Expecting Rain

They've co-ordinated the video really well with the song - I especially enjoyed the image for "tails".

Has it crossed your mind that I might be...you know...one of them?

There's a nice cover of Bob and Levon Helm playing "Nadine" at the Lone Star Cafe in 1983.

i got Chronicles vol 1 right here sitting next to the computer. im at the part where bob is having turtle soup in new orleans.

It's great. The album is already 5 stars for me and I haven't even heard it.

Not sure if serious.

It's serious. Alan Jones (of Uncut Magazine) said the same thing in early June.

That'd kind of ridiculous. I mean, I love Bob, and I expect to love this, but I at least want to hear it, it could still be pure shit for all I know. Rating something 5 stars before hearing it makes your opinion irrelevant, as far as I'm concerned.

The people that get the "privilege" of hearing Bob's albums in advance...are hand picked, and unquestionably biased. And possibly, even part of the hype machine. We know Bob has extremely shrewd management running things.

I'm with Saw...hear the album in its entirety before hailing it. (I already know there's at least one weak track.)

Listening some more, I think I might agree. There really is almost no trace of the "of" though, it's completely swallowed between "all" and "them." This will be one that calls for closer listening in higher quality to be sure, but it probably is supposed to be "each of them bigger than all of them put together." Thanks for the correction.

but what about Rover?

Thought it might be amusing to revisit what Alan Bumstead had to say about this track. In fact, unless I'm mistaken, there is nothing in his comments that specifically proves he hadn't heard it; and in fact he accurately states that there is a strong TTL flavour. Hmm. AB excerpt follows (just in case the cut and paste function doesn't make this clear).

Early Roman Kings… in which Dylan sings about an alternative Roman history in which Remus has Romulus put in prison before he can be killed, the Roman empire swells through a succession of good kings who rule according to the mandate of the people, build up a network of intercontinental relations and the whole world sings to a green economy. The music most obviously connects this album back to Together Through Life, with Mexican flourishes, tympani, deep and rich and resonant, a jovial enough vibe to go hand in hand with the slightly comic narrative twist to the lyrics which I shall not divulge here. There’s a lot more going on than meets the ear or mind though, musically, all sorts of things bubbling under the basic swing of the band. The song has three distinct parts to it—each time the narrative takes a new direction, the same song continues but played with completely different instruments, always ‘real’ instruments (I think). Dylan’s voice is in good form here, friendly, cheerful sounding, like someone’s kind old granddad.

This. I'd presume that if any of them misstepped, they'd never ever get to know about any further releases in advance. This and the fact that everyone seems to be so much in awe of anything Bob does. Does anyone recall the RS article when someone was going to conduct an interview with Bob during the sessions for Knocked Out Loaded, and raved about all that great music?

Probably were no hyped up interviews prior to KOL...but Bob didn't have the same type of management at that time. And his career was in a very different stage. The current people orchestrate everything beautifully. At the time of KOL...Dylan just seemed to be drifting, in almost all aspects of his career.

Sure Madison Avenue's selling me, but they're not selling me, because I was hip to it when I got here.
Bob Dylan - circa '65-'66

The hype machine has always been running around Bob Dylan, folks. The only thing that's changed is that the hype machines have gotten bigger and more powerful over the years.

Love Bill Hicks.

yea mikal gilmore. but the stuff that he saw he later mentioned, that bob decided not to release.

i guess if bob was down and out in the dumps in beverly hills everybody in bob forum land would be having a party. would make them feel better that bob was tore up so they could then take up a collection on his behalf. big buzz on the new bob album and everybody is in a uproar. everyday upset. hurts their academic sensibilities. F ING unreal.

ModBob's team should wise up to the death of print journalism and the rise of digital and viral media and start getting some of you lot on board with advance listening sessions and prerelease marketing.

I can only imagine what some of you would write in your 'previews' of Tempest.

How many multiple fangasms would it be, Gooms?

Elliot Roberts he of Neil and Joni was his manager. no slouch.

bla bla bla?

blablalablablal

bla
(if only you all wouldn't clap so hard... )

Assisted Suicide.
Boring, uninspired, TTL2.

Pardon? What exactly do you base that on? 2.02 minutes out of a total of 75 minutes? Clairvoyance, it must be.