Bob Dylan Album, "Fallen Angels" (05/20/2016) *

What Together Through Life has that makes it more inner'esting than Tempest is its a fun album. Has a lot of humor. Tempest is one blood bath after another. Not much a fan of Tempest tbh. I know its better writing. Better arrangements. Even better execution. But it just doesnt move me much.

I tend to visit Bobs later material 10xs as much as his early stuff now. Ive heard the early stuff rearranged too great success at times in various concerts. To the point much of the old 60/70 albums seem like blueprints to a moderate degree.

 

I liked "Scarlet Town" and "Forgetful Heart" on Tempest; perhaps I'll play the album tonight.

But I still want Dylan to write more story songs and anthems for the next album because that's what I want.

 

You just about need two lives to really listen to all of Bob Dylan's stuff

 

What anthems do you mean? Anthems kind of sounds like something Motley Crue or Twisted Sister would write.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting your terminology...

 

He should do it then.

Forgetful Heart's on TTL.

 

Tempest is a beautiful, dense, rich and cinematic work. His defining 21st century statement to date in my book. L&T, MT and Shadows are all excellent too in my view but come in under Tempest.

 

Well said.

 

Tempest is a very good album, I feel like a lot of people didn't even listen to the album because of Dylan's voice. I think Dylan's Aged voice sounds really good with the songs.

 

I like Tempest very much. I agree with Sean that there's something puzzling about the last two songs, neither of which quite fulfills the promise of the premises (Dylan writing a Titanic ballad? Dylan writing a tribute to Lennon? Hell yeah! But then the songs themselves are so odd in ways I can't quite make sense of--not that I don't like them, exactly, but not like I get them either...).

On the other hand "Scarlet Town" is absolutely top-shelf Dylan as far as I'm concerned. All ambitions signed, sealed, and delivered. And the rest of the album ranges from very, very good, to a pleasure--except maybe the over-repetitive riffing on "Narrow Way" and "Early Roman Kings" (another song I find sort of puzzling, too).

L.

 

Agreed about the last two songs. Maybe that's why some people don't think much of this album? As they are the two songs that close the album, they are what are freshest in the memory after listening.

 

New Morning is very good.
So is "World Gone Wrong"; you should check it out again.
One of the Dylan experts on here claimed that he thought Dylan's re-emergence into releasing great albums again began here.
I agree in many ways.
Seems Bob really got "down in the groove" from 93/94 "Unplugged"...
...then we got "Time Out Of Mind" and all the great "Bootleg Series" releases that followed...
Who saw that coming?

 

I don't think anyone saw that coming, I think Dylan at the time needed to get back into his folk roots.

 

I actually like 'em both very much. The Titanic song has that great shifting of points of view that Dylan does so well -- is this all happening? Are we in the watchman's dream, or it it happening? Is this the movie Titanic, the historical Titanic, the symbolic Titanic of the gilded age's demise? And then there are these weird flashes from Dylan's eternal American present that see to take the ship into the realm of the purely symbolic -- I mean brother rising up against brother in every circumstance, the brothel keeper seeing the changing of his world..... And "Roll On, John" to me is just one of those slice of life tunes, like "Lenny Bruce," and it's the catchiest melody on the album. Can't get that one out of my head after the album's over. Love "Scarlet Town," love "Pay in Blood" -- to me the album's highlight, love "Duquesne Whistle," love "Tin Angel" -- one of those great movies-in-your-mind Dylan tunes, I feel like I'm watching that one as much as listening to it. It's not a perfect album, maybe it's not a great album. But it may be my favorite late career Dylan album.

 

"Pay in Blood", is a great song. It's probably my favorite of his since Mississippi.

 

I like them. I just haven't heard them in a way that clicks for me yet. I'll have to give the Titanic song another listen with what you say in mind. Up to now the shifting points of view and the confusions of history, myth, symbol, film have just defeated me by distracting me. But maybe you're right that they serve a purpose. It's at least pretty clear that the song is more concerned with the tradition of imagining the Titanic than about just telling its story again ("son this ain't the real thing no more...it's a dream"). I'll have to listen more. Dylan has certainly earned the benefit of the doubt for me! There's almost always been a pay off for paying close attention.

Parts of the Lennon song are moving to me--the melody being one of them. Other parts just still seem odd to me, raising too many (to me) distracting questions. I'm usually on his wavelength when it comes to his idiosyncratic way of reimagining things and engaging with other artists who have mattered to him (Bruce, Guthrie). In this case I'm just as puzzled as I am moved by the gesture (or by the shape it took, anyway).

L.

 

It's a strange thing, but for a couple of years I was hearing Popeye the Sailor Man in my head, and thinking wouldn't it be interesting if someone recorded a cover of this old cartoon song using a French horn instead of a trumpet for the punctuation, and then alliterating the bars into a long instrumental. A French horn is the sound of a drunken sailor, and the whole instrumental would evoke a drunken sailor and the coming of waves. I can't say where the idea came from, but it, and the sound, were in my head. Then Dylan comes out with his Titanic song which is essentially the same as Popeye the Sailor Man. Anyhow ... never mind.

 

I think that's well put "the tradition of imagining the Titanic"....yeah, I haven't spent any conscious time trying to puzzle out the song, but something is happening there, even if I don't know what it is entirely, and when the song kind of opens up, after the first watchman chorus, where we start really getting into these mixtures of real, figurative and cinematic Titanic events, I always find myself kind of snapping to attention.

 

And Popeye the Sailor Man is really closely related to the earlier Barnacle Bill the Sailor. Ah, evolution!

 

I love Tempest & feel it holds up very well to repeated listening. "Tempest" is a great song but it was definitely oversold as the next-great-looong-Dylan-epic. I've never felt too attached to "Roll On John" but I feel (hope) the whole Lennon thing is a red herring. However the song has a beautiful melody floating about the chord inversions and, for my money, is worth the price of admission for the opening quote alone:

"Doctor, doctor, tell me the time of day
Another bottle empty, another penny spent"

Absolutely brilliant!
(There's a lot more I could say about Tempest but to what end? Besides, it's Friday & I'm lazy. Cheers!)

 

Could be nothing significant but bobdylan.com is ( or was when I checked just now) down "for maintenance." Perhaps it's just routine work ...or could they be revamping it ahead of an album announcement?

 

Is there any precedent for news worthy announcements appearing after the site has been taken down for maintenance? For instance when they have added videos in the past - do they take the site down or can they push this content otherwise? Hoping for something exciting.

 

I don't know. My guess is they wouldn't need to take it down in order to make a notable announcement but it is a pure guess.

 

It's TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE and CHRISTMAS IN THE HEART where Bob Dylan's ruined voice "wins" and I have difficulty getting past it. Of course, Dylan being Dylan (thank God), his singing voice reemerged beautifully on SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT.

 

Well, its ok not to like Bob's current vocals but still respect the man.

 

Bob Dylan Recording New Album at Capitol Records Studios | Billboard »

Schmitt confirming a new album so presumably has been given permission to speak out. It's another covers set.