Everybody likes to pick on Bob Dylan thanks to his style
of singing that more resembles mumbling. Anyone who’s heard even
one Dylan song probably has an imitation of Dylan’s up-down style
of intonation as he sings. It’s an easy impression to do, and one
that still gets cheap laughs when I go to parties.
Ah, but at one time, Dylan’s singing was no laughing matter.
Fact was, he was quite coherent, and he didn’t always have such a
see-saw style to his intonation. Case in point:
Blonde On Blonde, the album that is considered by some to be
the best Dylan album ever released on the planet.
I will respectfully decline from making any such statements, for
the simple reason that I am still a pupil in the world of all
things Dylan. I only have a few of his albums lurking in the Pierce
Memorial Archives, and I’ve not been able to work up the gumption
to listen to them until recently. So, I freely admit I’ll be
treading a little water here; I ask the Bob-heads out there to cut
me a little slack.
What
Blonde On Blonde seems to be mostly is the confirmation of
Dylan’s break from a pure folksinger image that he had into the
role of a rock and roller who has discovered the beauty of 12-bar
blues. Taking the lessons he had learned from
Highway 61 Revisited (as well as the lessons he’d learn when
being called “Judas” for daring to play electric guitar), Dylan
searched for a happy medium between the two styles of music he now
seemed to be torn between.
In between these two records are some of Dylan’s best-known
material: “Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35”, a rollicking jam session
of a song that is still fun to listen to these days; “Visions Of
Johanna,” a song that had new life breathed into it courtesy of the
Grateful Dead; “Just Like A Woman,” which brought Dylan’s gentle
side to the forefront well before “Lay Lady Lay” and
Nashville Skyline.
But if you were to just approach
Blonde On Blonde for these songs, you’d be missing out on
some real treasures, such as “Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll
Go Mine” (which I learned about thanks to Todd Rundgren covering it
on
Faithful), “Absolutely Sweet Marie,” “Pledging My Time” and
“Memphis Blues Again”. All these songs demonstrate not only Dylan’s
ability as a songwriter but his overlooked talents as a musician
and a singer.
This isn’t to say that there isn’t filler on
Blonde On Blonde – though, to Dylan’s credit, there isn’t
much. “Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat” is just one track I could not get
into, no matter how hard I tried. And I don’t know if this is a
limitation of my old copy of the record, but the whole-side song
“Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands” had
terrible
sound – almost like a bootleg. (Devotees of Dylan are
encouraged to let me know if this was just a problem with my
record; I didn’t hear any other problems on side four
otherwise.)
Blonde On Blonde is one of those albums that you do have to
experience in order to appreciate just what is offered. Although my
knowledge of Dylan was incredibly limited going into this album,
after experiencing
Blonde On Blonde, I’m ready to tackle more of his works. A
surprisingly approachable set that is rightly considered a
classic.
