They Will Rise Again From the Tundra

Bob Dylan is my favorite singer/songwriter.  Original, I know, and I’ll spare you the diatribe about his greatness as his standing among the 20^th century’s greatest performers and personas is well established.  He is immortal as far as the history of music is concerned and bears responsibility for some of the best musical and lyrical offerings ever produced.  That being said, Dylan’s undertakings became more mercurial as his career went on, and in addition to having written some of the most powerful and groundbreaking songs of his generation (or ever), he may also have lashed together some of the worst I’ve ever heard.  This ongoing series entitled Bob Dylan’s Bad Dreams seeks to bring those forgotten anti-classics into full view with naught but love and admiration.  The idea is to keep this list going on a semi-regular basis until I run out of things to say.

Album: The Basement … Read more

Bob Dylan is my favorite singer/songwriter.  Original, I know, and I’ll spare you the diatribe about his greatness as his standing among the 20^th century’s greatest performers and personas is well established.  He is immortal as far as the history of music is concerned and bears responsibility for some of the best musical and lyrical offerings ever produced.  That being said, Dylan’s undertakings became more mercurial as his career went on, and in addition to having written some of the most powerful and groundbreaking songs of his generation (or ever), he may also have lashed together some of the worst I’ve ever heard.  This ongoing series entitled Bob Dylan’s Bad Dreams seeks to bring those forgotten anti-classics into full view with naught but love and admiration.  The idea is to keep this list going on a semi-regular basis until I run out of things to say.

Album: Knocked Out … Read more

Listening to a new Bob Dylan album almost always conjures doubt and conflicted feelings, echoes of past greatness, evidence of current greatness, and obvious signs of disintegration, at least it’s been that way for me since 2001′s Love & Theft, which ended up being a pretty decent album all things considered. Dylan’s latest offering Together Through Life was released “by surprise” in April 2009, and offers a similar experience to the one I just described.

In fact, I’m giving the record its fourth listen as I write this, and I still don’t know what to make of it. If you take Together Through Life at its face, you’d find it a breezy, playful venture through blues, Tex-Mex, and New Orleans styles, never getting too serious with the lyrics and throwing in a few instruments one might not equate with Dylan’s music. A light accordion laces much of the album … Read more