Modern Times - Bob Dylan
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King Hoarse
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Spirit On The Water (isn't that a line from Golden Loom btw?) is a fine song that I hope pops up in concert soon. It would be one of the best if he'd cut some verses. To quote Stephin Merritt's Book Of Love: "Some of it is just transcendental/Some of it is just really dumb"
What this world needs is more silly men.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Funny, cos I was thinking why weren't any songs played from it last Nov! Neverending tour as opposed to 'touring the CD'.alexv wrote:Saw Bobby and band last night. He played in Dutchess County as part of his minor league stadium tour (getting to be a summer time tradition). True to perverse form, he did not play a single song from the new record. His voice shot, all he did was croak, but his live band is terrific and saved the day.
1. Cat's In The Well
2. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
3. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
4. The Man In Me
5. Watching The River Flow
6. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
7. Not Dark Yet
8. Highway 61 Revisited
9. Visions Of Johanna
10. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
11. Sugar Baby
12. Summer Days
(encore)
13. Like A Rolling Stone
14. All Along The Watchtower
Both his staple encore songs as an encore!
Radio 4 review full of positive comments about the LP. One guy a big fan who says Nettie Moore will go down as one of his favourite songs of all time. Thesis was on Time Out Of Mind it was getting there, but now it's actually got there. I was very impressed by the snippets of 3 or 4 songs they played, sounded really good and more in line with TOOM, which I like in spades, than L&T, which I've not really got that into. I too noted the singing sounded surprisingly good considering the live croak.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
Otis Westinghouse wrote:Thesis was on Time Out Of Mind it was getting there, but now it's actually got there.
Disagree. I think that TOOM is far superior, mainly because there are some really great melodies on it, something that Modern Times lacks: Spirit On The Water (best song on the album), When The Deal Goes Down, Workingman Blues (which melodically is a slightly inferior rewrite of Emotionally Yours), Nettie Moore and Ain't Talkin' are all great. Rest have moments but, as others have said, too many 12 bar blues and most of the songs are far too long.
Half an excellent album.
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Otis Westinghouse
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- Location: The theatre of dreams
Clarification: the 'getting there' ref was not to do with a level of quality, but rather to it not being dark yet on TOOM, but that it had got there on MT. The guy was saying it was music in a genre you don't hear much of, contrasting the Stones and Macca's attempts to relive the past and stay young with Dylan's facing old age and the journey into the dark. Agree a bit more now?
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
Well, I disagree less!
But while I think that there is broadly something in that thesis re: the last three records, I would say that MT is a much funnier, less bleak record than TOOM (but not as funny as L&T), but it's dark, almost gallows humour, and yes, there is no question that Dylan is one of the few '60 artists who has actually faced up to the question of ageing - but then arguably he has had less far to travel than contemporaries like the Stones, his vision always being much more realistic/pessimistic/poetic than theirs, even when he was young.
Thank fuck he's still around and we're having these discussions, basically.
But while I think that there is broadly something in that thesis re: the last three records, I would say that MT is a much funnier, less bleak record than TOOM (but not as funny as L&T), but it's dark, almost gallows humour, and yes, there is no question that Dylan is one of the few '60 artists who has actually faced up to the question of ageing - but then arguably he has had less far to travel than contemporaries like the Stones, his vision always being much more realistic/pessimistic/poetic than theirs, even when he was young.
Thank fuck he's still around and we're having these discussions, basically.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Indeed, and the rather lovely video for When The Deal Goes Down with the very lovely Scarlett Johansson is an affirmation of this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iBfTBagpAUY
'We live and we die, and we don't know why.'
Did someone post a link to novelist Jonathan Lemeth's interview with Dylan?
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/bob ... nic_status
It was in today's Observer, though not on their site due it being syndicated. Never heard of Lemeth, but it's a good interview. I love his justification for not talking to the audience! Revisited TOOM today to get in the mood, and boy is it good. So many strong things there. I think Lemeth's thesis that the last three rank somehow alongside the three starting with Bringing It All Back Home is rather far-fetched, but there's some substance beyond mere adulation there.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iBfTBagpAUY
'We live and we die, and we don't know why.'
Did someone post a link to novelist Jonathan Lemeth's interview with Dylan?
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/bob ... nic_status
It was in today's Observer, though not on their site due it being syndicated. Never heard of Lemeth, but it's a good interview. I love his justification for not talking to the audience! Revisited TOOM today to get in the mood, and boy is it good. So many strong things there. I think Lemeth's thesis that the last three rank somehow alongside the three starting with Bringing It All Back Home is rather far-fetched, but there's some substance beyond mere adulation there.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
NEW YORK, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Bob Dylan's new album, Modern Times, has debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, making this the artist's first album to hit the top of that chart in 30 years. This 30-year span between #1 albums - Desire hit the top spot in 1976 -- is the longest of any living recording artist. Modern Times has sold more than 192,000 copies in the United States since its release, marking the biggest such sales period for a Bob Dylan album in the 15 year history of SoundScan.
Fan response was equally as impressive internationally, with Modern Times debuting at #1 on the album charts of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland. The album entered the UK chart at #3 with 55,000 units sold, marking a one-week sales record in that country for any Bob Dylan album. Additionally, Modern Times debuted at #2 in Germany, Austria and Sweden, and #3 in The Netherlands.
Modern Times is already one of the most critically lauded albums of Bob Dylan's career. Rolling Stone awarded the album 5 stars (out of 5) and proclaimed it, "His third straight masterwork." Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Dylan is, "our living Rosetta Stone, his songs carrying forth the essence of a thousand blues and folk classics, connecting the canonical and the folkloric to the present day." In the UK, Mojo magazine exclaimed, Epic...Heartbreaking...Dynamic ... Apocalyptic!" while Uncut gave Modern Times its highest ranking of 5 stars. (See attached page of press quotes).
According to Columbia Records Chairman Steve Barnett, "Modern Times is an absolutely staggering record, and we couldn't be more thrilled that fans have responded to it so enthusiastically by putting Bob at #1, which is where he belongs. This extraordinary artist has been integral to our company for nearly 45 years, and he remains at the peak of his artistry, vitality and cultural impact. We are incredibly proud of Bob's great achievement."
Bob Dylan is currently featured in an iPod commercial, seen performing "Someday Baby" from Modern Times. A short film starring Scarlett Johansson and set to Bob Dylan's new song "When The Deal Goes Down" premiered on AOL and was released online and to video channels last Thursday. Directed by Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller (Capote), the silent film was shot on 8mm and takes place in the early 1960s. Clues connecting the film's scenes to Bob Dylan's early career are creatively placed throughout the piece.
Bob Dylan is one of the world's most popular and acclaimed songwriters, musicians and performers, having sold nearly 100 million albums and performed literally thousands of shows around the world in a career spanning five decades. He is currently in the midst of his third annual summer U.S. tour of minor league baseball stadiums, and will begin a 24-city tour October 11 in Vancouver, B.C.
The Times They Are A-Changin', the new Broadway musical told through the songs of Bob Dylan and conceived, directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Twyla Tharp, will open October 26 at New York's Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
Bob Dylan's most recent studio albums, Time Out Of Mind and "Love And Theft" have been among his most commercially successful and critically lauded, each having been certified Platinum in the U.S. and earning Grammy nominations for Album Of The Year (Time Out Of Mind won that award in 1998).
He wrote and recorded "Things Have Changed" for the 2000 film Wonder Boys, for which he received both the Academy Award and Golden Globe. The first volume of his memoirs, Chronicles, was one of the most acclaimed and best-selling non-fiction works of 2004, and last year's No Direction Home film, directed by Martin Scorsese, captivated audiences worldwide as it documented Dylan's early career and rise to fame. The film won a Peabody Award in 2006.
Bob Dylan's weekly XM Satellite Radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, debuted in May and has quickly become one of that network's most popular programs, with more than 1.7 weekly listeners.
Bob Dylan -- Modern Times
* * * * * (out of five) -- "His third straight masterwork."
Joe Levy, Rolling Stone
"Its 10 songs make you think hard about the past and muse quietly about the future .... [Dylan is] our living Rosetta Stone, his songs carrying forth the essence of a thousand blues and folk classics, connecting the canonical and the folkloric to the present day.
Ann Powers, Los Angeles Times
* * * * (out of four) -- "It takes about 30 seconds to figure out you're in the presence of a giant .... [Modern Times] contains some of Dylan's most direct love lyrics, meditations on mortality, vindictive vendettas, pointed political commentary, dry wit, apocalyptic imagery and head-scratching flights of fancy -- sometimes seemingly in the same song. The music, too often overlooked in evaluating Dylan's work, offers varied delights."
Ken Barnes, USA Today
"Startling. Radiates the observant calm of old masters who have seen enough life to be ready for anything -- Yeats, Matisse, Sonny Rollins." Robert Christgau, Blender Magazine
"Epic...Heartbreaking...Dynamic...Apocalyptic! .... [Modern Times] is in the passionate tradition of his last two superb albums, 1997's biting, bruising Time Out Of Mind and 2001's more jubilant and eclectic 'Love And Theft'. Dylan looks into the heart of the modern age and tells us what he sees in a vision still commanding and bold."
Robert Hilburn, Mojo
"Modern Times is powerful and more consistent than its recent predecessors. At times rollicking and at others reflective, it's the work of a master songwriter who knows how to use guile where flash might have worked in the past."
David Bauder, Associated Press
"The state of America, vibrant sexuality, depression-era jazz and blues, and some excellent jokes; another classic from the revitalised master" -- * * * * * (out of five)
Uncut
Grade A -- "Intriguing, immediate and quietly epic, Modern Times must rank among Dylan's finest albums."
Pat Gilbert, Entertainment Weekly
* * * * (out of four) - Critics Choice
Steve Dougherty, People Magazine
* * * * (out of four) -- "Modern Times delivers on all counts ... .Its 10 tunes are so squarely built on the American songbook, your finger doesn't dare poke the CD player's skip button. It rambles and gambles on pre-rock styles laced with so many cryptic notions and personal references that interpretive lit classes will be busy for semesters. Dylan is a living, breathing genius who stoked his creative fires back in '97 for Time Out of Mind and kept them burning with the Grammy-winning 'Love and Theft' in 2001. He continues his run here, tying all three albums together with a vintage roots-music aesthetic.
Dan Aquilante, New York Post
"Modern Times is an album that snaps into place like a puzzle part alongside his latter-era masterpieces, 'Love and Theft' and its predecessor, Time Out of Mind -- albums that have restored his reputation and given him a new voice. At this point in his serpentine career, Dylan is the cagey veteran who can summon entire worlds in his songs. Long may he run."
Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle
"Wry, spry and rollicking .... Dylan extends his renaissance of the past decade with songs that at once feel culled from some arcane archive of American roots music and ripped steaming from one of his reliably rollicking live shows. It's an offhandedly exact blend of present and past, and being pulled through it by a master of such advanced years and powers brings to mind the late works of Yeats or Picasso ...."
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian
"A vibrant album bursting with wit, charm, emotion, and deeply sampled musical history. Modern Times is what we have come to expect from Bob Dylan in autumn: another masterpiece that doesn't make too much of itself."
Chris Morris, L.A. City Beat
* * * * * (out of five) - "With Modern Times, in stores today, Dylan affirms that he has become precisely the character he aspired to be since his earliest acoustic folk albums ... .Guthrie and the old bluesmen borrowed old songs and commented on events in the same way, which makes Dylan's new music another link in a precious cultural chain -- just the way he first imagined."
Jim Abbott, Orlando Sentinel
* * * * (out of four)
Detroit Free Press
Grade A - [Modern Times] is a brilliantly oddball blend of country, blues and good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll. Modern Times is glorious proof that, at 65, Dylan still has plenty to say, and with singular eloquence."
Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Rating 5 out of 5 - "With today's release of Modern Times, Bob Dylan continues a late-career winning streak that is without parallel in rock 'n' roll .... Only Dylan still touches hearts in such a visceral, vital way ... .It would be tempting to call Modern Times the concluding part of a brilliant trilogy - if the end were in sight."
Bernard Perusse, Montreal Gazette
"It's a loose-limbed, wide-ranging (to say the least) table-setter that straightaway offers the assurance that His Bobness is still on the late-in- life hot streak that began with the elegiac Time Out of Mind in 1997 and continued with the sprightly 'Love and Theft'."
Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
"There is something poetic about the fact that Bob Dylan is the lone second-generation rock luminary to make music that suits his age and status. In this, Dylan is as avant-garde as he was in his '60s heyday. The 65-year-old grapples with pressing issues, memory and mortality prime among them. But by looking back, to the roots of his art, he has managed to forge ahead, crafting songs that are as vibrant and profound as ever .... [Dylan] is singing as beautifully as he ever has, his voice a marvel of sly shading."
Bradley Bambarger, Newark Star Ledger
* * * * (out of four) -- "Using the familiar musical forms of blues, rock and pop, the legendary singer-songwriter - in his many guises - traverses a landscape that's equal parts treacherous, beautiful and humorous. And in doing so has released his most intimate work in years."
Rob Lowman, Los Angeles Daily News
"Here in 2006, Dylan's stock as a cultural barometer, as a leader and a sage, is higher than it has been in decades. We still look to Dylan to tell us about our lives now, not our lives then: He's still here, his artistry fully present, and millions still respond to him as a contemporary artist, not a legendary figure from the dim and misty '60s. There's a simple reason for this, and here it is: He still delivers the goods. Like his last two highly acclaimed CDs, 1997's Time Out of Mind and 2001's 'Love and Theft', the 10-track Modern Times is a wonderful addition to his oeuvre, and quite possibly the best of the three."
Dave Ferman, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
"[Modern Times is] a masterful assimilation of forms into a sound that is close to wholly unique. This record could have been released 40 years ago or 10 years from now .... In terms of phrasing, manipulation of time and accent and ability to wring subtlety and nuance from his own peerless song-poems, Dylan is absolutely masterful here."
Jeff Miers, Buffalo News
"Modern Times could very well be called 'Love and Theft', Part II; Dylan draws from the same influences - old folk, '30s-styled ballads, '50s-era rave-ups - that made his 2001 album a breath of fresh air .... There's more introspection on this album than any since Blood on the Tracks."
Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News
"This enchanting album is rife with homespun reflections on philosophy, religion and the never-ending quest for true love."
Wayne Robins, Billboard Magazine
"Romantic and spectacular .... Dylan's finest since Blood on the Tracks."
Jody Rosen, Slate
http://www.bobdylan.com
http://www.columbiarecords.com
Fan response was equally as impressive internationally, with Modern Times debuting at #1 on the album charts of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland. The album entered the UK chart at #3 with 55,000 units sold, marking a one-week sales record in that country for any Bob Dylan album. Additionally, Modern Times debuted at #2 in Germany, Austria and Sweden, and #3 in The Netherlands.
Modern Times is already one of the most critically lauded albums of Bob Dylan's career. Rolling Stone awarded the album 5 stars (out of 5) and proclaimed it, "His third straight masterwork." Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Dylan is, "our living Rosetta Stone, his songs carrying forth the essence of a thousand blues and folk classics, connecting the canonical and the folkloric to the present day." In the UK, Mojo magazine exclaimed, Epic...Heartbreaking...Dynamic ... Apocalyptic!" while Uncut gave Modern Times its highest ranking of 5 stars. (See attached page of press quotes).
According to Columbia Records Chairman Steve Barnett, "Modern Times is an absolutely staggering record, and we couldn't be more thrilled that fans have responded to it so enthusiastically by putting Bob at #1, which is where he belongs. This extraordinary artist has been integral to our company for nearly 45 years, and he remains at the peak of his artistry, vitality and cultural impact. We are incredibly proud of Bob's great achievement."
Bob Dylan is currently featured in an iPod commercial, seen performing "Someday Baby" from Modern Times. A short film starring Scarlett Johansson and set to Bob Dylan's new song "When The Deal Goes Down" premiered on AOL and was released online and to video channels last Thursday. Directed by Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller (Capote), the silent film was shot on 8mm and takes place in the early 1960s. Clues connecting the film's scenes to Bob Dylan's early career are creatively placed throughout the piece.
Bob Dylan is one of the world's most popular and acclaimed songwriters, musicians and performers, having sold nearly 100 million albums and performed literally thousands of shows around the world in a career spanning five decades. He is currently in the midst of his third annual summer U.S. tour of minor league baseball stadiums, and will begin a 24-city tour October 11 in Vancouver, B.C.
The Times They Are A-Changin', the new Broadway musical told through the songs of Bob Dylan and conceived, directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Twyla Tharp, will open October 26 at New York's Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
Bob Dylan's most recent studio albums, Time Out Of Mind and "Love And Theft" have been among his most commercially successful and critically lauded, each having been certified Platinum in the U.S. and earning Grammy nominations for Album Of The Year (Time Out Of Mind won that award in 1998).
He wrote and recorded "Things Have Changed" for the 2000 film Wonder Boys, for which he received both the Academy Award and Golden Globe. The first volume of his memoirs, Chronicles, was one of the most acclaimed and best-selling non-fiction works of 2004, and last year's No Direction Home film, directed by Martin Scorsese, captivated audiences worldwide as it documented Dylan's early career and rise to fame. The film won a Peabody Award in 2006.
Bob Dylan's weekly XM Satellite Radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, debuted in May and has quickly become one of that network's most popular programs, with more than 1.7 weekly listeners.
Bob Dylan -- Modern Times
* * * * * (out of five) -- "His third straight masterwork."
Joe Levy, Rolling Stone
"Its 10 songs make you think hard about the past and muse quietly about the future .... [Dylan is] our living Rosetta Stone, his songs carrying forth the essence of a thousand blues and folk classics, connecting the canonical and the folkloric to the present day.
Ann Powers, Los Angeles Times
* * * * (out of four) -- "It takes about 30 seconds to figure out you're in the presence of a giant .... [Modern Times] contains some of Dylan's most direct love lyrics, meditations on mortality, vindictive vendettas, pointed political commentary, dry wit, apocalyptic imagery and head-scratching flights of fancy -- sometimes seemingly in the same song. The music, too often overlooked in evaluating Dylan's work, offers varied delights."
Ken Barnes, USA Today
"Startling. Radiates the observant calm of old masters who have seen enough life to be ready for anything -- Yeats, Matisse, Sonny Rollins." Robert Christgau, Blender Magazine
"Epic...Heartbreaking...Dynamic...Apocalyptic! .... [Modern Times] is in the passionate tradition of his last two superb albums, 1997's biting, bruising Time Out Of Mind and 2001's more jubilant and eclectic 'Love And Theft'. Dylan looks into the heart of the modern age and tells us what he sees in a vision still commanding and bold."
Robert Hilburn, Mojo
"Modern Times is powerful and more consistent than its recent predecessors. At times rollicking and at others reflective, it's the work of a master songwriter who knows how to use guile where flash might have worked in the past."
David Bauder, Associated Press
"The state of America, vibrant sexuality, depression-era jazz and blues, and some excellent jokes; another classic from the revitalised master" -- * * * * * (out of five)
Uncut
Grade A -- "Intriguing, immediate and quietly epic, Modern Times must rank among Dylan's finest albums."
Pat Gilbert, Entertainment Weekly
* * * * (out of four) - Critics Choice
Steve Dougherty, People Magazine
* * * * (out of four) -- "Modern Times delivers on all counts ... .Its 10 tunes are so squarely built on the American songbook, your finger doesn't dare poke the CD player's skip button. It rambles and gambles on pre-rock styles laced with so many cryptic notions and personal references that interpretive lit classes will be busy for semesters. Dylan is a living, breathing genius who stoked his creative fires back in '97 for Time Out of Mind and kept them burning with the Grammy-winning 'Love and Theft' in 2001. He continues his run here, tying all three albums together with a vintage roots-music aesthetic.
Dan Aquilante, New York Post
"Modern Times is an album that snaps into place like a puzzle part alongside his latter-era masterpieces, 'Love and Theft' and its predecessor, Time Out of Mind -- albums that have restored his reputation and given him a new voice. At this point in his serpentine career, Dylan is the cagey veteran who can summon entire worlds in his songs. Long may he run."
Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle
"Wry, spry and rollicking .... Dylan extends his renaissance of the past decade with songs that at once feel culled from some arcane archive of American roots music and ripped steaming from one of his reliably rollicking live shows. It's an offhandedly exact blend of present and past, and being pulled through it by a master of such advanced years and powers brings to mind the late works of Yeats or Picasso ...."
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian
"A vibrant album bursting with wit, charm, emotion, and deeply sampled musical history. Modern Times is what we have come to expect from Bob Dylan in autumn: another masterpiece that doesn't make too much of itself."
Chris Morris, L.A. City Beat
* * * * * (out of five) - "With Modern Times, in stores today, Dylan affirms that he has become precisely the character he aspired to be since his earliest acoustic folk albums ... .Guthrie and the old bluesmen borrowed old songs and commented on events in the same way, which makes Dylan's new music another link in a precious cultural chain -- just the way he first imagined."
Jim Abbott, Orlando Sentinel
* * * * (out of four)
Detroit Free Press
Grade A - [Modern Times] is a brilliantly oddball blend of country, blues and good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll. Modern Times is glorious proof that, at 65, Dylan still has plenty to say, and with singular eloquence."
Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Rating 5 out of 5 - "With today's release of Modern Times, Bob Dylan continues a late-career winning streak that is without parallel in rock 'n' roll .... Only Dylan still touches hearts in such a visceral, vital way ... .It would be tempting to call Modern Times the concluding part of a brilliant trilogy - if the end were in sight."
Bernard Perusse, Montreal Gazette
"It's a loose-limbed, wide-ranging (to say the least) table-setter that straightaway offers the assurance that His Bobness is still on the late-in- life hot streak that began with the elegiac Time Out of Mind in 1997 and continued with the sprightly 'Love and Theft'."
Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
"There is something poetic about the fact that Bob Dylan is the lone second-generation rock luminary to make music that suits his age and status. In this, Dylan is as avant-garde as he was in his '60s heyday. The 65-year-old grapples with pressing issues, memory and mortality prime among them. But by looking back, to the roots of his art, he has managed to forge ahead, crafting songs that are as vibrant and profound as ever .... [Dylan] is singing as beautifully as he ever has, his voice a marvel of sly shading."
Bradley Bambarger, Newark Star Ledger
* * * * (out of four) -- "Using the familiar musical forms of blues, rock and pop, the legendary singer-songwriter - in his many guises - traverses a landscape that's equal parts treacherous, beautiful and humorous. And in doing so has released his most intimate work in years."
Rob Lowman, Los Angeles Daily News
"Here in 2006, Dylan's stock as a cultural barometer, as a leader and a sage, is higher than it has been in decades. We still look to Dylan to tell us about our lives now, not our lives then: He's still here, his artistry fully present, and millions still respond to him as a contemporary artist, not a legendary figure from the dim and misty '60s. There's a simple reason for this, and here it is: He still delivers the goods. Like his last two highly acclaimed CDs, 1997's Time Out of Mind and 2001's 'Love and Theft', the 10-track Modern Times is a wonderful addition to his oeuvre, and quite possibly the best of the three."
Dave Ferman, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
"[Modern Times is] a masterful assimilation of forms into a sound that is close to wholly unique. This record could have been released 40 years ago or 10 years from now .... In terms of phrasing, manipulation of time and accent and ability to wring subtlety and nuance from his own peerless song-poems, Dylan is absolutely masterful here."
Jeff Miers, Buffalo News
"Modern Times could very well be called 'Love and Theft', Part II; Dylan draws from the same influences - old folk, '30s-styled ballads, '50s-era rave-ups - that made his 2001 album a breath of fresh air .... There's more introspection on this album than any since Blood on the Tracks."
Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News
"This enchanting album is rife with homespun reflections on philosophy, religion and the never-ending quest for true love."
Wayne Robins, Billboard Magazine
"Romantic and spectacular .... Dylan's finest since Blood on the Tracks."
Jody Rosen, Slate
http://www.bobdylan.com
http://www.columbiarecords.com
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
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Who Shot Sam?
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- Contact:
I'm all for Bob getting some love, but I'm not sure that I'm going to like this one as much as TOOM or Love and Theft. It's still early days, but a few of the tracks seem a bit derivative of those earlier albums and though I know a lot of people like "Spirit on the Water" I find that it goes on way too long and really bogs the album down. A very good, but not great album I think.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
Yeah, I'd probably place it in second-tier Dylan, which is still really good but not in the same class as stuff like Freewheelin', Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, Time Out Of Mind or Love & Theft.
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
Wow, result!with more than 1.7 weekly listeners.
..and how do you get .7 of a listener? Deaf in one ear?
I think its still too early to tell how good this record is, Dylan albums seem to take ages to seep into your head and heart.
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
...and couldn't agree more with this comment.* * * * * (out of five) - "With Modern Times, in stores today, Dylan affirms that he has become precisely the character he aspired to be since his earliest acoustic folk albums ... .Guthrie and the old bluesmen borrowed old songs and commented on events in the same way, which makes Dylan's new music another link in a precious cultural chain -- just the way he first imagined."
Jim Abbott, Orlando Sentinel
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
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bambooneedle
- Posts: 4533
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Otis Westinghouse
- Posts: 8856
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
How can you rank Love & Theft with those others? TOOM arguably. Surely Modern Times is better? The clips I've heard indicated to me memorable songs, whereas I struggle to think of a single song on L & T that I could care about hearing again. Have I just not listened to it (closely) enough?BlueChair wrote:Yeah, I'd probably place it in second-tier Dylan, which is still really good but not in the same class as stuff like Freewheelin', Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, Time Out Of Mind or Love & Theft.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
I don't think I'm alone here in regarding Love & Theft as one of Dylan's best-ever albums (okay, maybe not as good as those others I listed), though I prefer Time Out Of Mind.
I suppose my main issue with Modern Times is that while it has its moments of absolute brilliance ("Ain't Talkin'", "Workingman's Blues #2" and "When The Deal Goes Down" seem better than anything on Love and Theft) the main problem is the album's inconsistancy. Modern Times contains no less than three tracks ("Rollin and Tumblin", "Someday Baby" and "The Levee's Gonna Break") that despite being credited as Dylan originals are very much derivative of tracks by Muddy Waters and Memphis Minnie. It's a shame considering how inventive Dylan is on the aforementioned tracks.
I still love MT, don't get me wrong. I've listened to it at least once a day since picking it up last Tuesday.
I suppose my main issue with Modern Times is that while it has its moments of absolute brilliance ("Ain't Talkin'", "Workingman's Blues #2" and "When The Deal Goes Down" seem better than anything on Love and Theft) the main problem is the album's inconsistancy. Modern Times contains no less than three tracks ("Rollin and Tumblin", "Someday Baby" and "The Levee's Gonna Break") that despite being credited as Dylan originals are very much derivative of tracks by Muddy Waters and Memphis Minnie. It's a shame considering how inventive Dylan is on the aforementioned tracks.
I still love MT, don't get me wrong. I've listened to it at least once a day since picking it up last Tuesday.
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
I think maybe you need to take another listen to Love & Theft Otis, it took quite a while to sink in with me too, but Moonlight, Summerdays, Mississippi, High Water, Sugar Baby are all great songs and on the whole its a fine album.
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
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Otis Westinghouse
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Put it on again after writing the above. I think I'd go for a CD with 3 to 4 great ones and a few derivative/mediocre ones over one that is generally good but fails to set me alight. I just don't seem to be able to engage much with L & T, and two listens to When The Deal Goes Down tells me that is not the case with it, and all of Dylan's great music engages you hugely. Well I'll play L&T some more, but I must get MT to compare.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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Boy With A Problem
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- Location: Inside the Pocket of a Clown
I find myself in Mike Boom's camp - especially agree with
This is a fine record, but for me its still way too soon to assess it's place in the canon.
-I think its still too early to tell how good this record is, Dylan albums seem to take ages to seep into your head and heart.
This is a fine record, but for me its still way too soon to assess it's place in the canon.
Everyone just needs to fuckin’ relax. Smoke more weed, the world is ending.
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bambooneedle
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So am I. There's nothing I would really call derivative when at any moment a Bob line has the power to pull the rug from under preconceptions that may be had about any song. When you start seeing beyond the apparent sameness or familiarity of sound in some of the songs, like in The Levee's Gonna Break or Rollin' And Tumblin' (the blues figures and repetition of lines etc, which usually bore the fuck out of me in lesser hands), a powerful wholeness begins to emerge that refuses to offer easy instant gratification. It's the furthest thing from pop music. You meet it halfway and it starts to engage and surprise. It starts to awaken countless things in one's consciousness. It's ageless, soaring over the history of popular music while not belonging to any part of it. For example, I love the playfulness with swing and so on (such a contrast to the grim whoremongering of today's music industry). It makes me think Bob will be going as strong at 80, and that I'll be enjoying this record as much then when I'm 50.
I agree totally, in that with "the Blues", it makes a HUGE difference who is actually singing and playing - you really DO have had to have paid your dues, to drag out the old cliche, but its true - Dylan has the gravitas to get away with the rather traditional chord structures/standard blues melodys because his voice carries the huge weight of experience with it and the playing is so understated but suffused with feeling and power from the band (he says in the Rolling Stone interview that this is the best band he's EVER had, which is really saying something.) and then of course you have the lyrics - every time I listen to this album a new line or phrase pops out at you:
"some lazy slut has charmed away my brains",
"I've been conjuring up all these long dead souls from their crumblin' tombs "
"I'm as pale as a ghost ,Holding a blossom on a stem
You ever seen a ghost? No ,But you have heard of them"
"some lazy slut has charmed away my brains",
"I've been conjuring up all these long dead souls from their crumblin' tombs "
"I'm as pale as a ghost ,Holding a blossom on a stem
You ever seen a ghost? No ,But you have heard of them"
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
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bambooneedle
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- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 4:02 pm
- Location: a few thousand miles south east of Zanzibar
Bob's got gravitas and veritas coming out of his ass. It's been pointed out a million times, but the expressiveness in his voice allows him to say so much, via his emphases, inflections and tones. It reveals a staggering level of awareness, when he's at his most lucid. And great precision, like he's constantly saying 'this and not that' and playing with the ironies created. Some writer said that he always leads with the feeling and never the intellect, but whatever he does there's a great combination of the two. So much is so often conveyed that is non literal and that works on different levels simultaneously. I think he's the greatest poet in the last, oh, 3000 years. Maybe 5000. I love that he wrote Workingman's Blues #2, classist snobs could never empathize with it.
Last edited by bambooneedle on Sat Sep 09, 2006 8:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I've been living with the album since it came out, and I like it, but I can't decide just how much. I loved TOOM when it arrived, and L&T somewhat, but somehow this one isn't catching on as fast. Still, I expect I'll be listening to it more often in five years' time than, say, <I>Under The Red Sky</I> or <I>Empire Burlesque</I>.
As for Otis's earlier question as to why the songs hadn't shown up in concert sooner, Bob's gone on the record as saying that he doesn't like playing new songs before the album's out to stumble up the bootleggers.
As for Otis's earlier question as to why the songs hadn't shown up in concert sooner, Bob's gone on the record as saying that he doesn't like playing new songs before the album's out to stumble up the bootleggers.
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bambooneedle
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Just came across an mp3 of Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie - When The Levee Breaks (1929), here: http://prewarblues.org/ (under Aug 23rd), and you're right Blue, Bob's may be derivative of it, but I have no problem with that because he updates it and makes it his own, in traditional blues heritage furthering fashion. Better than Eric Clapton and countless other imitators who purport to play the blues, that's for sure.
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bambooneedle
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- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 4:02 pm
- Location: a few thousand miles south east of Zanzibar
He borrows a lot of lines from old blues songs.
re: Ain't Talkin' - has there ever been more anticipation at the start of a song than when Bob begins by delivering: "As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden," gives me goosebumps, and does anybody know what is meant by "walkin' with a toothache in my heel"? I also heard Bruce Springsteen use it in one of the Seeger Sessions songs somewhere.
re: Ain't Talkin' - has there ever been more anticipation at the start of a song than when Bob begins by delivering: "As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden," gives me goosebumps, and does anybody know what is meant by "walkin' with a toothache in my heel"? I also heard Bruce Springsteen use it in one of the Seeger Sessions songs somewhere.