t Believe You
Recently Murray Lerner released a time capsule bombshell documentary film entitled The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. It chronicles the performances by Bob Dylan from 1963-64-65 at the festival. It is hard to fathom the change from the first performance, a sit down version of North Country Blues (where he looks like what he was, a very young kid engrossed in the folk idiom) to the final performance including the infamous going electric set with Maggie’s Farm, Like a Rolling Stone rattling the cages.
Bob jokes on the Scorcese Documentary No Direction Home that he went to the crossroads. That old Robert Johnson blues legend of selling your soul to the devil to be able to play “it”. When you watch this documentary the concept doesn’t seem so ridiculous.
The apex for me was not the electric set but instead the earth moving, hollering version of Chimes of Freedom that closes out the 1964 session.
After seeing this on film in that setting I now believe that Chimes of Freedom is the best song he has ever recorded which would mean it is possibly the greatest song in recorded history. How is that for over the top hyperbole!
Here it is…
Chimes Of Freedom
Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An' the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an' cheated by pursuit
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
If you haven’t seen the documentary the performance actually DOES THIS SONG JUSTICE.
Another Side of Bob Dylan is off the board. Slow tear falls for Ramona, Bob Dylan’s Dream, My Back Pages, I Don’t Believe You
Friday, May 22, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 5
Track 5. Oh Sister
This is consistently an outstanding live song. In the Rolling Thunder Review “Bootleg Series” release version Dylan really belts it out. He even lays it on heavier on the release Hard Rain. That Scarlet Rivera violin that is peppered throughout Desire really is the focal point musically. Along with the vocals of Emmylou Harris it drives home the desperate longing of the lyric.
Oh Sister is a beautiful song.
Desire is off the board. Slow tear falls for Hurricane, One More Cup of Coffee, Romance in Durango, Black Diamond Bay, Joey
This is consistently an outstanding live song. In the Rolling Thunder Review “Bootleg Series” release version Dylan really belts it out. He even lays it on heavier on the release Hard Rain. That Scarlet Rivera violin that is peppered throughout Desire really is the focal point musically. Along with the vocals of Emmylou Harris it drives home the desperate longing of the lyric.
Oh Sister is a beautiful song.
Desire is off the board. Slow tear falls for Hurricane, One More Cup of Coffee, Romance in Durango, Black Diamond Bay, Joey
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 6
Track 6. Most of the Time
Oh Mercy man, Oh Mercy is one hell of an album. It set the Dylan parameter for me when I was in the initial phases of getting hooked. Bob Dylan was the 60’s icon, world changer, but he was also the guy who did Man in the Long Black Coat, Ring Them Bells and Most of the Time. Same guy, different universes. One of my favorite writers / bloggers is a guy named James Howard Kunstler, his main thing is architectural aesthetics and peak oil. His book The Geography of Nowhere is an insightful read about the development of American Suburbia focusing on the power plays of the automobile industry. He can be a grump ass about things (his weekly update is called Clusterfuck Nation) but I buy what he is selling usually.
On his website he reviews Chronicles Volume I (Bob’s self penned sort of autobiography) and in it he states the following:
“And by that, I include the possibility that he saw the danger of becoming a fraud, of slipping across a frontier into self-parody and baroque pretentiousness, which was almost the case with his 1966 magnum opus Blonde on Blonde. And after that Bob Dylan kind of flamed out.
It was one of the longest swan songs in the history of any art. He continued to produce an impressive stream of recordings for nearly forty years after that. The first of these, John Wesley Harding, was in its own right a perfect statement of Dylan's predicament and an appropriate announcement of his resignation from the post of generational bard. "Dear Landlord, please don't put a price on my soul. . . ." It contained one great song ("All Along theWatchtower"), and some pretty good songs ("I Dreamed I Saw Saint Augustine"), but the mystical language now seemed forced (e.g. "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"). The kernal of Dylan's genius, his supernatural conviction in his own doings, had cracked for good. Perhaps that conviction had been part of the act, too, but if it was, he had pulled it off masterfully for a decade. The many albums that followed were not devoid of interesting and sometimes even moving songs. Here and there the ghost of the old spark flashed. But after 1970, something essential was missing.”
It is this type of perspective that really makes me glad that I was born and got into Dylan long after that 60’s explosion. This is a common viewpoint, a pigeonhole, that you can understand if you lived when this stuff was hitting the shelves. It is that “back in my day (insert anything) was better”. I came from a place where in the same six months I took in Just Like a Woman, I Believe In You, Song to Woody, and Most of the Time all together. My evaluation of Dylan was on the whole, not based on my opinion of the previous. And for this review Kunstler is just wrong. Oh Mercy, not just a song but the whole record, should never on any planet be lumped into the category of a swan song. It is different, for sure, BUT JUST AS HEAVY, VITAL and MIND BLOWING.
When Springsteen inducted Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame he mentions that Dylan was unjustly placed in his own shadow and that if anyone out there was writing Every Grain of Sand or Sweetheart Like You they would be calling him the next Dylan. I nod my head in agreement Springsteen.
Kunstler concludes his review by stating with certainty that history will judge Dylan as the most important artist of his generation. What I have issue with is that “my generation” ownership label. I believe that Dylan is America’s Shakespeare and that history will prove him to be the most important artist since the formation of our country and this is due in large part to the entirety of his work. To go back to a previous thought he is the same guy who wrote Visions of Johanna AND Most of the Time (Not to mention the ridiculous roll he has been on since World Gone Wrong).
Oh Mercy is off the board. Slow tear falls for Ring Them Bells, Political World, Disease of Conceit, Man in the Long Black Coat, Shooting Star, What Good Am I?, Where Teardrops Fall.
Oh Mercy man, Oh Mercy is one hell of an album. It set the Dylan parameter for me when I was in the initial phases of getting hooked. Bob Dylan was the 60’s icon, world changer, but he was also the guy who did Man in the Long Black Coat, Ring Them Bells and Most of the Time. Same guy, different universes. One of my favorite writers / bloggers is a guy named James Howard Kunstler, his main thing is architectural aesthetics and peak oil. His book The Geography of Nowhere is an insightful read about the development of American Suburbia focusing on the power plays of the automobile industry. He can be a grump ass about things (his weekly update is called Clusterfuck Nation) but I buy what he is selling usually.
On his website he reviews Chronicles Volume I (Bob’s self penned sort of autobiography) and in it he states the following:
“And by that, I include the possibility that he saw the danger of becoming a fraud, of slipping across a frontier into self-parody and baroque pretentiousness, which was almost the case with his 1966 magnum opus Blonde on Blonde. And after that Bob Dylan kind of flamed out.
It was one of the longest swan songs in the history of any art. He continued to produce an impressive stream of recordings for nearly forty years after that. The first of these, John Wesley Harding, was in its own right a perfect statement of Dylan's predicament and an appropriate announcement of his resignation from the post of generational bard. "Dear Landlord, please don't put a price on my soul. . . ." It contained one great song ("All Along theWatchtower"), and some pretty good songs ("I Dreamed I Saw Saint Augustine"), but the mystical language now seemed forced (e.g. "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"). The kernal of Dylan's genius, his supernatural conviction in his own doings, had cracked for good. Perhaps that conviction had been part of the act, too, but if it was, he had pulled it off masterfully for a decade. The many albums that followed were not devoid of interesting and sometimes even moving songs. Here and there the ghost of the old spark flashed. But after 1970, something essential was missing.”
It is this type of perspective that really makes me glad that I was born and got into Dylan long after that 60’s explosion. This is a common viewpoint, a pigeonhole, that you can understand if you lived when this stuff was hitting the shelves. It is that “back in my day (insert anything) was better”. I came from a place where in the same six months I took in Just Like a Woman, I Believe In You, Song to Woody, and Most of the Time all together. My evaluation of Dylan was on the whole, not based on my opinion of the previous. And for this review Kunstler is just wrong. Oh Mercy, not just a song but the whole record, should never on any planet be lumped into the category of a swan song. It is different, for sure, BUT JUST AS HEAVY, VITAL and MIND BLOWING.
When Springsteen inducted Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame he mentions that Dylan was unjustly placed in his own shadow and that if anyone out there was writing Every Grain of Sand or Sweetheart Like You they would be calling him the next Dylan. I nod my head in agreement Springsteen.
Kunstler concludes his review by stating with certainty that history will judge Dylan as the most important artist of his generation. What I have issue with is that “my generation” ownership label. I believe that Dylan is America’s Shakespeare and that history will prove him to be the most important artist since the formation of our country and this is due in large part to the entirety of his work. To go back to a previous thought he is the same guy who wrote Visions of Johanna AND Most of the Time (Not to mention the ridiculous roll he has been on since World Gone Wrong).
Oh Mercy is off the board. Slow tear falls for Ring Them Bells, Political World, Disease of Conceit, Man in the Long Black Coat, Shooting Star, What Good Am I?, Where Teardrops Fall.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 7
Track 7. Not Dark Yet
This lighthearted little ditty is the centerpiece of the atmospheric and hypnotic album Time Out of Mind. At the execution houses in the U.S.A. there is the publicized shout of “dead man walking” when a member of death row is being escorted. You could take out the shout and insert “Not Dark Yet.” A lot of speculation about Time Out of Mind in general focused on a near fatal condition Dylan had but as the timeline played out these songs were recorded before that; but nonetheless Not Dark Yet emphasizes the impending, unavoidable ending of something.
Personally I see Not Dark Yet as a testament to the idea of holding on to something you should let go but simply can’t. The tune has an anthemic military march feel. The vocals are perfect here, a great rebuttal to the ever-present “Dylan can’t sing” argument.
“I was born here and I'll die here against my will
I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don't even hear a murmur of a prayer
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.”
Gulp. Talk about growing and evolving in your art. Dylan has stated that he couldn’t write songs like the ones on Highway 61 Revisited or Bringing it All Back Home again. Well, just as true is that the prodigy Dylan who wrote It’s All Over Now Baby Blue couldn’t have written Not Dark Yet. He could sound like he had been there but he couldn’t write it, no way.
Time Out of Mind is off the board. Slow tear falls for Love Sick, Standing in the Doorway, Cold Irons Bound, Highlands, Trying To Get To Heaven.
This lighthearted little ditty is the centerpiece of the atmospheric and hypnotic album Time Out of Mind. At the execution houses in the U.S.A. there is the publicized shout of “dead man walking” when a member of death row is being escorted. You could take out the shout and insert “Not Dark Yet.” A lot of speculation about Time Out of Mind in general focused on a near fatal condition Dylan had but as the timeline played out these songs were recorded before that; but nonetheless Not Dark Yet emphasizes the impending, unavoidable ending of something.
Personally I see Not Dark Yet as a testament to the idea of holding on to something you should let go but simply can’t. The tune has an anthemic military march feel. The vocals are perfect here, a great rebuttal to the ever-present “Dylan can’t sing” argument.
“I was born here and I'll die here against my will
I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don't even hear a murmur of a prayer
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.”
Gulp. Talk about growing and evolving in your art. Dylan has stated that he couldn’t write songs like the ones on Highway 61 Revisited or Bringing it All Back Home again. Well, just as true is that the prodigy Dylan who wrote It’s All Over Now Baby Blue couldn’t have written Not Dark Yet. He could sound like he had been there but he couldn’t write it, no way.
Time Out of Mind is off the board. Slow tear falls for Love Sick, Standing in the Doorway, Cold Irons Bound, Highlands, Trying To Get To Heaven.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 8
Track 8. Nettie Moore
Dylan has received a torrent of criticism for Modern Times in the arena of plagiarism for the musical and lyrical content. Give me a break. I too have my discovery and analysis, in the song Nettie Moore he uses what sounds like an E chord. Thief! I will nudge a little and say Bob could have put some basic acknowledgements on the liner notes but the fervent angry ones out there simply were looking for vulnerabilities in the armor. Many of the arguments are well based and argued with intelligence and foresight but in the end it all adds up to a big so what.
Nettie Moore takes its title, and some of its chorus, from an 1857 composition "Gentle Nettie Moore" by Marshall Pike and James Lord Pierpont. (I stole that line from Wikipedia). This is a gorgeous song and a testament to Dylan’s own production and understanding of how he wants his stuff to sound. On the first few listens Nettie Moore kind of slipped by my ears, being pinned between Working Man’s Blues # 2 and Ain’t Talkin’, but soon it grew a life of its own and is currently my favorite song on Modern Times.
Modern Times is off the board. Slow tear falls for Working Man’s Blues # 2 and Ain’t Talkin’.
Dylan has received a torrent of criticism for Modern Times in the arena of plagiarism for the musical and lyrical content. Give me a break. I too have my discovery and analysis, in the song Nettie Moore he uses what sounds like an E chord. Thief! I will nudge a little and say Bob could have put some basic acknowledgements on the liner notes but the fervent angry ones out there simply were looking for vulnerabilities in the armor. Many of the arguments are well based and argued with intelligence and foresight but in the end it all adds up to a big so what.
Nettie Moore takes its title, and some of its chorus, from an 1857 composition "Gentle Nettie Moore" by Marshall Pike and James Lord Pierpont. (I stole that line from Wikipedia). This is a gorgeous song and a testament to Dylan’s own production and understanding of how he wants his stuff to sound. On the first few listens Nettie Moore kind of slipped by my ears, being pinned between Working Man’s Blues # 2 and Ain’t Talkin’, but soon it grew a life of its own and is currently my favorite song on Modern Times.
Modern Times is off the board. Slow tear falls for Working Man’s Blues # 2 and Ain’t Talkin’.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 9
Track 9. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
In my previous top ten albums of all time I have The Times They Are A Changin’ at number 4. As part of the write up I stated
The Times They Are A-Changin' is a fierce piece of American history and for my taste is the best representation of the power of one person with a guitar and a song.
On no track is this power more evident than The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll. The kind of stuff in it that changes hearts instead of minds. The topical song of all topical songs, a bellringer, a knuckle sandwich, a venomous stab at haves and have nots and the systems that perpetuate their positions. Bob’s best closing verse. He shines a light on Bourgeois William Zanzinger and we sit and shake our head with self assurance at his self importance and abuse of poor Hattie Carroll then with a blinding shift Dylan puts on the high beam and turns the light on all of us, himself included.
"In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel
To show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly handled
Once that the cops have chased after and caught 'em
And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom,
Stared at the person who killed for no reason
Who just happened to be feelin' that way without warnin'.
And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished,
And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance,
William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence."
"Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears,
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears."
That word bury explodes through speakers. Leaving in it’s path pure American enlightenment.
The Times They Are A Changin’ is off the board. Slow tear falls for Restless Farewell, One Too Many Mornings, With God On Our Side, Only a Pawn In Their Game, When the Ship Comes In.
In my previous top ten albums of all time I have The Times They Are A Changin’ at number 4. As part of the write up I stated
The Times They Are A-Changin' is a fierce piece of American history and for my taste is the best representation of the power of one person with a guitar and a song.
On no track is this power more evident than The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll. The kind of stuff in it that changes hearts instead of minds. The topical song of all topical songs, a bellringer, a knuckle sandwich, a venomous stab at haves and have nots and the systems that perpetuate their positions. Bob’s best closing verse. He shines a light on Bourgeois William Zanzinger and we sit and shake our head with self assurance at his self importance and abuse of poor Hattie Carroll then with a blinding shift Dylan puts on the high beam and turns the light on all of us, himself included.
"In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel
To show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly handled
Once that the cops have chased after and caught 'em
And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom,
Stared at the person who killed for no reason
Who just happened to be feelin' that way without warnin'.
And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished,
And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance,
William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence."
"Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears,
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears."
That word bury explodes through speakers. Leaving in it’s path pure American enlightenment.
The Times They Are A Changin’ is off the board. Slow tear falls for Restless Farewell, One Too Many Mornings, With God On Our Side, Only a Pawn In Their Game, When the Ship Comes In.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Blood On My Tracks Disc 2 Song 10
Track 10. Every Grain of Sand
This song was going to anchor Blood On My Tracks and I knew it from the beginning of the concept. Every Grain of Sand is such a dear sweet friend to me, a relentless comforter. It stays with me on my journey - together through life. It touches my heart, the best parts of me and recalibrates my perspective. The harmonica solo within is the paradigm of beauty for me, it was the music I heard when I first held my daughter.
Like it always has been it was right there with me, just like it is in “my hour of deepest need.” Every Grain of Sand opened up a world of spiritual birth and beauty for me. Through it, this song, I came to an appreciation of awe in something more that what I can simply see or touch and it wasn’t under anyone else’s definition or terms but my own as I reflected on Every Grain of Sand.
Every Grain of Sand connected me with something I believed all along, deep down in there, that there is more to life than meets the eye. It was my initiator for a sense of wonder and I will always be indebted to it for that. I can say with conviction that this song fundamentally changed me, and the way the world looks through my eyes.
I believe a song can do that because Every Grain of Sand did it for me.
Shot of Love is off the board. Slow tear falls for In the Summertime, Property of Jesus, The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar.
This song was going to anchor Blood On My Tracks and I knew it from the beginning of the concept. Every Grain of Sand is such a dear sweet friend to me, a relentless comforter. It stays with me on my journey - together through life. It touches my heart, the best parts of me and recalibrates my perspective. The harmonica solo within is the paradigm of beauty for me, it was the music I heard when I first held my daughter.
Like it always has been it was right there with me, just like it is in “my hour of deepest need.” Every Grain of Sand opened up a world of spiritual birth and beauty for me. Through it, this song, I came to an appreciation of awe in something more that what I can simply see or touch and it wasn’t under anyone else’s definition or terms but my own as I reflected on Every Grain of Sand.
Every Grain of Sand connected me with something I believed all along, deep down in there, that there is more to life than meets the eye. It was my initiator for a sense of wonder and I will always be indebted to it for that. I can say with conviction that this song fundamentally changed me, and the way the world looks through my eyes.
I believe a song can do that because Every Grain of Sand did it for me.
Shot of Love is off the board. Slow tear falls for In the Summertime, Property of Jesus, The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar.
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