Customer Reviews

Q Five Star Albums Vol. 2

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The second instalment from Q magazine's 'Five Star Albums' is every bit as good as the first. Including the classic "Blonde on Blonde" album which Dylan once said contains the 'thin wild mercury sound' you are barraged with greats songs all throughout this disc. Rainy Day Woman (with the much debated line 'Everybody Must Get Stoned'), I Want You, Just Like A Woman, Visions of Johanna ( with the organ echoing every line) are all classic songs that you and your Grandma can sing along to.

"Blood on the Tracks" however is all about pain, anger, bitterness, regret etc etc. Written as Dylan's so called 'Divorce' album it boasts Tangled up in Blue, If you see her say hello, Shelter from the storm and the heart tugging You're a big girl now. This album also contains some of the finest guitar work on any of his albums. After his much debated motorcycle accident Dylan recouperated musically by jamming with The Band and the results (a double album of tunes with Dylan and the members of The Band in fine voice) are what you get here. Laughing and joking seems to be the theme to this album with the exception of Tears of Rage a beautiful song full of despair and distress. Long Distance Operator, Yahoo street scandel and You ain't going nowhere are all catchy songs especially in contrast to The clothes line saga, which rolls along with the story of Dylan taking in the clothes. The late Richard Manuel adds a unique sound to this album with his high falsetto harmonies. Altogether this three pack is a very desirable packege covering different periods of Dylans song writing.

This Box set contains three of Bob Dylan's finest records. Well, I suppose you'd have to say that Dylan has a lot more than three finest records, more like thirty or forty. Still this is a nice set, a good way to get these CDs if you don't already own them.

Blonde on Blonde - Thin Wild Mercury Music

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.

Blood on the Tracks - It's Like Bob Dylan Burst Upon the Scene All Over Again

It seems Bob Dylan's career has been studded with comebacks. "JWH" 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.

The Basement Tapes - Part of the Great White Wonder, These Tapes Were

A long time ago in an America very different than today, a couple kids got a hold of some unreleased Dylan tapes, some of them by surreptitious methods, others courtesy of the late B. Mitch Reed, a SoCal DJ who played some of them on the air. A few of the songs were from the so called Basement Tapes and the bootleg record those kids released was called Great White Wonder. Later they would get more tapes and make more Bootlegs. Years later when the "Basement Tapes" finally came out for real, many of Dylan's fans had already owned the material, but Dylan had a few surprises in store for them, one is "Goin' to Acapulco" what a gem. And for some reason nobody could figure out, he left "The Mighty Quinn" of the double record, but that's okay, because now with the magic of modern technology, I've got it in iTunes and on my iPod and I've put it, along with a few other Dylan and the Band songs right where they belong, with "The Basement Tapes."

Not only did the "Basement Tapes" help start the Dylan Bootleg craze, but they show Dylan in a relaxed mode, playing good ol' down home music and he was obviously enjoying himself very much as he did it. The Band too, sounds as if they are all having good, clean fun. I love these songs and I can only hope that someday the hours of this material that has not been released will finally come out.