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.

Part 7:
Blonde on Blonde
Release: June 20, 1966

C'mon--Give it another listen and record your responses here!

allmusic review:
If Highway 61 Revisited played as a garage rock record, the double album Blonde on Blonde inverted that sound, blending blues, country, rock, and folk into a wild, careening, and dense sound. Replacing the fiery Michael Bloomfield with the intense, weaving guitar of Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan led a group comprised of his touring band the Hawks and session musicians through his richest set of songs. Blonde on Blonde is an album of enormous depth, providing endless lyrical and musical revelations on each play. Leavening the edginess of Highway 61 with a sense of the absurd, Blonde on Blonde is comprised entirely of songs driven by inventive, surreal, and witty wordplay, not only on the rockers but also on winding, moving ballads like "Visions of Johanna," "Just Like a Woman," and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Throughout the record, the music matches the inventiveness of the songs, filled with cutting guitar riffs, liquid organ riffs, crisp pianos, and even woozy brass bands ("Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"). It's the culmination of Dylan's electric rock & roll period -- he would never release a studio record that rocked this hard, or had such bizarre imagery, ever again.

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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
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=70318

Highway 61 Revisited
Release: August 30, 1965
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=70374

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

1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
2. Pledging My Time
3. Visions Of Johanna
4. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
5. I Want You
6. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
7. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
8. Just Like A Woman
9. Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine
10. Temporary Like Achilles
11. Absolutely Sweet Marie
12. Fourth Time Around
13. Obviously Five Believers
14. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands

What more is there to say?

Everybody must not get stoned.

I listen to this gem quite often. In fact it's probably Bob's 60s album that has been constantly in my playlist.
It's obviously a masterpiece. If I had to dig very very deep into it and be perfectly honest (difficult task with this particular record!), I would have to say that side 3 is probably the weakest.
In fact I'm not a big fan of "Temporary like Achilles", "4th time around" and "Obviously 5 believers". That said, I have to admit that the incredible overall atmosphere and the awesome deliveries make up for the intrinsic quality of these three songs which, even though not terrible, are not up to the incredible standards set by the other tracks on the album.

Blonde on blonde is my favourite album of all time and fav Bob album. Have this on CD 3 times and original vinyl. Beautiful masterpiece, 4th time around is my favourite, in fact it's my favourite Bob Dylan song.

Really? I think it's one of the weakest songs on the album. The fact that people can see things so differently just adds up to the quality of this record!

What are you trying to say ?
That the anwer is not blowing in the wind ?
That there is use in trying to deal with the dying?
That you have to think twice ?
That no hard rain's gonna fall?
That you must feel so all alone ?

DAMN doomed. Great minds think alike On my way to clicking the post button I intended to just say something to the effect of, Blonde on Blonde. 'Nuff said.
You said it well. I have nothing to add

Sgt. Pepper indeed!

In my book THIS is #1 on the 100 Greatest Rock Records of all time.

Parts of this record rival Lenny Bruce at Carnegie Hall. Very very funny.

Never liked the first song. Maybe never will, although I enjoy how it puts me in a different time. Sounds like a 1920s smokey drunken club. Other then that I enjoy. Still prefer the sound and voice of Highway 61.

Indeed Train!!

The summit of Everest!! The pinnicle of musical achievement!!

Well uh,.............sai, uh, pictured.

I don't think time has been particularly kind to Blonde On Blonde. Its sound seems rooted in the Sixties, that druggy fogginess in particular. To my ears, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited have a cutting edge to their production that sounds in tune to the modern world; they also have a lacerating edge of seemingly precise meaning to their lyrics rather than the overly cute allusiveness of Blonde On Blonde. Dylan almost acknowledged this with the back-to-basics songwriting on the Basement Tapes and John Wesley Harding (not to mention Nashville Skyline).

Add to that the unfortunate facts that the opening track is a novelty single and the closing track is a cure for insomnia, and you have a very flawed album indeed. Even the better songs have later live incarnations I prefer to the originals. And at least one of the supposed 'classics' on the record - Just Like a Woman - is, in truth, a very poor song indeed.

Far from being the crowining glory of his songwriting, the album was, I think, a dead end for Dylan. I haven't played it all the way through for years. I doubt Dylan has either.

Thanks for your input Brian. Really. Now move along!

Back to the party folks

Here's a video of Al Kooper talking about recording the album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01IE0vVN ... r_embedded

It's petty, but I love the shot he takes at Michael Gray.

The sheer sound of Blonde is among my favorites of Dylan's albums. The sound and feel of the playing even helps carry some of the weaker songs on the album, like 4th Time Around.

To me Blonde on Blonde seems a chillier and a bleaker work with every listen. Dylan is caught inside the entropic frozen traffic and despite his capacity for love, his wit and imagination, his tremendous creative powers there's really no escape.

yea. that was great, dont nobody buy that bob encylopedia. that book has a bad tone towards people. the tony garnier entry really disturbed me.

'chillier and...bleaker'. That's an interesting take. I've never thought of it that way, or heard it described that way before. I've always heard it as the dying embers of what may well have been a very raucous, memorable party, that seems to have really kicked off at around 1am, spirits raised by all means and in all manners possible, across every floor of some abandoned, beautiful old sprawling city mansion, every song a separate room therein, ending at around 6am, with the sun already up, the streets still- just- empty, and everyone but the listener and Bob Dylan out cold on the floor.

While BoB is a better musical product than Highway 61, I found myself listening to it less and less over the years. It's good, but not as fresh as Highway 61, Bringin it all back home, or even John Wesley Harding.
Some great, great songs there, though

yea plus it has joe south is on it.

Funny, I'm recently having the same experience just stepping in and out of this album which always offers up new angles.

Now all my fathers they've gone down, true love they've been without it
But all their daughters put me down cause I don't think about it

We know he does. (Has anybody seen his love?)

Anyway, my sequencing at the moment goes like:

I want you
Pledging my time
Memphis blues again
Just like a woman
Absolutely Sweet Marie
Visions of Johanna
5 believers
Sad-eyed lady of the Lowlands

^^Never liked 'Pledging.' The only clunker for me.