Classic
5
By Kpfilms
A dark cover photo of Bob works suits a dark set of songs. "Love Sick" starts with a very little amount of sound, then goes to Bob's voices. Bob's voice being rerecorded through a guitar amp creates an old sound. The sound is so spacious and empty; his voice is so vacant and lonely, clear, yet dark. The lyrics are about as visual and real as possible. The music matches his voice perfectly. "Just don't know what to do. I'd give anything to be with you." This song seems to encompass all the pain of his separations. "Sometimes silence can be like thunder. Sometimes I want to take to the road and plunder." Now, I know what Bob was speaking about when he wrote something to the effect that his favorite artists where those who, when they said they would kill, he believed them. Going to a completely different direction, "Dirt Road Blues" has an echoey blues sound that gives a preview of what is to come on Love And Theft and Modern Times. Slowing the pace down drastically, "Standing In The Doorway" repeats "Love Sick"'s theme of lost love. "Don't know if I saw you, if I would kiss you or kill you." The lyrics are as deep as the first side of the first record of this album gets. The melody seems to be greatly Lanois’s influence, the producer. It is familiar to the songs of Oh Mercy. "I would be crazy if I took you back. It would go up against every rule. You left me standing in the doorway crying, suffering like a fool." Bob opens up his emotions much further than Blood On The Tracks with songs on this album that are written as well as this. "Million Miles" is performed in such a way that it is one of those songs that can stick in your head. "Well, I tried to get closer, but I'm still a million miles away from you." The music is simple, yet effective. It's one of those songs where Bob just lays out each line, one after another with a short pause in between. One of the most thrilling songs of the album is "Tryin' To Get To Heaven." His vocals are probably the primary reason this song works. He sings it so distinctly and the Dylan/ Lanois styled music go so well with his performance. "I'm just going down the road, feelin' bad. Tryin' to get to heaven before they close the door." A man, close to his death, just needs to gain salvation before it’s too late. "I close my eyes and I wonder if everything is as hollow as it seems." Lines like these, make it as real and harsh as life gets. "’Til I Fell In Love With You" has even more vacant vocals, like Bob's now a ghost, (he made it to heaven) echoing down from above. Bob emphasizes the words even further than before. The instruments are pure electricity, following Bob's vocal lead. "I was alright till I fell in love with you." In the lyrics, nothing seems to be going right for his love life. Possibly the best song of a unique album, "Not Dark Yet" clearly defines the albums theme, time, which is running away from him. "Behind every beautiful thing, there's been some kind of pain . . . I've been down to the bottom of a world full of lies. I ain't lookin' for nothin' in anyone's eyes." This is the only song that I have ever heard where the instruments truly cry out. It could be the best song Bob's written in the last twenty, thirty, forty, ever. "I was born here and I'll die here against my will. I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still . . . It's not dark yet, but it's getting there." The second record of the album changes considerably. "I'm beginnin' to here voices." Bob transforms into Dylan. Dylan says he's all used up. "Like the universe has swallowed me whole." Dylan is undergoing this great feeling. "There's too many people. Too many to recall. I thought some of them were friends of mine. I was wrong about them all." He is truly alone in a world packed to the rim with people. At a Chicago concert, the crowed cheered the line "the winds of Chicago have torn me to shreds." Only when you've experienced a harsh, cold, windy winter can you truly know what "Cold Irons Bound" is talking about. A sentimental song like "Tryin' To Get To Heaven," "Make You Feel My Love" finally changes the album considerably. It's a love song which offers salvation in response to the first eight songs of the album. It's hopeful. "You ain't seen nothing like me yet. I could make you happy, make your dreams come true." A song for touring with, "Can't Wait" continues the narrative to the nighttime, as if the salvation in the previous song is not as clear as it seems. What is clear is his goal. "I'm trying to recover the sweet love that we knew." There's more instrumentation on this song, emphasizing Dylan's inability to wait. Basic, slow instrumentation makes up the entire fourth side of the album with the song "Highlands," just like "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands." Dylan just slowly says each line to tell this bizarre narrative. "I wish someone would come and push back the clock for me." Now, Dylan wants to return to the Highlands by foot. He goes to a restaurant, going on about what he thinks and what is said there. "Draw a picture of me." "I would if I could, but I don't do sketches from memory." "Brownsville Girl" can’t even compare to the kind of long song this is. Dylan might be gasping for breathe between lines, because a slight sound is heard. It's not surprising, considering the length of the song. The album ends lukewarm with the line "I'm already there in my mind and that’s good enough for for now."
