411. Bob Dylan, "Love and Theft"

 


I started out not really liking this album, which I had never heard before, and then I listened some more and started to like it, and listened some more and liked it more, and now it's totally grown on me.  Then I went back and started reading reviews and so many thought this was just magical and wonderful and while I don't think it's QUITE as good as all that, it certainly is interesting.

First, Bob's voice.  We're all used to the weird intonations and nasally lilt Bob Dylan sings with but here he's featuring a deeply craggy, seen-it-all, weary and maybe close to death.  It's a remarkable sound, enough to even be distracting at times, but it fits in with the overall themes of the lyrics, which concern loss and contemplation and looking back over life.

Musically, it's all over the place.  Or, really, all over the place within its narrow confines of "music Bob Dylan listens to."  But there's pretty straight country, and some jazz swing, and some rockabilly, but what it really is about is blues.  Probably the most arresting song on the album is "Lonesome Day Blues," with a might hook that propels the song over Dylan's froggy croak singing about, you know, leaving your long-time darling and that kind of shit.  It's pretty much a straight blues song, but, in typical Dylan fashion, the 11 (!) verses are chock full of literary references and nods.  

I'm sure we'll see a lot more Dylan.  A LOT.

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