Tag Archives: Bob Dylan

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Song of the Day #657: ‘Please Mrs Henry’ – Bob Dylan

I’m always amazed by the release schedule of Bob Dylan’s early career. As somebody who is used to waiting three or four years between my favorite artists’ albums, I can’t even fathom what it must have been like to have a new Dylan release available every six months or so.

And not just new releases, but new releases containing his best material. I already documented that 18-month span that saw the release of Bringing it all Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. And this weekend I’m writing about the second in another trilogy of spectacular albums, these released within a 12-month period.

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Song of the Day #651: ‘You’re a Big Girl Now’ – Bob Dylan

Blood on the Tracks is, obviously, the fifth member of my Dylan Six — the six Dylan albums I consider his true untouchable masterpieces.

(On a side note, every time I write Dylan Six I’m reminded of the Dylan Four in Battlestar Galactica… the four crew members who discovered they were actually Cylons after being triggered by the words and music of ‘All Along the Watchtower.’ Geek detour concluded. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.)

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Song of the Day #650: ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ – Bob Dylan

In 1975, nine years had passed since the release of Bob Dylan’s last undisputed masterpiece, Blonde on Blonde. During those nine years he had released seven studio albums, two greatest hits collections and a live album.

He had matched his pre-1966 output but it would be hard to argue that any of those seven albums were equal to his first seven. Could it be his best days were behind him?

The answer, which came in the form of Blood on the Tracks, was a resounding no.

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Song of the Day #644: ‘Hazel’ – Bob Dylan

Planet Waves is the first album I’ve played of the five I bought in preparation for these Dylan Weekends and I hope its quality is indicative of what I can expect of the rest. It’s fun to hear “new” music from an artist I’ve been listening to for more than 20 years.

Planet Waves certainly doesn’t crack my top tier of Dylan albums, and it would probably struggle to find a spot in the tier just below that, but it already sits comfortably alongside a group of albums in the good-to-great category (assume the top tier are “classics” and the second tier are “great to excellent”… yes, I’ll eventually get around to ranking all of these albums in order… and yes, I’m a total nerd… let’s move on).

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Song of the Day #643: ‘Forever Young’ – Bob Dylan

When I started this Dylan Weekend series and decided to dedicate posts to each of Bob Dylan’s albums chronologically, I knew I was going in somewhat ill-prepared. I own more albums by Dylan than by any other single artist or band in my collection (Elvis Costello is a close second) but I don’t own them all.

Already I’ve covered three of the albums I don’t own — Self Portrait, Dylan and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. But one of those is a soundtrack and the other two are notoriously mediocre, and primarily cover albums besides. So I don’t feel all that bad glossing over them on the blog.

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