Bob Dylan - Tempest, Sept. 11, 2012

let's have a poll to see who is happiest

okay now I am concocting some sort of theory that the reason lex doesn't "get" Dylan is because Dylan is FUNNY

ronan why must you always be there, trying to zing me, in every thread i am on. GET OUT OF MY FACE ALREADY. jesus it's like having a dom pt ii around

i forgot about the hatred of comedy

not gonna justify myself for disagreeing with someone who posts in a very outspoken and strident manner. that's not "zinging" and if you can't handle it (as is abundantly clear) then don't dish it out, for free or otherwise.

i have absolutely no interest in arguing or communicating with you and what i'm trying to say is i wish you would feel the same

it's not about "not being able to take it", i'm happy to talk to most people who disagree with me without being cunts about it

this is boring. I'm bored now.

Anybody else getting ads at the top of this thread, right after they first sign on? Happening on what are you reading too. And Firefox having to stop a re-direct.

dow"

POLL: Should ILX put ads in front of unregistered lurkers in exchange for money?

It's all getting a bit European Whiney and Deej in here. Guys you are both better than this.

buh-but I'm not unregistered. oh well, long as it's not spoofing or sponking or hijacks

It's all getting a bit European Whiney and Deej in here. Guys you are both better than this.

better than what? disagreeing with a fairly strong statement of opinion? (along with two other people.)

ilxor rose up 'gainst ilxor
In every circumstance
They fought and slaughtered each other
In a deadly dance

Duke, I got the 2lp vinyl for 25 dollars US from www.dustygroove.com

And yeah, like alex in mainhatten said, it's the first six songs on the first LP, and the last 4 songs on the 2nd LP

You do get a CD copy as well, it's just packaged inside a generic white paper slipcase

"ilxor rose up 'gainst ilxor-" reminds me: today is the 150th Anniversary of Battle of Antietam, America's bloodiest so far
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/17/161248814/antietam-a-savage-day-in-american-history

thanks for the info, Stormy.

Not sure why so much vitriol for "Roll On John." It's a nice tune and feels warm and personal. The two before it are the ones I can't buy. "Tin Angel" takes Black Jack Davy/Matty Groves and does ... nothing with it. And "Tempest" feels like second-hand Pogues.

Still, the album makes me happy. It's good to hear from him.

I really like "Roll On John" til he gets to "come together right now over meee"--to this tune, not the original, an ugghh combination. Otherwise, I like the music on all the tracks, each setting (ncl vocal) does its damndest to support the oh-so-challenging, pungent, shit-stirring words, which usually work seems like, although,yeah "Tin Angel" is, uh--I dunno, I'll keep listening. One of my favorites is "Narrow Way", its length justified by gradual transition: the usual-for-this-set sabre-wielding entrance, later he's wanting to rest his head between her (or the usual "your") breasts, still growling, "I can't work up to you, you'll have to work down to meee, someday." Sure, Babe.

I like "Roll On John" too. Definitely not the weakest track. It's not easy to write a song like this and have it feel real and personal. This isn't exactly "Candle in the Wind", but there's always a danger of it feeling a bit self-aggrandizing, basking in a legend's faded glory. I also agree that once you've heard "Tin Angel" and figured out the storyline it's not clear why you'd want to hear it again. Like "Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" on BOTT, it feels kind of superfluous. I will still defend "Tempest" though it might have been better if it was edited down a bit more.

good to hear bob workin hard to enunciate the s-t-ssss in 'breasts'

LENNY BRUUUCE IS DEEEEEAD

Like "Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" on BOTT, it feels kind of superfluous.

I actually love "Lily Rosemary," because its story is enigmatic and epigrammatic enough to feel like it's about something -- or lots of things -- without ever really showing its hand. "Tin Angel" otoh is full of clumsy exposition and doesn't ring any allusive bells (for me, anyway). Just feels like it takes the basic text of "Raggle Taggle Gypsy" and gives it an unnecessary polish. Like one of those modern Bibles that saps all the fun outta King James.

kind of wish "long and wasted years" was the 14 minute one here! reminds me of brownsville girl.

"Scarlet Town" pulls me in, esp. on headphones. I can put it on Pause, get up for another drink, come back to the table, old dude sill talking shit in there I can't quite dismiss, in fact I may have to report. Watch the rest of the room too.

I love Roll On John, strongest song on the record for me initially (really wish the "come together now" seemed less clumsy, but I'm sure it'll grow).

http://rapgenius.com/Bob-dylan-roll-on-john-lyrics <-- is genius lol!

Points deducted from Roll On John for encouraging corny critics to end their reviews with a chummy "Roll On Bob."

i think dylan's vocal sells Roll On John. feels a bit out of place on an album that is steeped in pre-war (pre civil war?) language/culture/etc, but it's working for me.

Roll On, John was the first song I erased.

I didn't make it past the second verse the first time I heard it. Haven't bothered to go back either.

Helpful that he put those two epics at the end. They're like really long bonus tracks.

I listened to this the first time totally blind, not knowing the track order or what was playing or anything. I kept thinking, "ah, this is the epic Titanic song!" And then it wasn't. And then I'd think "OK, this must be the epic Titanic song," and then it wasn't. And then the epic Titanic song played, and I was pretty much, yeah, OK, this is the epic Titanic song. So I got comfortable.

I don't think this Jody Rosen review was ever linked here:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/09/older-than-that-now-dylans-tempest.html

That's good, especially on the singing:

He sings with a jazzman’s feel for rhythmic play, laying back behind the beat, rushing ahead of it, bending, distending, and cutting short his raggedy notes. He has dramatic flair that places him in the company of Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and George Jones: an actor’s way with line readings, a knack for making the musical conversational and vice versa.

saw bob last night -- and he played absolutely nothing from Tempest. Which was kind of a bummer. But the show was good. Crazy grizzled voice, but the honky tonkin' arrangements worked for me. Wish he'd let the band cut loose a little more. I kept thinking what a weird gig being in Bob's band must be -- they're all obviously pretty chopsy dudes, but they have to deal with this total musical primitive leading the band. Dylan's piano playing is pretty hilarious (in a mostly entertaining way). he just clomps around, hitting weird, off-kilter block chords, or picks a descending/ascending riff to play throughout the whole song. it'd be one thing if the piano was mixed super low, but last night it was mixed as the lead instrument.
knopfler opened, pretty snoozy. lotsa watered down celtic stuff, occasionally cool guitar playing. he should call his band The Bald Band.

Knopfler put Tulsa to sleep last night. Thankfully, Dylan was in fine form, though he dances like a Muppet. Yes, I said dances. Several times throughout the set he left the piano to play the frontman, and sort of bopped around the front of the stage like a three year old, making slight knee bends and shoulder lifts to the beat.

Really odd (& pretty great) setlist, but again nothing from this record. A piano-less, echo-drenched "Ballad of a Thin Man" was a definite highlight. Only one encore but the initial set was quite long.

Dunno about his life guitar-playing now, but when I saw him in the 90s, he had some great solos, electric and acoustic (also for inst in the 70s TV special Hard Rain, he plays slide on "Shelter From The Storm"). The current (and sometimes eccentric) emphasis on piano might have something do with arthritis (I hear things). Traditionally of course, tracks featuring and maybe written on piano were often pretty special: "Thin Man", "Dear Landlord", "Down Along The Cove", "If Dogs Run Free", "Winterlude", "Dirge", and "Apple Suckling Tree", for that matter.

*live* guitar-playing, I meant.

dylan didn't touch a guitar when I saw him this week -- i've heard the same rumors about arthritis (or maybe back problems). and yeah, the dancing was fun. kind of made me think of cab calloway, or something.

I will not be fooled. I've fallen asleep the last two times I saw him, and there's no way he's singing better today than then a few years ago. Factor in a return to arenas, and if he died tonight I'd feel like I got my Dylan-ful.

BTW, he's been doing that little jig-dance a lot over the past few years. Reviews almost always cite it as a sign that he's either having fun or has a sense of humor, but again, I will not be fooled. Dylan must be pretty lacking when folks bring up his silly dancing as some sort of draw. "Come for the music, stay for the dancing!"

I'm sorry you won't be fooled Josh. It was lot of fun and better than when I saw him in 2001.

I mean, I wish! But I've seen him at least half a dozen times post-2001, from small clubs to bigger theaters, and half of them were OK, and half totally lame, and all would have been more or less the same whether he was there or not. I had fun at the ones that didn't put me to sleep, but that's largely because Dylan is such a bizarre dude these days, and certainly not based on his playing, singing, songs, etc. It's a shame, really. Like, Leonard Cohen has never been much of a singer, and these days he's even more the non-vocalist and much older than Bob to boot. But I had tons more fun when I saw him a few years back than at even the best of the Dylans. Again, sadly.

i get it -- there are certainly tiny things bob could adjust in his live shows that would make them a hundred times more crowd-pleasing. he's really the weirdest dude to have such a mass audience. i dunno though, i think i'm just invested enough in dylan's whole career that it's always interesting to me. and fun! i was grinning most of the time during the show this week. maybe i'm an enabler!

If the name "Bob Dylan" wasn't on the ticket stub, I can't imagine he would have gotten a positive live review in the last, I dunno, decade.

Since you've caught all his shows in the last, I dunno, decade.

I know what he's getting at. Dylan is easily the weakest link in his shows, and it's come to the point where his erratic performances have perversely become an attribute. Ergo, you can't tell what song he's singing=Dylan is radically rearranging his songs. He doesn't play guitar=he's willfully subverting expectations. He doesn't play anything off his new, well-reviewed album=he's being contrarian. He does a little jig=he's placing himself in the tradition of American song and dance men. I've been guilty of this myself. But then I go back and listen to shows from the guy back when he was on fire, and the current Dylan just doesn't cut it when, as per Tyler, with just a few adjustments he probably would. And with a few major adjustments, he could be as radically exciting as he once was. But the reason Dylan doesn't do that it as mysterious as the reasoning behind the Never Ending Tour itself. The man is clearly compelled, yet not compelling. His current mode, as thrilling as its recorded highs have been, is starting to seem like a safe haven for him, a sort of creative purgatory. I wonder if we'll ever get another radical revision of the Dylan persona?

He's had dry spells before, prob waiting, looking for another spark.

Or, Josh, you could just be talking out your ass and Dylan is still doing just fine, with as many on and off nights and individual song performances as always. Based on my personal experience, I'm going to believe the eyes and ears that caught his excellent show last night.

Sorry for being rude, but I think your going too far in your dismissal of Dylan's current production. I understand feeling taken in -- I've seen plenty of disappointing shows from many artists over the years -- but I have to say the chances he took last night he didn't take a decade ago, and the returns were much higher than in the incredibly solid but predictable show I saw in 2001, or in many of the boots I've heard from across the last 20 years. He can still astound, even without playing new songs or the guitar.

Taking it back to Tempest, I'm not that crazy about some of the lyrics, but musically it's tight, at least some of which comes from keeping that band (and himself) working dang near every night. Lotta good studio albums have appeared during the Endless Tour. Also too many live boots to keep up with, so what else can you trust but your own ears, on whatever enchanted,disenchanted or quirky evening.