1)"Subterranean Homesick Blues" - This is surely one of the twenty-five or so most important songs in the history of rock & roll. I'm boringly lukewarm on it. It's two minutes long and has two chords. Sometimes with Bob's music the lyrics can transcend that sort of thing and sometimes they don't do enough to make up for it. That's just me, though. The entire hook of the song is "look out kid, they keep it all hid," IMO. I feel like a cretin posting this. I'm so sorry. (B)
2)"She Belongs To Me" - A pleasant enough ballad that I'd never heard before, but it isn't going to do more than hold a very small candle towards similar songs on *Blonde On Blonde--*I think he may have rewritten some of this for "Visions Of Johanna," and that song is the Book Of Revelations compared to this. At least it's pleasant. (B)
3)"Maggie's Farm" - One of the two big "discoveries" on the album for me. "I ain't gonna work on Maggie's Farm" no more is a great hook and I find that the song has no obvious parallel on the next two albums--Bob would certainly do sardonic humor on Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde but the tone here seems unique. Like the tone of "Tombstone Blues," but in an actual blues, not an uptempo garage-rock-y pounder. (A)
4)"Love Minus Zero/No Limit" - Again, I hate myself for this, but I'm only hearing...a...decent song here. It's one of the more important ones, I'm pretty sure of that, but I have to rehear the song to remember how it even goes! What am I missing here? I sure do hope that relistening to this song in the years to come will draw it out of the woodwork for me, because I hate it when I don't get blown away by a classic! (B)
5)"Outlaw Blues" - Yammering annoying rocker. Not a very interesting melody and the lyrics don't catch my ears either. (C+)
6)"On The Road Again" - If only it were the Willie Nelson song. I don't even know when the Willie song came out (edit: 1980! Huh, thought it was way older than that!) but I do know that the lyrics--putting down bohemians, right?--are more interesting than the music to this one. (I for one thought it was pretty funny when Bob trashed his audience at his young age--isn't this one of the things people held against him the most back in the day?) (C+)
7)"Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" - Lyrically, this had me wondering if Bob was the first try the "sardonic satire of the founding of America" idea--someone here knows the answer, right?--but the story loses me by the end, meaning the seven minute running time isn't terribly well-justified, IMO. At least the song "rocks" a little bit with more energy than the previous two tunes, otherwise this is a bit of a weak stretch on this album. (B or B-, depending on whether or not I laugh at the fake-out at the beginning)
8)"Mr. Tambourine Man" - It's a tribute to Bob's gifts that the Byrds version didn't ruin this for me. The campfire vibe is still beautiful and the chorus is still indelible. Great, now I'm writing like some horse-fister for Rolling Stone. Guys, should Springsteen be on the cover for the umpteen jillionth time this month or next month? Or should we put this month's hot disposable scantily clad female pop star on the cover instead? How ARE magazine sales these days, huh? (A)
9)"Gates Of Eden" - The other big "discovery" on the album. If I heard this in Don't Look Back or something like that, I must've forgotten it. I feel that Young Bob pulls off the seriousness or whatever you want to call it impressively enough--he just sounds like he really means it when he talks about what's inside the ####in' Gates of Eden. One more inch to the left of not pulling it off and a bullet goes right through this song's self-important heart and we end up with some godawful trash for the kids, like "Eve Of Destruction" or something like that. But Bob's good enough! He got it! (A-)
10."It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" - The melody is good enough to save the song, but the seven and a half minute running time isn't. What was wrong with three or four minutes? At this point I'm realizing I think I'd like the album better if some of that "thin wild mercury sound" were actually on hand to flesh out the production--some tack piano, Hammond organ, upright bass, papery country drums, etc.? Is that so wrong? I guess this song cries out a bit to just be Bob and gee-tawr, but dare we dream? (B)
11)"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" - To some young college student in 1965 Bob must have sounded downright Biblical on this classic. Think of the emotional impact of being 19 and hearing him hit the high notes when he sings "look out the, saints are comin' throuuuugh!"...of course I knew this song, and it's the best on the album, and he'd rewrite it as "Desolation Row." (A)
OVERALL: It'd get a B....but "B" advised that I'm only a passing-through Dylan fan, not a fanatic, and every Bob Dylan album I've purchased (this, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde, John Wesley Harding, Blood On The Tracks) has been a "grower." No first impression I've ever had of a Bob platter has "held." Thank goodness--to reiterate, I hate it when I don't love a classic, and this is probably the most important album in rock history that I wasn't familiar with yet. But it's true--I think this is a warmup for two albums that I liked better. (B)
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