Two days ago :: On this date in 1975, BOB DYLAN released his fifteenth studio album BLOOD ON THE TRACKS (Jan 17, 1975).
The album marked Dylan's return to Columbia Records after a two-album stint with Asylum Records.
"Following on the heels of an album where he repudiated his past with his greatest backing band, Blood on the Tracks finds Bob Dylan, in a way, retreating to the past, recording a largely quiet, acoustic-based album," wrote Stephen Erlewine for AllMusic.
"But this is hardly nostalgia -- this is the sound of an artist returning to his strengths, what feels most familiar, as he accepts a traumatic situation, namely the breakdown of his marriage. This is an album alternately bitter, sorrowful, regretful, and peaceful, easily the closest he ever came to wearing his emotions on his sleeve. That's not to say that it's an explicitly confessional record, since many songs are riddles or allegories, yet the warmth of the music makes it feel that way.
The original version of the album was even quieter -- first takes of "Idiot Wind" and "Tangled Up in Blue," available on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3, are hushed and quiet (excised verses are quoted in the liner notes, but not heard on the record) -- but Blood on the Tracks remains an intimate, revealing affair since these harsher takes let his anger surface the way his sadness does elsewhere. As such, it's an affecting, unbearably poignant record, not because it's a glimpse into his soul, but because the songs are remarkably clear-eyed and sentimental, lovely and melancholy at once. And, in a way, it's best that he was backed with studio musicians here, since the professional, understated backing lets the songs and emotion stand at the forefront. Dylan made albums more influential than this, but he never made one better."
TANGLED UP IN BLUE
Blood on the Tracks was released in January 1975, becoming a chart-topping album, and "Tangled Up in Blue" was a Top 40 single. Though it has remained closely associated with Dylan, there have been half a dozen cover versions, notably one by Jerry Garcia in 1991 and another by Indigo Girls in 1995.
The song is known for its complex and abstract lyrics, which are often interpreted as being about a failed relationship. The song is also known for its unique structure, which features multiple perspectives and non-linear storytelling. The song is widely considered to be one of Dylan's best and has been covered by many other artists over the years.
Despite numerous line changes, the overall story remains the same. The ambiguities in "Tangled Up in Blue," as well as the various versions, have led to varying interpretations. Dylan himself, commenting a decade after writing the song, talked about its changing tenses rather than its changing pronouns, commenting that he was trying to tell a story in the present and the past at the same time.
John Herdman, in Voice Without Restraint (New York: Delilah Books, 1981), notes a parallel to the Scottish ballad "The Demon Lover" and suggests that all but the first and last verses refer to different women, not the same one. Robert Shelton, in No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (New York: Beech Tree Books, 1986), speculates about whether the Italian poet praised in the fifth verse is Dante (which might relate the song to the episodic Divine Comedy), and states, "Dylan prefers the Real Live version."
Of course, the song's very difficulty inspires interest, and "Tangled Up in Blue," which has remained in Dylan's sets over the years, is still considered one of his best 1970s compositions, earning its place as the leadoff track on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 (1994).
again from the brilliant
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