A Contrarian's View of Dylan

While Bob often goes through these phases that last two or three albums, never has one album sounded so much like another as World Gone Wrong does to Good As I Been To You. It's another solo acoustic album of old folk tunes. Really everything I said about one also applies for the other. Rumor is that World Gone Wrong is bluesier while Good As I Been To You­ is more folksy, but I'll have to double-check that. I have a hard time telling them apart. It's too bad that their combined running time doesn't allow you to put both albums on one single CD-R. It would make a good Self-Portrait part IV (part one being New Morning and Dylan, part two would be Knocked Out Loaded and Down In The Groove). "Love Henry", "Blood In My Eyes" and "Tow Soldiers" are the best tunes on here. There's nothing as interesting as "Froggie Went A Courtin'", but the literal knocking on the guitar during "Broke Down Engine" is priceless. World Gone Wrong does earn some points for being shorter and having those deliriously non-illuminating linear notes. The biggest drawback to this album being: that he's already done it.

Blues Gone Right

Aside from the astonishing cover art and photography adorning the liner notes, the power of Dylan's performance here cannot be overstated. Wholly deserving of the 1993 Grammy Award it garnered for Best Traditional Folk Album, the album's austere minimalism makes for as vulnerable an album as Dylan has allowed since Blood on the Tracks (listen for the tapping of Bob's shoe on track 3, for instance). Some critics pan "World Gone Wrong" as yet another morbid example of Dylan's inability to catch up with the times. Yet an attempt at updating his sound is exactly what nearly destroyed his career as he released one unfocused album after another throughout the late '70s and '80s. He's damned if he tries and damned if he doesn't. It seems that Dylan's enormous reputation and many musical masks have polarized his audience, groups of which subscribe to specific and stultifying expectations of what kind of sound Dylan ought to deliver. Yet "World Gone Wrong" further illustrates that the best Dylan records are the ones he records for himself. It is a lonely, paranoid, occasionally brooding and sincere recording, fraught with masterful finger-picking (Ragged & Dirty, Broke Down Engine), some rollicking harmonica (Stackalee) and an absolutely heart-wrenching interpretation of the traditional classic, "Two Soldiers," a rendition that has accompanied me during some of my loneliest hours for years now. In fact, the solitude articulated with these gritty performances is so real and honest that it actually keeps you company. And that, I think, is what good art does: it makes you feel less lonely, less misunderstood. Dylan does that with this release. I can think of no higher praise.

Spellbound

That a man with a guitar and harmonica can engage the attention of an audience as he did in concert in the 60s and does here is nothing short of genius. Dylan spellbinds with his interpretations of some Broadside Ballads and Traditional songs.

Somehow he makes them his own, more than just covers or interpretations. This is what even the most brilliant classical artist aims at. Frankly this is all I need. Stark, intense, sad, sparse, he gets it all in on this one. Also on Good As I've Been To You,although perhaps not as down and out. He makes these tunes come alive. What more can you ask? This man is getting close to being the most fascinating blues singer of our times. Sorry Eric!