Blonde on Blonde - Dylan, Bob (CD 1990)

Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan's 1966 all-electric follow-up to Highway 61 Revisited, starts off kind of slow with the loopy "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35." Bob Dylan plays sloppy harmonica fills over what sounds like a drunken Salvation Army Band. He cracks up a couple of times while he is singing, and you wonder if he is going to make it all the way through this novelty song. But he does--all the way to #2 on the Billboard pop chart, an indication of how popular he had become. Of course it didn't hurt that his play on words, about stoning and getting stoned, was a wink in the direction of the growing counter-culture.

But Dylan had always countered his serious side with a devilish sense of humour, and he pulls it off successfully on this ambitious 2 record set. No surprise, then, that Blonde On Blonde became a career-defining album from Bob Dylan's most fertile songwriting period. Unlike the blurred photo that graces the album's cover, Dylan seems well focused. Before recording the album, he performed several concerts backed by The Hawks (later to become The Band). That experience might have contributed to the tighter, smoother sound found here than the loose jam feel of Highway 61 Revisited. I don't mean to imply the music is an improvement over the previous album (it's sort of an apple and oranges thing), but it does make for tighter ensemble work like on the backhanded break-up song "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)" or the chugging blues romp "Obviously Five Believers."

Much of Blonde on Blonde was recorded in Nashville with a group of session musicians led by Joe South, several members of The Hawks, and such Highway 61 Revisited carryovers as Al Kooper, whose organ playing improved dramatically from that album to this one.

Dylan continued to write in a stream-of-consciousness vein, where the lyrics can mean different things to each listener. One such number is "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" in which the singer describes interludes with various colourful characters in an area to which he may or may not be confined to repeat. The Nashville cats plus Kooper lay down a subtle groove that carries Dylan through the nine verse song.

A few songs that Dylan played in concert as acoustic ballads are treated as folk-rock numbers. "Visions of Johanna" is a haunting piece where soft and loud instruments complement each other. The delicate sound of drum cymbals, rolling bass, and Al Kooper's droning organ are contrasted with guitar interjections and Dylan's harmonica playing. All of this complements Dylan's hazy sing-song style through the five verses. What I especially like about this 7 1/2 minute song is the illusion that it feels like it is over in under half that time.

Another number where this acoustic-turned-electric style works well is on the side-long closing track, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Written for his then-wife Sara, it is a moving piece with Dylan wearing his heart on his sleeve as he sings of her captivating charms (a chime-like voice that sings gypsy hymns, a glassy and saintlike face, etc). On this song, as well as "Visions of Johanna" and a third piece, the breakup-in-face-of-a-breakdown "Just Like a Woman," Dylan tempers minds his acid-laced tongue to reveal his compassionate side.

Dylan's wit crops up again on the short bluesy blast "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" where Dylan plays the third wheel to an ex- whose choice of adornment "balances on (her) head just like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine."

"I Want You" seems like an atypical song--a love song with a perky pop melody, thanks in no small part to the swirling organ and chirping guitar. Yet Dylan sketches in whimsical characters like the flute-playing dancing boy in a Chinese suit. There is a moment in the final verse where he stutters before dropping a song title from The Rolling Stones ("Time is on My Side"). At that moment, Dylan sounds less like the crown poet of rock and roll and more like a guy singing off the cuff yet from his soul.

I have always been partial to Side 3 of Blonde on Blonde. I think the literal side of me appreciates that song four is entitled "Fourth Time Around" and the fifth song is "Obviously Five Believers." But I also think it is because the songs are compact shots of blues- and folk-rock. The dismissive "Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)," the yearning "Absolutely Sweet Marie" and "Temporary Like Achilles," which tune sounds borrowed from Dylan's earlier "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," all showcase the symbiosis of Dylan's lyrics and the Nashville musicians who played on the album.

The song I always come back to is "Fourth Time Around." It seems to capture the enigmatic Bob Dylan better than any other song on the album. The song is about a one-night stand, possibly with a hooker, where the singer ends up robbing her. But it is set to a lovely melody with a pretty guitar part that stays in my head long after the song is over. It encapsulates the many sides of Bob Dylan on Blonde on Blonde--the jokester, the romantic, the cynic, and the poet.