When I recently counted down my list of favorite 70s albums, Blood on the Tracks was the only Bob Dylan album to make the cut. I considered adding The Basement Tapes and especially Desire to that list but ultimately decided to make room for other artists.
Listening to ‘Black Diamond Bay,’ today’s Random Weekend selection, I find myself rethinking that decision. Desire is a fabulous collection, as lyrically rich and sonically beautiful as anything Dylan has recorded.
Exactly one week ago, I predicted a flood of Bob Dylan tracks on Random Weekends to match the onslaught of Elvis Costello. The two artists most represented in my music collection should, over time, be the two artists most represented in this series, no?
Well, here we go. And while it doesn’t seem fair that two songwriters who have had their own dedicated weekends (lasting close to a year in total) should dominate this one, I can’t feign disappointment over the selection of this alternate take of ‘Desolation Row’ culled from the No Direction Home soundtrack.
OK, I understand that truly random groupings will always result in clusters that appear anything but random, but it still seems weird that this series has turned into Elvis Costello Bonus Track Weekends over the past several weeks.
Nothing against Mr. Costello, who is of course one of my very favorite artists, but it’s time to give somebody else a shot! And while all of these bonus tracks are enjoyable enough, they mostly justify the fact that they were left off of his official releases.
Three of the last six Random Weekend decisions have come from Elvis Costello which I suppose makes sense given the law of averages. I have more Costello tunes than tracks by any other artist but Bob Dylan. I guess we can expect a flood of Mr. Zimmerman any time now.
Today’s track is another of the many bonus tracks offered up on the many reissues of Costello’s albums. And to point out the absurd degree of reissuing applied to Costello’s catalog, allow me to submit that this song has appeared in two different incarnations on four different releases.
I’ve never really gotten Brian Eno.
I like his work as a producer (including memorable albums by U2, Talking Heads, Sinead O’Connor, Paul Simon and Coldplay) but the few times I’ve heard him step out from behind the boards he puts me to sleep.
Eno goes for that whole ambient soundscape thing and while I’m sure his version of it is deeper and more meaningful than most, it still reminds me of those stand-up CD stands you see at Target hawking titles like Tranquility and A Spring Morning.
Meet Me In Montauk 