by Daryl Sanders
A really in-depth look at BLONDE ON BLONDE. BoB and H61 were my first two Dylan albums; and BoB in particular really drew me in. Who was this guy? Was he being funny, sneering, pretentious, all of the above? And that’s an awful lot of harmonica there.
But enough about me. The Band is awesome, and the Band with Bob are awesome; but Bob says in this book that he left them behind (well, except for Robertson) and fled to Nashville because they just weren’t right, not for the sound he was aiming for – he could tell they weren’t right, but he didn’t want to admit it. The Band and Bob were kind of tumbled together by accident, and maybe they weren’t really meant to be a Thing.
I love the description of the Nashville cats recording “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” at 3 or 4 am and just not being able to believe how damn long the thing was. They kept thinking every chorus was going to be the last, and building up for a big finish… and then there’d be another verse. And they were all praying they wouldn’t mess up because they didn’t want to do it again.
But enough funny bits. As a read, it’s pretty good. Not high literature, but engaging. I agree with the other comments I’ve seen – he seems off-base when it comes to explaining lyrics (but who can really be totally on-base with Dylan lyrics?)… and this book would be an excellent accompaniment to THE CUTTING EDGE ‘Bootleg’ series.
Tytania 