Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan > Reviews > I cried, I CRIED

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Excellent music and songs, a truly great album
Disadvantages:	Utter Pain, agony of an artist .  .  should you enjoy it?

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

A trail of blood, the corpses of a sacred relationship.

Blood On The Tracks (1975) is one of Bob Dylan's most famous albums and widely held as one of his best albums. It is a remarkable album indeed and wins critical acclaim like no other album yet at the time it came out it wasn't as well accepted. The first reviews were negative and wondered what the hell the album was all about. One of the first things the critics didn't like was the fact that unlike all the other records of the day this one had a very raw sound and wasn't heavily produced. Another thing they didn't like was the content of the songs. They were well-crafted songs of course but the critics didn't think people would relate to them. I've read one review of the time that suggests Blood On The Tracks would become a forgotten Dylan album, swept under the rug for safekeeping. Well here we are decades on still talking about what a great album it is!

What wasn't quite as obvious on first release was something we take as a simple fact of history now: Dylan's marriage was blowing itself apart and tearing the man himself in half. This album was showing the spilt blood along the way, the Blood On The Tracks. It's about pain and hurt and loss. There was a famous incident when someone said to Dylan in an interview that he "enjoyed" the album and Dylan responded along the lines of "I can't relate to people who enjoy that sort of pain" which is a very rare insight from Dylan. It's rare he'll give a serious comment on his work as he likes it to stand up for itself, this one comment in his whole history gave us a bigger insight into this album than any of his others. We never really feel we know what is going through Dylan's mind when he produces challenging work, but for this album we had a pretty good guess at what was going through his mind: agony.

~~~~The Music~~~~

There probably isn't a better start to any album ever recorded to the sublime 'Tangled Up In Blue' getting Blood On The Tracks underway. Concentrating on the music for a moment, this is a bouncy, rolling back and forth kind of tune. The twanging guitar on this track is just unbelievable, it's the most beautiful and endearing I've ever experienced. The drum and bass pattern skips along. You can picture a personification of the drums here, it's like a little boy jumping forward with one foot and then dragging the other forward, going to jump again only to stumble forwards after tripping on his shoelace. This is an excellently performed song all round and one of Dylan's greatest masterpieces of music. It's also currently my favourite song to play on my guitar, get yourself a tab and capo and this is one of the most enjoyable songs you'll ever play! It's also a real concert favourite too, I remember at Sheffield 2000 Dylan played this and the lights were in sync with the music to make massive silhouettes of Dylan and his band. It was a very groovy effect, you saw the massive silhouettes slowly grooving with the tune and the silhouette of the Bassist with Double Bass and his Blues Brothers style outfit was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. And of course seeing Dylan's distinctive figure silhouetted and dancing whilst playing this acoustic twangy tune was utterly fab!

The words are as sublimely poetic as the music. It tells the tale of a man and a woman and basically how they aren't together! With excellent lines like "we always did feel the same we just saw it from a different point of view, Tangled Up In Blue." And the line before that, a much quoted line "but me, I'm still on the road heading for another joint," which must be so true for Dylan on his 'Never Ending Tour'. Special credit to Dylan for using the word Mathematicians and making it sound good! This is a song I never ever tire of hearing, he could have made this song a full album long and I'd still be playing it on loop!

'Simple Twist Of Fate' is the song with the terrible task of following up the opener. A sparse Acoustic guitar rambles along in the foreground and behind it there is a clear sparse bass line that moves the song along. Dylan gently sings most of the verses up until the last line that he sharpens and makes it drive right through your head. Tangled was a sad song really but the music shielded it somewhat, but 'Simple Twist Of Fate' doesn't conceal its sadness. The words are clear and the sparseness of the bass line allows the pain to seep through. A very good and moving song.

Next is 'You're A Big Girl Now' with its classy slow drum work. Acoustics ring and sing with notes coming from multiple guitars. Dylan sings in a slightly pained and strained wail that sounds fitting for the song. Towards the end of the song the constant drum pattern briefly changes to a heavier one that gives the feeling that the song has taken off and is in full flight, and then comes a sad crying harmonica from Mr Dylan, great stuff.

'Idiot Wind' is considered one of the greatest Dylan songs ever, and you can't help but see why upon listening to this album recording. Not only does Dylan give 110% but all the musicians seem to be going 110% as well. The music is a very tight affair the Drum and Bass are one, the guitar fits in like a square peg in a square hole and the organ fills every nook and cranny to give a perfectly smooth surface. Dylan sings this very well and the emotion you hear on his voice is very interesting, it's like he's putting his whole soul on trial.

The song starts with the line: "Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press" before going in to more typically opaque territory. But the fact is, you know this is a man expressing his hurt. Dylan must've have been in such pain that even a genius like he couldn't manage to hide it.

I know this is a long song, but I think reading through this song gives you a perfect idea of what this whole album is about and how it feels.

~~~~Lyrics Break~~~~
'Idiot Wind' -Bob Dylan
Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out but when they will I can only guess.
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
I can't help it if I'm lucky.

People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act
Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts.
Even you, yesterday you had to ask me where it was at,
I couldn't believe after all these years, you didn't know me better than that
Sweet lady.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth,
Blowing down the backroads headin' south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

I ran into the fortune-teller, who said beware of lightning that might strike
I haven't known peace and quiet for so long I can't remember what it's like.
There's a lone soldier on the cross, smoke pourin' out of a boxcar door,
You didn't know it, you didn't think it could be done, in the final end he won the wars
After losin' every battle.

I woke up on the roadside, daydreamin' 'bout the way things sometimes are
Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are makin' me see stars.
You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies.
One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzin' around your eyes,
Blood on your saddle.

Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb,
Blowing through the curtains in your room.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart
You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn't enough to change my heart.
Now everything's a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped,
What's good is bad, what's bad is good, you'll find out when you reach the top
You're on the bottom.

I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind
I can't remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed, your eyes
don't look into mine.
The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone-faced while the building
burned.
I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees, while the springtime
turned Slowly into autumn.

Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull,
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

I can't feel you anymore, I can't even touch the books you've read
Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin' I was somebody else instead.
Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy,
I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory
And all your ragin' glory.

I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free,
I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me.
You'll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above,
And I'll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love,
And it makes me feel so sorry.

Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats,
Blowing through the letters that we wrote.
Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves,
We're idiots, babe.
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.

~~~~Back To The Talk~~~~

Dylan sing this song with a desperate mortality in his voice. It's a superb performance and song and again it's moving, and without doubt is a bloody masterpiece.

'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go' is very much true to its title. It's a song about a special relationship ending, a relationship like no other. So again it's quite a sad song. It's performed well with a fast strumming Acoustic guitar and a heavy but not overbearing Bass Line that drives the waltz of the lyrics along. It starts and finishes with a short burst of cutting harmonica. A good solid song, not the best of the album of course but it holds it's head up along side the big songs of the album so it's clearly not bad.

'Meet Me In The Morning' is a classic blues styled song. The twanging guitars are vital on this song and do a great job; the Bass line seems a little lonely but drives the song nicely. Dylan snaps his vocals out and delivers them in a bluesy manner; it's good stuff for downbeat depression! It's another song about the loss of the one he loved. After the singing is done a fantastic bit of lead guitar is added, it has a really great bluesy sad tone.

In typically untypical fashion Dylan whacks you with the start of the next song. 'Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts' starts with a ludicrous upbeat Bass and Drum line that as it happens goes on all the way through the song. This is quite a dark story, one that you have to really follow and listen to a good few times. It's the longest track on the album at a staggering eight minutes fifty seconds, but who can say how long a story should be! The music I think offers a good break from the rest of the album and it somehow makes the sadder music easier to swallow in context of a full album of misery!

'If You See Her, Say Hello' is a very touching and intimate song. It's like a message given to a friend of a lost love who will no longer recognise your existence. The music is very soft and tender Acoustic feeling with a click-ity-click more than a drum. This is a wonderful song of heartbreak. It has the tale of the separation and how hurtful it was but it also has the fact that they've never been apart as far as the insides are concerned. "Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past / I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast" is a reflection of the sheer heart pouring of this song. It's a much-underrated song and paints the emotion of loss and regret so brilliantly. Dylan sings so sweetly yet with a real pain and hurt in his voice. This song is so strong that I confess that when I really got involved in the lyrics I actually did have a tear rolling down my cheek.

'Shelter From The Storm' is the ninth track on the album. It has a fast strumming acoustic guitar quite low down in the mix and another sparse waltzing bass line quite high in the mix. It's another good vocal performance from Dylan too. The refugee discussed in this song, true to form of the album, is of course a lady. It illustrates how this great relationship developed and gave the subject who almost certainly is Dylan himself a much-needed hideaway from the pressure of superstardom. But things go wrong, and again Dylan is tearing himself over the way things have turned out: "Now there's a wall between us, somethin' there's been lost / I took too much for granted, got my signals crossed." A Dylan classic and a harshly aching song.

And so the final track on the album arrives. 'Buckets Of Rain' revisits 'Tangled Up In Blue' in terms of waltzing twang-i-ness. It isn't as good as Tangled, but is a fantastic song. This is another sad song about a lost love really. The Buckets of Rain are also Buckets of Tears, as Dylan weeps but also states that he's still there and will always be there for the lost one.

~~~~Conclusions~~~~

The disintegration of a marriage and regret over it are resounding themes from this album. It's not actually very easy to listen to if you become involved in the lyrics. In fact you can become tangled up in blue! It's a very dark and sore album. Dylan totally revised much of the material on this album; in fact meaning its release was considerably delayed. This was because he realised much of the content was far too personal and too clearly autobiographical. Dylan as an artist didn't want everything to be so apparent and so he rewrote a lot in order to distance himself from the pain. And yet when you listen to this album knowing that Dylan's personal life was in utter turmoil it is all so clear. Here is an artist in pain. Above all else Bob Dylan is a writer, and as most writers will tell you there are times in life that the only reason they're still alive is because they purge themselves of pain into their artwork. Writing isn't just about making statements and pretty art, at times when life is hard it's about survival more than anything else.

So Dylan expresses his pain through this album and as such it isn't always the best album to listen to. When recording this album Dylan used numerous different musicians and made numerous takes of a song. This is the man who sometimes used to run the musicians through a song once and then the next time they played it would be what you heard on the album. In other words this is one of the most thought-through albums from Dylan. He knew exactly what he was after and he hammered away until he got it. What it was he got was one of the most coherent portraits of an artist in pain ever produced. The raw sound of the album is a perfect metaphor of the inflammation of his emotions. This album is of such quality and musical integrity that it is rightly considered one of the greatest albums ever made. Wow.