I really like the first half; the second half weakens a bit

the two opening songs are my favorite Bob Dylan songs ever, period. I am not saying, by giving this a four star review, that this is a bad or mediocre album; I do enjoy all of the songs.

However, Bob Dylan has never really been my cup of tea; he is so taken up with his "poetry," and what has any of it really changed, you know? The world isn't going to stop being a bad place just because Bob Dylan wants it to! Yes, he is very important to rock music and folk music, and people analyze his stuff all the time, but the man seems a little crazy and full of himself. that is probably what happens when little people start worshipping you and quoting your words at every turn. I mean, the man thinks he understands all these things, and that there is all this philosophy that he "gets." I find this kind of poetic stuff to be quite trite and annoying in the grand scheme of things. If he let go of his pretensions, I would enjoy the music a lot more. I have this same kind of problem with the Beatles, and I wish that people would stop giving hero worship to music artists. contrary to what mr Dylan said, music is not hard work, and it pays an obscene amount of money that is overall not deserved.

That said, this is a good album. It is enjoyable, and mostly focused on people and relationships. with the exception of "buckets of rain," the last half is fairly lackluster. I know a lot of people really like Dylan, and if you are one of those people, you need this album.

If you don't own it, you should.

Ask someone what their favorite Dylan song is. They'll probably name you a classic such as "It's a Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", "Like a Rolling Stone" or "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" (awesome song!) Not me. I'd have to say, without a doubt, "Tangled Up In Blue", which just so happens to be the first song on Blood on the Tracks. A long ballad with various, shifting themes, you can't help like it.



Next comes the slower "Simple Twist of Fate", a song with good lyrics, and, typical of Mr. D, not much else.



"You're a Big Girl Now" is a very underrated ballad that should've been a hit, but wasn't. Maybe it's because he RUINED it on Hard Rain.



More than ten years before Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan wrote a masterpiece of rage, "It's a Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" Since "Hard Rain", he hasn't made many angry songs (Or at least I don't think he has. I'm new to Dylan.) On Blood On the Tracks, he made a raging compliment to "Hard Rain", the eight-minute epic "Idiot Wind". While it isn't as creepy as "Hard Rain", it's as intense and the second-best song on BOTT. Listen to the version on the album Hard Rain if you want a really intense song.



"You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" is a quick, slightly forgettable listen. But it's still worth listening to. "Meet Me In the Morning" is underrated and one of Dylan's Big Three Blues Songs, the others being "It Takes a Lot to Laugh..." and "Watching the River Flow".



"Lily, Rosemary..." is the only clunker on the album. It just doesn't seem to fit on the album and gets on one's nerves after two or three minutes. "If You See Her, Say Hello" is a low-key ballad in the vein of "Girl From the North Country".



"Shelter From the Storm" is another highlight, although its definitive version is on Hard Rain. "Buckets of Rain" is a good closer.



This is an essential album

THE BEST

What can I say that hasn't been said about this album? This album is my favorite album ever. If you are a new Dylan fan or and old one this in a must have. Even if you arn't a dylan fan, check it out.

The album that set the benchmark in confessional songwriting

It has been thirty years since "Blood on the Tracks" was released and of all of the albums recorded by Bob Dylan it is the one that has most increased in stature simply because every album produced since then has failed to rise to this level. I think the reason for this is mainly because it was born in a creative burst of pointed lyricisim as his marriage to Sara Lowndes collapsed, with all the songs written in two months in the middle of 1974. I would no more expect any personal turmoil to provide similar inspiration any more than I would have expected any of the songs on this album to rise to the level of social rhetoric found in his greatest songs of the Sixties.



In "Blood on the Tracks" Dylan also turned his back on his greatest backing band, returning to his artistic routes on an album that is largely acoustic-based. The songs run the emotional gamut from sorrow and regret to bitterness and pain. At the same time, despite the obvious point of origin for most of these songs, this is not an openly confessional album (cf. Courtney Love's "America's Sweetheart"). After all, we are talking the lyrics of Bob Dylan, which means cryptic riddles and allegories abound all laid out in ten classic tracks:



"Tangled Up in Blue" is the best song on the album and the ambguity about the characters and relationships Dylan sings about has only increased over the years with the shifting lyrics in various performances. The cover version by the Indigo Girls remains my favorite Dylan cover.



"Simple Twist of Fate" is another great four-word phrase in a song that represents the most overtly personal song on the album. The stark instrumentation only serves to highlight the heartbreak of the existentialist lyrics and the mournful sound of the vocals.



"You're A Big Girl Now" is a ballad on the end of a relationship and a sort of benediction in that clearly the woman is right to move on, but Dylan is still haunted by their physical encounters. You would think that this would have been the logical final track for the album, but it is not.



"Idiot Wind" is song on the album that most reminds me of an earlier Dylan composition, namely "Like a Rolling Stone," the pair being a set of put-down songs. The difference is that while both song lash out in lots of directions, this one keeps coming back to a certain "babe." This is another song that has changed over the year for various reasons that could well inspire a doctoral dissertation.



"You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" is a rather upbeat track, despite the descending chord progressions, and is usually considered a song hopeful of reconciliation rather than one eulogizing the breakup.



"Meet Me in the Morning" stands out musically as the most blues oriented track that always struck me as cleansing the palatte for what was coming next on the album.



"Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" is a 8:50 story song that basically wears down the listener's insistence that this is a biographical album. It also has a line that Dylan seems to sing with nic epitch and without affection, to wit, "and Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair." Pay attention next time through to that one phrase.



"If You See Her, Say Hello" probably represents the emotional low point of the album, with lyrics reflecting a singer who is crushed and embittered by the end of the relationship, turning his anger in on himself.



"Shelter from the Storm" is a song of simple beauty, based on three chords and a simple melody, underscoring a profound sense of loss. The song provides an avalanche of symbols and metaphors, but actually seems to end on an optimstic note.



"Buckets of Rain" provides a fitting finale, suitably depressing lyrics against a rather upbeat melody as irony once again abounds. After this song there is no where left to go.



"Blood on the Tracks" is listed by "Rolling Stone" magazine as the #16 record on the list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, between #15 "Are You Experienced?" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and #17 "Nevermind" by Nirvana. It is one of ten Dylan albums on the list, behind #4 "Highway 61 Revisited" and #9 "Blonde on Blonde." This For pretty much the complete story on the making of this classic album, check out "A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks" by music journalist Andy Gill and guitarist Kevin Odegard, who played on the five tracks recorded in Minneapolis. You can also listen to "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3" to hear the original version of "Tangled Up in Blue," "Idiot Wind," and "If You See Her, Say Hello" recorded in New York City in September to compare with the Twin Cities versions from December of 1974.

Great Artistic Achievement, Essential Remaster

Dylan fans who know every nuance may be more qualified than I to report on the quality of a Dylan remaster. But collectors always have lots to wonder about when a new Sony remaster is released, so I will go out on a limb as the first to review this one, with emphasis on the sound. Maybe someone else can comment on the editing.



In my opinion, this reissue replaces one of the most abominable CDs ever to occupy the Sony/Dylan catalog. Other favorites like Blonde on Blonde, Highway 51, and JW Harding sounded pretty good in a relative way, but the previous incarnation of BOTT had such dismal sound it was almost unlistenable - whenever I heard it I got a headache. So the new BOTT has a going for it before even hearing it.



Now that I've heard it half a dozen times, I can say it sounds just wonderful. Now we can finally hear how good it sounds again for the first time since vinyl. For a recording of this significance, its been a long time coming.



I wouldn't say this is Dylan's greatest album, but I wouldn't say it isn't. Dylan had released a few clunkers before shocking everybody with the amazing coherence, narrative power, and universal relevance of Blood on the Tracks. Like Dylan's best albums, listening is like touring a gallery or watching a play as it goes from one dramatic scene to another. Dylan's migrant American romances draw more than ever from experience and consistently connect with the listener.



Since writing the above review I was pleased to hear the new remaster of Blonde on Blonde and surprised by the spectral clarity and detail it brings out between individual musicians. Will Sony ever release a Basement remaster, expanded edition?

Deserving of all the hype. A masterpiece.

Dylan's best work. Ever. One of the best albums by anyone. Ever. A mature work by an artist in pain. Has anyone ever conveyed feeling so deeply and uniquely on a "rock" album? Dylan made BOTT while breaking up with this wife, Sara. The beauty of this album is that the eloquence of the art transcends the pain and despite it, this album is not a downer. The lyrical talent presented here in and of itself is a celebration, regardless of the theme or mood. Unlike his mid-60's "psychadelic" material, the lyrics here are cogent and the metaphors brutally meaningful and personal. They are less ambiguous, less subject to interpretation. In that regard, this harkens back to pre-electric Dylan, particularly the albums "The Times, They Are A-Changin'" and "Another Side", both of which feature many songs based on the breakup of his relationship with Suze Rotolo. (Notice how "If You See Her, Say Hello" thematically and musically recalls "Girl From the North Country" from the "Freewheelin" album.)



The lyrics on this album will endure for ages. "I came in from the wilderness/a creature void of form/Come in she said, I'll give you/shelter from the storm". . . . . Powerful. "I'm going out of my mind/with a pain that stops and starts/like a corkscrew to my heart/ever since we've been apart". . . . Heartbreaking. "I know where I can find you/in somebody's room/It's a price I have to pay/you're a big girl all the way". . . . . Devastating. And the first line of the marvellous opening track says it all. "Early one morning, the sun was shining, I was laying in bed, wondering if she'd changed at all, if her hair was still red." So much is conveyed in those lines. They draw you in. What's the story here, you want to know. And the album unfolds from there. An incredible opener.



The lyrics, however, are only one side of the equation. The music and production are spot on. No song is overdone; no song is too slick sounding. Interesting and ingenious chord progressions and melodic lines. Dylan's singing is emphatic and convincing. Probably the best of his career. His guitar work is outstanding. Simple but perfect. (Lovely fingerpicking in "Buckets of Rain".) His best move of all was to redo some of the tracks in Minnesota instead of releasing the album with only the New York tracks. All the NY tracks were recorded in open E guitar tuning, which would have made the album monotonous. Re-recording several of the songs in standard tuning was the finishing touch - a stroke of brilliance that added variety and punch to the sound and feel. Get this. Listen to it. It's a brilliant album.

An Album That Grew On Me

It took afew listens for me for the gems on this album to shine. It was not until I really sat down and appreciated the lyrics that I realised what a truly great album Blood On The Tracks is, and like albums that grow on you, you never get sick of it.



Every song on this album shines. Other reviewers have dealt with them so I won't bore you with repetitions, but there is one thing I do want to say.....



Unlike other reviewers I love the oft cited "weak" song "Lilly, Rosemary...etc." Though on first listen it seems lighthearted, perhaps because it is rooted in the mythic "wild west" mieleu Dylan drew inspiration from for "Patt Garret & Billy the Kid," in my opinion it is far from being a throwaway. The characters have considerable depth... more, in fact, than most characters in western films. Only Dylan would have thought of giving them universally relevant backgrounds and life experiences (broken homes, suicide attempts etc.) Like the other songs on the album, its theme is loss. The image of Lilly "comb(ing) all the dye out of her hair" after the "Jack of Hearts" has left her is moving, as is Rosemary's sacrifice on the gallows.

As I'm a spaghetti western fan I can't help loving this song, but those of you who've critcised it, give it another spin and shut your eyes, visualise, and enjoy the story. I don't think its out of place. In my opinion serves as a foil and counterweight to the more introspective songs.

Songs Of Lasting Value

On Blood On the Tacks Bob Dylan returned to his folk/acoustic roots and produced an album of incredible majesty. The lyrics are not as full of imagery as some of his earlier works but the language is straightforward and goes right for the juglar. There are so many memorable passages that I won't quote the songs in this review. I'd rather just say that for me these songs contain an astonishing level of insight on life, love, human nature, and lonelyness. Even the more lighthearted Lily, Rosemary and The Jack Of Hearts is inhabited by characters that are remarkably well drawn in what is almost a condensed novel put to music.



I won't say that this is the Best Dylan album, since that is largely a matter of taste. It is however an album that I could not be without.