For anyone under the age of 30 the name of Bob Dylan probably doesn't mean very much. Those who have heard of him think of him as just another ageing rock star who still makes critically acclaimed records that get five star reviews in Q magazine but that sound a bit dodgy all the same. This would be a very unfair appraisal of such an important figure in modern music.
So let me take you back those halcyon days of 1966 when four lads from Liverpool had won the hearts and minds of teenagers everywhere but also a time when an angry young man named Bob Dylan represented all that was rebellious and intellectual about popular music.
UNCLE BOB
By the mid sixties Bob Dylan had become the darling of the folk music scene. He had started to attract an audience at the beginning of the decade by in playing his own brand of updated traditional folk songs in front of hip/beatnik audiences in New York's hotbed of alternative lifestyle, Greenwich Village. Dylan had brought the folk tradition right up to date and had re-introduced the reflective protest ballads of earlier singer songwriters like Woody Guthrie to a new younger audience. Dylan an English graduate had an ability to write clever insightful lyrics that criticised the America in which he lived. The traditional format of folk was thus updated to produce a very current form of protest song that became the soundtrack for the student activist of the time continuing a trend from the 50's in protesting against the H-bomb, war and environmental pollution. Bob Dylan could do no wrong, or so it seemed. In 1965 he committed the ultimate sin for a folk singer he dared to play his songs with an electric guitar! In the summer of 1966 he began a tour of part acoustic part electric concerts with his backing band 'The
Hawks' (later to become the legendary 'The Band'). Many of his traditional fans were horrified and shouted at him to turn the volume down and the band where even booed off stage on some nights. Others fans saw this change for what it was the birth a brand new genre of music that would revolutionise the rock scene and elevate popular music in to a serious art form. Folk-Rock was born and Dylan never looked back. Early in 1966 Dylan and most of the Hawks Robbie Robertson, and Rick Danko entered the studio in New York to record some song s that Dylan had been working on while touring. Dylan was also joined by Paul Griffin on piano and Al Kooper playing organ and thus the recording of 'Blonde On Blonde' began.
A few weeks in to recording the sessions were moved to Nashville Tennessee. Robbie Robertson again helped out along with some top session men in Nashville, Joe South, Charlie McCoy and Wayne Moss. Dylan with his long hair and weird clothes did not fit in to the Nashville scene home then as now of Country music. Many including some of his fellow musicians viewed him with suspicion. Dylan and his collaborators soon began to overturn accepted conventions of the recording sessions. Their unorthodox approach of actually playing together at recording sessions rather than screening each instrument off seemed strange to the old hands at the studio. On one song Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 the musicians swapped instruments the drum kit was rearranged and symbols were attached to chairs. The recording began in the early ours of the morning and it only required three takes to produce a wonderfully ramshackle ad-lib kind of sound. As the songs took shape a new kind of vibrancy in the music was evident and soon Dylan was accepted more as an innovator rather than being simply regarded as weird.
The album was innovative in its own terms, apart from the style and nature of the music. It was the first rock double album and this format really allowed Dylan to present his talent in full. In a sense Dylan matured in the making of this album. His great skills as a lyricist is still very much in evidence on such tracks as "Stuck Inside Of Mobile" and "I Want You" but added to this there was a greater depth the song both musically and stylistically. This was a far more experimental album than anything Dylan had ever attempted before.
When he entered the Nashville studio Dylan had not completed all the songs that he was to record, most of them were still half thought out scribbling on bits of paper he carried around with him. He used the recording sessions to find the missing elements to the songs. Often he would play the completed chords to a song on a piano and then allow the other musicians to improvise different musical accompaniments. Dylan was aiming at a particular sound, which strayed away from the simplistic folk sound he had developed in the past but that did not totally embrace the more production orientated pop music of the time. He wanted the songs to sound rough and ready; to have the sentiments of folk but the wild, up beat nature of rock n roll.
The double album is crammed full of classic tracks from the opening stonehead anthem of Rainy Day Women -'everybody must get stoned!' to the epic ballad 'Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands', each successive track seems to get better. 'Just Like a Woman' is a great love ballad in the true Dylan style, the lyrics never quite straight forward always enigmatic. A much inferior version went on to be a hit for Manfred Mann. Another thoughtful ballad 'Visions of Joanna' is also included.'I Want You' is a jolly lighthearted song with a light melody provided by the Hammond organ. Dylan also manages to include some raucous classic blues/rock with the excellent 'Temporary Like Achilles', 'Obviously Five Believers' and 'Absolutely Sweet Marie'. It's not all existential angst either there are some great comic offerings, as well as Rainy Day Women, we have 'Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat', which includes Dylan playing lead electric guitar (a rare event). This is a raw track, full of energy and sounding like a precursor of the pre-grunge garage sound of the late 80's. To end Dylan gives us an 11minute masterpiece 'Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands' a very complex ballad that reaffirm the change in musical direction he had taken. It provides a fitting and poignant end to the album.
With 'Blonde On Blonde' Dylan abandoned his folk-protest roots lost a lot of fans but gained a huge number of new ones. This album can be credited with creating Folk Rock, which directly paved the way for others like Neil Young, The Byrds and Crosby Still and Nash to follow. The longer format of this record made people believe that rock could produce something more substantial than the 3-minute pop song. The music combined the thoughtful lyrics characteristic of the protest era with the skilful melodies that had been the remit of more insubstantial pop acts to produce a new type of love ballad that was poetic in style. You could even say popular music grew up with this record. 'Blonde On Blonde' along with the Beatles 'Revolver' and The Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds' are the seminal records of the 60's that announced to the world an increasing maturity in the pop/rock genre.
THE TRACKS AND OTHER DETAILS
1. Rainy day women #12 & 35 2. Pledging my time 3. Visions of Johanna 4. One of us must know 5. I want you 6. Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again 7. Leopard skin pillbox hat 8. Just like a woman 9. Most likely you'll go your way and I'll go mine 10. Temporarily like Achilles 11. Absolutely sweet Marie 12. Fourth time around 13. Obviously five believers 14. Sad eyed lady of the Lowlands
Recorded at Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville, Tennessee
Bob Dylan-Harmonica & Lead Guitar (on "Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat") Charlie McCoy-Harmonica (on "Obviously 5 Believers") Musicians-Wayne Moss, Charlie McCoy, Kenneth Buttrey, Hargus Robbins, Jerry Kennedy, Joe South, Al Kooper, Bill Aikins, Henry Strzelecki, Jaime Robertson Produced by Bob Johnston
Top op Mauri. To my shame, I have never listened to this album - but I can at least claim to own (and have listened to extensively!) a copy of Highway 61 Revisited. And to know something about all the musicians and influences you mentioned! Regards, TT.
Wayne10ch 04.04.2002 14:01
Dylan was loved by my older brother. I suppose he might still like him. I wasn't in to the whole 60's, sex and drugs culture, too young, thak god. I do know I liked some of his songs but not all! Nice op, Wayne
Considered an unprecedented magnum opus when it arrived on two records in May of 1966 ... more
(1997'sTime out of Mindis actually only about a minute shorter),Blonde on Blondefeatured Dylan continuing to demonstrate remarkable powers over the course of 14 new...
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Considered an unprecedented magnum opus when it arrived on two records in May of 1966 ... more
(1997'sTime out of Mindis actually only about a minute shorter),Blonde on Blondefeatured Dylan continuing to demonstrate remarkable powers over the course of 14 new...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Considered an unprecedented magnum opus when it arrived on two records in May of 1966 ... more
(1997'sTime out of Mindis actually only about a minute shorter),Blonde on Blondefeatured Dylan continuing to demonstrate remarkable powers over the course of 14 new...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Considered an unprecedented magnum opus when it arrived on two records in May of 1966 ... more
(1997's Time out of Mind is actually only about a minute shorter), Blonde on Blonde featured Dylan continuing to demonstrate remarkable powers over the course of 1...
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Advantages: Works as an album, not just as a group of songs. Work of a matured, highly talented singer songwriter Disadvantages: The only disadvantage of this album is that it shows what Dylan could do at his best, but rarely reproduced
Advantages: Enormous depth, musically and lyrically wonderous Disadvantages: None
Charles_Strickland 27.09.2006 (24.11.2006)
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Review of Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
Advantages: Distinctive voice? Catchy tunes? Inoffensive MOR? Disadvantages: The feeling you’re hearing filtered versions of other tunes AND not very good ones at that....
the_grouch 21.05.2001 (21.05.2001)
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Review of White On Blonde - Texas
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