#342
Album: Blood on the Tracks
Artist: Bob Dylan
Year: 1975
Length: 51:46
Genre: Folk Rock
“He woke up, the room was bare
Simple Twist of Fate
He didn’t see her anywhere
He told himself he didn’t care
Pushed the window open wide
Felt an emptiness inside
To which he just could not relate
Brought on by a simple twist of fate”
Well, well, it’s nice to see you again Mr. Dylan. Last time I heard a Bob Dylan album, it must have been years and years ago (my best guess is about 5) back when I hit his run of albums in the 60s from the list. It feels kind of nice to be hit with another Bob Dylan album after so long because it reminded me how much I actually enjoyed his music. I remember mentioning in an earlier post how I had always kind of avoided his music and felt it wouldn’t be the kind of thing I would have enjoyed, having felt it had been overhyped for me, only to be so very wrong once I finally did listen to it. As much as i did, I also felt like I completely forgot about him ever since I listened to his last album on the list and just never explored more of his music and never even revisited those ones, despite enjoying them. So as I saw this one looming ahead in the distance, I got excited at the chance to revisit him once again.
Part of that excitement came from the fact that Tangled Up In Blue is probably my favourite Bob Dylan song, one I have indeed listened to quite a bit for awhile and was the only Dylan song I kept on rotation (but sadly have also not listened to in a long time). Knowing it was on this album, I went into it with the expectations that this would be another Dylan album I would enjoy. Of course, I’ve experienced many cases of loving a song from a band and then checking out the album, realising that that particular song was a complete outlier to the rest of their music (which is always disappointing), but here the assumption felt like a safe one having heard enough of Dylan’s music to know this definitely wasn’t a case of the song being vastly different than the rest of his music.
My expectations were right as I did indeed enjoy this album, but what I didn’t expect was how sad this album would be overall, which was harder having just come off another really depressing album (two sad albums in a row is a bit much for a guy like me at this moment in my life). Although, unlike Neil Young’s album that felt heavily relatable, this one didn’t resonate as personally as it did, maybe if I had heard it a few years back it would have, but in my current place of life today, it didn’t. but that doesn’t change how deeply impactful an album it was and how Dylan clearly was going through some crap when making it because all the songs are sung in such a sincere and genuinely personal way, it’s hard not to be pulled in by it.
Bob Dylan claims none of the songs are autobiographical or confessional in any way, but I mean, come on, really? A lot of the songs talk about failed relationships and estranged relationships and just crumbling relationships at a time he was going through all that with his wife, Sara. Are you really telling me these songs weren’t coming from a real place of pain within you? I don’t think anyone is buying it Bob, your own son even said it sounded like you and your wife talking. Bob, are you ok??
Regardless of what he said, he did seem to eventually start to say they might have been, and I’m willing to believe at the time he wrote the music it might have come from a subconscious place and he didn’t fully realise it yet, it doesn’t change how deeply personal the music does indeed feel and as a listener you feel like you’re being welcomed in to life of a man who is desperately yearning for a time that has passed with his love, wishing for things to be better, hoping they might be. Even in the happier songs, like one where he lists the things that endears him to his partner, there is a sadness that underlies the joy as it feels as someone looking back at what once was (and in some ways might still be).
I can see why so many people consider this to be Dylan’s best. that level of vulnerability can be difficult to express, even if he denies it completely.
Favourite Song: Tangled Up In Blue
-Bosco
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