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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Country Rock's Seminal Masterpiece, July 29, 1998
By A Customer
Along with The Byrds' "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo", Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" is the beginning point of the greatest inroads country music ever made, into rock music. Dylan was criticized in the mid-60's for abandoning acoustic folk and then in 1969 for abandoning the artsy rock of "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde On Blonde". But herein lies the essence of Dylan's greatness. His uncanny sensibility and his profound ability to fully grasp a genre and make it his own. The songs on this album are deceptively simple and straight to the point. Bob abandoned all socio-political ranting to make an album of pure joy that celebrates the highs and lows of love. Aside from the classic "Lay Lady Lay" we have the underappreciated "I Threw It All Away", "Tell Me That It Isn't True" and "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" as well as the uptempo feelgood shuffle of "Country Pie" and the instrumental "Nashville Skyline Rag". Even Dylan's humorously out of tune and badly timed duet with Johnny Cash on "Girl From The North Country" seems to work perfectly here. The only criticism I have of this great album is that it's too short, running less than 30 minutes. By the end, you want the music to just keep going. Dylan chose to close out his work of the tumultuous 1960s with a serene, easygoing and non-combative work of art. Excellent!
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bona Fide Bob, August 7, 2003
Country, Folk, and Rock are really very related music forms, but you wouldn't know it from the opinions of fans. A lot of rock stars began with country or folk (Buddy Holly, and to an extent Elvis Presely) because Rock hadn't yet been fully defined. By the time Dylan released "Nashville Skyline" the borders were firm as mortar.All of the warning signs were there: Dylan abandons the protest folk music scene only to take up arms with their ultimate enemy, the pop/rock scene. Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, and many others were furious and felt betrayed. Dylan then became the coolest rocker out there, and he made some incredible music. Then, just like before, he runs head first into enemy territory: country music. Anyone who thought that Dylan would permanently nest up with the rock/pop scene probably wasn't paying attention. Just like "Bringing it All Back Home" was the transitional album between folk and rock, and "Highway 61 Revisited" was the full blown rock thing, "John Wesley Harding" was the transition between rock and country and "Nashville Skyline" was the full blown country thing. Both "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Nashville Skyline" show mastery of their respective genres. "Nashville Skyline" is a country album. It's not country rock, nor "Bob Country" - it's a full blown down home bona fide country album. The music and the lyrics reflect this. To almost drive this point home there's even a rag called "Nashville Skyline Rag"; you don't get much more country than that. There is steel guitar, strongly picked acoustic musicals that almost sound right out of Bob Wills, "clop clop" horse trot rhythms, and of course Johnny Cash (a side note: "Girl From The North Country" is a traditional folk song that has been covered by numerous people, so I'm confused why the song writing credits don't say "Traditional" as they should). There are great songs on this album, the most obvious of which is "Lay Lady Lay." I've never heard steel guitar used like a string section in this way before. "I Threw it all Away" is a great country ballad with some of Dylan's most humorously suggestive lyrics: "Once I had mountains in the palms of my hands..." "Tonight I'll be Staying Here With You" is also a great country ballad that probably any country singer would like to have written. It's probably fair to say that Dylan's country music powers shine brightest on the ballads ("Tell Me That it Isn't True" is more evidence of this). The faster numbers are the weakest on the album: "Peggy Day" and "Country Pie", though they're a lot of fun and have this tendency to strap onto your neurons for good. The album may take a little getting used to if your head is full of "Like A Rolling Stone" or "Blowin' in The Wind". However, it will likely grow on you and become a standard by which you can judge other country albums. This was the album that opened up country music to me. There's good stuff out there, and you can find it if you follow Dylan's example and don't allow yourself to get fenced into listening to only one musical style.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a dylan milestone: great album, April 5, 2006
I grew up listening to this album and it was essential listening on long car journeys. It is a piece of genius crossover by Dylan and was a hallmark of its time that lead to other artists, essentially bands such as the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, following in Dylan's direction that lead to the start of Country Rock. The highlights of this album are the opening track with Johnny Cash, Girl From The North Country, and I Threw It All Away, a great song about love and loss. The musicianship is excellent with Nashville's finest session muso's on display and Bob Johnston's usual production finesse.Don't take any notice of ignorant opinion saying Dylan sounds weird on this production. [...] This is an excellent piece of music.
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