"Bringing It All Back Home" - 1965

Dylan plugs in.

First one with a band. First one with an electric guitar. The protest era comes to an end and the first reinvention takes place. Then the first song on the album ("Subterranean Homesick Blues") immediately became iconic. And I guess it's kind of a protest song. Maybe that era isn't quite over yet. Maybe it never ends, as long as you keep caring.

I can't imagine how jarring this record must've been at the time. I'm 39. I wasn't alive during the start of Dylan's career. By the time I knew his name, we had a fully formed Dylan who had already cemented a legacy of writing great songs. So I have no idea what it's like to have the folkie-Bob turn into a rock act. I guess I've seen bands I've followed change tone a time or two though. Mumford & Sons plugged in and alienated a lot of people a few years back. Is that as close as we've had to this experience in my generation? Maybe. I still like Mumford & Sons. So maybe I still would've liked Dylan.

I don't think there's a bad song on the album. I don't particularly care for "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream." Mostly because I think the choice to say "Captain Arab" instead of "AHAB" is a silly lyric (which I know was intentional) that ultimately falls flat, and in 2019 it sounds a little racist (which I know was UNintentional). But it's still not a bad SONG. And I like the sound of the album. The electric side (side A) might be the first example we really have of "Americana" as a style of music. And side B is classic Dylan tone, just stepped up a little. I like the bravery of starting with the electric and then rewarding the long-time fans with something closer to what they were used to on side B, if they made it that far.  That's clever.

The Summer prior to the album's release, Bob met the Beatles. That's significant. Like everybody working at that time (and most people working NOW) Bob would come to be very inspired and influenced by the Beatles. And he remained on good terms with them, despite a perceived musical "rivalry." But without his love of the Beatles, I don't think Bob would've started experimenting with different mixing techniques and sounds and we might never have gotten the electric era or the subsequent stuff. He might've fizzled out with the rest of the folkies. Or at best he'd be playing revival bills with either Simon or Garfunkel and maybe Louden Wainwright III.  (All of whom I like. I'd go see that show.) But as it was, Bob got weird with it, and we all benefited.

Reading Bob's Wikipedia page for this album reveals that recording sessions were all over the place and random in nature. It seems a schizophrenic series of sessions led to a schizophrenic album. As it should be. But there's no doubt that the whole time Bob was being intentional in killing off the "folk guy" that everybody knew. Just listen to "Maggie's Farm" and tell me he wasn't purposely saying, "that was fine, but NO MORE." It's obvious. It's bold.

A lot of my personal favorite Dylan songs are on this album. Some of yours probably are too.

Favorite Tracks:

• "Subterranean Homesick Blues" - Which I first heard as dialogue in an episode of Murphy Brown, of all places. And it stuck in my head, even from that.
• "She Belongs to Me"
• "Maggie's Farm" - A pacing and rhythm Dylan would return to a lot in his career. There are a lot of his songs that could easily end verses with "I ain't gonna work on Maggie's Farm no more." I like that.
• "Mr. Tambourine Man" - Of course I like this one. Although the idea of somebody specifically wanting to hear some asshole play a tambourine as a form of entertainment never fails to make me laugh.
• "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" - Definitely in my top-five favorite Dylan songs. I first encountered in in college when a professor described it in a class and encouraged us to read it as a poem. I didn't hear the song until several years later. When I read it as a poem I thought, "Yeah, I get why he likes it..." But when I heard the song, I thought, "OOOOOOOOOOhhhhh...NOW I get it."

I like "turning point" albums as a general rule of thumb.  Not always.  There are some that suck.  Some bands hit a turning point then IMMEDIATELY turn back because it sucked (memo to Arcade Fire).  But it sure worked for Bob.  This is a great record.

Heaven's Door Tennessee Bourbon

I thought that this would be a good point to take a small break and write about something different. We're four albums in--the end of the "acoustic" era. The end of the "protest" era, more or less. Before we dig into a new stage of Dylan's career, let's talk about a recent one. Let's talk about Bob Dylan's signature whiskey.

I'm always reluctant to try a celebrity-branded whiskey. I'm afraid of one of two options. 1 - What if it sucks and I spent $50 on it? 2 - What if it's GREAT and they stop making it? So I had reservations about buying a bottle of Heaven's Door. To the first point, yes Dylan released "Blood on the Tracks," but what if this is more like his Christian period? To the second...oh, God...what if it's like "Blood on the Tracks?" And what if everybody else wants to listen to "Blonde on Blonde?"

Reservations aside, after I bought the Dylan box set, I stopped and picked up a bottle of the Heaven's Door Tennessee Bourbon.

It's "Blood on the Tracks."

Okay. I'm in no way a whiskey expert.  I've had a lot of them though.  Everything from a $20 bottle of Jack to a $200 bottle of Johnnie Walker.  (I didn't personally buy the latter--a friend generously poured me a shot.)  I've had most of the big name brands, a ton of the smaller ones, Irish, American, Scotch, Canadian, Japanese...  I've made it a point to find out what my favorite whiskeys are and to buy them for myself and serve them to others. But I don't know what the hell the words the experts throw around mean, nor do I know how to describe a "taste note" or whatever. All that to say that whatever I write below won't be a professional opinion. I only know enough to know that Bourbon doesn't come from Tennessee, so it's weird that he called it that. (But I don't care enough to dwell on that.)

The bottle itself is a nice design. Very straight, very smooth. It's tall and noticeable on the shelf. It feels good in your hand and looks cool. The front is adorned with art that represents Dylan's iron work. Did you know he does iron work? He welds and makes gates. Wouldn't have called that, would you?  Look at these things!

Bob at work. - Source: https://twentytwowords.com/bob-dylan-is-a-welder-and-he-makes-big-iron-gates-out-of-scrap-metal-5-pictures/ 

Work in progress. - Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9an4by/bob-dylan-towering-metalwork-archway

One of the gates with some lady. - Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/bob-dylan-musician-by-day-iron-welder-by-night/article15514074/

That the iron work is pretty faithfully reproduced in the bottle decals is a nice touch for those of us who are crazy enough to know about that.

When I opened the bottle for the first time the cork made one of the most satisfying "pop" sounds I think I've ever heard. (Only one that compares is the Connemara Irish Whiskey I bought a while back.) It's weird how the aesthetic of the sound the cork makes can inform the experience. A lot of people probably don't notice that. A lot of people are probably irritated that it's a cork and not just a twist off top, in fact. But that's a sign of a quality bottle to me--both that it's there and that it SOUNDS good.

Then I was hit with the smell. It's 90-proof so there's a strong alcohol smell, but you also get a sweetness in the scent. It smells nice. I'd wear it as cologne if that wouldn't make me seem like a sad drunk who smells like whiskey all the time. It's a good, rich smell--you know how it's going to taste as soon as it hits you.

After my first test-sip, I said "Wow!"  Then I took another sip and said, "WOOOOOOOW!" It's delicious. As described above when I was talking about the scent, it's got a sweetness that is undercut by the sour that you're used to from most whiskeys. I tasted a good amount of caramel and it was very warming on the first swallow. I'm going to use the word "smooth" to describe it even though that doesn't mean anything to me. It's a great whiskey that does a great job accompanying the music. (During my first sampling, "Another Side of Bob Dylan" was playing the whole time.) And for what it's worth, at 90-proof it does the job.

There are three varieties, and so for I've only had the one. The Tennessee Bourbon is all I can speak for at present, but the Double Barrel Whiskey and the Straight Rye Whiskey are both on my radar. The bottles are reasonably priced against others I enjoy of similar quality. (You'll pay about as much for say Four Roses or a good small batch.) The Rye is the most expensive for some reason. I've only gotten into Rye recently and prefer to use it as the whiskey in a Manhattan when I make one, so I'm very interested in trying Bob's soon. And when that happens, I'm sure you'll hear from me again.  (The Double Barrel might come to me first, just because it's cheaper.)

For those who were waiting to hear about a different album this week, I'm sorry for the change in topic. But I thought it might be fun to talk about and maybe a couple people who want to take the word of a whiskey guy about a bottle of whiskey might find it helpful.

I'll be back to the albums next time. Hope you enjoyed this one!

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(Source for the photo of the bottle--it wouldn't format well if I posted this as a caption: https://www.caskers.com/heaven-s-door-straight-tennessee-bourbon-whiskey/?/?utm_campaign=USC%20-%20Shopping&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=Cj0KCQiAk7TuBRDQARIsAMRrfUaht9_PrfaAr4gNo67M5Sln0QZpCD9xHewpi24JTrQLidyoeW4AL8oaAoKcEALw_wcB)

"Another Side of Bob Dylan" - 1964

"Another Side of Bob Dylan" was being written at the same time the Beatles arrived in America. While the two became fans of one another, I don't know if it would be right to say one informed the other. But I still think that is a fascinating backdrop to keep in mind.

"Another Side" is an album on which people remain split to this day. Critics largely hated it. Fans at the Newport Festival accepted it warmly when he played there (prior to the album's release). It didn't sell as well as his previous record, indicating that there may not have been as warm a reception elsewhere. And when I've talked to people about it in recent weeks, I've got a lot of "meh" and "there are a couple good songs," and I've got a couple of emphatic, "BEST ALBUM OF THAT ERA" responses. It's a divisive listen. Some of the background of the album might explain why.

At the same time the US was losing their goddamned minds about the Fab Four, Dylan was going through some personal turmoil. The breakup of his relationship with Suze Rotolo (of which too much has already been written, so I'm keeping it brief) definitely had a major impact. "To Ramona" is probably heavily informed by that. The ongoing affair with Joan Baez was probably a major factor too. He also spent some time writing for/with Nico, who would later go on to release music with The Velvet Underground. Pile on top of this a lot of traveling, and hard work, including a book deal that took years to complete and endless gigging... It's easy to see that this was a weird time in Dylan's life, and it makes sense that the album he would put out would eventually get hit with the term "transitional." Transition was a big part of his day-to-day at that point.

The transitions weren't all personal. While still an album constructed of Dylan playing/sing solo, there were some serious musical transitions, too. Listening to the album for the first time I noticed that he'd stopped finger-picking. That might not mean a lot to people who don't play guitar, but suffice to say that if you've listened to folk music, you're used to hearing it finger-picked. He also played piano on the album for the first time. Thematically, the lyrics moved away from protest songs and toward a more poetic structure. The songs felt more personal. Although it is worth noting that while the album is *less* political, there are lines in "Chimes of Freedom" that are known to have been written about the day John Kennedy died--though in the context of that song it's open-ended.

Perhaps the biggest "transitional" piece is found in one of the better known phrases on the album: "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." This was a Bob Dylan who was stepping down from his post as the voice of a generation. A Dylan who didn't want to be Messiah, but just wanted to write his songs. But like any transition, it was misunderstood by critics who instead wrote that he was beginning to sound like the fame had gone to his head. Because...of course that's what they said.

Favorite Tracks:

• "All I Really Want to Do"
• "Chimes of Freedom"
• "To Ramona" - Which I'm not as fond of as a lot of Dylan fans, but it's a song about saving ones lover from oneself and I get that. Plus balanced against what was going on in his personal life, I think if nothing else, it's an important track.
• "My Back Pages"
• "It Ain't Me Babe" - I was familiar with this as a Johnny Cash song long before I knew it was a Dylan song. I don't prefer either version. They're both great. The way Dylan tells the story of meeting Cash, he says they were both so excited, they were jumping up and down on beds like kids. I'm sure that's not 100% true...but don't you want it to be? Don't you WANT to see Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan jumping up and down on a bed, giggling together?

I've said a few times in this post that opinions are divided on this album. So here's mine. On my first listen, I didn't feel much about the album other than recognizing a couple of the tunes. But on subsequent listens, it grew on me a lot. It's a sadder tone than we're used to from Dylan up to this point. I can see why some would've found it jarring--boy did they have no idea what was coming next! I think this is one you've got to spend some time with to appreciate. So of course critics didn't get it.

I can't blame anyone who doesn't love this album. But I think people who get up in arms about tearing it down probably don't have real problems in their lives like Bob Dylan did at the time.

"The Times They Are a-Changin'" - 1964

I've said of the title track, "I feel like in some ways, Dylan has been writing that song for 50 years." And it's getting close to 60.

That's in no way a knock against Bob. He's got a message and part of that message is that things change; you've either got to push back or change with them. It's up to you to decide not only which you'll do, but which you think is right. I love that.

It's startling to realize that Bob Dylan had been at this for only THREE YEARS when he was writing some of his most enduring work. And this time it's ALL ORIGINALS. No covers or "traditional" songs this time around. (And really, what's the difference between a cover and a traditional song? Basically you pay licensing for one and not for the other, I guess.) 

There are those who would call the album "politically charged." I prefer to think of it as "socially charged" because things like being opposed to racism, helping the impoverished, and seeking social change have nothing to do with politics. They're basic human issues--you're either a human being and you care, or you're not because you don't. You shouldn't have to vote about that. (Weird that I wasn't a Dylan-Guy until now, isn't it?) There's less wordplay on the album. More of a serious tone, addressing serious issues. People pushed back against that at the time--I guess he was supposed to address racism with a smile? Or not at all? I know I'm approaching this in 2019 with the benefit of hindsight, but I think the record is damn near perfect in tone and delivery.

And that's saying a lot, given the hit-or-miss nature of the recording sessions. I learned researching for this blog that there were several sessions where Dylan would record multiple tracks and they would be deemed "unusable" and discarded. (Some eventually ended up on the "Bootleg" series or elsewhere.) There were a couple days where even though it was just a guitar and vocal arrangement even Bob Dylan left the studio with nothing to show for it. I've got to tell you, as a musician, I find that encouraging. But eventually, Bob did enough good work to produce this album and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became one of his best known songs.

A month after the recording sessions were finished, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The album would come out less than two months later. Dylan stated that the assassination did not inform the album (and that is clear based on the timeline) but the album sure captured the world in which it happened. The whole time he was writing the title track, Bob knew he was writing an anthem. He just had to wait for history to bear him out on that. Unfortunately, it only took a couple months. People call the album "pessimistic." It's strange how often reality comes across as pessimism, isn't it?

"The Times They Are a-Changin'" is definitely Dylan's most protest-based album and in my eyes stands among his best work. It's not my favorite Dylan record (we've got several weeks before we get there), but it's on the list. I wasn't born when these songs were written and yet as I'm entering my 40s they feel as fresh and vibrant as ever.

Favorite Tracks:

• "The Times They Are a-Changin'" - Of course.
• With God on Our Side
• One Too Many Mornings - Which I've learned is a favorite of fans of this era of Dylan. Good.
• Only a Pawn in Their Game - Although I feel that he's a little off-base in equating the plight of poor white people to the plight of African Americans. I feel like it was clear that wasn't correct even in the 60s. But a good song nonetheless and his heart was in the right place.

If it's been a while for you on this one, there are worse ways to spend a drive to work. And it might just get you fired up enough to make you want to help some people out, too. That's no bad thing.

"The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" - 1963

Suze Rotolo. That's the woman in the picture on the album cover with Bob. I had to know that. If you're anything like me, you wondered too. If you're a LOT like me, you've also Googled it. For a long time, when I'd see this album cover, I for some reason assumed it was Joan Baez, but in doing this deep-dive I realized Suze doesn't look anything like Joan.

Suze was in a relationship with Bob from 1961-1964. Dylan has acknowledged her impact on his career and writing during that time period. It may be pushing it too far to use the word "muse." Or it may not. But it does feel a little sexist, doesn't it? So we'll leave that alone. Rotolo was an artist/author and something of an activist. She passed away in 2011.

There's a lot more to their relationship. Some of it gets dark and sad. And Joan Baez' name comes up as more than an assumption. I would imagine Bob probably doesn't like to talk about any of that too often. Who would? I would imagine Suze's family enjoys it even less. It can be hard to separate the art and the artist, especially when they appear in photos on the album cover that maybe should've stayed private. But it was something that felt like it belonged on this blog. I think I might be writing a very poorly researched, very long form and stupid biography here.

So. Now that we've got all that out of the way...

I wrote that I was stunned by Bob's first album. The only phrase I can think of for his second is "blown away."  By album number two, which came out ONE YEAR after his first, he gave us "Blowin' in the Wind" and was the fully formed Dylan we all know and love. Except... I've been surprised to find that I don't hear "the Dylan voice" showing up in a real way at this point. Everybody has a Dylan impression, and some of them are even well-meaning. We all know what I mean by "the Dylan voice." But it's not present on his early albums. In fact...was it only really a thing on "Blonde on Blonde?" We're not there yet, but I feel like he put on "the voice" as almost a character choice for "Rainy Day Women #13 & 35" and it just kinda ran away from him.

But I digress.

This is a great album. It's a go-to for a huge part of the fanbase, and deservedly so.This is probably the earliest Bob Dylan that comes to mind for most people. It's a beautiful recording. By album #2, he was DYLAN.

While the first album was majority traditional/cover songs, this album is mostly Dylan's own material. Eleven of the thirteen songs were penned by Bob, including a personal favorite in "Girl from the North Country" (which I'd previously thought was a Simon & Garfunkel song, mixing it up with "Scarborough Fair," which even THEY didn't write--although the two melodies are very similar). It would turn out that giving Bob the keys to the car would drive the success of the album. The first album initially sold only 5,000 copies, resulting in the record label wanting to drop Dylan's contract. On the strength of Bob's own songs, "Freewheelin'" would reach #22 on the US charts, eventually selling a million copies. That should've been impossible.

What do record companies ever know about anything?

Favorite Tracks:

• "Blowin' in the Wind" of course. Likely a bigger hit for Peter, Paul, & Mary. But I like Bob's version better.
• "Girl from the North Country" - I think I probably heard Pete Townshend's version of this song a decade or so before I heard Bob's own. I've been a big Who fan since I was 9. I knew Pete didn't write it, but I didn't know Bob did until years later. I've loved every version of this song I've heard, which is a big compliment to Bob--it's a song so good you have to go out of your way to fuck it up.
• "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" - Bob was 21 when he wrote this song--one of the more complex pieces of lyrical structure you could ask for. A friend of mine recently made reference to this song alongside the Bible verse: "the rain falls on the just and the unjust." I don't think Bob meant to do that. I think he just stumbled on a deep truth that every thinker has had to wrestle with. Frankly, I like Bob's phrasing better. It's the RAIN that's hard...
• "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" - In the liner notes, Bob writes: "It isn't a love song. It's a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better. It's as if you were talking to yourself." I like that.
• "Bob Dylan's Dream" - It was only in researching this post that I learned the melody is from a traditional song (with which I am obviously unfamiliar) called "Lady Franklin's Lament." Regardless, it's a song about missing people who are important to you. And I get that.
• "I Shall Be Free" - I know people are divided on this song. I like it, especially in the overall context of the album. The whole album is filled with deep questions and the weight of an uncertain relationship. This song right at the end is a little bit of a lighthearted falling action. It feels appropriate to take some of the weight off the rest of the album right at the end.

This is one of just about everybody's favorite Dylan records. There's a reason. If you haven't heard it, or if it's been a long time, go out of your way to spin it soon. You'll be surprised--in your head you'll hear a full band but when you pay attention you realize it's just a guitar and a vocal microphone. Great listen, man.

"Bob Dylan" - 1962

Let's begin at the beginning. In 1962, Bob Dylan's eponymous first album arrived and folk music had a new hero. In 2019, I listened to it for the first time. To my knowledge I had never heard the album before and though some of the songs were familiar to me, I do not believe I'd ever heard Dylan's versions of them before.

My first exposure was on my drive to and from work. I've got about a half-hour commute, just MADE for absorbing a lot of music every day. This album was a welcomed experience, and when I arrived to work, I was counting the hours until the end of the day to finish up the second half of the album.

Going in, I was conscious in thinking, "I don't expect it to be great--how great is ANYONE'S first album?" Well... It turns out that sometimes they're pretty great! I was surprised by this one. My initial thoughts were that his voice was so clean and clear--he didn't really sound like Bob Dylan yet. Nevertheless, it was all THERE right away. The performances were solid. The guitar playing was all it needed to be and a little bit more. It was a strong debut--all that was missing was more of his own lyrics.

"Bob Dylan" was made up of 11 songs by other people and only two by Bob ("Talkin' New York" and "Song to Woody" respectively). He got one-per-side. Not an uncommon thing in the folk world, even today. Nevertheless, I feel like Dylan really took off once he got to write a little bit more. You can still hear his heart on the songs that aren't his writing, but you can FEEL his heart when he's using his own words, in my opinion.

The album was recorded over the course of three afternoons with producer John H. Hammond later joking that Columbia Records had spent "about $402" to record it. Some of the short and cheap timeframe comes through on the recording. Dylan reportedly refused to do second-takes on most if not all of the tracks. As a result, there are some plosives (popped-ps and similar) that still come through on my CD player in 2019. I don't know if I would notice them if I weren't conscious of them in my own work as a musician. But they're there, and they jumped out at me. But rather than find them irritating, I found them charming and they made me feel better about my own work. If anyone ever accuses me of popping a p again, I'll just shrug and say, "It worked for Dylan."

The album cover is apparently a reverse-image. I only learned that researching for this post. They flipped the photo to prevent the neck of Dylan's guitar from covering up Columbia's logo. That's a record company for you.  So...1962 Bob Dylan actually looked more like this in real life:

How's the Columbia logo look now?

My understanding is that there are several tracks that were recorded during the sessions that didn't make it onto the album, as often happens. The copy I have in the box set stops where the original release stops. And that's the way I prefer it. I'm not too big a fan of "Bonus Tracks" that come out on re-releases. I usually think those songs were cut for a reason. Although I'm sure in Dylan's case I'll encounter most of them in time with the existence of the "Bootleg Series." I'm cool with that.

The format of how I do these posts may change over time, but for now I think I'm going to end with a list of the tracks I particularly enjoyed and maybe expand on why for some of them. It's likely that I'll skip over some tracks that you like a lot or that I'll name one you hate or whatever. I may even skip over some tracks that people who've loved Dylan for longer than I have would feel are unskippable. (The heresy!) Whatever the case may be, I'm not saying you're WRONG. I'm just saying I dug these in particular.

Favorite Tracks (in order of appearance):

• "You're No Good" - About halfway through the song I found myself thinking, "This is going to be a good listen." Blew me away how fully formed the album felt right away.
• "In My Time of Dyin'" - An old standard touched on by many an artist. Perhaps most famously by Led Zeppelin. Though Zeppelin didn't bother mentioning that they didn't write it in the liner notes...and for some reason stretched it to 11 minutes. I definitely preferred this version, especially when it was over in just under 3 minutes.
• "Man of Constant Sorrow" - I have bad memories of this song thanks to the damn "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" flick. It's not a criticism of the movie, but I felt beat over the head by the song before the end of that Summer. A punk band I was in had a gig at a dive-bar that year and some drunk down front kept yelling "Soggy Bottom Boys" at us and singing the first note of the song and nothing else. And that was when we were setting up. Fortunately he left mostly without incident shortly into our set when it was clear we weren't going to play anything close to it. I assume he's dead now. With that story in mind, I was stunned to find myself singing along with Bob!
• "House of the Risin' Sun" - I'm far more familiar with the Animals version, of course. And I've covered the song in bands since the early 90s. I had not heard Bob's version until I started listening to the record. I like that he keeps the character singing the song in the feminine. Most versions where it's a man singing, they change the gender and the song makes less sense. I felt like Bob's version added a lot, and was passionately performed.
• "Song to Woody" - One of the only two originals on the record. Sorry I skipped over the other one. I know I've heard this song before, but I don't think I'd heard the studio version. I liked it a lot. I'm under-familiar with Woody Guthrie, but it does make me want to learn more.
• "See that My Grave is Kept Clean" - Good closing track to the album. It would probably be a good closing song to use if you're making a Dylan playlist sometime. I like songs that have a down-note like this, exploring the singer's mortality. Dylan did a good job with it.

In closing, I think this was a great debut album. It set the tone for the first part of his career and established some strong precedent for everything that came next. That he's still doing albums in the 2010s (and likely 2020s) that feature a ton of cover-material fits right in with the way he started. As I said earlier, I was stunned by how much of the blueprint for Bob's career is present right at the beginning. That said, he has obviously changed a lot over time and reinvented himself a lot. But I feel like even given those reinventions, there's a lot of this album in his DNA. And I love that.

I don't know how often I'm going to be posting these. Maybe weekly? Probably less. Even if I did weekly once you factor in live albums and the Bootlegs, we're looking at over a YEAR of posts. So...settle in, I guess. I hope we both enjoy the ride!

A Long Story to Start Things Out

"I'm not much of a Dylan Guy..."

I don't know how many times I've said those words or ones like them over the last 39 years of my life. It's a lot though. For 39 years I not only didn't get into Dylan, I often dismissed him. I liked a song here and there, but the Dylan I grew up with wasn't the Dylan of the 1960s who was breaking new ground. It was the Dylan of the 80s.

The year I was born he released "Saved."  That's the Dylan I was growing up with. Post "Saved," pre...well...pre-return to writing songs people wanted to hear. When I was young, Dylan wasn't the same Dylan we had before and he hadn't yet become the elder-statesman he would eventually be.  It's possible that until I was deep into my teen years, the only Dylan song I really knew was "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."  And even then, I thought it was a Clapton song. And if I knew "Like a Rolling Stone" I thought it was probably by the band of the same name.

So, yes. I spent 39 years dismissing Dylan. Up until as recently as this Summer I would find myself saying things like, "I just don't get it" and "A Greatest Hits is more than enough for me."  And until this Summer, it was. Even though I knew how much Dylan means to people. That the faithful among us have come to consider him an American Shakespeare. That on historical significance alone it was weird that I had so much Louden Wainwright III and so little Bob Dylan... Even though I knew I was willfully in the wrong. I just wasn't that much of a Dylan-Guy.

Then a strange confluence of events took place. It all goes back to November of 2018 when I was regularly listening to a podcast called "Kurt Vonneguys," which explored the books of author Kurt Vonnegut. One of the hosts (Michael Swaim) would regularly mention his fondness for the Coen Brothers and particularly the movie "Inside Llewyn Davis." If you haven't seen the movie, it is about a down on his luck folk-singer working in the time just prior to Dylan's arrival on the scene, trying to make ends meet. I decided to watch it. It struck an odd tone with me--it's a Coen Brothers movie. It's less about the plot of the story than it is about a mood. Not much happens in the flick. And ultimately I didn't love it or hate it upon first viewing. But it did stick with me and make me want to further explore folk music.

Dylan shows up in the movie. Of course he does. Or rather an actor playing him does. It's not a major spoiler, but it is right at the end of the movie. Llewyn Davis leaves the stage and Bob Dyaln goes on. Dylan's career begins while Davis is outside, getting his ass kicked by an angry fan. Dylan showed up and the other folkies got their asses handed to them. Little did anyone know. Especially me.

I don't want to go into detail in this context, but right after I watched that movie, I found myself plunged into a deeply personal sadness. A very deep depression--I've been fighting depression for my whole life and will always do so. This time it was bad. Maybe the worst it's been. Maybe not. But it was bad, and I wasn't sure how I was going to climb out of it. During that period, I decided I didn't want to associate any of my favorite things with the feelings I was experiencing. As a result, I completely stopped listening to music and rarely watched TV. So I turned to something outside of my usual experience. Something for which I'd always had a fondness, but that wasn't something I spent a ton of time with.

I turned to magic.

In particular, I turned to Penn & Teller. I've been something of a fan of theirs since I was a kid, but only on a surface level. They'd show up on a talk show or elsewhere and I'd think, "Neat! Glad to see they're still doing stuff!" I didn't know much about them other than I thought they were funny and their magic tricks entertained me and also made me think critically. (Which is what GOOD magic done well should always do.) At the time I thought I could use a little magic in my life and thought those guys would be my most fun option.

And it WAS fun. I found myself HAVING fun in a time where I couldn't even trust music to give me that. I was having so much fun I started seeking out everything I could get my hands on from the duo. This included old specials, old SNL and Letterman appearances, their HBO show "Bullshit," and their CW show "Fool Us." But it also included something a lot more life-changing for me (in more than one way) in Penn Jillette's podcast, "Penn's Sunday School." I could talk about the impact Penn has had on my diet (check out his book "Presto") but more important to our cause here, I learned via the show that Penn is a massive Dylan fan. Like a scary, huge, obsessive, BIG fan.

If you listen to Penn's Sunday School, you're likely to hear about Bob Dylan in each episode at least once. I will admit that even then I was thinking, "I understand...I'm like that with The Who. But Dylan just isn't for me." And I'd tune out a little until Penn and his co-hosts would talk about something else. But then one of Penn's Dylan-based stories grabbed my interest and I started enjoying his passion for Dylan. Life is like that. When somebody starts talking about something they genuinely LOVE, it's hard not to listen and get caught up in it. Even if it's not your same passion. Soon I wasn't just enjoying Penn's Dylan stories, I was HOPING for them. Yet even still, I didn't rush out and buy any Dylan. Instead I went out and bought nearly the complete Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel.

Penn Jillette had mentioned in one Sunday School episode that Paul Simon was retiring and discussed Simon's last performance for a bit. I realized I'd always meant to dive into Simon's work and went out and bought a box set of the complete Simon & Garfunkel then downloaded a box set of the complete Paul Simon. And I liked it. A lot. I was already on a folk kick thanks to the Coen Brothers, and Simon and/or Garfunkel fit the bill. And of course even they mention Dylan in "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)." "He's so unhip that when you say Dylan he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas. Whoever he was."

Then one day, out of the blue and because I was still sad about some personal events I remembered that I owned a copy of "Blood on the Tracks." But more importantly, I decided to LISTEN to "Blood on the Tracks." I've always liked the album. I've always considered that to be "MY Dylan record." (I figured everybody only really needed one.) It hit all the right beats for me. It was a deeply moving listen, this time around. I loved it. I loved it so much that I then downloaded the complete "More Blood, More Tracks" Bootleg recordings, just to hear the now legendary "button takes." And that's where I should have known I was in trouble. But even then I was thinking it wouldn't go any farther than an obsessive love of just the one album.

Ha.

In the weeks that followed, Dylan kept coming up. He would be mentioned in conversations where it didn't seem like he should have been named. And I wasn't the one bringing him up. His songs would pop up in unexpected places. And of course Penn Jillette kept talking about him. I found myself unintentionally learning not just about Bob Dylan's music, but also his painting, his iron work, and his whiskey. I even felt the need to rewatch "Inside Llewyn Davis."

Which brings us (finally--sorry!) up to a week ago. I found myself in a Barnes & Noble staring at a wall of Criterion Collection BluRays that were on sale for 50% off. I picked up a documentary called "Festival." It's a (too brief!) exploration of the Newport Folk Festivals of the 1960s. Of course, Dylan is all over that. (I was hoping to see some Leonard Cohen--it hadn't even occurred to me that of course Bob and also Joan Baez would be the stars.)

Realizing the inescapable, I began reading up on Bob online. He's got a pretty good Wikipedia page, if you're interested. I knew by now that I wanted to buy more of his music. And looking through his discography, I quickly realized that there were so many albums I wanted that a box set would be in my best interest. Some light Googling revealed there was one containing every studio album and several live ones from the first album up to 2013. But it was listing for $200-300 and that seemed a little much. I figured maybe I'd be on a long hunt to slowly bump into every record in my local stores for the foreseeable future--and that would only be the ones I REALLY wanted!

Then this past Wednesday, I met an old friend I hadn't seen in a long time and out of nowhere he started talking to me about Bob Dylan. His words were just as passionate as Penn Jillette's, but were more personal and poignant. We were talking about personal things and he had a Dylan lyric for each one of them. And I might have Dan to thank for what came next--Dan and fate, anyway. Dan described Dylan on a mystic level that I've certainly heard people reference before, but this time it was coming from a friend and in reference to what has been weighing on my heart. It was more meaningful. And on the drive home, I played "Time Out of Mind" and REALLY listened to it for maybe the first time in my life--and now even I knew I was in TROUBLE. (Side note -- Dan even kind of looks like a young Bob Dylan, now that I think of it. Huh.)

The next day, on a whim, I walked into a record store (Planet Score in Maplewood, MO). That's not an unusual practice for me, and I had an agenda that took me there that had nothing to do with Dylan. I wasn't there to look for anything even tangential to Dylan. But then...I saw it. The box set was there! The out of print, 47-disc, complete (through 2013) box set of all of Dylan's work. JUST SITTING THERE! And it was $150. That's less than $4 per CD for 47 discs. With only three studio albums having come out since then. So I took it home, making a small stop to also grab a bottle of the Heaven's Door Tennessee Bourbon to go with it.

In two days, I've made it into the 1970s, and I've been meticulously noting my findings. In the posts that follow, I'll be talking about each album, mostly in order, I think. And I'll also talk about other Dylan stuff of note. The whiskey for sure. Soon.

Because 39 years was too long to wait. I've got a lot of lost time to make up. Time to pop the cork.

By the way, the hardest part of this process was finding a name for the blog. Most of the good ones are taken, including Blog Dylan, Blog on the Tracks, Tangled Up in Blog, and so on... And a couple of them don't even have anything to do with Dylan! I like alliteration, so it was either "Derek on Dylan" or "Derek Does Dylan." I went with the less horrifying mental image. (I also considered "Derek Dreams of Dylan" but thought it might not make sense to some folks.)

More soon. And it won't be this long. There was a lot of ground to cover in this first post. Thanks for coming with me.

Cheers.