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 Post subject: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Fri June 12th, 2009, 16:04 GMT 

Joined: Fri July 18th, 2008, 17:22 GMT
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http://bobdylanencyclopedia.blogspot.co ... t-now.html


I don't agree with most of it but always an interesting read.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Fri June 12th, 2009, 16:30 GMT 
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Location: London, innit
he's a twat too hung up on words


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Fri June 12th, 2009, 17:09 GMT 
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It read pretty good to me - and without words, I reckon it wouldn't have read so good. I'm just saying. But, still, these bloomin' writers and their bloomin' words, eh! :o


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Fri June 12th, 2009, 17:16 GMT 

Joined: Sat September 22nd, 2007, 16:19 GMT
Posts: 706
I think Michael Gray just jumped the shark! :shock:


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Fri June 12th, 2009, 17:17 GMT 
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Location: Sweet Jesus I hate Bob Dylan, MN
supermabel1 wrote:
It read pretty good to me - and without words, I reckon it wouldn't have read so good. I'm just saying. But, still, these bloomin' writers and their bloomin' words, eh! :o


:lol:


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Fri June 12th, 2009, 18:34 GMT 
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Well he does render a verdict, but other than that it's not much of a review. I think I read the whole thing, but I kept waiting for the actual review to start. Just when I thought he was going to start discussing the songs...the article ended. :? Maybe there's more to come later.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Fri June 12th, 2009, 19:24 GMT 

Joined: Fri January 2nd, 2009, 23:13 GMT
Posts: 207
Waterboy wrote:
Well he does render a verdict, but other than that it's not much of a review. ..... Maybe there's more to come later.


Given the nature of the verdict, main points listed below, ¿what more do you want?

Four letter words???????

So I'm sorry to report that I think it a [i]very poor album….

The writing is so careless that it's astonishing it took two people to come up with it and that neither said "Hang on a minute, we can do a whole lot better than this", and the voice - the shot voice that was used so skilfully on "Love and Theft" - is mostly inexpressive…….

The music is plodding, the tunes dull and any sense of a need to communicate wholly absent….

It seems popular to say that this is a minor Dylan album on a par with, say, Nashville Skyline: but Nashville Skyline was radiant with beautiful vocals, sparklingly deft individual musical playing recorded with shining clarity and an unmistakeable generosity of good humour and vitality. It is a towering achievement[/i]

Now who was it posted on here 6 weeks ago to say that he hadn´t bothered to listen again to the download from the net?

Nuff sed.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Fri June 12th, 2009, 20:23 GMT 
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Joined: Wed October 1st, 2008, 18:15 GMT
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Location: Philistine
What's this guys favorite food?

Well he doesn't have one, being that he HAS NO TASTE!

HA! PWNED!


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Fri June 12th, 2009, 22:25 GMT 

Joined: Fri February 16th, 2007, 08:31 GMT
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Bennyboy wrote:
he's a twat too hung up on words


it reads like he's too hung up on his own feelings of self-importance and superior intellect.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 00:27 GMT 
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Location: Wikipedia, Louisiana (look me up sometime)
How dare he presume to suggest what Dylan should or should not be doing or 'communicating'? I hope he doesn't continue to occupy front-row seats at concerts if he's no longer keen on the performances or the more recently written songs. Just stay home and listen to the recordings he prefers. I don't think Bob particularly wants to encounter him anyway, didn't he once make some comment about not moving 'in those circles'?


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 00:38 GMT 
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Critics, eh! :o Criticising stuff in their blogs - just 'cos they can. I didn't get where I am today by not seeing through their little game.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 00:53 GMT 
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Location: London, innit
Everytimes the guy writes a book, whole tribes get displaced from their homes.

F**k that.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 02:11 GMT 

Joined: Wed June 25th, 2008, 23:49 GMT
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Location: Joliet, IL, USA
I guess he did not like it? :shock: :D :D


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 03:49 GMT 
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Poor guy. So, he doesn't like TTL. That's one person's problem _ his.

To me, from first listen, it was immediately obvious that this was a great record about obsession and perception, and I'm thankful Bob made it. It's speaks to me as much if not more than some of his others. I'm wearing it out.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 04:30 GMT 

Joined: Sun May 10th, 2009, 07:39 GMT
Posts: 576
Location: gulf islands,b.c.
about TTL... .
some people get it...
an..... .some don't...
and really..who cares ,and does it really matter?
NAWWW...
btw methinks it's one of his best.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 05:35 GMT 

Joined: Mon December 6th, 2004, 09:17 GMT
Posts: 1257
It must be many years since Michael Gray said anything positive about Bob Dylan.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 08:24 GMT 

Joined: Thu February 19th, 2009, 21:35 GMT
Posts: 114
I liked this bit:

Quote:
Far too many people, in my opinion, have rushed to try to find the album full of artistic virtue and insight about the human condition. People always do - like the idiots who come out of a contemporary Dylan concert and declare that he's never sounded better live. It's desperate self-delusion, and if Bob gets told this stuff himself, no wonder he's content to offer so little.


Not saying I agree with it, but it certainly isn't pretentious waffle. He's saying exactly what he thinks.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 09:44 GMT 

Joined: Wed April 11th, 2007, 05:15 GMT
Posts: 674
Location: City of Angels
Never trust a man with a soul patch.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 09:47 GMT 
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I dont really see the point in digging too deep in Dylan songs, assuming this and that.. I just sit back, relax and enjoy the music!! :wink:


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 10:45 GMT 

Joined: Fri January 2nd, 2009, 23:13 GMT
Posts: 207
SirDogg wrote:
I dont really see the point in digging too deep in Dylan songs, assuming this and that.. I just sit back, relax and enjoy the music!! :wink:



"The music is plodding, the tunes dull..." is the verdict; if I´m not mistaken


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 11:32 GMT 

Joined: Sat August 5th, 2006, 12:56 GMT
Posts: 203
He's right! The album is pretty poor, sorry to say.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 11:50 GMT 
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Album's great. Shutyerface and listen.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 12:10 GMT 

Joined: Sat August 5th, 2006, 12:56 GMT
Posts: 203
One of the things Gray hints at, is the sad, puzzling phenomenon of Dylan fans refusing to admit the Great Man is capable of producing stuff that just isn't very good. That tendency to overrate Dylan's lesser works is understandable in the media, cause they spent so long slanging him off. But why do some Dylan fans share such a herd mentality? You have the nous to discern that Bob is great in the first place, why can't you recognise a lesser work for what it is? Leaving aside the Bootleg Series releases, in recent times we've had TOOM (very good, some caveats, a few great tracks), L&T (arguably better, more consistent, less 'big songs' but perhaps of more lasting value overall), MT (far too long, no great songs, many clunkers, a letdown), and TTL (tremendously underwhelming, a damp squib, sometimes enjoyable in a very minor way). Now, that's still a lot more than we could have expected, but it's of variable quality, not really surprising, the man is human after all.

I think it does Dylan a disservice to mindlessly hail everything he does as genius.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 13:09 GMT 
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Joined: Mon July 31st, 2006, 10:13 GMT
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Location: out on Decatur Hill
For over twenty years now M. Gray has used Bob Dylan as a springboard for the presentation of his own supposed self-importance.
He has used every opportunity to insult and attack Dylan and his work.
If he really thinks Dylan's work is that bad he simply should do everyone a favour and stop writing about the man.
The saying goes that whatever you accuse others of is what you hate the most about yourself.
Something to think about, M. Gray.


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 Post subject: Re: Michael Gray's verdict on TTL
PostPosted: Sat June 13th, 2009, 13:29 GMT 
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FieldingMellish wrote:
One of the things Gray hints at, is the sad, puzzling phenomenon of Dylan fans refusing to admit the Great Man is capable of producing stuff that just isn't very good. That tendency to overrate Dylan's lesser works is understandable in the media, cause they spent so long slanging him off. But why do some Dylan fans share such a herd mentality? You have the nous to discern that Bob is great in the first place, why can't you recognise a lesser work for what it is? Leaving aside the Bootleg Series releases, in recent times we've had TOOM (very good, some caveats, a few great tracks), L&T (arguably better, more consistent, less 'big songs' but perhaps of more lasting value overall), MT (far too long, no great songs, many clunkers, a letdown), and TTL (tremendously underwhelming, a damp squib, sometimes enjoyable in a very minor way). Now, that's still a lot more than we could have expected, but it's of variable quality, not really surprising, the man is human after all.

I think it does Dylan a disservice to mindlessly hail everything he does as genius.



Together Through Life is an enjoyable album. That means I like it.


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