Street Legal - Bob Dylan > Reviews (5)

Street Legal
Bob Dylan

I had a look to see what I could write about and I found “ Street Legal”

I like some of Dylan’s music not all of it. I love the first one on this album .I especially love the beat as it is brilliant to keep time to on my glider as I do my exercises.

One of our favourite albums the family owns is Bob Dylan’s “Street Legal”. Said to be Dylan’s most passionate and questioning albums of the seventies, Street Legal delves into a whole range of emotions from waiting and searching (Senor) to a song of loss of encounters (Where are you tonight). Recorded in seven days, his band includes Jerry Scheff (who played bass for Elvis in the 70s)

The album starts off with “Changing of the Guards”, we love this song. The words of this song by Dylan playing about with tarot cards. Dylan mentions the sun, the moon, a high priestess, the tower and the king and queen of swords. The song lasts just over seven minutes and has brilliant saxophone by Steve Douglas. The background singer Carolyn Dennis was Bob’s wife in the seventies and has sung on many of his other albums such as Saved, A Shot of Love and 1997s Time Out of Mind. This song has a dreamy mystical feel with an infectious melody to boot. This is the first of many mentions of black magic in this album as he mentions treasonous young witches and the palace of mirrors.

New Pony continues this idea of dabbling with the black arts with a bluesy type song with Bob talking about a pony called Lucifer. The same backing singers are used on this as they were used on Changing of the Guards. This is a good song but not the best on the album.

No Time To Think, I’m not too sure exactly what this is about although looking at the Bob Dylan Lyrics book it seems to be talking about the devil again

“Anger and jealousy is all that he sells us
He’s contented when you’re under his thumb.
Madmen oppose him but kindness throws him
To survive it you play deaf and dumb.”

He also comes up with very interesting statements. Oppression rears its head as another example of Dylan’s mention of tarot cards that is used in Changing of the Guards. The plague with the dangerous wink is maybe going back to representation of Lucifer who seems to be a pony in the last song. Is the wink coming from one of the madmen, or a woman? When he narrator finally meets the woman, The Babylon girl with the rose in her hair, he finds he’s “Stranded with nothing to share.” Dylan is saying when you take temptation with the devil; you are disappointed with what happens.

Baby Stop Crying
The first line of this song is “You been down to the bottom with a bad man babe”. This is a nice gentle song and he is good voice however it is lyrically the worst song on the album as it is very repetitive.

Is Your Love In Vain?
I first heard this song on the album Bob Dylan at Budokan. This is the one that he introduced by saying “Here’s an unrecorded song, see if you can guess what one it is”. At the time of its release Dylan was branded a chauvinist when he sang, “Can you cook and sew make flowers grow, do you understand my pain.

” It has good organ part in it as well. One of the best songs, both lyrically and vocally.

Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)
His voice is sublime in this. It always amazes me how Bob Dylan can change his voice for different songs. Not too sure exactly what it is about but whatever it is he sings it with conviction. I don’t claim to be a Dylan expert but I am learning about his music all the time.

True Love Tends to Forget
Yet again an excellent vocal performance. This is the first time Dylan has ever sung about true love and contradicts a song called I Want You, which was about the fact that fans thought (amongst other things) it was weird that Dylan didn’t sing about love.

“Now all my fathers, they’ve gone down,
True love they’ve been without it.
But all their daughters put me down
‘Cause I don’t think about it”

Now he seems to be contradicting himself by writing this song. Although this is a great song I can’t help thinking we have lost the folk side of Dylan that shines on albums like Freewheelin’, Times They are Changing and Bringin’ It All Back Home.

We Better Talk This Over
This song is basically about the break-up of a relationship. Like Changing of the Guards this song uses vivid imagery. Street Legal is Dylan first album after the divorce with Sara, and it shows in the extremely bitter "New Pony." We Better Talk This Over when read as pure poetry read as a confession. The first two verses reads as a man who desperately wants to confess. He seems to be pleading to get out of this relationship.

“This situation can only get rougher.
Why should we needlessly suffer?
Let’s call it a day, go own different ways
Before we decay”

The song then goes on to say how he is feeling.

“Don’t think on me and fantasise on what we could never have.
Be grateful of what we shared together and be glad”

This song has a real jumpy beat to it and uses Carolyn Dennis as a background singer.

Where Are You Tonight
(Journey Through The Dark Heat)
The last song on this album is an absolute classic. It has a fantastic beat and Carolyn Dennis has great vocals on it.

There's a neon light a-blaze
In a green Smokey haze
And laughter down on Elizabeth Street

Elizabeth Street is in lower Manhattan in the same general area as Little Italy, Chinatown and the old Jewish Lower East Side. If you go down there, eat lunch at Umberto's Clam House that is the "clam house in New York" where they killed Joey Gallo - Joey. A subject, which Dylan sung about on the desire album. American-Italian filmmaker Martin Scorcese grew up on Elizabeth Street. This has a real good feel good factor to end the great album.

This is a wee bit longer than my usual opinions but I felt there was more to explain on this one.

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I hope you enjoyed the read

Margaretxx