New Bob Dylan song: Huck's Theme

I really liked that review, though--the fact that it was based on something concrete, the widespread reaction to the song, rather than some impenetrable tangent, that was a good start. I think he made a somewhat significant factual error, though: "Murder Most Foul" made #1 on some specialized chart, digital downloads or something like that, it wasn't the Top 100--that would have been really remarkable.

Looks like another new song may be queued up for tonight:

What are you lookin’ at - there’s nothing to see. pic.twitter.com/TzCBvpIMBo

— Bob Dylan (@bobdylan) May 7, 2020

New album ‘Rough And Rowdy Ways’ coming June 19th.
Pre-order now: https://t.co/SN0XeyNKiN
Listen to “False Prophet” here: https://t.co/05k7HYtPiK pic.twitter.com/raitEZpabe

— Bob Dylan (@bobdylan) May 8, 2020

was just about to create this; beat to it ---> Bob Dylan - My Rough and Rowdy Ways /2020) Anticipation and Discussion Thread

ah just saw it on Twitter

"Huck's Tune" really is great. I wish he put it on Modern Times per Clinton Heylin's suggestion.

I have some reservations about that album, so I tried tweaking it a bit. I took out two of the slow numbers partly because they sound like carbon copies of two best-selling pop records - forgotten today (partly because the original audience has now mostly passed), but they were unique arrangements and what we got here sounds like lazy covers to me. The blues numbers I don't mind, those arrangements have been recycled and rewritten endlessly long before Modern Times, but three feels like one too many so per Heylin's suggestion I used an alternate of "Someday Baby" found on Tell Tale Signs.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the final result - for me, this sequence would live up to the A+ rating Christgau generously bestowed on Modern Times:

1. "Thunder on the Mountain" 5:55
2. "Spirit on the Water" 7:41
3. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" 6:02
4. "Someday Baby" 5:56 [alternate version from Tell Tale Signs]
5. "Workingman's Blues #2" 6:07
6. "Huck's Tune" 4:09
7. "Nettie Moore" 6:53
8. "The Levee's Gonna Break" 5:43
9. "Ain't Talkin'" 8:48

Also brings down the total running time to about 57 1/2 minutes.

I approve!

This has always been an A+ album for me but truth be told I usually skip those two tracks you excised.

Thanks Alfred!

Yeah, this works much better. Thanks, bird!

"Thunder on the Mountain" was his best opening track off an album since "Blood on the Tracks".

! that's quite a take, considering a few of the tracks you're talking about...

"Gotta Serve Somebody" probably #2.

Never been a big fan of "Hurricane".

No love for the openers on Infidels & Empire B? Those are two of his best songs!

"Changing of the Guard"?

That's a great one, too...

I listed them a couple years ago

Good list!

I was never a fan of "Changing of the Guard" until I heard Patti Smith's cover. She basically stripped away most of the instruments, but the most effective change was transposing the saxophone part to the piano - makes an enormous difference.

The beginning of "Political World" is pretty cool, but the song never delivers and goes nowhere. Lanois really pushed Dylan to open Oh Mercy with "Series of Dreams" but to no avail - it's not even on the album. Would've been one of my favorite Dylan openers had it happened.

I mostly agree with Alfred's ranking, but I would swap "Gotta Serve Somebody" with "Jokerman" and "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum".

into the fiery furnace with you!

My smokin' Dylan hot-take is that omission of "Series of Dreams" from Oh Mercy is actually a bigger deal than the fabled omission of "Blind Willie McTell" from Infidels.

It's that sound: it's a warm shallow ocean

I could get on board with that take. xp

xp perfect description

For whatever reason, it always makes me think of water. Like I've blasted it on many grey, rainy days, and sometimes it brings to mind an old luxury car commercial where said car is driving through crashing waves on the edge of a beach in slow motion.

You could argue that song invented The War on Drugs.

"Thunder on the Mountain" was his best opening track off an album since "Blood on the Tracks".

cosign

lovesick and tweedle dee terrible openers to great albums

For whatever reason, it always makes me think of water. Like I've blasted it on many grey, rainy days, and sometimes it brings to mind an old luxury car commercial where said car is driving through crashing waves on the edge of a beach in slow motion.

It was used during a surfing sequence in the maligned John From Cincinnati

lovesick and tweedle dee terrible openers to great albums

Like both of these better than Thunder on the Mountain, especially the dueling guitars on tweedle dee.

Always assumed that everyone loves Lovesick (which I do)

no

What's the problem with "Lovesick"? "Tangled Up in Blue" is the opener most often in my head.

I feel like it's a minor song, but what grates are the production choices, I don't like the heavy compression/eq'ing on the lead vocal, and I feel like musically not a lot's going on

with Tweedle Dee I feel like every track that follows is an improvement, it's an opener quite different from the rest of the songs... anyway, I tend to skip it

fwiw I also feel that 'Lovesick' is a surprisingly slow-key, undynamic first track for one of the greatest LPs of the decade. The start, with that ... almost reggae? high rhythm guitar part, feels particularly thin. And the end feels quite botched!

'tweedle dee' is musically thrilling, I'd say, not so different from 'political world' but more orchestrated and 'song & dance man' fare.

I meant low-key. Slow-key almost works.

If I had a controversial opinion on the topic it would be that 'like a rolling stone' is one of Dylan's worse LP openers. It's too long for the role, and less exciting, to me, than everyone always seems to have found it.

whereas many others are superb: 'S H Blues', 'changing of the guard', 'if not for you' (but that's basically 'pop single as opener'?), 'tangled up in blue' for sure, 'hurricane' maybe but again too long, 'political world', 'tweedle dee', 'thunder on the mountain' yes - and indeed 'I contain multitudes' !! and even 'young at heart' on a covers LP - marvellous.

Also underrated in the role: 'tight connection to my heart'?

But I'm reminded that the worst Dylan LP opener has to be 'rainy day women' - the most overrated song of his life.

"Tight Connection' is a superb opener.

You folks are crazy, “Lovesick” opens the door to the thick night air perfectly. And the snare crack of “LaRS” is the shot that starts the revolution.

'tweedle dee' is musically thrilling, I'd say, not so different from 'political world'
totally agree, very similar, don't like political world

Tight Connection is the album highlight iirc

here for the tweedle-dee love. such cool, demented lyrics and great drums

"Love Sick" is a fine opener. At the time it felt like, "Hey, Bob's back! And he...doesn't suck! Huh!" (Those who heard "Wiggle Wiggle" on release day will understand.) But all live versions -- especially those with Bob soloing -- surpass it.

"Thunder," though, is easily my fave out of those three openers.

Wiggle Wiggle >>>>> Love Sick

I wouldn't use quite so many ">"s, but I also prefer "Wiggle Wiggle." (I'm not too into Time Out of Mind, tho)

Kenny Aronoff's drum roll in "Wiggle Wiggle" is the real thunder on the mountain

Love Kenny Aronoff! So hope he'll show up on the Never-Ending tour.
he snare crack of “LaRS” is the shot that starts the revolution. Yeah, but after that I'm pretty much with pinefox--got tired of the monotonous, lecture-y delivery long ago (even though he later said, "Every time I say 'you' I mean 'I'"), It's the one track from that LP that doesn't play itself in my head on any given day---nothing necessarily against the song, though; I really like the Hendrix at Monterey Pop rendition.

As a character read, it's more effective for the shrewd, seemingly soft and off-handed phrasing.

That "Wiggle Wiggle" performance was the beginning of the decline of Aronoff's greatness. He was brilliant with Mellencamp -- his re-entrance in "Check It Out" is arguably the greatest moment in Mellencamp's oeuvre. But with Dylan and -- especially -- Fogerty, every snare hit sounds like a sales pitch as aggressive as it is ineffective.

I don't see Aronoff jumping back into Bob's band anytime soon, as Charley Drayton is beyond perfect for what Bob's doing now, and Bob seems to love him ("Boy, Charley's really something on the drums, isn't he?" -- Bob during the band introductions when I saw him a year ago).

I didn't realize it until much later, but when I saw Jerry Lee Lewis at Riot Fest, it was Aronoff on drums. Agree with Tarfumes, he's a loud, aggressive player. I don't think he'd be right for Dylan at this point. He was perfect for Mellencamp though.

got tired of the monotonous, lecture-y delivery long ago

Now there's a controversial take! Not one I can agree with though.