Expecting Rain

bobby's sex album - new pony, journey through dark heat aka the x song - pure lust

Whatever works for ya.

You could surely make this claim for other albums, Blonde On Blonde among them. The good thing is there are many layers to most of the things he does.

But I'd like to take another look at gibsona's rating of those tracks, and at the lyrics:



The first verse, to me, is anything but tarot mysticism.



Sixteen years ago at that time, as has often been pointed out, Dylan had started his professional career for real with the release of his debut album, so he seems to be looking back over that time, taking stock. The war field of the second line might well be symbolic of those years, but the good shepherd is an overtly biblical reference. I wonder if in this case, Dylan casts himself as Jesus again, as he did on Blood On The Tracks, or if this is one more clue foreshadowing his conversion.

New Pony is focussed with such force that the rest of the album is left concussed, a little weary and blurred.
Have you noticed that often when Dylan writes a song about horses he gets some backing singers to gleefully chirrup the album's overriding message (see also All The Tired Horses)?

wicked.... wicked
What do you think about changing horses in mid-stream, Trev? Why are there no backing singers on that?

If you listen very carefully to the half speed master, you can hear a gently rousing background chorus of life is an ingeniously structured narrative of love, pain, and redemption - but you need to really listen ...

Gosh.... what if I never *find* the original half-speed master?

I imagine it's available in all good record shops, and larger branches of department stores!

Not where I live, it ain't.

May I suggest you write a letter to your local dj and ask him to spin the disc in its entirety and then record it on a cassette tape with the holes in the top sellotaped over? Failing that I think there are other newfangled ways that for legal reasons I couldn't possibly recommend.

Right you are, Trev. I shall thus believe what you say, and return back to Street-Legal, where speed issues are unheard of.

then check the 99 cent stores for the quarter-speed masters!

There are great misheard lyrics on S-L.

well he wrote a song about Julius and Ethel too.......

Point in case, though not exactly a hit for obvious reasons.

Unlike a lot of people here I like Michael Gray, but it's a bit embarrassing to read him blathering on about what a great line "You turn around for one real, last glimpse of the meal" is!

^^^^
No, he did not.

I've never read any Michael Gray, I don't think I could stomach him.

I'm not a big fan of most Dylan critics but I can take a bit of Gray, Song and Dance Man is a nice collection.

The first time I heard this album, I was 8 years old, I thought Bob was a black man.

You got to be into big huge doorstopper size books to stomach Mr Gray, that's for sure. It's interesting stuff, partly, certainly. I actually read his whole Dylan Encyclopedia front to back. It's too opinionated for an encyclopedic work, though.

His soul has no color, I think.

Speaking of black men, I suggest Mr Matt try Mr Gray's book on Blind Willie McTell. It's far less heavy than his Dylan stuff, in every regard.

he feels and sings like a black man.


I love the black culture.

Here's one for you - Pony Blues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoKKJjf-oQA

Dear Mr Gibson,

Just as too much fine aged muscat is never enough, so too it can
be said perfectly accurately that too much discussion about this most
distinguished and misunderstood of albums is never enough either.

On your own count four of the nine songs are weak and five others
are great (variations of the word 'great').

You are wrong about No Time To Think. No less a musical
luminary than Elvis Costello regards this as a magnificent song,
and I respectfully submit that he is correct although he errs on
the side of understatement.

That leaves us with three weak songs in your estimation, and six
great ones.

Furthermore, few people realise that Is Your Love In Vain is
laced with irony. Many Americans don't get irony but Mr Dylan
clearly does, and this song, more than any other gives lie to the
nonsense that he somehow doesn't get the feminist thing.

That leaves two weak songs. And I could easily mount highly
persuasive arguments in support of those but I think seven out of
nine is a pretty great level of greatness, what?

By the way, some fascinating insights from others who have contributed to
this thread, which I will read more closely when I have the time. What
a delightful voice of reason and calm Ms Johanna Parker has become around
these parts. When I first spent time here, things could become a bit uncivil
at times.