VIDEO: My Top 15 Bob Dylan Songs of the 60's

This is my 100th video on YouTube! I thought I'd celebrate by counting down my top 15 Dylan songs of the 60's. I tried to do an all time list but realised it was impossible to include all of the Dylan songs that I love.

15. Blowin' in the Wind

14. The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest

13. Ballad of a Thin Man

12. Love Minus Zero/No Limit

11. Ballad of Hollis Brown

10. Subterranean Homesick Blues

  9. 4th Time Around

  8. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

  7. I Want You

  6. A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall

  5. Mr Tambourine Man

  4. Desolation Row

  3. Visions of Johanna 

  2. It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

  1. Like a Rolling Stone

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VIDEO: Vinyl Update #32

I have come back from the dead and finally released a couple of videos on my YouTube channel. This is the first one, just showing my most recent vinyl pick ups. I haven't bought many records but am very happy with what I have managed to find. I am hoping to get some money together over Christmas and put some of it into vinyl, so more updates are on the horizon.

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Finding Strength..

Nowadays perhaps more than ever before, I am persistently aware of my own existence. That may sound like something I would be proud to state. But honestly, it is not a comfortable predicament. I guess in a very idle way, it is my own version of an ‘existential crisis’. Every day I wake up and feel a curious sense of dissatisfaction, like I am not fully maximising my potential. Yet whenever I seemingly muster the motivation to make a serious change, I slip back into the same pit of laziness, boredom and relentless feeling of insignificance. Like my life is nothing but a winding road to the grave. I am not particularly cynical. I am not an atheist. I am just somebody who hasn’t quite figured himself out yet. Constantly searching, yet rarely uncovering anything new or inspiring.

Recently, I was listening to the poem that Bob Dylan recited in front of his adoring audience at New York’s Town Hall in 1963, entitled Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie. It’s not a particularly clever poem. It is Dylan writing in a style very similar to some of his most famous songs at that time, like Hard Rain.. and Masters of War. Before commencing, he states that he was asked to write something about what Woody Guthrie meant to him in “25 words”. He then jokingly says, “I couldn’t do it, I wrote out 5 pages”. The poem follows a very rigid structure. Dylan starts to paint a picture of somebody going through some kind of all encompassing crisis. He then says that they need hope, but it is out of reach. There is nowhere they can find it because they are too wrapped up in material pleasures. Finally he asks “Where do you look for this hope that you’re seeking? Where do you look for this lamp that’s a-burnin’?” before offering a final homage to Guthrie, “You can either go to the church of your choice or you can go to Brooklyn State hospital. You’ll find God in the church of your choice, you’ll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State hospital. And its only my opinion, I might be right or wrong, you’ll find them both in the Grand Canyon at sundown.”

I guess it is consistent with good poetry to do one of two things, either to put into words something wholly relatable, or to take you to somewhere completely out of your comfort zone. Somewhere alien. This poem does the former; it almost feels like Bob is talking directly to me. It almost feels like he understands. It amazes me that at 21, Dylan could have written this, not to mention the multiple classics he had already penned by the time his second album hit the shelves. His genius was definitely being born in the sanctuary of Greenwich Village.

Many lines from Last Thoughts.. strongly resonate with me. I aspire to find the hope that Dylan’s character so desperately needed. Perhaps above all others though, the line “… but you try with your whole soul best never to think these thoughts and never to let them kind of thoughts gain ground or make your heart pound. But then again you know why they’re around, waiting for a chance to slip and drop down.” has the strongest impact. I think this is the crux of my problem. I think too much. I try to be deep and fatalistic before I have even experienced what I want to experience. I need to eradicate the demons in the back of my mind and return to the real world. After all, you only live on this beautiful planet once, so why waste every moment thinking about the end of that life, or crawling around in endless days of apathy. I think I am capable of turning this increased awareness I have found recently into a force for good. I can finally appreciate the preciousness of life, but also its fleeting briefness. At 20 years old, I need to get on with my life and live it the way that I want to. As Steve Jobs once said “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Thank you for reading. I aim to update this blog more frequently from now on (hopefully with topics less depressing haha). Below is a link to where you can read the full poem Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie and somewhere you can purchase the live album Stolen Moments From Town Hall, New York City for a very good price, which I strongly recommend for fans of the early Dylan material. It includes the live version of the recital.

Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie 

Stolen Moments From Town Hall, New York City

Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel – MrDylanRecords

Twitter – @MrDylanRecords and @Balzo93

Tangled Up In Blue

Recently, I have become more and more infatuated with 2 masterpieces in particular; Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ from 1971 and Bob Dylan’s ‘Blood On The Tracks’ from 1975. The latter I have loved ever since I first heard it a couple of years ago, whereas Blue took maturity and patience to really latch on to. Now that I have heard both of these albums more times than I can count, I thought it would be interesting to look at them in the context of 70’s society and try to find commonalities.

The early 70’s was a strange time for music. Undoubtedly, this is the time that music was forced to take on a new face in popular culture. The aftermath of the hippy movement was a tough pill to swallow for many who had helped shape it. The ecstasy of flower power had been replaced by an overwhelming glumness and many of the figureheads of the 60’s counterculture were either losing control or taking complete U turns with their musical direction. The Beatles were over, Bob Dylan was still in seclusion and releasing what was essentially country music. Legends like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones had all fallen victim to drug overdoses. The 60’s was never coming back and the popular music scene was being remoulded.

One of the perhaps understated artists to emerge from the late 60’s was Joni Mitchell. A singer-songwriter who would not come to many peoples attention until the summer of 1971, when she put out arguably her greatest collection of songs, ‘Blue’. Aptly named, this masterpiece comprised of 10 songs written by Joni about two relationships. Firstly, after a tough breakup with Graham Nash, she took to Europe to write some of the songs for the album. But undoubtedly the main protagonist for the finished album was James Taylor, whom Joni had become romantically involved with soon after her breakup with Nash. As she has since remarked, every single lyric on the album is 100% honest and it really does piece together a perfect collage of where Mitchell was at this point in her career, both artistically and personally. It is also an album that, for me, slots in perfectly with the context of early 70’s popular music. There is no flashy, psychedelic production prevalent here, rather an acoustic and somewhat traditional style. The lyrics also occasionally touch on the overwhelming feeling around the music business and society at the time, “reading the news and it sure looks bad, they won’t give peace a chance, that was just a dream some of us had.”

What I love about the album is that it doesn’t attempt to hide behind anything and Joni isn’t afraid to be self-critical. With her amazing vocal range, Mitchell manages to paint a beautiful picture of the ebb and flow of a relationship and the thin line between love and heartbreak. It is an album I think most people can relate to in some kind of way. 

Three years later, Bob Dylan would write his own masterpiece, by no means his first. At the time ‘Blood On The Tracks’ came along, Dylan was definitely arriving at a bridge in his career. The days of the freewheeling folk hero and ‘voice of a generation’ were long gone, although the echoes were perhaps still ringing in his ears. Still, his cooling off period was drawing to a close as well and Bob was back on the road touring with the band once more. During the spring of 1974, he started attending art classes with Norman Raeben, who arguably reignited the flame responsible for many of the songs on Blood On The Tracks. It was a significant move for Dylan, but a strangely alienating one too. Raeben seemed to spark something in Dylan that had been lying dormant for over half a decade, not only through paint, but by helping him see things more from an ‘nonlinear’ perspective. Dylan has often cited this spring as being a tipping point in his marriage and the beginning of a downward spiral, which would end in divorce 3 years later. It is a dark but incredibly rational record, dealing with heartbreak at its very core. For perhaps the first time in his already illustrious career, Bob Dylan sounded stripped back to the flesh and completely exposed emotionally. He has said that he finds it difficult to relate to people who can “enjoy that kind of pain.” It is clear he made Blood On The Tracks for himself, maybe to deal with the turmoil of his failing marriage.

These are most definitely two albums for the ages and in Mitchell’s case, I consider it her magnum opus. But why am I talking about them both in the same post? Despite both artists being put under the ‘folkie’ tag earlier in their respective careers and being loose musical acquaintances, these two artists and albums are not intrinsically linked. Or are they? There is evidence to suggest that Blood On The Tracks was partly inspired by Blue. Especially the epic opener, ‘Tangled Up In Blue’. Bob once commented that he wrote this song after spending a weekend immersed in Mitchell’s masterpiece. I get the sense through knowing Bob’s occasional vagueness in interviews that perhaps the whole of this album was critically influenced by Blue.

After all, the two albums paint pictures that overlap in more ways than one. The themes of losing a love are very real in both cases. On the surface, Blue doesn’t sound inherently sad. There are moments of hope and moments of blissful nostalgia. But as the songs sink in, you sense Joni’s crippling loneliness and despair. There is hope for salvation, but a realisation that is not possible. Dylan tackles these exact same feelings on BOTT. Tangled Up In Blue feels like you are looking into a romantic nightmare. The song is littered with sporadic imagery that flies past you almost before you can process the emotion. Simple Twist Of Fate and You’re A Big Girl Now are a slower pace, before the infectious Idiot Wind takes you right back to the rhythm of the first track, with even more vigour and ferocity. The album continues ebbing and flowing in similar fashion for the entire 10 tracks. Blue also has this same variety in pace and emotion, which is outstanding for an album that takes just 35 minutes to listen to. The fact that both Dylan and Mitchell instill the jubilant highs, terrible lows and eventual crushing heartbreak of a typical relationship is what makes these 2 records genius for me. There is a lingering bitterness but also an honest confessional tone present in both cases.

 

Perhaps a more minor link between Dylan and Mitchell is that Bob learned the open D/E tuning from Joni. A tuning he would use prolifically for the first time on a record during the New York sessions for Blood On The Tracks. This shows that they did have a personal connection at this very significant time and may have even jammed together regularly. This new ‘open’ style of tuning was used very powerfully at the recording sessions in New York. Of course, many of the final cuts would eventually be scrapped and replaced by versions recorded in Minnesota a few months later. Joni would go on to play on Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975 and at The Last Waltz a year later.

These two albums are significant cornerstones for both the artists that wrote them and the whole context of popular music in the 1970’s. There has been speculation that Joni and Bob have not always seen eye to eye, which is ironic considering how great these songwriters were in their own right. It is clear to me that however respectful Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan were to each other at the time, subconsciously there was influence happening in both directions when they sat down to pen these classics. 

Vlogging YouTube Channel!

I just started a second YouTube channel, just for the hell of it really! I have been watching more and more vlogs recently from various people on YouTube. I can't quite work out what it is about them that's so addictive, as often it is just documenting peoples daily lives, but I love it! I'm really gaining an insight into how other people live from day to day and that's helping me make more of myself too. So I though I'd try it myself.

I'm going to be uploading to the new channel from time to time so it would be cool if you could head over and subscribe. I made my first vlog yesterday which was really fun to do, but I think my editing skills have a way to go! I'm going to London at the weekend with my brother so the next one should be up then. Remember to check out my main channel (MrDylanRecords) for music and vinyl content.

New Channel
First Vlog!

MrDylanRecords

Thanks!

ALBUM REVIEW: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Daft Punk have started to fascinate me of late. I guess it was inevitable, after listening to so much electronic music both this year and last, that my path of discovery would eventually lead to a new-found appreciation of the 'kings of French house'. The release of Random Access Memories this year was huge. Daft Punk's first studio effort in 8 years, the album was set to either alienate hardcore fans or provide a new lease of life for the Daft Punk sound. I guess it kind of did both. It is perhaps the most polarising album of the year so far, proving too much of a departure from their earlier records for some, whilst at the same time really impressing other people. People like me.

Daft Punk have set the standard for French house and dance music since they arrived on the scene with Homework in 1997. A far from impeccable album, it undoubtedly presented the stone that would eventually be sculpted into the masterpiece that became Discovery, released in 2001. Discovery displayed the development of a very specific sound, incorporating more disco influenced vibes that you can't help but want to get up and dance to. The singles from the album catapulted Daft Punk into widespread global popularity. Many people I'm sure still remember songs like "One More Time", "Digital Love" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" as being major club and radio anthems of the time. Listening back to this album in 2013, the sound is instantly Daft Punk. No-one else. I think that is what is so special. After a live album and remix album, Daft Punk were back in the studio to compile a new collection of tracks. What came of this was Human After All, an album which took just 6 weeks to make and unfortunately, it showed. The album failed to win over critics and many fans who were expecting another Discovery. Despite putting together a very credible soundtrack for TRON: Legacy in 2010, fans were still eagerly waiting for the robots to return to the studio and record another album. What they got was Random Access Memories, which dropped on May 17th 2013. 

Coming into this album, I didn't know what to expect. I had only heard the singles from their older albums, meaning that I did not necessarily have the same perspective as their hardcore fans. I decided to take the album at face value. First listen, the album didn't fully capture me. I liked about half of the tracks, but the ones I didn't like didn't do anything for me at all. I knew I had to persevere and luckily, I did. I guess it was about the 4th or 5th listen when the light bulb was switched on. I finally saw the album as a whole, cohesive work of art rather than individual flashes of brilliance. This is where it all started to make sense. The robots were painting a picture in my head with these songs, it just took a few listens for the full picture to become clear. The title is an almost perfect description of what this album does for me. Listening to this more and more, it was starting to affect me in a profound way. I was starting to associate these songs with parts of my life I had long forgotten. In many cases I'd be listening to a song and a random memory or emotion would flash through my brain. I guess this is the amazing power of music, but Daft Punk seem to achieve it with such ease and frequency on Random Access Memories.

The album opens up with "Give Life Back To Music" and the album is off to a pretty brilliant start. The track is groovy with instantly recognisable robotic vocals. The sentiment is simple enough. Daft Punk are setting the tone for the album with this, they want to bring breathe life back into disco music which has all but vanished in the contemporary pop scene. However I don't think this album is simply a throwback to the 80's. Neither does it sound inherently nostalgic. Somehow, the duo makes this sound seem so timeless, blending their robotic vocals with super slick trademark production. It is music that could have quite easily been made in a hundred years time. The second track, "The Game Of Love" tones it down a bit, with more ambient production. I like the song but it lacks the punch that the first track provided. "Giorgio by Moroder" is the longest track on the album. It features a monologue with Giorgio Moroder, talking about his early life and career. I like the concept to the song and the instrumental that backs him up is sublime. 

The album then moves in another direction with the song "Within", which provides a chilling comedown from the previous track. It is at this point where the album starts to strike some pretty heavy emotional chords with me. The song sounds so lonesome. The robotic vocals are nothing short of haunting and although the lyrics aren't exactly complex, they compliment the piano just perfectly. "Instant Crush" is perhaps my least favourite track on the album, featuring Julian Casablancas. It sounds too much like a Strokes song for it to fit into the album in my opinion. Coupled with a really basic beat and mediocre lyrics, it just doesn't do anything for me. "Lose Yourself To Dance" however is a huge return to form. Pharrell puts in a great vocal performance and the production behind him makes it perhaps the best dance track on the whole album. 

The track "Touch" is my favourite on the album for a number of reasons. This is a song with many musical phases. Unlike some of the more poppy tracks, this one is far more progressive in structure. The duo have said in interviews that it tells the story of someone having a near death experience before coming back to life and remembering how it feels to be touched. The song does not need to be limited to this though. Listening to it makes you suddenly aware of your existence and somehow puts into perspective what it is to be human. For me, listening to Touch is like listening to a robot who is stuck in limbo between being human and being an android. It “needs something more” after feeling touch, suggesting it can't compute emotions in the way humans can. Yet when it is kissed, it is suddenly overwhelmed by emotion and suddenly everything makes sense. The instrumental section in the middle of the track is like listening to an outpouring of emotion which has moved me to tears at times. It then quietens down and a sort of mantra is repeated, "Hold on, if love is the answer you're home." until a final chilling vocal is sung by Paul Williams. I could write for hours on this song, for me it is the beating heart of the album.

The standout single from this album was of course "Get Lucky". This song showed that the robots still have the knack for producing ultra catchy dance melodies. It is far from a throw away though. The riff played by the legendary Nile Rodgers is amazing and Pharrell's vocals are equally as fresh. This may end up being the pop song of the year for me, it is undeniably infectious. "Beyond" and "Motherboard" are mostly instrumental tracks. Motherboard is by far my favourite of the two, with live instrumentation unlike anything I've heard from Daft Punk before. "Fragments Of Time" is another favourite of mine. This song has a really west coast vibe to it and the robots have talked about capturing this specific sound on this track. It’s a song that makes every part of you want to go out and rent a vintage American car and take a Californian road trip. 

The penultimate track "Doin' it Right" sees a return to the android like vocals heard earlier in the album. I would classify this as another dance track but with some slightly more ambitious production. Panda Bear from Animal Collective had his hands in this and it is definitely evident. The lyrics capture the moment of reaching ecstasy on the dance floor and drawing out this feeling for as long as possible. Again this is a song I really enjoy. The final song, "Contact", is a mind blower. It starts with a monologue from a man seemingly looking down upon the Earth from a spaceship. It had a profound impact on me from the moment I heard it. It makes you realise just how small the Earth is in the universe but also how magical it is to be alive on it. This part of the song definitely continues the futuristic feel of the album. After this, the song really cranks up and becomes mind pummeling. The instrumentation reminded me quite a bit of track 3 "Giorgio.." but taken to the next level. This is a simply excellent way to end the album.

All in all, I love Random Access Memories. Daft Punk may have drifted away from their trademark sound, but in my eyes this is a good thing. This album perfectly blends 80's disco influences with robotic, futuristic production and overwhelmingly touching lyrics. It's ironic that the two anonymous androids of contemporary music have bought so much soul back to a seemingly sterile and 'time gone by' genre of music. They have implemented live instrumentation into these tracks unlike anything they've done before, making the songs sound free flowing and organic. On top of this, the vast range of collaborators on this project is stunning and adds so much to the diversity to the album. As Pharrell said when being interviewed about this record, "You don't need to take MDMA to get the most out of this music." I think he is right. It is music for the mind, body and soul. It is an album for the ages. 

Favourite Track - Touch

Least Favourite Track - Instant Crush

Score - 90/100

  

I Saw Swans Live!

The day finally arrived. I finally had the opportunity to see one of my favourite bands in the world, Swans, play live. Ever since picking up 'The Seer' last September I had longed to see this extraordinary band on stage. Something about them just really intrigued me. I think it's the rawness, the 'no bullshit' attitude to making music and the sheer mind altering nature of almost every album I've heard of theirs. The Seer was a masterpiece. It sounded to me like the band was peaking even though I hadn't heard much of their back catalog. The songs were long and drawn out, they were progressive but also deeply infectious. Listening to the album kind of had me in a trance and I couldn't work out why exactly. I was hoping going to see them in a live setting would solve that for me. At over two hours of mind assaulting madness, the album came out to be my 2nd favourite of 2012, only behind the equally abrasive 'The Money Store' from Death Grips.Whatever the reason for my obsession, I knew I had to try to see the band live. I was in luck.  They were touring the UK in 2013 and playing just down the road from me in Bristol at the O2 Academy.

So after buying my ticket back in January, I waited with baited breath for 3 months for the day to come. Last Saturday I made my way down to Bristol on the train and made it to the venue an hour early. A quick stop off at the pub beforehand brought me into contact with Micheal Gira, Swans front man, earlier than expected. He was in the beer garden, sat in his cowboy hat, just 2 hours before going on stage. He brushed past me on his way out and I must admit it was a bit of a 'fanboy' moment.

Anyway, I got inside and found my way to the front, right up in front of the main amps. As is typical with any live performance, it always seems like you're waiting AGES for the performer to come on stage. At 7:30 Xiu Xiu came on. At least, Jamie Stewart was there. I didn't see the other half of the duo Angela Seo at all. He came out and played a blissful set. Set behind his guitar was lots of distortion and what sounded like rainforest noises. It provided the ambiance for a really intimate performance. Being up front, I could see Jamie putting so much into every word. He played about 8 songs, ritualistically taking a sip of his drink and looking up to the heavens after every song, then jotting down notes on his lyrics sheet. Overall I really liked the whole performance. It provided a perfect contrast to the hard hitting Swans. The calm before the storm, if you will. 

After Jamie finished up it was time for Swans to come on. Gira strolled on to the stage casually and starting tweaking things immediately, as did the other band members. They took a while to get going but boy, when they did, it was really something. Gira started off playing a quieter, lyrical song, singing "There are millions of stars in your eyes." It was really powerful. After this he brought on a sonic onslaught, seemingly from nowhere. With a single stamp of his foot, the band unleashed all of its power. I loved it. For many, something this loud and abrasive would have seemed like a mess. But with Swans you just have to go for it, throw yourself into the whirlwind of sound and eventually you will find something that grips you intensely and purposefully. This piece went on for what seemed like 10 minutes or more, with Gira initiating more and more noise with every stamp of this foot. He played another song similar to this before breaking into the first song I was familiar with, 'Mother Of the World'. The song absolutely blew my mind. The relentless beat progressed into an almighty symphony of sound. The drums were abrasive as hell and in the end Micheal's vocals were all but obscured by the distortion.

The band went on in fine style, providing my senses with a right old kicking. Gira's movement was captivating throughout, he danced and dashed about the stage like he was possessed in sometimes rather erratic fashion. Frequent jamming with the bass player was intense to watch as Gira looked to inspire him to play harder and faster with every stroke. On what felt like the funkiest song in the set, Gira turned to band and appeared to almost conduct them. He became at one with the rhythm of the band as the audience were really starting to become at one with it too. One of my favourite songs of the set was the song where Micheal sings "Put a knife in me." For some reason every time he sang that the hairs would stand up on my neck. It was quite profound. The band continued to bring a constant supply of pummeling music, bringing in horns towards the end that added further to the pounding bass. Nearer the back end of the set, Gira broke into perhaps my favourite Swans song, the title track from The Seer. Wow. Like 'Mother Of The World', this song was just so damn relentless! The band played for at least five minutes before Micheal sang the repetitive "I see it all, I see it all, I see it all...", to which many of the audience joined in. That for me made the show, it was truly mind expanding and entrancing to be so close to.

The band played for a little longer and by the end it amazed me that Micheal Gira and the whole band still had the energy to move. I knew I was spent. The whole experience was so absorbing, so overwhelming, so god damn loud that I think it ended at the perfect time. At the expense of the ringing in my ears and the possible damage to my iPhone 5's microphone, it was one of the best 20 pounds I've ever spend. Looking back on it, I am really lucky to have seen Swans live here in England. I thoroughly recommend you go and see them at some point, you won't regret it! 

Some short clips from the show and a short spoken word video will be up on my YouTube channel very shortly - http://www.youtube.com/user/MrDylanRecords?feature=mhee