Sound Advice: CD Reviews - Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks

CD Review:
So after checking out Blonde on Blonde, my introduction to Bob Dylan (other than radio play), I decided this album would be my second purchase. It has "Tangled up in Blue," a song that was one of the few I enjoyed from hearing on the radio.

After listening to this album for the last couple of months, I have come to the conclusion that it isn't as strong as Blonde on Blonde. Where Blonde on Blonde was over 70 minutes long, it didn't have any songs on it that weren't enjoyable in some way, where this album does.

Blood on the Tracks starts out strong with "Tangled up in Blue," "Simple Twist of Fate" and "You're a Big Girl Now". The lyrics on these songs are fantastic. "Helped her out of a jam I guess, but I used a little too much force" from the first song is a great lyric if I ever heard one. The second song is enjoyable. It is a softer song with just an acoustic guitar and occasional harmonica. The attraction is to scream out with Bob on the last words before the catch phrase "A simple twist of fate" is sung. "You're A Big Girl Now" adds a Latin tinge to it from a Spanish guitar that is nice to listen to.

After these three songs the album dives. "Idiot Wind" is a song I can't handle and I have come to jump to the next song whenever I listen to the album. Bob screams out too much on the song and it irritates my ears. This song is the perfect example of why I passed on Dylan in my younger days.

I usually jump the next two songs also so I can get to my favourite song on the album "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts". This song picks up the beat of the album and it shows Bob at his storytelling best.

"If You See Her, Say Hello" is the 2nd introspective song on a love lost (after "You're a Big Girl Now") and is now one of my favourite Dylan songs. He plays a mandolin on this song and it adds to the atmosphere of loss that is pleasure to listen to, simple as the music is (the same simple progression repeated throughout).

"Shelter from the Storm", another beautiful song about a woman helping out a stranger on the road, continues Dylan's love affair with repeating the same lyric at the end of each verse group. On this one like all the others the lyric is the name of the song. It seems that if anyone else does this, it doesn't work. But for some reason with Dylan, it does. He performs it on this song, "Tangled up in Blue", "Simple Twist of Fate", and "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" which turns out to be the best songs on the album.

Scott D. Brown