[SPECIAL REPORT] An early listen to Bob Dylan's new album
7.21.06
REPORT ON MODERN TIMES by SETH ROGOVOY, music critic, author, and editor-in-chief of BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine.
[N.B. THIS IS NOT A REVIEW of MODERN TIMES]
I had the great pleasure and privilege of being invited by Columbia Records to sit and listen to Bob Dylan's forthcoming long-playing recording, MODERN TIMES, recently in a studio in New York City.
Given that I only was able to listen to the album all the way through without stopping only once and in one sitting, AND given that I can't be certain that what I heard that day was the absolute final mix (or even track order?) of the album that is due to be released on August 29, 2006, What follows is NOT intended to be a review, but rather just a few, general impressions, based on my one listen, and being somewhat familiar with how what I heard that day will relate to what the world will only begin to hear and appreciate to its fullest extent starting on August 29 and continuing then on for days, weeks, months, and years to come.
As has already been correctly reported, the album's overall sound and the music contained therein will be somewhat familiar to those who have heard Bob Dylan's previous album, Love and Theft. Dylan continues his exploration of many of the musical styles and forms (e.g., modal blues, blues-rock, country swing, country balladry, country waltzes, pre-rock pop and vaudeville) that were present on that album on the forthcoming album, which was apparently recorded with his current road band and which for the most part has a very live feel to it, even more so than on Love and Theft. The addition of the violin to the ensemble is one of the most prominent departure points, instrumentally speaking, and one that colors the album in small but significant ways.
Unlike Love and Theft's tightly restricted format of conventional ballads and blues, MODERN TIMES features more variety on some numbers, particularly a few extended numbers which are cousins to some of his more exploratory, epic style songs (think "Visions of Johanna," "Highlands," and other more folk-oriented material), both musically and in their lyrical scope and intent.
This is a very exciting development, and I for one look forward to spending more time with numbers including "Nettie Moore," which in some way could be the single-song version of Dylan's film, Masked and Anonymous (not in any literal way, but in feeling and tone), and "Ain't Talkin' Just Walkin'," which put me in mind of "Senor" musically and structurally, or maybe some of the darker ballads from Oh Mercy. "Working Man's Blues #2" is also one of the more interesting songs, musically; it put me in mind of "Is Your Love In Vain" (a LOT on this album reminded me of STREET LEGAL, which of course is now commonly regarded as one of Bob Dylan's most overlooked albums of his entire career), and, fittingly, is one of the few songs on the album which is in no way, musically or lyrically, a blues.
From the sound of Dylan's voice, which seems to vary from track to track, the vocals were probably not all recorded at the same time, but over a longer period of time, as his voice ranges from cranky and road-weary to impassioned to crooning. He remains an incredibly expressive singer with phrasing that cannot be duplicated or explained.
I need not get too detailed here -- as I noted, this is NOT a review, but a report. Nor should I empty my copious notebook of the detailed notes I took on all the songs. And I hesitate to quote any of the lyrics.
Suffice it to say that when the album ended, the handful of us gathered in the room to hear the new album were stunned into silence by the impact and import of this work shot through with familiar but heightened apocalyptic imagery.
There are very specific references to the events of 9/11 on this album; there are poetic references to prophecy; there is much talk of religion and the moral (or immoral) state of humankind; blindness haunts the album and in some ways functions as the connecting thread, a running motif; and more than perhaps ever before, there are references to violence, vengeance, and murder, including many phrased in the first person. Perhaps this is just a tip of the hat to Johnny Cash, but perhaps not -- perhaps Dylan has vengeance and murder on his mind at a time when the world is seemingly obsessed with both.
I'm not sure if MODERN TIMES is a pessimistic album, but there are a fair amount of "women done me wrong" songs, and DYlan doesn't mince words about those, women and others, who done him wrong on this album. There is not a lot about transcendence here, but there is a lot about the disappointment of not finding transcendence. There is some humor, but not the abundance of funny jokes found previously on Love and Theft.
Perhaps what is most surprising is that the Bob Dylan who we have been introduced to these past few months on THEME TIME RADIO, the funny, quirky, amiable old coot, and the Bob Dylan of MODERN TIMES seem like two entirely different people. Personally, I find that refreshing and invigorating; it's the enigma of Bob Dylan that keeps me going back for more.
MODERN TIMES is raw, and it stings.
And at the very end of the album, the world, literally and perhaps fittingly, and most chillingly, ends.
--by SETH ROGOVOY, music critic, author, and editor-in-chief of BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine.
P.S. The BOB DYLAN SHOW, featuring the Bob Dylan Band and other performers, comes to Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, Mass., for the second year in a row, on Saturday, August 26. Tickets are still available for this show from Wood Brothers Music in Pittsfield, Mass., (413.447.7478) or from Ticketmaster.
