Love and Theft - Dylan, Bob (CD 2001)

Bob Dylan is at a point in his life where he can literally do anything that he wants on record, and it will automatically be considered a STATEMENT. This is how Bob Dylan was originally perceived, so many years ago when his songs meant something, both politically and musically. However, he went through his own period of irrelevancy where he was more known for being that guy who sang a song with Roy Orbison and Tom Petty that one time. With 1997 s masterpiece, Time Out of Mind, Dylan once again brought himself up out of the ashes, and showed that he was still a vital artist capable of producing his personal Mona Lisa. The world had learned that you shouldn t write off a man who wrote Like A Rolling Stone, so they took notice when he followed up that great album with his latest, Love and Theft.

Love and Theft is very different than Time Out of Mind in many ways, but it seems to share the same soul, like brothers that have gone their separate ways. Where Time Out of Mind was spacey and atmospheric, almost as much a sound experience as a musical one, Love and Theft dumps the production and goes straight for great songwriting. There is nary a strange vocal effect or bizarre guitar sound to be found on Love and Theft, but the classic Dylan ear for witty, poetic lines and great tunes is in abundance. Lyrically, Dylan is still obviously the master wordsmith that he always was; he has a way of taking something that is now cliche and over-used, and giving a slight goose to make into something totally new, totally interesting, and totally Bob. Bob-isms abound all over the record, and as usual, catching them all is half the fun.

Musically, Love and Theft reads like a history of popular American music. Every significant phenomenon in American music in the last 100 years is given its proper due, with the songs stepping into jazz, blues, classical, and even a touch of rock. The musicians that play on the album are more than up to the task; they are limber enough to sound as competent quoting Charley Patton or Chuck Berry. You can tell from the first listen that Bob Dylan is having the time of his life, with the specters of his near-death experience from a few years ago now replaced with a sudden lust for life. Time Out of Mind s mood was that of a death-haunted man who had looked into the eyes of the reaper and blinked. Love and Theft is alive and bouncing, apparently coming from a man who is thrilled just to get out of bed every morning.

The Songs


1. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum - The album fades in to a wash of country guitars and a driving beat. Think early Buddy Holly or Bo Diddley; the song shimmies and shakes on old-fashioned rockabilly goodness. Dylan s lyrics are a little on the dark side, dealing with a pair of low-down criminals.

2. Mississippi - I believe this is the best song on the album. Mississippi rolls along on a casual beat with laid back guitars, and built on a breezy melody that would almost sound like pop if it weren t a Bob Dylan record. The song actually sounds upbeat, and I even go so far as to say that Ol Bob sounds downright giddy on this one. As giddy as Mr. Dylan, gets of course.

So many things that we will never undo, I know you re sorry, I m sorry, too.

3. Summer Days - This song takes off with a blast of rockabilly guitar straight off of an Eddie Cochran record. The song is propelled by good, old-fashioned snares, and sticks to the basic 12-bar structure. Bob can t help putting his own lyrical signatures, though, to make it distinctly his.

Why don t you break my heart one more time, just for good luck?

4. Bye and Bye - The frenzied pace of the first three songs is slowed down with Bye and Bye. Bob sounds love-struck here, as he croons over an old-timey melody that would not have been out-of-place on 1940s radio. Some dark lyrics do creep in, however, to suggest that Bob has gone completely soft on us.

I m painting the town, making my last go round.

5. Lonesome Day Blues - The song is pure ragged blues, all the way, baby. A drunken, sloppy mess of bar-room drums and meandering blues licks make for a perfect backdrop to Dylan s raspy howl. With such great inspiration to back him up, Dylan does a great job of creating some very genuine sounding blues lyrics.

It s funny how the things you have the hardest time parting with, are the things you need the least.

6. Floater (Too Much To Ask) - The song is set against an odd little string part that will occasionally pop into the tune, and I don t know about anyone else, but it reminds me of Loony Tunes, and kind of distracts me from the tune. Again, this is an old-timey tune that does not sound at all out-of-place, for some reason, on a 2001 album.

7. High Water (For Charley Patton) - Good, old acoustic blues, down-home style. A slinking, bluesy acoustic guitar part is accompanied by a banjo, and Dylan s rasp. Going for the original sound that blues legend Charley Patton used to achieve, Dylan even includes knee slaps and claps, and deep-throated oooohhh choruses.

8. Moonlight - Another breezy, jazzy tune highlighted ringing guitars and a saccharine-sweet melody that somehow manages to fit Dylan s tortured voice. It sounds odd, but Dylan actually manages to work a nice-sounding croon out of his voice that makes him sound believable as a love-struck suitor.

9. Honest With Me - With a record so steeped in musical history and days gone by, it s quite a shock to then hear a song that features hammering rock drums and squealing guitars, but Bob Dylan is nothing if not unpredictable. A slithering slide guitar lick underscores Dylan s poetry in motion as the band loosens up.

10. Po Boy - Dylan s tattered vocals are put on display here as he is accompanied by another mish-mash of jazzy acoustics and a hushed snare drum.

By the way, what happened to that poisoned wine? She said, I gave it to you; you drank it.

11. Cry A While - A blues jam gone horribly wrong, Cry A While starts off as a slow, thumping blues, but quickly doubles time for Dylan s vocal, but slows down again, and repeats. Clumsy? Perhaps if played by a less masterful band, but they do it to perfection, and the transition is not nearly as jarring as one might assume. If there s anyone out there who wonders just how tight Bob Dylan s band is need only listen to this track for proof.

12. Sugar Baby - Soft acoustic strumming is all that starts off besides Dylan s voice. It is later accompanied by some great, warbling guitars for atmosphere, but this is basically just Bob and his guitar, which is a splendid way to end the record.

You went years without me, might as well keep going now.


Where Time Out of Mind sounded like it might be Bob Dylan s swan song, and a fitting end to a legendary career, Love and Theft strikes me as being the middle of a sentence from Ol Bob. He has trailed off in mid-thought, and it sounds as though he is going to grace us with a little more in the future. A man that sounded beaten-down and weary just a few years ago now sounds like he still has a lot to say, and all the time in the world to say it. I, for one, will definitely look forward to more recordings from Bob Dylan, and I hope he has as much fun making them as he appeared to have making Love and Theft.

I would recommend Love and Theft to both new-comers who might not be familiar with all of his work, as well as old Bob Dylan fans who still think that it doesn t get any better than Highway 61 Revisited. The old man is still kicking, and his stories are only getting more interesting with every new adventure that he goes on.