In terms of longevity and output, Bob Dylan is the standout among this week’s group of old men. The 79-year-old released his 39th studio album earlier this year, as he nears his 60th year of recording.
Rough and Rowdy Ways is Dylan’s first album of original material since 2012’s Tempest. He spent the time in-between releasing three albums of standards (including the three-disc Triplicate), but clearly playing Frank Sinatra was not going to be Dylan’s final creative act.
Despite starting his recording career four years earlier than Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen has released 11 fewer studio albums. The Boss dropped Letter To You, his 20th, late last month.
The album finds the 71-year-old legend in a contemplative mood, mourning the deaths of past band members and looking back nostalgically at the way music shaped his life.
This week’s posts could be filed under an ‘OK Boomer’ label, because I’ll be featuring new work by five white guys in their 60s or 70s.
I have to hand it to this group of artists. Well past traditional retirement age, they’re cranking out interesting and relevant new music. Well, four of them are… one is dead, but his family is releasing new material.
Even so, it’s hard to get too excited about these new albums. These guys are building on towering resumés — how can anything they do have a chance of measuring up?
‘Song For Bob Dylan’ is a track on David Bowie’s excellent 1971 album Hunky Dory. It’s something between a tribute and a jab at Dylan, one of the biggest music stars in the world at that time.
Dylan was checking out in the early 70s. After producing a string of classic, groundbreaking albums in the 60s, he was releasing gentle country albums Nashville Skyline and New Morning, along with Self Portrait, a collection of odds and ends that was easily his worst work to date.
‘Waterloo,’ the title track of ABBA’s 1974 sophomore album, was the song that launched them to international fame. It is also the first recording released under the name ABBA, as the band’s first effort was billed to Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. The quartet quickly realized that going by their first initials, and ordering them as the palindromic ABBA, made a lot more sense.
‘Waterloo’ won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, and remains the most famous song to do so (at least the most famous on this side of the pond).
Meet Me In Montauk 