It's been a while

Even though I haven't been blogging much (or at all as the case my be) I haven't stopped my Dylan extravaganza. I have actually moved on to several albums and have loved (most) every minute of it. Figured I'd give a brief update on where I'm at.



The Times They Are a-Changin'

What an incredible album! And Dylan's last of just him, a guitar and harmonica. Highlights on this album are definitely: "The Times They Are a-Changing", "Ballad Of Hollis Brown", "North County Blues", and "Only A Pawn In Their Game".



Another Side Of Bob Dylan

Another great album! This is the first time that we start to see a change in Dylan's style. He adds some piano and just seems to experiment more. Highlights: "Black Crow Blues", "Chimes of Freedom", "I Shall Be Free No. 10", "Motorpsycho Nightmare", "My Back Pages".

I'm actually up to Nashville Skyline (that's gonna take some writing), but for now I'll end it here. Next: Dylan goes electric!

The blog's not dead...

I know I haven't posted as much as I had hoped (too much stress!), but I'm still listening to Dylan and still have a lot planned for this blog. Stay tuned...

"The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" - 1963

I am absolutely in love with this album! I have to admit I have a hard time making it all the way through to the finish though. Not because any part of it is better or worse than another part, but because the first three tracks are so good I usually repeat them before track 4 even starts. It seems like the first three songs really sum up Dylan's entire songwriting career: Deep life thoughts (Blowin' in the wind), love songs (Girl from the north country), and politics (Masters of war). I feel like I have a lot to say about this record, but I'm still organizing my thoughts. More to come soon...

2/20/10

Well.... I didn't want to do this in the beginning, but I have realized a need to change some of my rules. As mentioned earlier, I am having a horrible time finding good tabs online for the guitar (not to mention the amount of paper I'm using to print all the songs), so I got "The Definitive Bob Dylan Songbook" the other day and will be using that as my only reference for the guitar. It contains over 325 songs and actually has the right chords. The only disadvantage is that it doesn't contain any of Bob Dylan's covers, i.e. most of his first album. I'm not too heartbroken over this as it was his songs that I wanted to learn.

The other rule that I decided to just remove if the rule that I cannot buy the CDs off the internet. I liked this rule in the beginning, but as I have already had problems finding "The Times They Are a-Changing" and CDs from most stores actually seem to run almost double what I can get them for online... That rule is now gone.

Clarification

I wanted to update where I'm at on this saga of Dylan... Basically, I've gone through the whole first album many times and have attempted to play a good number of them, however, the guitar tabs I've been getting off the internet are typically not accurate at all. For this reason, I will be buying a complete Dylan songbook very soon and using that instead. Because it will still be a little while before I get the songbook, and because most of the songs on the first album were not written by Dylan, I will (for the only time) be moving on to his next album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" this week. I will go back and play the songs on his debut album as soon as I get the accurate chords, but I really wanted the focus of this blog to be on his songwriting, not my guitar playing. The reason for the guitar playing is because I have an easier time retaining songs when I play through them myself. Plus, it sounds fun.:)

"Bob Dylan" -1962- First album review

I have a few guidelines that I've always said I would stick to if I was a music producer: 1) Any artists that I would produce would have to play an instrument. 2) They wouldn't have to have a great voice, but it would be nice if they could at least carry a tune. And 3) They would have to write at least 95% of the songs they perform.

I've gotta say that I am a little (but not too much) disappointed in Dylan's debut album. The biggest reason for this is because even though he can carry a tune, and he does a great job with both the guitar and the harmonica, he only wrote about 5% of the album and that was mostly music. That was disappointing because one of the biggest draws to Dylan for me was his songwriting. I am so looking forward to hearing his songs on the next album! That said...

“Bob Dylan” is a very good album in and of itself. Though not Dylan's songs, he does have (for lack of a better phrase) a whole lot of soul! He sings the songs as if he had written them and his life depended on them. One thing that I found interesting in the album is the Dylan sounds like a 80 year old man. I think he actually sounds younger in his later work.

I'm not going to go into too much detail on this album because it is mostly his songwriting that I want to focus on in this blog. I have started playing some of the songs on guitar and hope to play through the whole thing very soon. It's just easier to play them as I learn to remember them by listening to them. Hopefully at this pace I will be able to jump into “The Free Wheelin' Bob Dylan” (The only other album I already have, but have not listened to) very soon. I will be spending a lot of time on that album!

Album # 1 - Bob Dylan

Today I bought Bob Dylan's first release: "Bob Dylan". I listened to it straight through and I'm already very impressed. Much more on this album to come!