Press Play and Sit Your Ass Down: Dylan
It’s the age of the ipod, shuffle and playlists. But for some artists, albums matter. Some musicians don’t just write and perform songs, they create whole albums to be a start to finish listening experience. One of those artists is Bob Dylan. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe Bob. Simply put, he is THE premier songwriter of the last 50 years. His 35th studio album, Tempest drops on September 11th, so we put together a list of essential Dylan albums where you just have to press play.
So just press play. Sit your ass down. And listen.
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The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
When legendary producer John Hammond signed Bob Dylan, he was convinced he had found the heir apparent to Woody Guthrie. But when the first album barely broke even, executives called Dylan ‘Hammond’s Folly’ and tried to persuade the producer to cut ties. Hammond held firm and stood by the young singer-songwriter. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan erased all doubts. It has five complete masterpieces that have covered many times over: ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, ‘Girl From North Country’, ‘Masters Of War’, ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’, and ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’. Hammond vindicated. It also features the classic Don Hunstein cover photo featuring Bob and his then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo walking down the street in the West Village. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan marks the arrival of the voice of a generation.
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Bringing It All Back Home
After establishing himself as the voice of the folk movement, Dylan blew up that image once and for all with his 5th LP. Moving away from protest songs and into abstract, Beat-like poetry, Bringing It All Back Home became marked a bold new direction. The first half of the album – which features Dylan backed by an electric band – presages the singer-songwriter era by at least 5 years (and punk by 10) as they roll through tracks ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, ‘She Belongs To Me’, ‘Maggie’s Farm’, ‘Outlaw Blues’ and ‘On The Road Again’. The second half features Dylan alone on acoustic guitar, but songs such as ‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’, and ‘Gates Of Eden’ are notable for their use of surrealist imagery more than direct protest lyrics. The stunning closer, ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’ is either the best song ever written about the end of the relationship or his final farewell to the folk movement (he wouldn’t make another folk album for close to 20 years). Bringing It All Back Home is without a doubt, the greatest ‘transition’ album ever made.
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Highway 61 Revisited
Released just over four months after Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan settles into his new skin and loves it. ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, ‘Queen Jane Approximately’ and ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’ serve as both indictments and warnings to the establishment. A revisionist look at Chicago blues is represented to great effect on ‘Tombstone Blues’, and ‘From A Buick 6’. The title track manages to connect Biblical imagery with a stretch of highway that covers the course of the Mississippi – with the aid of a police whistle. Corruption, booze and drugs dominated an ill-fated trip to Mexico in ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’ while ‘Desolation Row’ is rich with characters ranging from Noah to Cinderella. With Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan’s transformation from folk icon to rock n roll star is complete.
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Blonde On Blonde
After the creative and commercial breakthroughs of Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan had every reason to dial it down. Instead, he doubled down, crafting and creating songs at a breakneck pace. After sessions in New York didn’t get the desired results, he went to Nashville and cut so much extraordinary material that it warranted a double album. Blonde On Blonde puts it all together: The whimsical (‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35), the epic (‘Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands’, ‘Visions Of Johanna’, ‘Stuck Inside This Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again’), the bluesy (‘Pledging My Time, ‘Obviously 5 Believers’) and some biting satire (‘Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat’). Love is highly represented in all of its forms though it’s extremely dark in tone. ‘Just Like A Woman’, ‘Most Likely To Go Your Way’, ‘One Of Us Must Know’, and ‘4th Time Around’ all show the relationships at its frayed endings. Even the bright sounding ‘I Want You’ depicts a love unfulfilled. Blonde On Blonde finds Bob Dylan at the peak of his creative powers.
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Blood On The Tracks
Dylan wrote this devastating song cycle after he and his then-wife Sara’s breakup. Though he has denied the album was autobiographical, the songs tell a different story. Ripe with anger (‘Idiot Wind’), regret (‘You’re A Big Girl Now’, ‘If You See Her, Say Hello’, ‘Buckets Of Rain’), loneliness (‘You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go’), and complex relationships (‘Tangled Up In Blue’ and the epic, ‘Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts), Blood On The Tracks is not only the confessional singer-songwriter album, it’s the closest he’s ever come to bearing his true soul on wax. A mid-period triumph.
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Time Out Of Mind
Dylan’s second collaboration with legendary producer Daniel Lanois marked a bit of creative rebirth for Dylan. After trying to maintain and keep up with the current recording trends and working with ‘hot’ producers, Dylan made the decision to recapture the sound of records that moved him in his formative years. Lanois was in the same mindset but also added little splashes of current production to create a new ‘back to the future’ feel to the album. The songs were also reflective of his influences. The two most sweeping songs, ‘Not Dark Yet’ and the 16 minute ‘Highlands’ draw their inspiration from John Keats and Robert Burns respectively. ‘Love Sick’ and ‘Dirt Road Blues’ and ‘Cold Iron Bounds’ are updates on the classic Sun Records sound of the 1950’s. ‘Make You Feel My Love became an instant classic. Its been covered by Billy Joel, Garth Brooks and Adele. A critical and commercial success, Time Out Of My Mind won three Grammy Awards including Album Of The Year. Bob Dylan was back.
