Bob Dylan: Blonde On Blonde
Wet Day Ladies #12 & 35
Pledging My Time
Visions of Johanna
One in all Us Should Know (Sooner or Later)
I Need You
Caught Within Cell with the Memphis Blues Once more
Leopard-Pores and skin Capsule-Field Hat
Simply Like a Girl
Most Possible You Go Your Approach and I am going to Go Mine
Short-term Like Achilles
Completely Candy Marie
4th Time Round
Clearly 5 Believers
Unhappy Eyed Woman of the Lowlands
Extensively acknowledged as the primary studio double LP by a significant artist, Blonde On Blonde is likely one of the defining information of the 60s and of Bob Dylan’s profession. It was, Dylan stated, “the closest I ever bought to the sound I hear in my head” – one thing he described with a usually poetic flip of phrase, “that wild-mercury sound.”
With this album, Dylan accomplished a transition from folks to rock artist, a journey begun on his two albums from 1965, Bringing It All Again House and Freeway 61 Revisited. Save for one monitor, the entire of Blonde On Blonde was recorded in simply seven days unfold over two periods in Nashville, with Dylan backed by a free ensemble of high-class musicians together with keyboard gamers Al Kooper and guitarist Robbie Robertson.
And among the many 14 songs are quite a lot of era-defining classics: I Need You, Simply Like A Girl, Leopard-Pores and skin Capsule-Field Hat, the stoner anthem Wet Day Ladies #12 & 35 and the surprised post-apocalyptic love story that’s closing monitor, Unhappy Eyed Woman Of The Lowlands.
It additionally marked the tip of an period, adopted because it was by the near-fatal motorbike accident that despatched Dylan into semi-permanent exile. He survived, however the “wild mercury sound” didn’t.
Each week, Album of the Week Membership listens to and discusses the album in query, votes on how good it’s, and publishes our findings, with the goal of giving folks dependable evaluations and the broader rock group the possibility to contribute.
Different albums launched in June 1966
- Soul Sister – Aretha Franklin
- Gettin’ Prepared – The Temptations
- Freak Out! – The Moms of Invention
- Pink Rubber Ball – The Cyrkle
- Animalisms – The Animals
- The Unimaginable String Band – The Unimaginable String Band
What they stated…
“Blonde On Blonde is an album of monumental depth, offering infinite lyrical and musical revelations on every play. Leavening the edginess of Freeway 61 with a way of the absurd, Blonde On Blonde is comprised completely of songs pushed by ingenious, surreal, and witty wordplay, not solely on the rockers but in addition on winding, shifting ballads like Visions Of Johanna, Simply Like a Girl, and Unhappy Eyed Woman of the Lowlands. (AllMusic)
“The mixed presence of trusted arms like organist Al Kooper and Hawks guitarist Robbie Robertson with knowledgeable native session males together with drummer Kenneth Buttrey and pianist Hargus “Pig” Robbins created an nearly contradictory magnificence: a tightly wound stress round Dylan’s quicksilver language and incisive singing in barrelhouse surrealism.” (Rolling Stone)
“One level which each sceptics and believers can all agree on nonetheless is the extent to which Dylan is totally comfortable with himself right here. Credit score additionally, ought to go to the crew backing him up. And if their backing is at instances a bit of hurried or patchy, the improvisatory nature of their attempting to maintain up with the person on the microphone can also be part of this album’s total attraction.” (BBC)
What you stated…
Steve Pereira: That is “my” Dylan album. The primary Dylan album I owned, and the primary I actually bought into. I’ve cherished it over time, and I’m reluctant to concede its primary spot in my coronary heart to another Dylan album, although Blood On The Tracks, Freeway 61, and Freewheelin’ are all contenders nowadays. Nevertheless, for a lot of causes, that is the most effective Dylan album.
It’s the pinnacle of his first, most sustained, most essential, and most vital artistic interval. After recording this (with some issue, till switching studios to Nashville, and largely utilizing Nashville session musicians plus just a few trusted musicians equivalent to Al Kooper and Robbie Robertson) Dylan went on the notorious 1966 tour the place he was subjected to abuse from his audiences, notably within the UK, the nation the place he had been most revered, and by no means once more would he work and produce with such free and impressed creativity. He entered a protracted and lean interval, however the occasional charming launch equivalent to John Wesley Harding, till the transient artistic surge within the mid-Seventies beginning with Blood On The Tracks.
Unhappy Eyed Woman was my approach into the album, and my approach into Dylan. I used to be seduced by the haunting, hypnotic music, the melancholic and delightful organ, the repeating, insistent, drum tapping, the sways and weaves, the little pauses and retreats, solely to return again once more, like a mild tide on the sand. And I used to be enthralled by the lyrics. No person had written a love music like this earlier than (or since). It was totally audacious, stunningly clever, and literate. It got here from the previous – from the Romantic poets, from Rimbaud, from folks songs going all the way in which again to the Anglo-Saxon “Wulf and Eadwacer”; and it was of the very current – a trembling, coronary heart felt providing, written within the Chelsea Resort for his spouse Sara; and it pointed to the long run – a future by which writers would take significantly the writing of “pop” songs, somewhat than dashing off one other easy boy loves lady rhyme in the course of the 9 to five hours within the Brill Constructing. It isn’t for nothing that Dylan acquired the Nobel Prize for Literature – the one songwriter to take action. The richness of the lyrics, like a tapestry of affection and longing, was distinctive then, and remains to be distinctive now, regardless of many writers having taken up Dylan’s problem, and paid extra consideration to themes, photographs, construction, literary influences, and sheer bravado with the language.
I used to be stunned by the mixture of the music, the lyrics, Dylan’s crooning voice, the assured, straightforward talent of the musicians, and the chemistry of the second. One thing that different severe musicians, like Neil Younger, have paid consideration to. Taking part in reside within the second in unison in reference to musicians that “get it”. They do not should be expert, as Neil Younger, and The Kingsmen, have proved. However it helps if they’re. Because the musicians on the album have been – legendary Nashville session males. Essentially the most revered and admired session gamers within the enterprise.
Blonde On Blonde was began in 1965. A shocking 12 months for Dylan. He had recorded and launched Freeway 61 and Bringing It All Again House that 12 months. He was on the peak of his creativity and confidence. He had moved from acoustic folks into electrical folk-rock. He was the voice of a era, and the true way forward for rock and roll. There’s the pop and rock world earlier than Dylan, and there may be what comes after, completely impressed by him. On the prime of his sport, brimming a lot with confidence and concepts that, even after creating two traditional albums that 12 months, he nonetheless has sufficient power to make one other – certainly, a lot that it spills over right into a double album of recent and unique songs. One thing that had solely been achieved as soon as earlier than, and that was Woody Guthrie’s Mud Bowl Ballads again in 1940.
The person songs on Blonde have grow to be acquainted classics in their very own proper, however it’s the sprawling and timeless entirety of the album that impresses. That we get music after music after music which is brilliant, playful, chopping, impressed, humorous, and reflective. It’s a beneficiant providing. Dylan’s voice so effectively matched to his songs. His singing, understated however highly effective. It is a voice that comes from you and me. Proud, cynical, questioning, mocking, delighted to be alive. It is a masterly voice of timing and stress – matched solely by Sinatra.
With all his confidence and creativity he produced the best album of the Sixties, one of many biggest and most influential albums of all time. From right here he may go wherever. However, sadly, he went on tour to the UK, and encountered such bitter hostility that he was by no means the identical once more. That second in Manchester Commerce Corridor when an oik shouts out “Judas”, hit him onerous. He reels again. He does not know what to do. He shouts again “I do not imagine you”. However he is aware of that is not sufficient. He comes again to the mic -”You are a liar”. And he is aware of that is not sufficient. So he turns to his band and says to them, defiantly, with the true spirit of rock, “Play it fucking loud!”, then launches right into a blistering Like A Rolling Stone.
However he is been harm. And he’ll withdraw completely from touring, and largely from recording. And when he does begin to come again, he’s a misplaced pressure – as evidenced by the appalling Self Portrait album. That it is nearly ten years earlier than he is in a position to make one other nice album (Blood On The Tracks) reveals how broken he had been. Who is aware of what would have come after Blonde if the Brits had not been so shitty to him. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps he was exhausted anyway. In any case, how many individuals can document eight sides of timeless traditional songs in little over 12 months with out feeling a bit of bit spent.
Anyway, in fact, I’m giving this 10. It’s a distinctive album, bursting with intelligence, creativity, and shining musicianship, and it’s a watershed within the historical past of music. There aren’t many albums as good, as historic, and as influential as Blonde On Blonde.
Dale Munday: The third album of an almighty groundbreaking trilogy. Dylan was so prolific presently, which additionally discovered him on the prime of his sport.
Chris Elliott: For a very long time I had a Best Hits album and thought that was greater than sufficient. As I bought older I slowly found Dylan through the gross sales. In actuality it wasn’t till I reached 50 I actually bought Dylan.
Between 63 and 69 there is not a nasty album and his fame was constructed – this one took the longest to essentially respect. For a very long time I assumed it was a self-indulgent poor cousin to Freeway 61 – and to a level I nonetheless do – the distinction being I realised there is a really nice album in there as effectively. The primary indicators of believing his personal fable are creeping in – lose 10 minutes and there is a magnificent album.
This improves with every pay attention.
Greg Schwepe: For the longest time my notion of Bob Dylan was fashioned by probably the most unlikely sources. Each documentary I noticed concerning the “turbulent 60’s” and all that was occurring on the time within the U.S. included some clip of Dylan enjoying, or certainly one of his songs within the background whilst you noticed a scene of a helicopter taking off in Viet Nam. And if not that, it was some goofy morning DJ bit or some comic with their imitation of Dylan. In all probability the one I bear in mind most on the radio was a “industrial” for a fictional Bob Dylan Unplugged album. You heard a nasally out-of-tune “Dylan” singing, then a little bit of a ruckus and the sound of a mic being unplugged, after which him singing once more; however now you may barely hear him. Get it? I bought that joke, however by no means actually “bought” Bob Dylan at that time.
Then got here the Touring Wilburys, and whereas I purchased the album primarily for George, Tom, and Jeff, seems I actually favored the Bob Dylan songs far more than I assumed I might. Like, quite a bit. So lastly took a deep dive just a few years in the past to essentially try Bob Dylan. And came upon that there’s far more to him than what I’d thought. “What? This man with the nasal voice is meant to be this nice lyricist and voice of a era?” Seems, yeah, he’s!
In listening to Blond On Blonde once more for this week’s evaluate I once more realized what I came upon throughout my Dylan deep dive just a few years in the past. There’s much more to love than dislike. In the event you actually give the man an opportunity and don’t let your Dylan stereotypes get in the way in which, he has quite a bit to supply.
An enormous a part of the Dylan model is acoustic guitar and harmonica. And whereas I like harmonica (however extra in a J. Geils Band or Huey Lewis & The Information vein), the songs I favored the most effective on the album appeared to have much less harmonica. I appear to have the identical ‘harmonica meter’ in my head identical to my ‘pedal metal meter.’ I attain some extent the place it will get a bit an excessive amount of for my tastes. Good factor is that Blonde On Blonde incorporates sufficient songs that don’t journey that meter.
Whereas I get pleasure from memorable lyrics and like how writers can specific one thing, I’ve by no means been one to essentially sit down and attempt to precisely decide the mindset of the author. “Why did they write this? How have been they feeling? What feelings are they attempting to convey? What are they actually attempting to inform me?” Don’t care! If it’s one thing intelligent that sticks in my head, that’s sufficient for me and that’s what Dylan does right here.
Favorite tracks on this one are Visions of Johanna, Unhappy-Eyed Woman Of The Lowlands, Completely Candy Marie, Short-term Like Achilles and One Of Us Should Know (Sooner or Later). And I’m totally satisfied that radio stations round me performed Wet Day Ladies #12 & 35 simply so listeners may giggle whereas listening to “…everyone should get stoned…”
I listened to Blonde On Blonde about 3 times earlier than scripting this evaluate, and every time I grew to love it a bit of extra. Every time extra caught with me and perhaps my harmonica meter didn’t get triggered as a lot. However total, I’ve discovered I used to be extra of a fan of his 70’s output greater than the 60’s stuff. Plenty of the “folkie stuff” from the 60’s not as interesting. 7 out of 10 for me on this one.
Jim Carson: Blonde On Blonde is a monumental achievement, showcasing Bob Dylan’s unparalleled lyrical brilliance and groundbreaking sonic innovation. It captures the essence of Dylan’s artistic zenith and redefined the boundaries of rock, folks, and blues with seamless finesse.
Tracks like Visions Of Johanna,” with its haunting imagery, and the epic Unhappy-Eyed Woman Of The Lowlands, an ode brimming with emotion, epitomize Dylan’s mastery of intricate wordplay and vivid storytelling. The album’s eclectic soundscape and enigmatic lyrics invite listeners right into a world the place poetry and music intertwine effortlessly.
Blonde On Blonde has earned its place as a timeless masterpiece, leaving an indelible mark on generations of musicians and followers. Whether or not you are a loyal Dylan aficionado or discovering his work for the primary time, this album is a necessary journey into the guts of his innovation and expression. Oh, and it was achieved in 1966!
Philip Qvist: I am not an enormous fan of Bob Dylan. An excellent songwriter however not an ideal singer in my view, so I used to be initially going to provide this week a miss. Evidently although, curiosity bought the higher of me and I made a decision to provide it a pay attention.
Whereas it does not alter my view of the artist’s singing or that he performs too far a lot harmonica for my liking, I favored massive components of Blonde On Blonde. I used to be additionally fairly aware of many songs on the album; equivalent to Wet Day Ladies, I Need You, Simply Like a Girl and One Of Us Should Know.
Visions Of Johanna and Leopard-Pores and skin Capsule-Field Hat are most likely my favorite tracks on the document, whereas the album finishes on a excessive with Unhappy Eyed Woman Of The Lowlands. The lyrics are quirky, as are among the music titles – and with musicians equivalent to Joe South, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Al Kooper and Kenneth Buttrey round, you’ll be able to’t go improper with the backing music.
I get why so many individuals have rated this album so extremely, and I anticipate many will give this one a 9 or a ten this week. Having stated all of that, I’ll put this one down as a nice shock and award a 7, primarily because of the songwriting and musicianship
Mike Fildes: Up there with Exile On Fundamental Road and the White Album as the most effective double album of all time, flawless.
Wesley Winegarden: Blonde On Blonde is well a ten/10 album which is wonderful contemplating it does not have any of Dylan’s finest songs and is not even his finest album. It is unfair how good of a musical craftsman Bob Dylan is.
Mike Canoe: Bob Dylan has reached the purpose in his profession and life the place he’s extra fable than legend. His music has been reinterpreted by a whole lot of artists in a whole lot of genres. As we used to say within the information biz, the latest Dylan biopic gives a “information peg” to truly appraise Dylan doing Dylan. And as some t-shirt slogan someplace reads, “Go huge or go house.”
So the double album Blonde On Blonde appears a logical alternative. It is namechecked as the primary double album of the rock period in addition to the primary rock album to commit a full facet of vinyl to at least one music, the light and elegiac Unhappy Eyed Woman Of The Lowlands, clocking in to trendy ears at a suspiciously quick 11:23. However at this level in his profession, plainly what Dylan wished, Dylan bought.
The reality is that Blonde On Blonde does not have as many hits as I assumed it did. An enormous a part of that’s as a result of I’ve gotten used to Dylan music titles typically having no relationship to the precise music – see beneath. Facet three is a thriller to me though Completely Candy Marie and Clearly 5 Believers stand out for me on repeated listens, as does Visions of Johanna from facet one.
The album does comprise 5 bona fide classics, beginning with opener, Wet Day Ladies #12 & 35 aka the lurching, ramshackle “All people should get stoned.” A part of the album’s attraction is that the musicians do sound stoned – however nonetheless intuitively linked. I Need You signifies Dylan may write good pop songs at will and Leopard-Pores and skin Capsule-Field Hat has him out-Stonesing the Rolling Stones. Facet two closes with the musically candy, lyrically misogynistic ballad, Simply Like a Girl.
However the final cause I selected Blonde On Blonde out of a discography of forty studio albums is the second music on facet two, Caught Within Cell with the Memphis Blues Once more. Whereas it usually does not break into the highest 40 when publications rank Dylan songs, I believe it is his finest and most definitive music and encompasses every part I like about Dylan. It has the rambling storytelling filled with metaphors and allusions sung in a weary and bemused rasp and backed by a band that, as talked about above, can miraculously sound tight and shambolic on the identical time. The lyrics convey a sense of discovering one’s self, actually and figuratively, like they’re within the improper place on the improper time – more often than not. It could possibly be a metaphor for my twenties. Heck, I really feel that approach generally now.
Whereas there are arguably extra simply digestible Dylan albums, none make me really feel the way in which Blonde On Blonde does.
Andrew Cumming: Top-of-the-line and most iconic rock albums of all time. Simply traditional after traditional. Wet Day, Johanna, Caught Within Cell, Leopard Pores and skin, Simply Like A Girl and many others and many others. A kind of albums that’s nearly a Best Hits in its personal proper. Basic.
Closing rating: 7.42 (52 votes solid, whole rating 386)
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