i'm not there

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN b. may 24th, 1941

"The passion for the absurd can grow only in a man who has exhausted everything, yet is still capable of undergoing awesome transfigurations. For one who has lost everything there is nothing left in life except the passion of the absurd. What else in life could still move such a person? What seductions?"
em ciroran

the new album is ok. nothing startling like the previous three albums that resurrected his career. those albums were pure dylan, the great lyrics & stories, his unique vocal phrasings, & excellent musicianship & production. on the best songs of the new album, that's all there too. there's still a sense of distractedness to the new album, a lack of commitment to whatever the original project was. it could be the collaborative thing w/hunter, maybe the lack of memorable melody comes from that. i don't get the makeover of "midnight special" at all. the song mike found so offensive("life is hard) doesn't offend me or most other reviewers i've read. dylan has given us some real stinkers in the past("winterlude", anyone?). i think this one stands out because of how different it is from the other songs on the album.



i like the idea of the band sounding like a border town bar band. i also reminds me of walking down frenchmen in the marigny in new orleans & hearing this kind of music coming out of the spotted cat or dba or snug harbor. it's bar band music & it takes it's subject matter from classic bar songs: lost love, betrayal, jails, drinking. it's not for nothing that bruce davidson's pic was chosen here for the cover. the pic was also on the paperback version of larry browns' big bad love which also deals w/lost love, betrayal, jails, & drinking.

what's most striking is that it's a solid album. over half of the songs work for me & that's a pretty good percentage nowadays. none of the other early pop masters(young, morrison, simon, etc)are producing anything as strong as dylan's late output. there is a history of a few artists hitting a late great period. the material produced is usually death haunted, deeply intro/retrospective, mournful. certainly his last 3 albums had that going on but not this one. tho "it's all good" is deeply & corrosively cynical, most of the songs seem more focused on the sound rather than the sense of things.

dylan plays nearly 300 live shows a year & has been doing that for years now. he knows all about the night life, the sights & sounds of the wee morning hours. maybe the night life is his last seduction, the one that's still seducing him. this album seems like a glimpse of that.

strong songs: beyond here lies nothin', my wife's home town, forgetful heart, i feel a change comin' on, it's all good.