Bob Dylan - new album just out on Tidal - Rough and Rowdy Ways
Just a heads up. Bob’s new album is out on Tidal today. Just finished my first listen - I am a big fan of Bob Dylan - I consider him the Poet of my generation - at 79 his lyrics tell beautiful stories - IMO. Enjoy the music.
Speaking of The Stray Cats, they were produced by Welshman Dave Edmunds. In 1970, while The Dead and The Airplane were making the Rock music they are known for (which DID contain trace elements of Folk and Blues), Edmunds put out his first solo album (having previously been in Love Sculpture, a Progressive/Blues UK trio), entitled Rockpile (he was later in a band of the same name with Nick Lowe). It contains a lot of genuine Rock ’n’ Roll, as well as Blues and Rockabilly. I consider Edmunds the greatest Chuck Berry interpreter of them all, leaving Keith Richards to eat his dust. ;-)
Dave plays almost every instrument on the album, and had a hit single with his incredible reworking of the old Smiley Lewis Blues song "I Hear You Knocking"(written by Dave Bartholomew, known for his work with Fats Domino and other black Rock ’n’ Rollers). While Jorma and Jerry were playing long, meandering guitar solos, Dave played a taut, kinetic, scorchingly hot little solo on the song. He first creates an almost-unbearable degree of tension, then releases it at the solo’s climax. Very sexual, the way great Rock ’n’ Roll is performed. Like Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, and early Elvis. Coincidently, Edmunds includes Dylan’s "Outlaw Blues" on the album, as well as Neil Young’s "Dance, Dance, Dance" and Chuck Berry’s "Sweet Little Rock & Roller."
For another example of a Rock ’n’ Roller who knew how to create and release tension, listen to Buddy Holly’s version of "Down The Line." Jerry Lee also did the song, but Buddy’s is THE version. SO hot! To hear a great version of Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie" performed by a true Rock 'n' Roll band, listen to The Flamin' Groovies' Jumpin' In The Night album (Edmunds produced their classic Shake Some Action album, another masterpiece).
Oh do tell me what young voice could improve Murder Most Foul ?
I can think of many, but I don’t think it would do any good to debate that, do you?
I hope the pasture pushers get a gentle nudge into a nursing home....
Lighten up. Is Bob above all criticism? Do we wish ill upon people with whom we don’t agree regarding Bob’s singing? Bob has always been against worshipping idols. He’s always told people to think for themselves, that’s the message I’ve always gotten, anyway.
I listened to Murder twice last evening- I was just two when that went down, so obviously I have no direct memory. Into the future, critics of Dylan and this album and this song will come and go. Me, I see it as an emotional stream of consciousness regurgitation of the evil and the emotions of that horrid day. I guessing for a significant fraction, the song will remain very personal and emotional - maybe even slightly more than half the country. At some point I might write down all the musical touchstone references - I think most of the mentions are artists I have valued, sought out over the years.. so sure, let’s over the years revisit the song and see who has the chops, stones, moral conviction and emotions to cover it... or maybe just write something new... I don’t consider the rest of the album a masterwork and maybe that’s my deal with Bob. His masterwork needs to touch me to the core as ten or so of his songs do. I and I would be one such song. Planet waves is a great album with a few with or without a Rock band...
as my buddy with Cornwall’s said: Dude, it’s a first world problem to debate other critics about Dylan...”
yes, we are that lucky Finally, no ILL will intended
Wanna hear the Band show how well they can play rock and roll? Check out Moondog Matinee, their album of cover songs, especially The Promised Land, Ain’t Got No Home and Mystery Train. I can’t sit still when I hear those tracks.
Right @tostadosunidos, Moondog Matinee included some of the songs The Band were performing in their sets while playing bars as The Hawks (1960-65, pre-Dylan). Great versions of those songs, and since the album is intended to reproduce that era, I don't mind the recorded sound quality, which is not so hot: no high end, congested and veiled, but the music moves me anyway.
It's an unlikely question but it's one I have been asking myself lately, is this Bib Dylan's best album?
For sure the range of vocal and musical expression found here is not a patch on that found on his best work eg the drug fuelled 65-6 trilogy that altered the course of popular music.
He's much older now and the band, excellent players no doubt, are here to provide a solid, consistent, pulsing, hypnotic landscape for his words.
No flashy or fancy stuff here at all.
Lyrically there is a lot of disillusionment, regret, bitterness, anger, reflection from start to finish, only occasionally softened with rare hints of humour. It's often overlooked but Dylan always had humour.
His vision here is on history, mortality, loss of reason, rejuvenation and hope for redemption. I can't recall any other album of his with such an encyclopedic compass of subject matter and sensation.
Even those peaks of 2012s Tempest or 2001s Love and Theft hardly managed such a kaleidoscopic distillation as this one. This one broke me down further and make me think more.
The final track, Murder Most Foul comes packaged on a separate CD, quite rightly so. It stands alone in more ways than one.
Broad, majestic and all encompassing it's a work of the highest maturity.
As for the recording quality, its simply first rate - warm and full of texture and decay. It sounds good on everything I've played it on - TV, headphones, Bluetooth speaker etc.
Of course it sounds better on a full range system, bigger scale, depth and bandwidth, intimacy etc, but then that's no more than what you'd expect from an artist who genuinely cares about how his work is displayed.
It's also available for a free listen on Dylan's own YouTube channel.
I've been listening to this album for a couple of weeks on Tidal and have gone to not liking it that much to liking it a lot. The vinyl just came out today so I bought it. Special gold vinyl indie store exclusive at that. I'm excited to sit down with it tonight. As for his voice, he has more character in his voice than almost any other singer out there. Some records are much more listenable to me than others. Ironically, his late-career records are some of my favorites.
'Ironically, his late-career records are some of my favorites.'
Love and Theft 2001 Tempest 2012 Rough and Rowdy Ways 2020
In my opinion these 3 are amongst his best ever studio albums. The only career hiatus I think was that decade between Street Legal (78) and Oh Mercy (89).
Springsteen, once again is the only other artist that springs to mind as a comparison for both quality and longevity.
Quite unusual really, as most of his rivals tended to barely have a golden creative period for a decade at best.
Somehow, despite everything, Dylan's defied the odds. Only he may know how.
Yes, great albums both. Different but share that Dylan trademark of awesome closing tracks as on many of his best albums eg, 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue', 'Desolation Row', 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands', 'Sara', 'Sugar Baby' etc.
Time Out of Mind is near perfect. 'Not Dark Yet' could break your heart.
rpeluso,
I probably need to give Modern Times a few more spins. Maybe 2001s Love and Theft had raised my expectations a bit too high.
I remember I couldn't latch on to any of the songs immediately the way I could with Murder Most Foul, Crossing the Rubicon, Black Rider etc.
I think I was also listening to at the same time as Morrissey's Ringleader of the Tormentors which was a little more immediate back then.
Sometimes a good way for me to know if I'm going to like something is to play it in the car a few times. I don't like playing originals in the car so I'll rip a copy especially.
Ok i just gave it a listen on you tube.Well ,i feel like i have heard this music before.Will i need this to be burned in .errr more play time.Perhaps ,will i ,i dont think so.Hey i like Dylan always have.Ive seen him in concert .I liked him more in the 70s .I have bought most of his albums but mostly on used cds.Its older Bob,nothing new .Sorry.
He sounds as good as he looks. Period. Old. Tired. Bitter. Still rehashing the Kennedy assassination? Please, I was there too. Let's move on from that sad event. We've lived through it and its aftermath enough times for many years and now he dredges it up again? For what?
Roxy54 - from what I have read Dylan wrote the song ‘Murder Most Foul’ for the Kennedy family as his contribution to their 50 Year Remembrance ceremony of the event (Nov 22, 2013). The song was preformed just for the ceremony and not released to the public as a single until much later (about 7 or 8 months ago). He then saw fit to include it into his latest album we are discussing.
Sorry you do not enjoy reliving history thru music. The song also touches on the other key assassinations of that violent time as well - the death of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. It reminds me of the actual impact of ‘Nonviolent Protests’ and how that approach to change America was so effective - as apposed to ANTIFA and their destruction of Seattle and Portland today.
If ever an album fitted it’s times - it’s this one. Just like the Sex Pistols ’Nevermind the Bollocks’ and the Beatles ’Sgt Pepper’ ’Rough and Rowdy Ways’ has captured the essence of its times.
The whole world is obviously going through some very strange days and Bob Dylan has provided us a with a great album to take some kind of an historical recap.
They’ll be listening to this one a 100 years from now, hopefully onboard some luxury space station.
Snackeyp - I am so glad you found this string and are enjoying Bob - as I have said earlier - he is the poet of my generation! I am a young 66 years old. For me - this is the best Benefit of using Audiogon - we all discuss equipment to the nth degree. The whole point of our hobby is to enjoy the music. Other members comments have lead me to Artists I would never find on my own - or alert me to an ‘old favorite artist ‘ so I can enjoy their ‘evolution ‘ over their career!
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