The DJ and Gar Saga Continues-The Bob Dylan listening thread

Sex, Drugs, and Dave · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:20 pm

honestly, other than Don't Think Twice... This record lacks the balls of the ones that are about to come. Like I mentioned earlier, Dylan doesn't truly start to move me until Another Side Of...

I like him when he's either being playful and has a sense of humor, or real pissy...

Kingfish · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:21 pm

Down the Highway is the unsung hero of this album. Great little blues number. It also reminds me that this is a little bit of a break-up album with Don't Think Twice, Girl from the North Country, and this song. That kind of gets lost with the political tones of Blowin in the Wind and Masters of War, Hard Rains Gonna Fall.

Speaking of, Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall is straight classic. The most poetic song of his early stuff and evokes the imagery he would play with on his later albums.

Kingfish · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:22 pm

Sex, Drugs, and Dave Wrote:

honestly, other than Don't Think Twice... This record lacks the balls of the ones that are about to come. Like I mentioned earlier, Dylan doesn't truly start to move me until Another Side Of...

I like him when he's either being playful and has a sense of humor, or real pissy...

Another Side is the least ballsy of all of his early work. It's almost lightweight in comparison to Freewheelin.'

Sex, Drugs, and Dave · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:26 pm

Kingfish Wrote:

Sex, Drugs, and Dave Wrote:

honestly, other than Don't Think Twice... This record lacks the balls of the ones that are about to come. Like I mentioned earlier, Dylan doesn't truly start to move me until Another Side Of...

I like him when he's either being playful and has a sense of humor, or real pissy...

Another Side is the least ballsy of all of his early work. It's almost lightweight in comparison to Freewheelin.'

See, I thought it was actually ballsier for him at that point to write love songs or show his playful side...I guess I think differently.

Kingfish · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:34 pm

Sex, Drugs, and Dave Wrote:

Kingfish Wrote:

Sex, Drugs, and Dave Wrote:

honestly, other than Don't Think Twice... This record lacks the balls of the ones that are about to come. Like I mentioned earlier, Dylan doesn't truly start to move me until Another Side Of...

I like him when he's either being playful and has a sense of humor, or real pissy...

Another Side is the least ballsy of all of his early work. It's almost lightweight in comparison to Freewheelin.'

See, I thought it was actually ballsier for him at that point to write love songs or show his playful side...I guess I think differently.

There's some truth to that. But he was writing love songs from the beginning. That's what Girl From the North Country is. But Another Side of Bob Dylan is certainly more playful. I'd argue that almost every Dylan album up until 80s were ballsy for unique different reasons with the exception of the Times-Are-A-Changin.

Senator LooGAR · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:51 pm

Hard Rain is fucking amazing, as is Don't Think Twice.

Blowin in The Wind is one of my least favorite songs of any artist, ever. It's just such hippy dippy BS that makes all folk music suspect. Can't be overstated how shitty this is.

But in the end, it's a great album and a foreshadowing of things to come.

harry · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:59 pm

Senator Lou Garra Wrote:

Blowin in The Wind is one of my least favorite songs of any artist, ever.

The Declaration of Independence is one of my least favorite political tracts ever. Sentimental, obvious. Facile, and pandering to the weak-minded.

Freewheelin' was/is underrated. Hard Rain is my favorite. And as for the first, yeah it's dated folk covers, but the timbre and phrasing of his voice on both of these ...on first hearing them it's like hearing the opening bars of Rite of Sprind in 1914. Everything changed in one instant.

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:13 am

Shit, I gotta catch up.

andyfest · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:20 am

Yail Bloor Wrote:

Shit, I gotta catch up.

That should only take about an 1-1.5 hours...

DumpJack · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:26 am

Quote:

If The Times They Are a-Changin' isn't a marked step forward from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, even if it is his first collection of all originals, it's nevertheless a fine collection all the same. It isn't as rich as Freewheelin', and Dylan has tempered his sense of humor considerably, choosing to concentrate on social protests in the style of "Blowin' in the Wind." With the title track, he wrote an anthem that nearly equaled that song, and "With God on Our Side" and "Only a Pawn in Their Game" are nearly as good, while "Ballad of Hollis Brown" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" are remarkably skilled re-castings of contemporary tales of injustice. His absurdity is missed, but he makes up for it with the wonderful "One Too Many Mornings" and "Boots of Spanish Leather," two lovely classics. If there are a couple of songs that don't achieve the level of the aforementioned songs, that speaks more to the quality of those songs than the weakness of the remainder of the record. And that's also true of the album itself -- yes, it pales next to its predecessor, but it's terrific by any other standard.

Code:

http://tinyurl.com/33lckup

tentoze · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:01 am

harry Wrote:

Everything changed in one instant.

Well, maybe 2 instants, but I agree with the intent.

andyfest · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:13 am

"When the Ship Comes In" is such an over-looked song from this album. It ranks right up there with others that get a lot more credit (Times A-Changin, God on Our Side, One Too Many Mornings, etc.) IMO.

Mick · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:29 am

Girl From the North Country is the greatest embodiment of "longing" in a song, perhaps ever.

Kingfish · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:43 am

The TTAAC is an album that modern artists would be killed for making - it's more of the same. The same happens to be great songs.

To me the height of this album is the Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, which as a story from the newspaper, really puts civil rights in perspective. And Dylan, only 22, masterfully created drama out of it.

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:55 am

harry Wrote:

Senator Lou Garra Wrote:

Blowin in The Wind is one of my least favorite songs of any artist, ever.

The Declaration of Independence is one of my least favorite political tracts ever. Sentimental, obvious. Facile, and pandering to the weak-minded.

Freewheelin' was/is underrated. Hard Rain is my favorite. And as for the first, yeah it's dated folk covers, but the timbre and phrasing of his voice on both of these ...on first hearing them it's like hearing the opening bars of Rite of Sprind in 1914. Everything changed in one instant.

"Blowin' In The Wind" would be just another song, a take it or leave it track if you will, but it has been absolutely decimated by media, advertisers and the requirement that it be accompanied by stock footage of sit ins and dopey chicks with love beads. I'm sure if you were there it has more meaning but to those of us who weren't, it represents the collective megalomania that Baby Boomers have about themselves.

"Masters of War", on the other hand, actually resonates, reverberates a genuine resentment that still works nearly fifty years after it was written. Powerful shit

"Hard Rain" is just so amazing. I love every version of it Dylan has ever dreamt up, even the schmaltzy "stuff a square peg in a round hole" cheesefests. You can't kill a classic, Bob.

"Don't Think Twice" is one of those Dylan songs that is so genius that I can't conceive how he sat down and wrote it...what the fuck?

I've always been a big fan of "Corrina, Corrina", such a nice outdoors-y vibe.

Kingfish · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:59 am

Yail Bloor Wrote:

"Don't Think Twice" is one of those Dylan songs that is so genius that I can't conceive how he sat down and wrote it...what the fuck?

Great way to describe it. Dylan has a lot of those.

nobody · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:14 pm

I'm kinda sad. I really was wanting to like these early albums and be all enamored of this early ragged folky Dylan but I am mostly underwhelmed to be honest. I mean a smattering of great songs in there but a ton that just sounds like boring singer-songwritery filler for my tastes. Half the songs on the first album in particular made me wanna go all Animal House John Belushi on his guitar.

As far as the big anthems, I like Times They Are A Changing way better than Blowin' in the Wind. And, I also gotta come close to agreeing with Bloor that I am sure they are more meaningful if you were there but as someone who wasn't, they just don't sound all so special.

Listening to these albums does demonstrate to me why he HAD to go electric. Just cranking out a slew of these things and he would have been a narrowly-focused folky and never really amounted to the icon he became.

harry · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:17 pm

Yail Bloor Wrote:

I'm sure if you were there it has more meaning but to those of us who weren't, it represents the collective megalomania that Baby Boomers have about themselves.

Hyperbole that is uncharacteristic or you; this comes from your psychology, not your reason.

The civil rights movement has nothing to do with Baby Boomer entitlement. There was a time, in my lifetime, when Strange Fruit hung swinging in the breeze from trees all over the Heartland and The South, and "law" protected and defined white dominance. If that's megalomania, so be it.

Rick Derris · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:29 pm

Not shockingly, I fall kind of in the middle of Gar/Bloor's pragmatism and harry's idealism on "Blowin In The Wind".

I would never say it's a terrible song. In fact, it's brilliant and as impenetrable as a folk song gets. It's not Bob's fault that it got co-opted to the point of almost losing it's meaning after he put it out to the world. I mean, you can't lay it on Dylan as a hippie song because hell, doesn't it's recording pre-date that word even entering the pop culture lexicon by about 3 or 4 years?

For me, it's one of those songs that belongs in the Smithsonian for it's impact on pop culture and it's use during the Civil Rights movement.

But, at the same time, I never need to hear it again for many of the reasons Gar and Bloor stated.

DumpJack · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:38 pm

Rick Derris Wrote:

For me, it's one of those songs that belongs in the Smithsonian for it's impact on pop culture and it's use during the Civil Rights movement.

Coopers & Lybrand.

harry · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:42 pm

Rick Derris Wrote:

But, at the same time, I never need to hear it again for many of the reasons Gar and Bloor stated.

Oh, I can't bear listening to it, make no mistake about that. It's like early Beatles hits, it isn't even music anymore.

But having said that... Boomer Victorious!! Go ahead on Mr. Gen Xer (insert any demographic), you can`t dress like me. Sing on Brother, play on drummer

DumpJack · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:47 pm

I don't even want to hear Neil sing it.

nobody · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:49 pm

I think the megalomania comes in by thinking a bunch of white people singing Bob Dylan songs = the civil rights movement

harry · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:50 pm

DumpJack Wrote:

I don't even want to hear Neil sing it.

"... too many people have died...." It's worth it just for that moment.

harry · **Posted:** Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:52 pm

nobody Wrote:

I think the megalomania comes in by thinking a bunch of white people singing Bob Dylan songs = the civil rights movement

Right, the civil rights movement was only about black people... their struggle, not my problem. "The opressor and the opressed are linked in a mutually destructive danc... " Paolo Freire.

Just to point out, note that in the Dylan thread politics and generational conflict emerges. Fucking perfect.

The DJ and Gar Saga Continues-The Bob Dylan listening thread

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