Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde. Is it Over-rated ?

Colonel Kurtz

I first discovered Bob Dylan in a serious way about 7-8 years ago, and have been steadily collecting his extensive back-catalogue ever since.
Most of it is superb, but Blonde on Blonde is a bit of a curiosity to me. Most Dylan "nuts" I know insist it's his best album - and get very irate if I suggest otherwise.

While I certainly don't think it's a bad album, I would rate three or four others above this one. For my money, Highway 61 Revisited, Blood on the Tracks and John Wesley Harding are definitely better albums. And possibly Bringing it all back home and Time out of Mind aswell.
There's some great stuff on Blonde, particularly Visions of Johanna and Stuck inside of Mobile...., but there's also a lot of mediocre stuff too (Rainy day women, Absolutely sweet Marie, Most likely you go your way) - I think it suffers for being a double album, and there's too much filler.

Anyone else got an opinion on this ?

DadaKopf

Yeah, I know what you mean. I love BoB, but others at least really compete in my brain for the top slot. But there's still amazing stuff on it.

Highway 61 Revisited is amazing. He wasn't so messed up on drugs then. John Wesley Harding is also amazing, but more amazinger (and released the same year) is Nashville Skyline. He wasn't doing anything then because he was convalescing after his motorbike accident. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is really good, some mad stuff on it, but Bringin' it all Back Home is just unbelievably incredible and definitely (IMO) his best early album.

Colonel Kurtz

No argument here about Bringing it all back home. Quality album. "It's alright Ma" and "Bob's 115th Dream" are amongst my absolute favourite Dylan tunes.

I really love JWH but I've been deliberately avoiding Nashville Skyline, mostly because of Lay Lady Lay. That song just does'nt do it for me. Are the rest of the songs in the album in the same style ?

slipss

I think Blonde on Blonde is usually given so much praise because it was seen as very forward thinking when it came out and when Dylan was changing over from the more folky stuff to his more modern rock n roll sound and it was released when Dylan was supposed to be in his prime as far as live performances went. It tends to be rated a lot more highly by critics than by fans because it's technically very well composed but I'd agree with you Kurtz I think some of his other albums were a good bit better, I wouldn't call Rainy Day Woman a mediocre song though, I'd rank it in his top fifteen for definate, especially as it was so overtly contraversial for a song written in the mid sixties in an America that was still being spoon fed all that reefer madness crap.

John

I agree that it's hard to pick a best Dylan album but Blonde on Blonde is definitely up there with Blood on the Tracks or Highway 61. They kind of switch positions all the time (usually when I'm listening to one of them).

Colonel Kurtz

slipss wrote:

I wouldn't call Rainy Day Woman a mediocre song though, I'd rank it in his top fifteen for definate, especially as it was so overtly contraversial for a song written in the mid sixties in an America that was still being spoon fed all that reefer madness crap.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one !

loyatemu

Colonel Kurtz wrote:

No argument here about Bringing it all back home. Quality album. "It's alright Ma" and "Bob's 115th Dream" are amongst my absolute favourite Dylan tunes.

I really love JWH but I've been deliberately avoiding Nashville Skyline, mostly because of Lay Lady Lay. That song just does'nt do it for me. Are the rest of the songs in the album in the same style ?

I really like it. a couple of tracks are in a similar style to lay lady lay, others are in a more acoustic folk-country style. Its also very short.

Blonde on Blonde is great, not much too choose between it, Highway 61 and BIABH. pretty much all Dylan's 60s output is genius.

Amazotheamazing

You have to look at the time the album was released too, up until the mid 1960's, rock albums were of secondary importance to rock singles, hence the non album singles like Can you please crawl out your window and Positively Fourth St, or any number of non-album Beatles singles.

For Dylan, or the Beatles or the Beach Boys or whoever to change tack and say they were making a stand alone album that wasn't there to shift singles but to be listened to as a thing in it's self is a turning point in popular music.

I don't think it's possible to objectively say which album is Dylan's best as his career has evolved and a listeners tastes change over time. When I was a teenager, I preferred the passion of his protest stuff, but now in my mid 20's I prefer his more recent stuff, perhaps when i settle down I'll prefer his 70's stuff.

So, if you accept that (and hey, maybe you don't) I guess you have to ask does Blonde on Blonde work as a work in it's own right? If it was all he ever released, would it be recognised as a great album?

I think it's stood up pretty well, some songs (esp Rainy Day women) I could do without, but overall it's a huge jump forward musically and lyrically from Another side of Bob Dylan, which he had recorded only two years previously. The progression is obvious through Bringing it All Back Home and Highway 61.

The music is more complex, the songs are no longer the straight forward narrative he had favoured and are more oblique.

Froot

I have never listened to it.

I love Blood On The Tracks and his Traveling Wilburys stuff so I guess ts probably good.