Positively Bob Dylan - The Annotated Recordings
About
This Page
Some Introductory
Notes
1. My principal interest is in the officially
released record albums by Bob Dylan. This means that they represent
a body of work that is publicly accessible to almost anyone on the planet
and a common bench mark against which all other performances and/or recordings
are measured.
"There are very few people I want to see in a concert. It's like
watching painters paint. Just give me the painting. I like records. You
don't get anything after a concert. You just get cash. Or a headache."
- John Lennon, February 19, 1975.
in Tax Exiles on Main Street by Lisa Robinson, Vanity
Fair, November 2000. Page 238.
2. Albums will be discussed relative to their release date.
This produces some anomalies, such as #144.I Shall Be Released (recorded
and released 1971) appears on 13. Greatest Hits Vol. 2 while #422.I
Shall Be Released although recorded in 1967, was not officially
released till 38.The Bootleg Series, 1991.
3. Such a rigorous approach tends to ignore single releases
(most of which, even B sides, have been subsequently released as album
tracks), guest spots on other artist's recordings, compilation albums and
bootleg releases. At present I do not have a problem with this situation.
The two significant recordings that this mostly relates to (19.The Basement
Tapes and 45.Live 1966 ) were subsequently officially
released, even if in the latter case it took 34 years. Three other recordings
present some difficulty, a five song set (one complete side) released on
The
Concert For Bangla Desh (1972), four songs on The Last Waltz
(1978)
and several tracks on Masterpieces, a multi album set only available
in Australia/Japan.?
4. Any difficulties with 3. above can be largely covered by
access to several web sites that specialize in detailing Bob Dylan's
unofficial recordings, at least one site that details guest spots and another
with scans of single sleeve covers. Sorry, don't have time to put in links
here, please see Bob links above. I am not aware of any site that specializes
in Bob Dylan's single releases. (anybody?)
5. Having no musical skills and working in a literal medium,
my analytic focus is primarily the lyric content. However it can not be
too strongly emphasized that the recorded work of Bob Dylan is essentially
aural, the words must be considered in relation to the music. These works
of art are songs, not poems. Also note that despite being an aural experience,
record albums do have a visual component (the cover sleeve)- an image that
can often impact on the listening experience.
6. With a catalogue in excess of 40 albums spanning 38 years,
it is useful to put the songs in an historical context. On the personal
level, events such as a motor bike accident (1966), divorce (1974) and
religious conversion (1978) have had a significant impact of the
artist's work. There are specific historical references in the songs
(President Kennedy, Medgar Evans, George Jackson, etc.) and an overview
of Bob Dylan's musical influences and comtempories will broaden an appreciation
of the work. An understanding of current historical movements, such as
the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and recreational drug use, also
have an application in an appreciation of Bob Dylan's works. Note
that the songs are rarely strictly autobiographical and a study of the
life of Bob Dylan can only shed a limited amount of light on the recorded
work.
7. Many commentators have identified cinematic elements in
Bob Dylan's recorded work, and certainly phonography has developed concurrently
with the other great art form of the Twentith century, film. Specific songs
that illustrate a strong cinematic approach include #196.Lily,
Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts (18.Blood on the Tracks 1974)
and #218.Hurricane (Desire 1975). In a more general overview,
many of the historical/literary/biblical allusions in the songs have a
cinematic reference; for example Captain Ahab in #54.Bob Dylan's 115th
Dream (5.Bringing It All Back Home 1965) is not only Herman
Mellville's character from Moby Dick, but visually he could be Gregory
Peck who played the role in 1956.At various points the artist has recorded
film soundtracts (14.Pat Garret and Billy the Kid 1973), appeared
in film (Don't Look Back 1965) and directed (Renaldo and Clara
1978).
8.What you won't find here:
i.Images - this page is text based. Album sleeve reproductions
and photo galleries are available at numerous sites. The images posted
are some considered unusual, see Bob Dylan in Australia above.
ii.Sound waves- as i. above.
iii.Bootlegs - see point 1. above.
iv. Dylanisms - use of quoted lyrics to illustrate/refer/comment/highlight
upon other text.I was cured of this by 1973 by a regularly malfunctioning
washing machine pump. There is, as far as I know, only one Dylanism on
this page.
9. The introductory scan is the cover sleeve of
10.Nashville
Skyline, my first Bob Dylan album, released April 1969. Despite being
largely ignored by most critics, it is still a personal favourite featuring
the first alternative version of a previously released song (#95.Girl
from the North Country - duet with Johnny Cash), the first instrumental
track (#96.Nashville Skyline Rag) and the widely covered #104.I'll
Be Your Baby Tonight. Each side includes an outstanding love
song, #98.I Threw It All Away (A) and #100.Lay Lady Lay (B)
and the album is noteworthy for the use of a softer/higher vocal style
(attributed at the time to giving up smoking) that only lasted for the
next release (11.Self Portrait - June 1970).
I particularly like the humour
in the record, exemplified by the so-called fillers: #99.Peggy
Day, a rewrite/sendup of Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue (September
1957) and all those other songwriters/songs that use female names
( Michelle, Gloria, Layla, etc,etc) - "even before I knew her name,
You know I loved her just the same"; and Country Pie, an enthusiastic
promotion for Country music that jumbles music, food and nursery rhyme
images. One particular image, "Saddle me up a big white goose/Tie me on
and turn her loose", was made much of by A.J.Weberman who saw it as evidence
of heroine abuse. I am afraid that its a much better (lyrically and morally)
image than that - rather the writer alludes to Mother Goose (the
creator of fairy tales), albeit in an classic American context, the rodeo.
The nursery rhyme reference is further expounded in the final verse "Little
Jack Horner's got nothin' on me" - Oh, what a good boy am I! It might
be pertinent to note here a previously released song that begins "Once
upon a time..."
Track 3, #97.To Be Alone With
You, has a spoken introduction that is one of those oddments of recorded
music that despite being essentially trivial, heightens the intimacy of
the listening experience and becomes part of fan-lore.Bob Dylan simply
asks the producer (Bob Johnston) "Is it (the recording machine) rolling,
Bob?" From memory A.J.Weberman makes a dog's breakfast of this as well.
The full cover photograph is a
copy of an album sleeve The Folk Blues of Eric Von Scmidt,
Prestige 7717 196x, which appears with a pile of records (Lotte Lenya,
Robert Johnson, others) on the cover of the previously released 5.Bringing
It All Back Home (March 1965). The sleeve cover is just that - a photograph
of Bob Dylan- there is no text (artist or album title). This 'no-text'
feature continued on the next two releases; 11.Self Portrait, using
a painting by the artist, and New Morning (November 1970) , a sepia photograph
inside a plain border.
One further note, after
playing the record for nearly fifteen years I was amazed to find that the
CD version clocked in at 27:06 minutes. I still think I getting good
value for my money.
10. The REFERENCES in order
of importance (trust the song - not the singer) :
i. a recording of the albums (record, tape -reel to reel/cartridge/cassette,
CD). Go to Sony Records.
ii. the album sleeves, noting that some cover details can be
misleading. Cover art (the artist as image) is an integral factor in phonography
- you can "hold the music in your hands". The tape/CD format has seen the
demise of the original 12"x12" album cover, greatly diminishing its impact.
iii .live performance
iv. film and television concert performances.
v. written works by Bob Dylan, specifically various editions
of lyrics (Writings and Drawings 1973, Lyrics 1985, Highway
61 Interactive 1995). The printed words are often not the words as
they are sung, and there are alternative lyrics for multi-version titles.
This can present considerable difficulties, and in any case the printed
word cannot match the subtleties of the records. Other writings include
Tarantula
1972,
written in 1966, and various magazine articles and album liner notes.
vi. drawings/paintings - basically see ii. and v.above.
vii. films made by Bob Dylan, Eat the Document 1966 and
Renaldo
and Clara, 1978?
viii. the critics/commentators :
a. Evan Eisenberg : The Recording Angel - Music, Records
and Culture From Aristotle to Zappa McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York
1987, a expansive book on the nature of recorded music (the only
one?). Although there are only three references to Bob Dylan, Eisenberg's
analysis of Phonograghy : the art of making music in a recorded form, is
the essential basis for my work.
b. the intensively researched work by Clinton Heylin, Dylan
: Behind Closed Doors - The Recording Sessions 1960-1994 Penguin Books
1996 is an invaluable resource. I have some difficulty with
his analysis in that, like many critics, exposure to mountains of unofficial
recordings leads to the conclusion that the albums would be far superior
if the artist had alternatively released the particular tracks that critic
prefers. Clinton Heylin's (doesn't
work) articles are online.
c. although a difficult book for the musically ignorant, I have
been impressed by the work of British musicologist Wilfred
Mellers. His book is A Darker Shade of Pale - A Backdrop to Bob Dylan,
Faber and Faber London 1984, and covers releases up to 1981 (26.Shot
of Love). Other publications by Wilfred Mellors include works on Bach,
Beethoven and the Beatles.
d. a more literature based work is Michael Gray's Song and
Dance Man - The Art of Bob Dylan Hart-Davis, McGibbon, Great
Britain 1972 (up to The Concert for Bangla Desh).
e.Michael Gray is the co-editor with John Bauldie of All
Across the Telegraph : A Bob Dylan Handbook Futura Publications A Division
of McDonald and Co (Publishers) London 1988 (First published 1987), an
excellent compilation with much of the the best work by the editors
themselves.
e. Another author who's work has been influential is Australian
writer Craig McGregor who's down to earth approach is refreshing when most
critics see the artist a saint or a sell-out. Craig McGregor edited
Bob Dylan - A Retrospective, William morrow and Company Inc., New York
1972 (up to New Morning). I should note here that my other area
of interest is surfboard design in Australia (you may have passed it on
your way here) and Craig McGregor is the co-author of two surfing books,
the first with 1964 World Champion Bernard 'Midget' Farrelly in 1965 and
the second with 1966 World Champion Robert 'Nat' Young in 1985.
f. for a schematic analysis of an artist's work (discography),
Neville Stannard's The Long and Winding Road - A History Of The Beatles
On Record, Virgin Books 1982, has served as a model of coherence, simplicity
and common sense. Unfortunately for the commentator/critic Bob Dylan's
work does not lend itself to to such a neat analysis as the Beatles career.
Page by Geoff Cater
For correspondence, please use the address below...
hporter@surfresearch.com.au