When asked what he felt about the warm welcome his album was receiving Dylan said
’’God save the man who understands the pain in Blood on the Tracks’’
This album was recorded by Dylan immediately after separation from his wife and an undercurrent of sadness and a longing for lost love runs through out Blood on the Tracks
Musically this album might just be Dylan’s most consistent in terms of the high standards maintained in every song
The Album begins with a wry almost cynically upbeat Tangled up in Blue-perhaps the most well known song from the album
The song is a typical Dylan narrative ballad that describes a typically Dylanesque love- affair
A Simple Twist of Fate is perhaps the most romantic song Dylan ever composed-singing about the simplest act known to Humanity-two people falling in love...but loneliness takes over here too-and when the song ends you get a hint of what’s in store
for, now the album takes a complete turn around-gone are the sunniness and deceptive optimism of the first two songs
The pain of estrangement vents itself through Dylans unparalleled poetry
You’re A big girl now, Shelter from the storm, If you see her Say hello- simply put- are the three stars of the album
Blood On the Tracks becomes a personal statement-a confession-the artist taking his listener aside to share his loneliness
The agony of realisation of a love gone wrong
Love is so simple to quote a phrase
You’ve known it all the time, I’m learnin’ it these days
It’s a price I have to pay
You’re a big girl all the way
From You’r a Big Girl now
The memories that haunt and torment
Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past
I know every scene by heart, it all went by so fast
And the coming to terms with reality
If you get close to her, kiss her once for me
I always have respected her, for doin’ what she did and gettin free
Whatever makes her happy, I won’t stand in the way
Though the bitter taste still lingers on From the night I tried to make her stay
From If You See her Say Hello
The album has a few quaint songs too
Buckets of rain-the album finisher-has a bizzare plucked string guitar rythm with deliberately crafted nonsense rhymes
Not to forget-Idiot Wind- a defiant cry at every critic that ever walked the earth!!!
however there’s the obligatory Dylan Long-song here which is Lilly Rosemary And The Jack of Hearts-which unlike Desolation Row or Lady of the lowlands is Mediocre in my opinion
Somehow I skip ot on my CD almost every time!
Yet What Blood on the Tracks proves is the power of the poet and his poetry to overpower the listener- for In Dylan’s hands poetry becomes the most potent tool to convey emotions and turmoils that go beyond words and rock-songs
If This album doesnt move you-Visit the Cardiologist-You might Have something missing!