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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment