Expecting Rain

An attempt to listen to all of Bob Dylan's studio albums in order over the summer, climaxing approximately with the release of the newest Bob Dylan album sometime in September. There will be about 2 albums per week. Things are heatin' up!

Part 5:
Bringing It All Back Home
Release: March 22, 1965

Plug it in get back to us! Did you hear anything new in your umpteenth listen?

allmusic review:
With Another Side of Bob Dylan, Dylan had begun pushing past folk, and with Bringing It All Back Home, he exploded the boundaries, producing an album of boundless imagination and skill. And it's not just that he went electric, either, rocking hard on "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Maggie's Farm," and "Outlaw Blues"; it's that he's exploding with imagination throughout the record. After all, the music on its second side -- the nominal folk songs -- derive from the same vantage point as the rockers, leaving traditional folk concerns behind and delving deep into the personal. And this isn't just introspection, either, since the surreal paranoia on "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and the whimsical poetry of "Mr. Tambourine Man" are individual, yet not personal. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, really, as he writes uncommonly beautiful love songs ("She Belongs to Me," "Love Minus Zero/No Limit") that sit alongside uncommonly funny fantasias ("On the Road Again," "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"). This is the point where Dylan eclipses any conventional sense of folk and rewrites the rules of rock, making it safe for personal expression and poetry, not only making words mean as much as the music, but making the music an extension of the words. A truly remarkable album.


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Bob Dylan
Release: March 19, 1962
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=70175

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Release: May 27, 1963
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=70208

The Times They Are a-Changin'
Release: January 13, 1964
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=70256

Another Side of Bob Dylan
Release: August 8, 1964
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=70288

Bringing It All Back Home
Release: March 22, 1965

Highway 61 Revisited
Release: August 30, 1965

Blonde on Blonde
Release: June 20, 1966

John Wesley Harding
Release: December 27, 1967

Nashville Skyline
Release: April 9, 1969

Self Portrait
Release: June 8, 1970

New Morning
Release: October 21, 1970

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Release: July 13, 1973

Dylan
Release: November 16, 1973

Planet Waves
Release: January 17, 1974

Blood on the Tracks
Release: January 17, 1975

The Basement Tapes
Release: June 26, 1975

Desire
Release: January 16, 1976

Street Legal
Release: June 15, 1978

Slow Train Coming
Release: August 20, 1979

Saved
Release: June 20, 1980

Shot of Love
Release: August 12, 1981

Infidels
Release: November 1, 1983

Empire Burlesque
Release: June 8, 1985

Knocked Out Loaded
Release: August 8, 1986

Down in the Groove
Release: May 31, 1988

Oh Mercy
Release: September 22, 1989

Under the Red Sky
Release: September 11, 1990

Good as I Been to You
Release: October 27, 1992

World Gone Wrong
Release: October 28, 1993

Time Out of Mind
Release: September 30, 1997

"Love and Theft"
Release: September 11, 2001

Modern Times
Release: August 29, 2006

Together Through Life
Release: April 28, 2009

Christmas in the Heart
Release: October 13, 2009

John Lennon was jealous/full of sh*t when he said Dylan gets away with murder, every line of this makes sense!
Two favorites right now are Outlaw Blues & 115th Dream. Love the humor.

.

... i'll second that. ..
- w/ emphasis & more.

Awesome album. Has a bit of everything. One of my favorites.

Love Minus Zero + Mr.Tambourine Man = Masterpiece

I can't wait to listen to this album again and put some thoughts down. This weekend I am without my turntable. I will say it's alright ma... is the most powerful and important set of lyrics Dylan has put down, and represents the zeitgeist of the time.

I will also say I hate the acoustic/electric division of sides...the album plays beautifully in alphabetical order...try it!

Have you warmed up to Mr. Tambourine Man?

It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

^
For any other artist, this would be their greatest song. For Bob, it's probably somewhere in the middle of the list of his greatest songs.



It was great to be there when this album came out because I couldn't imagine that he would ever be able to top it. If anyone had told me that he would blow past this later in 1965 I would have thought they were nuts.

But he did.

Even if BIABH and HWY61 aren't his best albums (and maybe they are...) 1965 was a monster year for him.

Also, this has a very freaky and intentionally complicated cover photo. A harbinger of freaky and complicated things to come from Bob.

Van Morrison called Dylan an originator and listening back to this period it's easy to understand what he meant.
Not only the style and quality, though, the quantity is staggering even when measured by Dylan's own prolific career, as Steve Jobs, Scorsese and countless others have pointed out.

If '62-'63 was Dylan's Big Bang, '65-'66 would be the following 'inflation', wonder what Stephen Hawking's got to say about that?

It's precisely that positioning of it that makes it so perfect. Original, but not a virtuouso move, the beginning of the 'look what else I can do' phase of his career...a solid song, poetic verse, a powerful message and a coherent narrative....connects his past with his future so well. And reminds us he only needs his voice and a guitar to get the job done.

As far as the album, I don't think of it as a statement of originality as much as a perfect blend of his unique talents and of the folk and blues traditions...

I think it's both. No way there had ever been anything like the kind of songwriting he does here.

Right, that blend certainly creates a new and unique product.

Haha, just read the hawkings line...I bet he'd nod and tap his foot!

Bob Dylan's 115th Dream is a unregarded satirical masterpiece.

He said his name was Columbus, I just said "Good luck!"

It is underregarded what's up that? I find it more exciting than tombstone blues and highlands....'and I just said good luck....' love it.. a great opener on the alphabetical version of the album.

Great minds....I was writing at the same time!

It's probably the song most responsible for my Dylan fandomness!!

I decided to flip a coin
Like either heads or tails
Would let me know if I should go
Back to ship or back to jail
So I hocked my sailor suit
And I got a coin to flip
It came up tails
It rhymed with sails
So I made it back to the ship

Wonder what the other 113 are like

It's also the song Tom Piazza wrote about for Bob's Kennedy Center Honor program.

Thanks for bringing this up. I was going to ask for a link but found the write-up here:

http://www.tompiazza.com/notes/archives/bob_dylan.html

^
It's good, huh?
Avoids most Dylan cliches.

excellent

I believe that leaving in the opening take breakdown / laughing part to be very novel for the time.

Though it's not so uncommon now to leave off the cuff studio moments on a finished record.