Fans of Bob Dylan had to be wondering what was going on with the singer in the late ’60s. Having survived a motorcycle accident in 1966, he essentially disappeared off the radar, popping up only to release John Wesley Harding<\/i> in 1967 and appearing at a Woody Guthrie tribute concert.<\/p>\n
So, when Nashville Skyline<\/i> appeared in 1969, fans of Dylan had to be asking themselves two things. First, \u201cWhen did Dylan go country?\u201d And second, \u201cWho knew the sonofabitch could sing<\/i><\/b>?!?\u201d<\/p>\n
In a sense, the shift to a smoother country sound shouldn’t have surprised anyone; Dylan started to move in that direction on John Wesley Harding<\/i>, albeit with minimal instrumentation and with the same gravelly vocals people had come to expect. However, this time Dylan’s tones come through in a way that they never quite did again; I once read somewhere that the reason his vocals were clearer was due to him quitting smoking.<\/p>\n
Whatever the case, Nashville Skyline<\/i> remains quite possibly the most underrated album of Dylan’s career up to that point \u2013 I hesitate to say \u201cof all time,\u201d since I’m plowing through his discography as I write this review \u2013 and the only complaint I’ve found with the disc is this: it’s too damn short!<\/p>\n
There is no biting social commentary on this disc, no messages of morality to be found, no subcutaneous proselytizing about God in any of the songs. This is all laid-back, country-tinged music which often sings about love (\u201cGirl From The North Country,\u201d \u201cLay Lady Lay,\u201d \u201cTo Be Alone With You\u201d). There is even the first dip into the instrumental well \u2013 at least that I can remember in Dylan’s discography up to this point \u2013 with \u201cNashville Skyline Rag\u201d \u2013 and his first duet, as he welcomes Johnny Cash to share in the vocals on \u201cGirl From The North Country.\u201d <\/p>\n
Through it all, Dylan’s vocals are crystal clear, as he croons \u2013 croons!<\/i> \u2013 his way through the nine vocal tracks on this one. Honestly, he’s never sounded better \u2013 and from my dabbling in the post-Nashville<\/i> discography to this point, he never did sound better. The combination of country-oriented songs and smooth vocals works, and works well.<\/p>\n
The only complaint is that Nashville Skyline<\/i> is a short album, clocking in at under a half hour. I easily could have listened to a double album\u2019s worth of these songs, if they were all of the same caliber as these ten tracks. Then again, Dylan seemed to always know how to leave the listener wanting more while making an exit before his welcome was worn out, so quite possibly he knew exactly what he was doing.<\/p>\n
If there is one must-own album of Dylan’s 1960’s output, I’d easily put Nashville Skyline<\/i> at the top of that list. Even for people who don’t like the nasally sing-song voice of Dylan that so many of us \u2013 myself included \u2013 have made fun of over the years, this one will surprise them. Yes, kids, it’s that good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5866],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-44879","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bob-dylan","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44879"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}