Hi, I'm fairly new to Ciao, and hope that I can be of help. I aim to be as honest as i can be, and ...
Hi, I'm fairly new to Ciao, and hope that I can be of help. I aim to be as honest as i can be, and to write something that might be somewhat informative beyond simple "I Like / I Hate". I post on dooyoo.co.uk also.
Member since:20.08.2008
Reviews:27
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Bringing It All Back Home is one of the genuine, no question Must Own Bob Dylan records. It is his first "electric" album (although the final four tracks - Mr Tambourine Man, Gates Of Eden, It's Alright Ma I'm Only Bleeding and It's All Over Now Baby Blue - are all acoustic), it's stacked from one end to the other with some of the most recognisable, memorable and exhilarating of Dylan's compositions (no album that starts with Subterranean Homesick Blues and ends with It's All Over Now Baby Blue can be anything BUT a Must Own, surely), it's ridiculously exciting (if Maggie's Farm doesn't get you fired up of a morning or evening or afternoon, little will) and, lyrically, is never for a moment anything less than awe-inspiring.
Of the electric tracks, most hover around the filthy blues of the aforementioned Subterranean Homesick Blues and Maggie's Farm, save for the gorgeous ballads Love Minus Zero / No Limit and She Belongs To Me, both of which are amongst the most astounding love songs in Dylan's discography, and both of which are rich with evocative, hypnotic poetic imagery. "My love, she speaks like silence" he announces in the former. "She knows there's no success like failure / and that failure's no success at all."
The acoustic tracks are each stunning, transfixing pieces of work - the seven-and-a-half-minute It's Alright Ma I'm Only Bleeding serves almost as an acoustic reprise of Subterranean Homesick Blues' rapid-fire stream-of-conscious proto-rap, swapping the life-affirming wordplay of the former for a relentless, pitch-black series of images - "Pointed threats they bluff with scorn / suicide remarks are torn / from the fool's gold mouthpiece / the hollow-horn / plays wasted words, proves to warn / that he not busy being born is busy dying."
That's not to say Bringing It All Back Home is without laughs - far from it. For every heady, disturbing moment there's a jocular, absurd counter - the famous false-start of Bob Dylan's 115th Dream being a prime example, both artist and engineers erupting in a fit of giggles at the end of the first line. On The Road Again, too, is as playful as anything he's ever done, feeling more like something off the preceding Another Side Of Bob Dylan, the last of the purely acoustic records, than the proceeding Highway 61 Revisited.
Depending on the time of day, Bringing It All Back Home is either my favourite or second-favourite Bob Dylan album - it swaps position regularly with the mid-70s break-up masterpiece Blood On The Tracks. As aware as I am of every lick, every word, every movement, having heard the record innumerable times in the past ten years, still I find something new with every listen.
It's a record high on its own genius, is what it is - confident, bold, defiant - and yet never appears smug or self-important.
So yes - a Must-Own, and perhaps the best place to start, even, for Dylan newcomers faced with the daunting sprawl of that career.
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"You sound like you're having a good old time," a purist Dylan fan is spotted telling the ... more
artist in the documentaryDon't Look Backjust after the release of this, his first (half-) electric album. He certainly does. Updating Chicago blues forms with ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
"You sound like you're having a good old time," a purist Dylan fan is spotted telling the ... more
artist in the documentary Don't Look Back just after the release of this, his first (half-) electric album. He certainly does. Updating Chicago blues forms wit...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: The First (Album) Showing Of Dylan's Electric Material, With Some Of His Best Acoustic Songs Disadvantages: A Couple Of The Electric Songs Are Not Quite As Fully Developed As Those From Highway 61 Revisited
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