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AUDIO FORUMS >> General Discussion and Support >> Lon, are you into Bob Dylan?
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Message started by Matchstikman on 12/05/10 at 00:39:23

Title: Lon, are you into Bob Dylan?
Post by Matchstikman on 12/05/10 at 00:39:23

I am wondering.

Title: Re: Lon, are you into Bob Dylan?
Post by Lon on 12/05/10 at 15:01:22

Yes. I've been enjoying the mono box since its release.

I've got all the official releases. . .got into Dylan in 1974 when Planet Waves was released. That was with The Band and that's why I initially got into it. I'd heard a lot of the earlier things but they didn't really reach me then.

Later I began to listen back to the beginning and I realized the mastery he had. .. no one did more with a lungful of air as far as phrasing and rythmn. Amazing talent.

I admire that he is still out there trying to make the magic. From what I hear it doesn't always happen. But he's out there and what a life he's had.

Title: Re: Lon, are you into Bob Dylan?
Post by Matchstikman on 12/05/10 at 17:14:00

Lon, this might be a major thing to answer, but what album would you say speaks most about who Bob Dylan is?

Title: Re: Lon, are you into Bob Dylan?
Post by Lon on 12/05/10 at 17:57:17

Bob Dylan is a lying rogue, an actor, and I'm not qualified to say who Bob Dylan "is." There were and probably are many Bob Dylans. There are albums that are milestones, sign points. The very first one is I think what Bob Dylan thought he was going to be, had initially become. But by Freewheelin' he was something else entirely, and that album is a snapshot of a new then. Bringing it All Back Home shows a new Dylan that Dylan had become, or a new unleashing of the joking conman that he always had been.

In some ways perhaps some of the most honest Dylan may be in the unreleased officially lode of "Basement Tapes." A musician returning to his love of music for its own sake and forging yet another chameleon suit to wear in the years ahead. That trove, John Wesley Harding and Self-Portrait showed where he was heading and even how both his physical and his literary voice was going to change unmistakably.

And further along the road there were still more milestones. I think as far as an "everyman philosopher" his albums Planet Waves and Blood on the Tracks show his mastery of telling a story that may or may not have eternal truths buried somewhere in there, or even real brass tacks reality truth for Dylan, anything's possible. Somewhere on the way he was able to twist wear and tear to his advantage and become an elder statesman and a testifier to the enduring strength of blues and boogie, moving in to consolidate the forms in a new century.

Dylan has always been proficient at controlling the truth, dismissing the truth, and blowing entwined obscuring smoke rings. And there's an ambiguity built into his public face and his published words and sung notes. Even when he's revealing a vulnerable bite, you're not sure if the joke isn't still on you.

I think the new mono box is a great box set. The influence this material had on the years the box set spans is very hard to measure. I'd guess it's safe to say the influence is deep.

Title: Re: Lon, are you into Bob Dylan?
Post by DirtDawg on 12/06/10 at 23:50:08

I have to admit that it was Lon who influenced me to become interested again in Bob Dylan after many years of abstinence. (I was a young teen when my father first introduced me to early Dylan)

Often when get I out one of my guitars, struggle miserably to find what scraps I can of my old chops, make noises that can create a cringe reaction/reflex even in those with the most deafened of ears, I have been seeking out Dylan sequences for a couple of years.

I find myself pranging out some semblance of Dylan's more dark lyricals, despite there being no guitar through those passages that have stuck in my mind.

I tend to find him very familiar these days.

I am generally disappointed in the quality of his recordings, however. Within the same CD or LP, some rock and some suck.

Title: Re: Lon, are you into Bob Dylan?
Post by DirtDawg on 12/06/10 at 23:51:23

Lon, I like your "review."

Title: Re: Lon, are you into Bob Dylan?
Post by Lon on 12/07/10 at 00:22:10

Hey DD,

At the beginning Dylan was at the mercy of producers, and they crafted the sound more than he. Later he realized that the sound and shape of an album was important and he was able to choose producers, co-produce, and produce, and I think the sound got better.

I wonder if the quality of song to song might in some ways be indicative of the difficulty he has choosing songs sometimes to put on albums. He distrusts his work at times and he may put a take that he suddenly at the last moment likes on a disc that may have not had the the full benefit of the "dialed in" sound for the album, etc.

I find that his latest works have been better sounding still. It seems as if his song-writing brilliance has dulled and so he has concentrated on the overall and specific sounds of the material and the finished products.