Feb 19, 2021
Review #38: Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan
#38: Blonde On Blonde, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan looks like he’s fronting an emo band from 2007 on this album cover. Look at that checked scarf.
That’s about all the enthusiasm I can muster about this Bob Dylan album. I don’t really remember listening to it for the first time, and I can’t hum any tunes from any of these songs. Apologies to Bob Dylan.
FAVORITE SONGS:
“Visions of Johanna” — This one is pretty! But it does not need to be nearly so long.
“Stuck Inside Of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” — This one felt really relatable for some reason; maybe I just like the title.
“Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” — I love a good 12-bar blues, plus the lyrics of this are insane!
“Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” — Okay fine this one is fun.
“Absolutely Sweet Marie” — I was writing a very critical paragraph about Bob Dylan when this came on, but I started JAMMING, so I had to delete the paragraph.
“Fourth Time Around” — This song is bar-none gorgeous.
“Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” — To tell you the truth, I’m a poetry fan, so I love when Bob Dylan makes 12-minute ballads. This is a good closer to this album.
LEAST FAVORITE SONGS:
“One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)” — I don’t particularly dislike this song; this was just when I realized that I was about to listen to the same song 14 times.
“Just Like A Woman” — As a rule, I hate any song that compares grown women to little girls.
“Temporary Like Achilles” — When will this album end??
IS RS FULL OF IT?
Look: We, as a society, need to get over our infatuation with Bob Dylan. He’s a genius who wrote about a thousand songs that middle class white men born at a certain point in history can relate to, and that is significant!
But since Bob Dylan’s prime, we have learned that a lot of people in the world are not middle class white men, much to music’s benefit. Bob Dylan couldn’t write a bad album, but this was not his best. Besides, Blonde on Blonde came out in 1966, and so much music has come out since then, from a much wider variety of musicians. Bob Dylan doesn’t get to dominate every “best” list just because we all know who he is.
In this spirit, I submit that the first Shrek soundtrack is the 38th best album of all time.
