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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Here are the Songs that Paint Pictures on the Inside of Your Eyeballs, August 26, 2006
Close your eyes and listen to "Blonde on Blonde." Every song on the album is so jammed with imagery that they paint pictures on the inside of your eyeballs. Though "Blonde on Blonde" was recorded way back before I was even a twinkle in my daddy's eyes, you can still listen to it today and be amazed. From the first note all the way to the end of "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" this is a record so full in imagery, power and raw poetry that it will never cease to stun. Sooner or Later, if you play Bob Dylan records, you're going to have to admit that this is one of his best.
"Blood on the Tracks" is one of Bob Dylan's better known records and one I really love. I've been listening to it as long as I can remember, thanks to my dad, who is a huge Dylan fan. I am as well. How can you not be. Just give a listen to "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" with your eyes closed. If that eleven minute long cowboy ballad doesn't paint pictures on the inside of your eyeballs. A couple other picture painters are "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Idiot Winds," though I must say, I prefer the version of "Idiot Winds" on the official "Bootleg Series." Then there is the pain of Dylan's separation from his wife Sara throughout this album. Bob Dylan has always been right out front with his feeling on his albums, especially so on "Blood On the Tracks." I've read that this is considered one of the best albums ever made and I have to say that I agree.
I really like the way "Infidels" rocks out. I also like the imagery in the songs, especially in "Jokerman." The just keep coming after you, burning themselves into you eyes, etching themselves into your hear, impinging themselves on your mind. Once heard "Jokerman" is never forgotten. Dylan has had several bands throughout his long and prolific career, but I think the group he has on "Infidels" is the best ever. You really feel that they click as a unit and the music is all the better for it. Some other songs I really like on "Infidels" are "Man of Peace," "Sweetheart Like You" and the album's closer, "Don't fall apart on me Tonight." "Infidels" is Bob Dylan at his very best.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wild and Fierce and oh so True, April 10, 2008
According to Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde is the closet he's ever come to capturing that sound he hears in his head. "That wild mercury sound. It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up." To me the sound is very similar to the outstanding Highway 61 Revisited and like that hallowed album, Blonde on Blonde is considered by anybody who is somebody in the music business as one of the best records of all time.
The album opens with a rockin' "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35" that grabs straight for your soul and it doesn't let go till the close of "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Just plain good music, that's what you'll find here. I can't say enough good about Blonde on Blonde. It's true, that thin, wild Mercury Music is Bright and Gold.
Blood on the Tracks was released a year to the day (January 17, 1965) after Planet Waves and although that record was a tough act to follow, Bob Dylan did it dramatically with Blood on the Tracks. Tracks represents both a return to Colombia Records and a dynamic new sound for Dylan. Originally recorded in New York, when Dylan took a sample of the record to his brother in Minnesota, he was advised to do some of the songs over again as the album was mostly all recorded in the same key and the production of all of the songs was too similar. Reportedly his brother said many would find it boring.
Dylan took his brother's advice, hired some local musicians, re-recorded, "Tangled Up in Blue," "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts," "You're a Big Girl Now," "If You See Her, Say Hello," and "Idiot Wind." With the inclusion of the new version, the record was punched up enough to be one of Dylan's best all time sellers and probably the most critically acclaimed of his career. I know it's my favorite album of his. It's so real, so full of pain. It makes you want to weep, it's so damned good.
For Infidels Bob Dylan went back to Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame, who he'd worked with on Slow Train for guitar work and he asked ex-Rolling Stone axe man Mick Taylor to join the crew. Add Sly Dunbar as a drummer and put Robbie Shakespeare on Bass, then finish it off with Alan Clark on keyboards and now you really have a band. Gone on this record, except for Clydie King's vocals on "Union Sundown" are the female backup singers, although this track sounds not a bit like the others with the female singers, it actually sounds more like how Ronnie Blakely's backup did on "Hurricane."
Dylan, though he didn't make an overtly Christian record here, didn't shed his Biblical references. They abound in the long and powerful song, "Jokerman." However, there is a lot for Dylan's old fans to like with "Infidels." He's put protest songs, or at least topical songs, on this rocker of a record. "Union Sundown" is about as political as you can get. Then there is "Neighborhood Bully" about Israel and her confrontation with her Arab neighbors. However, sadly, Dylan left off the excellent "Blind Wille McTell." Fortunately that song made it's way onto a later compilation. I said, this was a rocker of a record and a lot of that can be credited, I believe to Mick Taylor. He just plays his heart out. The other musicians do too. This is a must own Dylan record. That's what I think anyway, this record is just simply Amazing and even better if you play it loud.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bob Dylan Does Rock and Roll and is Great, October 29, 2005
"Blonde on Blonde" came out as a double album in May, 1966. Two months later Bob Dylan broke his neck in a motorcycle accident. Till then, every album was better than the last except this one. "Blonde on Blonde" just about equals Highway 61, which in my opinion is the best rock album of all time. I guess that would make "Blonde" number 2. Still with the Beatles, Stones, Zep, Eric and the Boss out there making music, having the number 2 record is pretty good, especially if you already hold the number one spot. Rolling Stone Magazine calls the record number ten, but hey, what's eight places when you're talking about the hundreds of thousands of rock records out there.
This amazing record was the third electric album done by Dylan and by now he'd won over many of his fans, though some did boo him when he toured in Europe in Sixty-six, but those Europeans, what do they know? And do any of us know what would direction Dylan's music would have taken, had he not been in that accident, would he have built on this record, delivering more of the same? Who knows? But what I do know is that this record opens with a dynamite song. Can you imagine what it must have been like for those establishment types hearing the lyrics, "Everybody must get stoned," blaring from their car radios.
The backing band on this record is both tight and loose, if that makes any sense, ripping through songs like "Stuck Inside a Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again," like a meteor streaking across a desert sky. This record is Thin Wild Mercury Music at its very best. Just incredible.
It seems Bob Dylan's career has been studded with comebacks. "John Wesley Harding" after the motorcycle accident. "Blood on the Tracks" after the lapse into country. "Infidels" after the lapse into religious territory. "Oh Mercy" after all those records with the girly backup singers (some of them were pretty good though). However, "Tracks" was so much more than a comeback. It's like Bob Dylan burst upon the scene all over again.
And now I'm going to say something that may or may not make any sense. I believe "Highway 61" to be the best rock & roll record ever made, but I think "Blood on the Tracks" is the best record Dylan has ever done. I know it doesn't make sense, kind of oxymoronic, but "Tracks" to me is more than just a rock record, more than poetry put to music, more than fine musicianship. It's chocked full of emotion, mostly tears. It's gritty and rough and it's got the best damned cowboy ballad ever sung on it to boot. "Blood on the Tracks" is just outstanded.
Mike Taylor's fine guitar work on "Infidels" is reminiscent of the work he did with the Stones on five studio and one live record. Mark Knopfler, another fine guitarist plays on this record too, as well as Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespherre and Alan Clark. This excellent band is backing a Dylan who is in fine voice on an album that marks Dylan's return to good old fashioned rock `n' roll. No more religion, no more God stuff, no more Bible. Well, okay I'll admit there are biblical references here, but boy what a record.
I know a lot of people have panned this record, called it pop, called it inferior. Well, their wrong. "Jokerman" is about as hard driving a rock song as you could ever find. "Sweetheart Like You," an infectious ballad, "Neighborhood Bully" a commentary, ala Dylan of the Sixties, about Israel and her problems with her neighbors who would like to stamp out her existence.
And I know others have complained about "Blind Willie McTell" not being on this record, but there were hours of these sessions, lots of songs left off. Dylan had to choose and fortunately he later chose to give us "Willie McTell" and some of the other outtakes on "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3". This record, however, is whole without those outtakes. It's always been one of my favorites and if you give it a listen, I think it'll be one of your favorites, too.
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Bob Dylan: "The sound of Hank Williams's voice went through me like an electric rod and I managed to get a hold of a few of his 78s... I played them endlessly... When I hear Hank sing, all movement ceases. The slightest whisper seems sacrilege." Read more musical excerpts from Chronicles, Vol. 1 on our Music You Should Hear page.
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~ Bob Dylan
~ Bob Dylan
~ Bob Dylan
~ Bob Dylan
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by Bob Dylan 
