The Album Review Club - Week #147 - (page 1942) - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan

threespires said:
Despite me not liking all the vocals on this album, I wouldn't disagree with that assertion. I don't think he's a great singer in the way that say Aretha Franklin is but that's a different thing entirely.
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Feel the same way.
threespires said:
One of the things I like to think about in terms of what makes someone a truly great singer is which ones could transcend their own genre and be as legendary in other types of music. There's very very few and in practice we rarely get to hear an artist do that anyway.
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While I'm not going to call Jagger a country legend, I do think he pulls off a decent character driven song in "Far Away Eyes" with his faux southern accent.

I'd not heard this one prior as it didn't make my compilation GHs discs, but I do think the Stones pulled off the genre decently here. Not sure if this pulled in the C&W sales like the first track got the disco bread, and Respectable got the punk pounds, but I'll say this album does have a non-sameness to it.

"So if you're down on your luck and you can't harmonize..." ;-)
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Feel the same way.

While I'm not going to call Jagger a country legend, I do think he pulls off a decent character driven song in "Far Away Eyes" with his faux southern accent.

I'd not heard this one prior as it didn't make my compilation GHs discs, but I do think the Stones pulled off the genre decently here. Not sure if this pulled in the C&W sales like the first track got the disco bread, and Respectable got the punk pounds, but I'll say this album does have a non-sameness to it.

"So if you're down on your luck and you can't harmonize..." ;-)
Click to expand...
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Feel the same way.

While I'm not going to call Jagger a country legend, I do think he pulls off a decent character driven song in "Far Away Eyes" with his faux southern accent.

I'd not heard this one prior as it didn't make my compilation GHs discs, but I do think the Stones pulled off the genre decently here. Not sure if this pulled in the C&W sales like the first track got the disco bread, and Respectable got the punk pounds, but I'll say this album does have a non-sameness to it.

"So if you're down on your luck and you can't harmonize..." ;-)
Click to expand...

Though I like the song I do think he, possibly deliberately, crosses over into pastiche on it (though some would say that entire genre is pastiche anyway!). Jagger's voice is interesting in that it does have a lot of colour and elements to it, including that drawl that could in theory predispose it to certain types of C&W. I'm just not convinced he has sufficient control over the constituent parts to be able to genre hop properly; but not having a history of being a big stones fan I've never really taken the time to dig.
 
I am glad I've listened to this, and that I can now finally claim I have listened to a whole Rolling Stones album.

It is vary much an album of 'two hands'. And by that I mean, on the one hand, I see exactly why it (and they), are not for me. On the other, I see why it (and they) are so successful and appeal to so many.

It confirms what I've always thought of the rolling stones, through everything I've heard. Boy they really have just been peddling the saaaaaame fucking shit, for 60 fucking years! On the one hand, that is damn impressive and to be admired, don't think anyone comes close to that. On the other, change the damn string on that banjo ffs! And this album felt like that, predictable, formulaic and exactly what I expected, even having never heard it. That said, I can't deny its (and their) quality as musicians and performers, or that they know how to write a hit. And whatever it does, or doesn't, make me feel, it deserves at the very least a 7. So I'll go with that.
 
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Not that anyone cares, but after a month-long hiatus thanks to work crises (plural), I am happily back to my normal life and will look forward to listening and contributing in my annoying way to this thread once again.

I will note that this has always been my favo(u)rite Stones record -- one of the only ones I've really truly liked -- and that I've not been their biggest fan relative to a number of other top tier rock acts.

If one assumes the "Big 4" of British 60s/70s rock are the Beatles, Stones, Who and Led Zep (which is what a white American of my age always assumed), they're a distinct number 4 for me.

That said, I find it curious that I've been getting more into them in my dotage, so this revisitation of a record that was goddamned everywhere in my early high school years will be a lot of fun.

Good to be back!
 
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