Customer Reviews

Modern Times

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Since Time Out Of Mind, us Dylan fans can be proud again to admit that we're fans of the new stuff, not just classic Dylan. Modern Times is his third release in a streak of impeccable material. The latest is a return to the styles Dylan introduced in Love and Theft-- blues and rockabilly. As with that album, Dylan (aka Jack Frost) produced Modern Times. Here, the songs are longer, the lyrics arguably more memorable and there's a few more down-tempo ballads. Contrary to the popular notion that Dylan's voice is incomprehensible (probably owing to his horrible performance at his 30th anniversary concert), the singing is so clean you can understand everything without the benefit of a lyric sheet (though it would have been nice to have).

As I said, the songs are longer: the shortest is 4:58, the longest over eight minutes. Dylan borrows from blues standards on Rollin' and Tumblin' and The Levee's Gonna Break, but liberally infuses a mess of his own lyrics. When the Deal Goes Down and Workingman's Blues, especially the latter, are his best ballads in decades. All in all, its not as forceful as Love and Theft. It's not as surprising as that album was, but hardly less of a masterpiece. His lyrics have gotten sharper and wittier, jumping out at you at odd moments with silly innuendos, jokes about getting old, an Alicia Keys name-drop. It's altogether friendlier and more fun that the last two releases.

Like reviewers elsewhere have said, Modern Times is unlikely to win him many new fans or impress fans of his earlier work that never bought into his new stuff, but those who've stuck with Dylan over the years and listened with awe to Time Out of Mind are not going to be able to put down Modern Times for quite awhile. Now I just wish Dylan would put out albums more often! Maybe in a couple years Columbia will release all the songs (I've heard about 2 hrs worth) that wouldn't fit on these last three albums...?

About the bonus disc: don't waste your money. Everyone knows Columbia's holding on to a ***-load of unreleased Dylan stuff and all they could choke up for an extra eight bucks is four (okay, one of them is new...) mediocre tracks that barely differ from the album versions? Instead of offering something interesting for fans and collectors they're just taking advantage of those few who'll invariably say "why not?" and throw them the extra few dollars. Buy the regular version. You won't miss anything by skipping the bonus DVD (no one's going to watch it more than once anyway).

When I first listened to the CD I thought it was second or even third of the last three he has made. But after listening to it for a few days I am think it is perhaps the best of the three. It is not a humorous as the second or as dark as the first. Even more than the first it points to someone who is coming to terms not just with aging, but with the end of life which is beginning to come into view. I think he is again giving voice to his generation, where we are getting to the point where both our parents have passed, and while we are not ready to go yet, we can now see a bit of the horizon which in the past was only an intellectual exercise. And yet even with that there is the will to carry on, and carry on with vigor...thus we have lyrics like, 'you think I am over my prime, lets put it to the test'...dont have the lyrics in front of me, but I am sure others will have the exact lyrics.
He has also returned a bit to social commentary with "Workingman's Blues" where he gives his opinion of globalization. In "The levee's gonna break" there are certainly references to New Orleans, but also I see it as being an extension of "Hard Rain Going to Fall" in that perhaps we are going through such a rain and indeed the levee's may break. That could be a reach, but the is the wonder of his songs, they are nebulous enough for us to find the meaning that suits us :)
I really like almost all the songs on the album, probably the faster ones a bit more but even "Beyond the Horizon" which has a Hawaiian flavor is good due to the strong lyrics. (Not really a bit fan of Hawaiian music).
A number of songs like "Ain't Talkin" remind me of the way he strung different images together like we saw on his earlier songs like Hwy 61. The other theme that continues is his religious references, which are mostly personal now. So we get things like 'now I see where the scriptures are true.' These flow with the song, again much like is early music but a bit more personal. Always loved the idea that God was telling Abraham that the next time he saw him he had better run :)

Modern Times is a very good Bob Dylan record that fits nicely into the current "Social Security Renaissance" phase of his career. The record company and lots of critics have been calling it part three of a trilogy that began with Time Out of Mind and continued with Love And Theft but I would suggest that the latter two enjoy a much closer connection with Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong, his early '90's revisit of the folk songs that lit his fire in the first place. I guess this theory makes Modern Times the last block in a quad.

Time Out Of Mind shares with its two subsequent neighbors in the Dylan discography a return to exquisite song craft, stunning lyrics and passionate musicianship that were sorely lacking from the hit and miss affairs of the eighties. However, the atmospheric production and small army of master musicians playing on it tie it much more closely to the other Daniel Lanois produced highlight of the catalog, 1989's Oh Mercy.

When the back to back folk-cover releases, Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong dropped in the early 90's after the uninspired Under The Red Sky, it looked like a retrenchment for an artist who had run out of inspiration. Who knew that by revisiting his roots, he would re-ignite a blast of inspired creativity that continues to inform and inspire his work to this day?

As other reviewers have noted, Modern Times is very much Love and Theft Part II, which is no bad thing. Both records draw on traditional folk and blues melodic and thematic forms but emerge as a Dylanized hybrid that sits comfortably beside his best work.
In addition to the invigorated songwriting and the no-frills Jack Fate production a major key to the success of these two albums is that they were recorded by Dylan's Never Ending Tour band. Instead of his usual method of hiring a band of studio aces supported by superstar guest appearances, the guys playing on these records are the same cohesive unit blazing away with him night after night in arenas, theaters and baseball parks. This provides a sympathetic foundation that he has not enjoyed since his collaborations with The Band. Ironically, as the Never Ending Tour band continues to evolve, bassist and musical director Tony Garnier is the only link between the two groups that made these records.

Like Love and Theft, the songs on Modern Times are a mix of familiar song forms. There are roots-rockin' / bluesy rockers Thunder on the Mountain, Rollin' and Tumblin', Someday Baby and The Levee's Gonna Break. Old Timey Waltzes Spirit On The Water and Beyond the Horizon as well as a straight ballad, When the Deal goes Down. There are also tunes that I think of as Dylan-esque (for lack of a better term) and these are probably my favorites: Ain't Talkin', Nettie Moore and Workingmans Blues #2. In Fact, Ain't Talkin' may be the knockout Dylan classic of the whole album.

Although quite good, Modern Times is a little softer, a little less rockin' that Love and Theft and I wonder if this is not partly due to the absence of Charlie Sexton. Charlie Sexton is such a consummate rocker and I think his much lamented departure from the touring band spills over into the studio. The rockers on Modern Times are good but never quite achieve lift off. Watch the Cold Iron Bounds video presented here for a taste of the rock bite this band was unable to provide.

Finally one minor complaint: The record company is charging quite a bit extra for this deluxe edition, and I think it would have been very appropriate to load the bonus DVD up with more than four videos. High on my personal wish list is a complete version of the smokin' Drifter's Escape from the Masked and Anonymous movie.

"When I was a little kid in La Jolla, California, which is a very small town, we had a parade on the 4th of July and I remember clearly the sight of Civil War veterans marching down the main street, kicking up the dust. The first time I heard Bob Dylan, it brought back that memory. And I thought of him as something of a Civil War type. A kind of 19th century troubadour. A maverick American spirit...his words go straight to the heart of America.- Gregory Peck 1997, Kennedy Centre Award ceremony

`I couldn't exactly put in words what I was looking for, but I began searching for it over at the New York Public Library...I started reading articles in newspapers on microfilm from 1855 to about 1865...I wasn't so much interested in the issues as intrigued by the language and rhetoric of the times' - Bob Dylan,2004 Chronicles Part 1, page 84

`I realised how astonishing [Dylan's] songs were, provided that you really listened to them...this won't do for background music; it won't even do for middle ground music; it has to be right at the front of your attention'- Professor Christopher Ricks, Book Talk, Australian Radio National, March 2004.

These three comments sprung to mind, when Bob Dylan's brilliant new album concluded with a final track to match almost any in his mighty back catalogue. The music is crammed with impressions of `that old weird America'. The language is rich and almost noble in its cadences. The ancient voice is awesome. But you do have to listen very carefully. As usual, too many media critics have rushed to [generally positive] judgement. Most have been complimentary but often superficially so, like somebody reading a Camus novel for only its story line and missing deeper allegories.

Nostalgic 60s devotees may scoff, but I hear this as close to his best-ever album. Perhaps it is because I am growing old too, but this is exactly the Dylan I want to listen to right now. When he sings `Oh I miss you Nettie Moore...', I hear a chorus as affecting as anything he ever wrote and a vocal of absolute perfection. It is the highlight of the album for me.

Notwithstanding regular criticism from the concert-reviewing set, the band contributes mightily too. The album has a beautifully clean, uncomplicated sound. And the subtle use of violin, viola and, especially, cello `underneath' several tracks really adds something.

Another fabulous creation from a man who, as Tom Petty said this week, is simply better than everyone else.

The dvd is a nice bonus too.

"I got the porkchops, she got the pie
She ain't no angel and neither am I
Shame on your greed, shame on your wicked schemes
I'll say this, I don't give a damn about your dreams"

Who else but Dylan can write stuff like this? The man who gave us "the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face" 40 years ago continues to amaze.

Modern Times is Dylan's best work since Infidels, and that's saying a lot. This is a great band, producing a new version of "that thin, that wild mercury sound" that is characteristic of Dylan at his best. Here it is polished, tracing a razor's edge, at times seductive, at times raising the hair on the back of your neck.

It is remarkable what Dylan, at age 65, is able to do with his voice. To me it never sounded better. Yeah, I know his range is shot and that it's raspy and raw. But the phrasing is complex and precise, it hits every time, and the range of emotion that's conveyed is without compare. Nobody ever said that Dylan is an operatic singer, but he's an incredible vocalist, and Modern Times sets a new standard for this greatness.

The songs flow together, contrast with, and build off one another. This is an "album" in the classic sense; buying individual songs or shuffling them will lose a lot.

So for instance when the funky twelve bar rhythm of The Levee's Gonna Break transitions into the stark, haunting, slow chords of Ain't Talkin', you almost get weak in the knees, and the hair really does stand up on the back of your neck.

And Dylan sings,

"Ain't talkin', just walkin'
Up the road, around the bend.
Heart burnin', still yearnin'
In the last outback at the world's end."

Who else but Dylan does stuff like this?

Just one thing. For the money more substance to the bonus DVD would be in order.

Otherwise, highly recommended.

Bob Dylan feels good about his music and you will to. There was a period in time after the sixties, and before the Modern Times, where Dylan sort of just went through the motions and put out some extremely goofy and just plain lousy music. It was a very short period of time, but it took him years to overcome. In 1993 critics said that the man was all done, and for the first time in 30 years Bob Dylan took a walk around his block and nobody cared. It was the greatest day of his life.
Then no more than seven years later he put 3 more Grammys and an Oscar under his belt. Now he just stays on the road constantly, and puts out some of the greatesrt music I've ever heard. More laid back than ever with his newest disc, Dylan once again astounds. I can't stand the people who have compared any of Dylans last three albums to his sixties material. It's a whole different show all together. The old man showers his wisdom down as if he was himself no longer a man, but a legend. A ghost. Died in '97, remember?
And he's not just one ghost, but a whole crew of them at once. Ones that have followed him from the very first album, and new ones that he's picked up along the way. The tour is "neverending", and at one point he struggled with his place in life, and in fame. Now he owns it, and it sounds so good. What makes these modern times so intense, is the fact that he makes it all sound just like a dream.
They are calling this the third part of a trilogy now. Making 97's TIME OUT OF MIND part one, and 2001's "Love and Theft" part two. I don't really get it, because those two albums were completely different from each other, and really so is this disc. More relative to 83's Infidels album than anything from Time Out of Mind. A very relaxed groove, where every song allows you to paint your own story in your head, rather than form an opinion of the world around you. Dirty women and religion are tossed in for good measure, maybe to activate your left and right brains at once, which causes you after a few listens to not only want to hear more and more, but also triggers something that wasn't there before. You may find yourself dusting off those 80's Dylan albums and hearing them in a whole new light. The ghosts want you to this. Its hard to believe that he is the greatest man alive. Or dead. But I can definately say he's better than anybody else.

There will be people who still believe Bob Dylan is over-rated. Younger audiences may be somewhat oblivious of the debt popular music owes this man. Rock and roll was child's play until Dylan, a folk singer indebted, in his own way, to the legendary Woody Guthrie, went electric. His folkie fans may have heckled him of the stage and called him a traitor to what they believed was, by virtue of its history and earnestness, the only adult music, but something magic happened: rock and roll grew up.

With Dylan leading the way forward, rock and roll didn't only absorb political and social comment, it became capable, at last, of articulating, often with inspirational lyricism, the full gamut of emotions in the human condition. Those that came before Dylan gave the spirit its flesh, but Dylan was the father of an animal capable of consciousness.

As with the excellent "Love and Theft", "Modern Times" returns to the heart of rock and roll: the blues. Dylan, though a scholar and a poet, presents himself as a babe yet again, before the seemingly unfathomable depths of the pulminary palate. As such, the album is somewhat of a lithmus test of intelligence. The album will possibly sound naive to the naive. Where is the insight into our times? Where are the songs as topical as "Hurricane" once was? The album's title is, of course, ironic. It is ineviatable that some will forget "The Chimes Of Freedom" wasn't exactly topical either, when it was released, but it definitely sounded that way. So it is with "Modern Times". Dylan has, again, crafted a timeless record that is among the best of his impressive career.

Before the first four notes of "Thunder On The Mountain" have finished playing, you know you are listening to a masterpiece. These notes, grand as they are in their simplicity, boldly announce this is Dylan with something important to say. The song then proceeds to chug along as swinging full-tilt boogie and drops a wicked quip about Alicia Keys, "I've been looking for her even clear through Tenessee". It's an amusing way of saying that, while "things have changed", Dylan still cares about music, particularly the way it empowers and unites people, emanicating all of us from slavery. At one point, Dylan even says he wants to stop thinking only about himself and see "what others need". Those who have accused him over the years of being some kind of fraud should take note that he quickly abandons all pretence about being any kind of voice of a generation by simply stating, "I've aleady confessed, I don't need to confess again."

Not dissimilar to "Moonlight" on "Love and Theft", "Spirit On The Water" is delightfully antique in its composition, yet, strangely, it is imbibed with surprising youthful exuberance. It could have been written for a wallflower waltz. Dylan doesn't pull any punches when he sings, "You think I'm over the hill / You think I'm past my prime / Let me see what you've got / We could have a whoppin' good time."

"Rollin' and tumblin" thumps hard and evokes the same level of seminal rage against the establishment as "Maggie's Farm". Dylan growls, "I aint nobody's houseboy." But this isn't coming from an angry man; it's coming from a sage-like, lived-in librettist.

"When The Deal Goes Down" actually has the audacity to thieve the words and melody of "In the still of the night ...", but that it's only part of its genius. Essentially a song about facing death with love in your heart, even the cliches ("we live and we die / And we know not why") still resonate as contemporary insights, especially when they are dressed with Dylan's trademark talent for expressing the most intimate details of the past as if they were happening immediately. I found myself a bit teary hearing his account of picking up a rose and feeling "transient joys".

"Someday Baby" is a raunchy I-aint-dead-yet-but-I-will-be-someday-and-you'll-be-haunted-by-absence anthem. Dylan scrutinizes his own inscrutable persona, singing, "I keep recycling the same thoughts" - only to further illuminate his legacy; "I don't wanna brag / I wanna ring your neck."

In his book, "Chronicles", Dylan wrote at length about his own frustration over not being able, at the time, to give producer, Daniel Lanios, songs as great as "Chimes of Freedom". Well, that problem is solved in Dylan's 65th year with the breathtaking "Working Man's Blues 2". If this is not one of the greatest songs ever written, the earth is still flat. The lyrics are some Dylan's finest and they as relevant to the world under the rule of Bush's evil empire as they might have been to the time of the crusades. The words "The firepower of the proletariat's gone down / Money's gettin' shallow and weak ..." are crooned in honeyed voice to the dripping delicacies of piano-driven melody. Unlike lesser protest songs, it's the humility of the song that makes it so moving. Dylan wants to be remembered as a team player, "My crude weapons have been put on the shelf / Come sit on my knee ..." Nevertheless, how could anyone with a heart and any empathy whatsoever for other human beings refuse the following call to arms: "You can hang back or fight you best on the frontline..."

The slyly romantic Dylan tips his cowboy hat, once more, the power of love with "Beyond The Horizon". His most romantic visions are of a particularly modern time when we are all on "the same side", a time which he predicts will fittingly be "'round about midnight".

The name "Nettie Moore" is synonymous symbolically with triumph over slavery. Dylan crafts a song of the same name that is an ode to defiance and rebellion as a matter of conscience. When Dylan sings "The world has gone black before eyes", he singing about his own mortality of course, but surely he is also still struggling against a world that makes laws to silence protest under the guise of fighting terrorism.

"The Levee Gonna Break" is another example of the brilliant breath of new life in ancient wisdom. Perhaps, the most deceptively simple of all the blues-boogie tunes on the album, it effortlessly carries what Dylan, hiimself, might call "big medicine" for our times, concluding with the ominous words, "Some people still sleeping / Some people are wide awake ..."

"Aint Talkin" ends the album with glorious compassion for the broken and forgotten. In the tradition of his best narrative songs, Dylan assumes the persona of an accident victim casually reporting "Someone hit from behind". It's a sad song, to be sure, mirroring a "world mysterious and vague": "The whole world is filled with speculation / The whole wide world which people say is round / They will tear your mind away from contemplation / They will jump on your misfortune when you're down ..." However, when Dylan says "no one will ever know" he is really convincing you of how important, how holy and divine it is to tell the tale. Even the cynics and the doubters have to agree when he sings, "Someday you'll be glad to have me around."

This is easily the best album of 2006, every bit as urgent and important as those recordings that will still sound as good decades, even centuries from now.

No one will ever confuse Bob Dylan's voice with that of Pavorotti or even the voice of his Traveling Wilbury "brother," Roy Orbison. But, like another Wilbury "brother," Tom Petty, the brilliant Dylan just keeps on getting better with age, as proven by his latest release, MODERN TIMES. Please allow me to briefly elucidate....

OVERVIEW

The past few months have seen some amazing new music from some of our finest and most seasoned musicians. Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris served up the sweet ALL THE ROADRUNNING while Bruce Springsteen got folky with WE SHALL OVERCOME: THE SEEGER SESSIONS. Then, the late Johnny Cash's AMERICAN V: A HUNDRED HIGHWAYS reminded us once more of the titanic loss we experienced at his passing, while songwriter supreme Paul Simon served up a fresh batch of electronica/folk with SURPRISE. Most recently, there is the stellar aforementioned Tom Petty project, HIGHWAY COMPANION. Now comes the maestro, Bob Dylan, with a set of songs that rivals his finest work. This is a good time to be a music fan!

This Dylan album is a trip through many various musical styles and eras, but it is not a sentimental journey by any means. Bob Dylan covers a little bit of rockabilly, some jazzy folk, bluesy country, and even some ragtime...perhaps inventing a whole new genre of music in the process--call it "Gypsy Cowboy" or "Punk Jazz"--whatever it is, it is moving and revelatory; and, behind some pointed observations, there is more than a hint of Dylan's trademark wry humor.

THE SONGS

As he has on his most recent two studio albums, TIME OUT OF MIND and LOVE AND THEFT, Dylan cooks up a batch of rich stories, vignettes, and vibes that rank near or at the top of his rich canon of material. "Thunder on the Mountain" comes out of the gate rocking and swinging, name dropping Alicia Keys and covering the gamut of human emotions. "Spirit on the Water" is a shuffle featuring Dylan's croaky crooning to fine effect. Bob gets fiesty and colorful in the rollicking "Rollin' and Tumblin,'" which introduces us to a somewhat crazy cast of characters.

"When the Deal Goes Down" is a touching waltz, while "Someday Baby" is a blues workout. Few, if any, can do authentic "Dust Bowl" folk/blues better than Dylan does on "Workingman's Blues #2," although Merle Haggard (a clear inspiration for this song) might come close. "Beyond the Horizon" is a very smooth, hopeful jazz number (given added poignancy when paired with Dylan's rustic voice).

The closing troika of tunes is breathtaking. First up is "Nettie Moore," is absolute vintage Dylan with it's wildly off-kilter-yet-perfect phrasing over the top of a lovely melody. Then, just in time for the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Bob serves up the stream of consciousness blues meditation, "The Levee's Gonna Break," which is about so much more than floods or politics. The album closes with Dylan growling on "Ain't Talkin'," which is both spooky and bracing...one can't blame him for sounding cranky, given that he claims to have "a toothache in my heel"--truly a bane to one given to wandering!

RECOMMENDATION

If you haven't yet picked up this CD, don't waste any more time. A new Bob Dylan album is always an event, and this one is truly special. It's both timeless and timely, standing up proud and tall next to his finest works such as BLONDE ON BLONDE, HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, OH MERCY, and his most recent albums TIME OUT OF MIND and LOVE AND THEFT.

This DELUXE EDITION WITH BONUS DVD is really the edition you want to own, thanks to fine packaging and a topnotch, highly interesting collection of music videos and performances by Bob Dylan.

CLOSING THOUGHT FROM THE MAN HIMSELF

Bob Dylan recently made this powerful observation about the current state of radio music: "The beat stuff people play, that's about as far away from real rythmn as the sun is from the moon. Those beats make people pose, but they don't make people move or change their lives." Bob Dylan is still a man on the move, with the power to move his listeners--more than 40 years after bursting onto the scene in Greenwich Village. Check it out!

Modern Times leapfrogs directly over 2001's delightful but minor "Love and Theft" to join Time Out of Mind as one of Dylan's 5 best albums. (The other three are: Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks and take your pick.) The mood here is looser and more subdued than on the more aggressive, musically tighter "L&T" and yet every Modern Times track has its place and contributes to a powerful whole. What's more, the songs themselves are far more unified and coherent than anything on the previous album and Dylan's singing is far richer and more expressive.
Standout cuts include the epic love song Spirit on the Water, the poetic country waltz When the Deal Goes Down, the gorgeous pop ballad Workingman's Blues #2 (which perversely is not a blues at all), the ethereally beautiful Nettie Moore (one of the most unusual cuts in the Dylan canon) and the dark and ominous album closer Ain't Talkin'; this last song begins with the lines "As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden, the wounded flowers were dangling from the vine" and proceeds to paint an overwhelmingly devastating portrait of a metaphorical stroll through a world abandoned by God.
The fact that Dylan has created this masterpiece 45 years into his career as a professional musician is astonishing and a cause for celebration.

The videos on the bonus DVD are music videos and live Dylan performances from 1993 - 2003. They are all excellent in quality and a treat to watch.

at first, your impression of how Dylan sings nowadays can be cringe-worthy. it's not his fault, it's just age that robs him of the ability to turn on a dime that any young person can do without thinking about it.
so here's what you do...you take into consideration that mr. D can't sing as he'd like to and you listen and see just how he handles the situation.
but i'll tell you, by the conclusion of this cd, i think you'd agree that mr. Dylan does just fine with the abilities he has with his aged voice muscles. for he doesn't just 'get by' with what he has to work with.......he works it and plays with it coming just damn near how he'd like to be anyway! it's a masterful feat how he bends and weaves his way around the melody.
i no longer have a fear of going into a modern Dylan album now, afraid of his hatcheted and scrawny voice. i welcome the opportunity to listen to how one of our greats delivers his songs with what he has to work with.
i come away far from disappointed. as always, Dylan is an inspiration.
and that's just discussing his SINGING style!
as to the songs from this new album. well, track one-thunder on the mountain is just a rollicking good time.
Dylan's strong suit-his lyrics-are as witty and sharp as ever.the album is just crawling with great lines..."all the ladies in Washington scrambling to get out of town"...."i'll recruit my army from the orphanages"..."feel like my soul is beginning to expand-look into my heart and you will sort of understand"...."i've sucked the milk out of a thousand cows".....and on, and on. and combined with the one/two punch of enjoying how he sings them is a real fun time.
add to that his band. oh my they are good. smooth as velvet and gritty as salt.
rollin and tumblin as many people have pointed out is not a song Dylan wrote and yet is credited to him on the album. i think this is due to what i think are lyrics dylan has added of his own. but still, the original writer should get credited.
and it is a fun song to listen to.
there were a couple songs on the album i was not so keen on such as beyond the horizon and when the deal goes down but i still give it a thumbs up because of the majority of songs that i do like: thunder on the mountain/rollin and tumblin/the levee's gonna break and the closing song Ain't Talkin which is saturated in mist and mood and spooky foreboding.
and oh my gracious, what a glorious album closing chord the band all strike......wait till you hear.
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the dvd portion of this limited edition is a definate treat and in my opinion worth the extra cash.
there are 4 video's on the dvd.
cold iron bounds is my favorite. it is riveting to watch Dylan poised before his band looking straight into the camera as calm and cool as the day sherman marched into vicksberg(factually inaccurate but added for effect)
the video for things have changed is a treat with scenes from the movie the Wonder Boys interspersed with Dylan himself superimposed into the action. oh katie. heart be still.
his performance at the grammy's excellent
and the first video 'blood in my eyes' is a black and white mini-documentary of the man as he spends an afternoon strolling through his old stomping grounds-greenwich village-with passersby and fans asking for his autograph and snapping pictures.
my advise...spend the extra money for the limited edition of modern times that includes the 4-song dvd.