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).