mancity2012_eamo
Well-Known Member
COVID Homebound Blues.
Eamo’s in the bedroom, trying to take his medicine.
Feels like a mushroom, must obey the government.
Annie’s playing nursemaid, tea and toast, how’s your cough.
Side effects wearing off?
Chin up kid, it’s nothing you did.
Can’t say when, but you’ll bounce back again.
Got to send your contacts, to the HSE and in the end
You’ll be fine fine in a few days but isolate for ten.
Sorry.
I’m bored and at the same time revelling in the fact I can indulge uninterrupted in listening to my music and the various albums put forward in these threads.
So I revisited Bob and Highway 61.
This time around, apart from ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ I didn’t concentrate on reading the lyrics, I just laid back and let the feel of the album take me.
Just can’t help it with the opening track though.
The lyrics still hit me after all these years. For all the criticisms I laid at Bob’s door in my first post, I’ll just reiterate that there are certain tracks where his voice frailty or vulnerability is the perfect foil for the song both lyrically and musically.
Rolling Stone is one such song. I don’t think anyone else would improve it.
So on with the rest of the album.
Briefly, I really like Tombstone Blues. It’s light and has lovely blues guitar breaks which give the variety that’s often lacking with Dylan songs.
Ballad of a Thin Man is a lovely song too (back to that later).
Highway 61 and Desolation Row definitely worth the extra examination and overall it’s a pleasant album to listen to.
So how do I analyse how I feel when I’m immersed in the whole thing.
Well as I described, the first song is damn near perfect, it feels personal. That’s what comes across in the delivery.
I get the feeling that this whole album is personal but where I get let down, is how cryptic some of the story telling gets with all the characters introduced.
I was wondering on second listen, in Ballad of a Thin Man, what the hell is this about. Who is Mr.Jones. It occurred to me that he is talking about himself in the third person and I got the same feeling with several songs and think the theme of the album is something about the music industry perhaps and his and/or others spiritual rather than physical journey along the route. Route 61 leading to New Orleans. Metaphorically rather than physically.
Ok. So I’m over thinking it.
But therein lies a difficulty with holding my attention in many Dylan songs. Particularly the longer ones that do drone on. I would never deny that he is a great lyricist and poet. But sometimes I think he hides behind cryptic characters and as such rambles off theme and loses me.
There is an honesty in the artist that lays themselves bare. I saw an interview about Joni Mitchell in which David Crosby says he pleaded with her to hold a little back when he heard Blue first. He couldn’t get over how she exposed herself to the mercy of the world.
Dylan in my opinion is at his best when he does this, but quite often in this album I feel like what he is talking about is hidden and in that it loses its edge.
I will be giving it another airing, but for now I’ll give it a solid 7/10.
Eamo’s in the bedroom, trying to take his medicine.
Feels like a mushroom, must obey the government.
Annie’s playing nursemaid, tea and toast, how’s your cough.
Side effects wearing off?
Chin up kid, it’s nothing you did.
Can’t say when, but you’ll bounce back again.
Got to send your contacts, to the HSE and in the end
You’ll be fine fine in a few days but isolate for ten.
Sorry.
I’m bored and at the same time revelling in the fact I can indulge uninterrupted in listening to my music and the various albums put forward in these threads.
So I revisited Bob and Highway 61.
This time around, apart from ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ I didn’t concentrate on reading the lyrics, I just laid back and let the feel of the album take me.
Just can’t help it with the opening track though.
The lyrics still hit me after all these years. For all the criticisms I laid at Bob’s door in my first post, I’ll just reiterate that there are certain tracks where his voice frailty or vulnerability is the perfect foil for the song both lyrically and musically.
Rolling Stone is one such song. I don’t think anyone else would improve it.
So on with the rest of the album.
Briefly, I really like Tombstone Blues. It’s light and has lovely blues guitar breaks which give the variety that’s often lacking with Dylan songs.
Ballad of a Thin Man is a lovely song too (back to that later).
Highway 61 and Desolation Row definitely worth the extra examination and overall it’s a pleasant album to listen to.
So how do I analyse how I feel when I’m immersed in the whole thing.
Well as I described, the first song is damn near perfect, it feels personal. That’s what comes across in the delivery.
I get the feeling that this whole album is personal but where I get let down, is how cryptic some of the story telling gets with all the characters introduced.
I was wondering on second listen, in Ballad of a Thin Man, what the hell is this about. Who is Mr.Jones. It occurred to me that he is talking about himself in the third person and I got the same feeling with several songs and think the theme of the album is something about the music industry perhaps and his and/or others spiritual rather than physical journey along the route. Route 61 leading to New Orleans. Metaphorically rather than physically.
Ok. So I’m over thinking it.
But therein lies a difficulty with holding my attention in many Dylan songs. Particularly the longer ones that do drone on. I would never deny that he is a great lyricist and poet. But sometimes I think he hides behind cryptic characters and as such rambles off theme and loses me.
There is an honesty in the artist that lays themselves bare. I saw an interview about Joni Mitchell in which David Crosby says he pleaded with her to hold a little back when he heard Blue first. He couldn’t get over how she exposed herself to the mercy of the world.
Dylan in my opinion is at his best when he does this, but quite often in this album I feel like what he is talking about is hidden and in that it loses its edge.
I will be giving it another airing, but for now I’ll give it a solid 7/10.