Expecting Rain

Can't do a link on phone but it is online and largely encouraging...

Together Through Life's bitter big brother, by the sounds of it.

First Impression: Bob Dylan's 'Tempest'

By Randy Lewis

August 1, 2012, 6:20 p.m.

Bob Dylan’s new album “Tempest,” slated for Sept. 11 release, appears on first listening to extend his artistic streak that began with the rejuvenation he demonstrated on 1997’s “Time Out of Mind” and has continued with “Love and Theft” (2001), “Modern Times” (2006) and “Together Through Life” (2009).

A small handful of music writers got a preview this week at the Beverly Hills office of Dylan’s label, Columbia Records, and though an in-depth review will be coming later, we’re sharing some first impressions on Pop & Hiss.

The 10-track album, self-produced under Dylan’s nom de production Jack Frost, continues with the hard, rootsy musical grooves that have dominated his work over the last 15 years. He’s supported in the studio by members of the band with which he tours relentlessly, with a bit of accordion and fiddle help on a couple of tracks from Los Lobos founding member David Hidalgo.

Dylan’s eye is ever on the world around him, and the issues personal, social and political he perceives.

“Tempest” opens with “Duquesne Whistle,” on which the folky sound of old-time country blues guitar licks quietly unfurl before the full band explodes into a driving big-beat rhythm as rollicking as the train ride the song explores. It also signals perhaps a greater focus on musical arrangements than Dylan fans have been accustomed to, with melodic flourishes and sharp rhythmic breaks accompanying his metaphor-heavy lyrics in a song that sounds apocalyptic and hopeful at once.

There’s an ominous and mysterious tone to “Scarlet Town,” which adds another batch of colorfully named characters to the roster of Dylan song habitues: Uncle Tom, Uncle Bill, Sweet William, Mistress Mary and Little Boy Blue turn up on the streets of Scarlet Town.

The majority of attention soon to be focused on “Tempest” is likely to hone in on the three closing tracks: the nine-minute “Tin Angel,” a remarkably straightforward ballad of romantic betrayal and retribution; the devastating title track, a 14-minute epic that relates the history of the Titanic with greater power than James Cameron’s overstuffed film; and “Roll On, John,” a 7 1/2-minute benediction directed at John Lennon, invoking several snippets of lyrics from the late Beatle’s songs.

But like so many of Dylan’s greatest songs, even at the expansive length taken by these three tracks, they aren’t remotely limited to a single subject or interpretation.

“Tempest,” couched as an old country waltz, finds Dylan (as he also does in “Tin Angel”) almost entirely avoiding the oblique imagery and playful metaphor on which he built his reputation as rock’s greatest songwriter, instead keeping his lyrics firmly planted on the ground -- or, in this case, in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic in 1912.

Yet every one of the song’s 45 verses still packs a punch. Here's one sample:

Mothers and their daughters

Descending down the stairs

Jumped into the icy waters

Love and pity sent their prayers

45 verses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, is that a good sign or a bad?

If it's good enough to name the album after a song for the first time in 20 years, it must be okay.

Straws, clutching, you.

Mothers and their daughters

Descending down the stairs

Jumped into the icy waters

Love and pity sent their prayers

Is this really a whole verse, and an example of one that packs a punch?

Jeeeesus, this record is gonna be shite.

Shangrila
the music critic gonna get tennis elbow from writing BOB DYLAN in the Grammy cards.

The rhyming couplet thing seems to be Bob's preferred method these days. It gets tiring.

That must be 45 very short verses, clocking in at 20 seconds each on average...and that includes the instrumental breaks!

greater focus on musical arrangements than Dylan fans have been accustomed to

greater focus on musical arrangements than Dylan fans have been accustomed to

greater focus on musical arrangements than Dylan fans have been accustomed to

WOOO!

Accustomed to since when? Ever? Yeah, ok, right....

45 verses, it must move quick.

A rhyming couplet was sometimes referred to as a verse in C18th poetry, for example Alexander Popes's lines from his Essay on Criticism -

Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.

- would be regarded as a single verse making up part of a larger piece. So maybe the 45 verses are no more than 90 lines.

Added the information to gerardv's post



1. Duquesne Whistle The folky sound of old-time country blues guitar licks quietly unfurl before the full band explodes into a driving big-beat rhythm as rollicking as the train ride the song explores. It also signals perhaps a greater focus on musical arrangements than Dylan fans have been accustomed to, with melodic flourishes and sharp rhythmic breaks accompanying his metaphor-heavy lyrics in a song that sounds apocalyptic and hopeful at once.
2. Soon After Midnight The doleful "Soon After Midnight" seems to be about love but may in fact be about revenge
3. Narrow Way
4. Long and Wasted Years
5. Pay in Blood "Pay in Blood" is vengeful and a standout track and has Dylan daily repeating "I pay in blood, but not my own."
6. Scarlet Town There’s an ominous and mysterious tone to “Scarlet Town,” which adds another batch of colorfully named characters to the roster of Dylan song habitues: Uncle Tom, Uncle Bill, Sweet William, Mistress Mary and Little Boy Blue turn up on the streets of Scarlet Town.
7. Early Roman Kings
8. Tin Angel "Tin Angel" is a devastating tale of a man in search of his lost love.
The nine-minute “Tin Angel,” a remarkably straightforward ballad of romantic betrayal and retribution
9. Tempest Tempest takes up a fair chunk of the album’s running time (14 minutes), with verse following verse in a manner that might remind you of ‘Desolation Row’. Tempest is an epic about the sinking of the Titanic. It actually refers to a scene from James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic at one point.
“Something you’ve never heard before from Bob.” ‘Crazy’ The song draws from numerous folk, Gospel tunes and the Carter's "The Titanic." "I was just fooling around with that one one night, I liked the melody." Lyric: "brother rose up against brother, they fought and slaughtered each other." DiCraprio appears, Dylan says "I don't think the song would be the same without him. Or the movie."
The devastating title track, a 14-minute epic that relates the history of the Titanic with greater power than James Cameron’s overstuffed film.
“Tempest,” couched as an old country waltz, finds Dylan (as he also does in “Tin Angel”) almost entirely avoiding the oblique imagery and playful metaphor on which he built his reputation as rock’s greatest songwriter, instead keeping his lyrics firmly planted on the ground -- or, in this case, in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic in 1912.
Yet every one of the song’s 45 verses still packs a punch. Here's one sample:
Mothers and their daughters
Descending down the stairs
Jumped into the icy waters
Love and pity sent their prayers
10. Roll On John "Roll on John" (9 minutes) is said to be a heartfelt tribute to John Lennon. The song will probably be much talked-about. The song quotes lines from multiple Beatles songs, including "Come together right now" from "Come Together" and "I heard the news today, oh boy" from "A Day in the Life."
A 7 1/2-minute benediction directed at John Lennon, invoking several snippets of lyrics from the late Beatle’s songs.

(RS) Dylan: a record where "anything goes and you just gotta believe it will make sense" "I wanted to make something more religious, I just didn't have enough religious songs. Intentionally, specifically, religious songs is what I wanted to do. That takes a lot more concentration to pull that off 10 times with the same thread - than it does with the record I ended up with."
Dylan: "A songwriter doesn't care about what's truthful, he cares about what should've or could've happened. It's it's own kind of truth." Bob mentioned Shakespeare in a quote: "Some people read his plays but never see a play, they just think to use his name." "Shakespeare's last play was called THE Tempest. Mine is just called Tempest. The name of my record is just plain tempest, two different titles."
Rolling Stone: A Dark Masterpiece. It is as an album full of big stories, big endings and it has a transfixing effect.

(Uncut) Don’t spread it about, but, yes, I’ve heard the new Dylan album. And four or five tracks in, what I was thinking was: how much better is this thing going to get?
On first hearing, Tempest seemed to find Dylan on unquestionably formidable form. Its ten tracks run over a total playing time of around 75 minutes. There was a lot, therefore, to take in on a single encounter. I am obliged to not go into premature detail ahead of the album’s September 10 release.
I think I can say without punitive consequences, though, that if you’re trying to imagine what Tempest sounds like you may want to think less perhaps of the rambunctious roadhouse blues that was central to most of Together Through Life and parts of Modern Times, although this recent signature sound hasn’t been entirely abandoned.

Neither are there too many of the jazzy riverboat shuffles of ‘Love and Theft’ in evidence here as much as there are echoes of a folk tradition that was manifest on, say, “High Water (For Charley Patton)” and also “Nettie Moore”, from Modern Times. You may also want to keep in mind as a point of reference “Mississippi” from “Love And Theft” and something like “Red River Shore”, recorded for Time Out Of Mind. It came several times to mind as Tempest unspooled spectacularly a few weeks ago, concluding with a song that will probably be much-talked about.
It perhaps goes without saying that if I actually had a copy of the album, there isn’t much else I’d currently be listening to.

(Hidalgo) Hard to say after one listen, but I really liked it. Probably his best since Love and Theft
Hidalgo: He’d say, ‘Wow, what’s that?’” Hidalgo said about the Dylan’s reaction to the sound of the tres guitar. “He liked the sound. So we’d get it in there.” “It was a great experience. And different. Each one has been different, all completely different approaches. It’s an amazing thing, how he keeps creativity. I don’t see how he does it.”

(LA Times) Bob Dylan’s new album “Tempest,” slated for Sept. 11 release, appears on first listening to extend his artistic streak that began with the rejuvenation he demonstrated on 1997’s “Time Out of Mind” and has continued with “Love and Theft” (2001), “Modern Times” (2006) and “Together Through Life” (2009).
A small handful of music writers got a preview this week at the Beverly Hills office of Dylan’s label, Columbia Records, and though an in-depth review will be coming later, we’re sharing some first impressions on Pop & Hiss.
The 10-track album, self-produced under Dylan’s nom de production Jack Frost, continues with the hard, rootsy musical grooves that have dominated his work over the last 15 years. He’s supported in the studio by members of the band with which he tours relentlessly, with a bit of accordion and fiddle help on a couple of tracks from Los Lobos founding member David Hidalgo.
Dylan’s eye is ever on the world around him, and the issues personal, social and political he perceives.

Sure glad to hear that averment to greater musical arrangements. Songs of those lengths will surely need a tad more variation than Bob normally provides. I mean, he's practically given up on bridges over the last few years when it comes to his more lengthy material and that was a concern to me as soon as we learned of the lengths of some of the new tracks. This latest comment does help placate my fears a little on that score. It does seem as though the overall soundscape is closer to L&T/MT/TTL than perhaps Mr. jones at Uncut would have us believe?Hope I'm wrong about that.

Music critics are like that though - they over-analyse and point out nuances that really are only apparent if you go looking for them. In another thread, someone commented that their co-worker heard the 'Early Roman Kings' snippets and said something like "Sounds just like all the other ones he does".

Really, expecting anything new from ModBob at this stage is to misunderstand ModBob.

My guess is that there are some stops.

No. I can and will get my hopes up! I don't care what the past has taught me. I am AMERICAN!

The internal rhymes in Early Roman Kings are slightly cringeworthy it has to be said. The lyrics quoted here sound like something that have been left on the shelf from 'Cross The Green Mountain. That being said Bob's tunes have always had their fare share of naff lyrics, so maybe all is not lost yet...

whats a naff?

The answer lies within.

You tell 'em Harry..... Me too!!!!!