Bob Dylan’s only Grammy awarded Album of the Year demonstrates a very different artist than presented in albums such as Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. The Record demonstrates a Dylan who has traded in abstract poetic sentiments for a much simpler wisdom. Maybe it’s just the old man voice; it makes him sound experienced or something.
The music on the album is primarily blues based. Each track uses up to three guitars, and the band line up is never exactly consistent from one song to the next. This produces kind of a transient, travelling band sound, which continues for the next few albums. The album sounds nice as well and feels very live. There is a thickness to the record which is tough to describe exactly. I guess an earthiness is the best was of putting it. There are reverberation techniques on Standing in the Doorway which are widened out to the edges of a medium-sized soundstage which feel like the band is right in front of you, performing in a blues club or something. The songs themselves are really very simple, so the organ line for Million Miles, which could have been played for the first time on the master recording, feels very authentic. The other overall feeling provided by the album is a sense of iciness. There is a detachment in Love Sick and Cold Irons Bound which is a stark contrast against most of his other work, where the vocals are much more forward in the mix.
It also stands as the second longest LP recorded by Bob Dylan, largely due to the closer Highlands. Allegedly there were two versions of the track recorded, the take used as the master being a sixteen minute run through; after which one of the studio executives asked if there was a short version, to which Bob replied: “that was the short version”. Back in the day Bob was known for his longer tracks, which seemed to tell a story no matter which point you started listening or which time you stopped; this being the primary argument for his value as a songwriter after his initial protest song period. Highlands, however, is not in the same league as, for example, Desolation Row or Idiot Wind. Swap it with any of the demos which were unearthed on 2008’s Tell Tale Signs and the album would be a much better paced listen, at an easier length. That said, the rawness is wonderful, it has a sense of humour to it and if I had to pick any one track which summarised the sound of the album as a whole, I’de probably pick this one even though the length is a bit of a drag. Short version indeed.
The album begins a trend which continues through Love and Theft, Modern Times and Together Through Life. To me these albums, with the exception of Together Through Life I guess, are Dylan’s great period, the legacy of the 60’s only factoring in when I look at the album cover and get reminded that this is the same guy who put out lots of great music way back when as well. Is it simpler than Blonde on Blonde? In its own way, yeah; although Dylan would be the first to say that the old stuff, even strictly referring to the lyric writing, wasn’t exceptionally complicated. There’s something to admire in the starkness of the music.
Love Sick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzoKhYrZt2U
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