was just about to create this; beat to it ---> Bob Dylan - My Rough and Rowdy Ways /2020) Anticipation and Discussion Thread
― I eat fast foods (morrisp), Friday, 8 May 2020 04:21 (three years ago) link
ah just saw it on Twitter
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 8 May 2020 04:24 (three years ago) link
"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" 5:552. "Spirit on the Water" 7:413. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" 6:024. "Someday Baby" 5:56 [alternate version from Tell Tale Signs]5. "Workingman's Blues #2" 6:076. "Huck's Tune" 4:097. "Nettie Moore" 6:538. "The Levee's Gonna Break" 5:439. "Ain't Talkin'" 8:48
Also brings down the total running time to about 57 1/2 minutes.
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 9 November 2022 16:44 (one year ago) link
I approve!
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 November 2022 16:46 (one year ago) link
This has always been an A+ album for me but truth be told I usually skip those two tracks you excised.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 9 November 2022 16:49 (one year ago) link
Thanks Alfred!
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 9 November 2022 16:49 (one year ago) link
Yeah, this works much better. Thanks, bird!
― doug watson, Wednesday, 9 November 2022 20:43 (one year ago) link
"Thunder on the Mountain" was his best opening track off an album since "Blood on the Tracks".
― o. nate, Thursday, 10 November 2022 17:13 (one year ago) link
! that's quite a take, considering a few of the tracks you're talking about...
― Reese's Pisces Iscariot (morrisp), Thursday, 10 November 2022 17:17 (one year ago) link
"Gotta Serve Somebody" probably #2.
― o. nate, Thursday, 10 November 2022 17:18 (one year ago) link
Never been a big fan of "Hurricane".
― o. nate, Thursday, 10 November 2022 17:19 (one year ago) link
No love for the openers on Infidels & Empire B? Those are two of his best songs!
― Reese's Pisces Iscariot (morrisp), Thursday, 10 November 2022 17:22 (one year ago) link
"Changing of the Guard"?
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Thursday, 10 November 2022 17:26 (one year ago) link
That's a great one, too...
― Reese's Pisces Iscariot (morrisp), Thursday, 10 November 2022 17:28 (one year ago) link
I listed them a couple years ago
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 November 2022 17:30 (one year ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 10 November 2022 18:06 (one year ago) link
I mostly agree with Alfred's ranking, but I would swap "Gotta Serve Somebody" with "Jokerman" and "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum".
― o. nate, Thursday, 10 November 2022 18:07 (one year ago) link
into the fiery furnace with you!
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 November 2022 18:09 (one year ago) link
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.
― Reese's Pisces Iscariot (morrisp), Thursday, 10 November 2022 18:13 (one year ago) link
It's that sound: it's a warm shallow ocean
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 November 2022 18:26 (one year ago) link
I could get on board with that take. xp
― o. nate, Thursday, 10 November 2022 18:32 (one year ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 10 November 2022 19:34 (one year ago) link
You could argue that song invented The War on Drugs.
― o. nate, Thursday, 10 November 2022 19:52 (one year ago) link
cosign
lovesick and tweedle dee terrible openers to great albums
― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 13 November 2022 15:25 (one year ago) link
It was used during a surfing sequence in the maligned John From Cincinnati
― Chris L, Sunday, 13 November 2022 17:09 (one year ago) link
Like both of these better than Thunder on the Mountain, especially the dueling guitars on tweedle dee.
― The Bankruptcy of the Planet of the Apes (PBKR), Sunday, 13 November 2022 18:17 (one year ago) link
Always assumed that everyone loves Lovesick (which I do)
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 13 November 2022 23:05 (one year ago) link
no
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 November 2022 03:38 (one year ago) link
What's the problem with "Lovesick"? "Tangled Up in Blue" is the opener most often in my head.
― dow, Monday, 14 November 2022 05:35 (one year ago) link
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
― corrs unplugged, Monday, 14 November 2022 11:11 (one year ago) link
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.
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 November 2022 11:52 (one year ago) link
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.
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 November 2022 11:53 (one year ago) link
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.
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 November 2022 11:56 (one year ago) link
"Tight Connection' is a superb opener.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 November 2022 11:57 (one year ago) link
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.
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 14 November 2022 12:29 (one year ago) link
'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
― corrs unplugged, Monday, 14 November 2022 12:31 (one year ago) link
here for the tweedle-dee love. such cool, demented lyrics and great drums
― Heez, Monday, 14 November 2022 16:19 (one year ago) link
"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.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 14 November 2022 16:59 (one year ago) link
Wiggle Wiggle >>>>> Love Sick
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 November 2022 17:14 (one year ago) link
I wouldn't use quite so many ">"s, but I also prefer "Wiggle Wiggle." (I'm not too into Time Out of Mind, tho)
― Reese's Pisces Iscariot (morrisp), Monday, 14 November 2022 17:20 (one year ago) link
Kenny Aronoff's drum roll in "Wiggle Wiggle" is the real thunder on the mountain
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 November 2022 17:31 (one year ago) link
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.
― dow, Monday, 14 November 2022 17:33 (one year ago) link
As a character read, it's more effective for the shrewd, seemingly soft and off-handed phrasing.
― dow, Monday, 14 November 2022 17:35 (one year ago) link
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).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 14 November 2022 17:48 (one year ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Monday, 14 November 2022 18:56 (one year ago) link
got tired of the monotonous, lecture-y delivery long ago
Now there's a controversial take! Not one I can agree with though.
― o. nate, Monday, 14 November 2022 19:13 (one year ago) link