Tag Archives: Blood On The Tracks

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan albums

January 20: Bob Dylan Released Blood On The Tracks in 1975

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blood-on-the-tracks-album-cover

A lot of people tell me they enjoy that album. It’s hard for me to relate to that. I mean, you know, people enjoying the type of pain, you know.
~Bob Dylan (to Mary Travers April 1975)

Well, Blood On The Tracks did consciously what I used to do unconsciously. I didn’t perform it well, I didn’t have the power to perform it well, but I did write the songs; they can be changed but the idea was right…
~Bob Dylan (to Matt Damsker, September 1978)
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In stunning, total contrast to the previous album, Before the Flood, this 16th Dylan album triumphantly shows more subtlety and nuance than anything he’d ever done, and as honed a use of understatement as on John Wesley Harding. At the time this was the most unexpected leap of Dylan’s career. After years of comparatively second-rate work and a considerable decline in his reputation, here was an album to stand with Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

Early one mornin’ the sun was shinin’
I was layin’ in bed
Wond’rin’ if she’d changed at all
If her hair was still red
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama’s homemade dress
Papa’s bankbook wasn’t big enough
And I was standin’ on the side of the road
Rain fallin’ on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I’ve paid some dues gettin’ through

Tangled up in blue

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

Dec 30: Bob Dylan Blood On The Tracks, 6th & final recording session 1974

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blood-on-the-tracks-album-cover

The second session @ Minneapolis’ Sound 80 Studios, and the last recording session for “Blood On The Tracks”.

With the first session being a success, Dylan was more relaxed for this session. He knew & trusted the people he was working with. He was also more open to suggestions. The first song he wanted to try was the pivotal “Tangled Up In Blue”; the master take here proved to even top the brilliant New York version.

In New York “Tangled Up In Blue” had been recorded in the key of E (open tuning configuration), in Minneapolis Dylan first tried it in the key of G. Odegard then suggested: “..I think it would be better, livelier, if we moved it up to A with capos. It would kick ass up a notch” (quote from the book “A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks”). And so they did.. & the master take of one of the greatest songs in history was recorded.

Sound 80 Studio
Minneapolis, Minnesota
30 December 1974 
6th and last Blood On The Tracks recording session

Producer: David Zimmerman
Engineer: Paul Martinson

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylans's best songs

Bob Dylan’s best songs – Idiot Wind #10

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bob dylan 1974

It was gravity which pulled us in and destiny which broke us apart
You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn’t enough to change my heart.
Now everything’s a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped,
What’s good is bad, what’s bad is good, you’ll find out when you reach the top
You’re on the bottom.
~Bob Dylan (Idiot wind)

Idiot Wind. Yeah, you know, obviously, if you’ve heard both versions, you realise, of
course, that there could be a myriad of versions for the thing. It doesn’t stop. It
wouldn’t stop. Where do you end? You could still be writing it, really. It’s something
that could be a work continually in progress.
~Bob Dylan (to Paul Zollo, April 1991)

…”Idiot Wind” [album version] is shock treatment. The voice that had been so gentle in “Simple Twist” now is right in your face, one moment reasonable and remarkably lucid, the next moment filled with fury.
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)

Finally a new post in my series of Bob Dylan’s 200 best songs.

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylans's best songs

Bob Dylan’s best songs: Meet Me In The Morning

bob dylan 1974

They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn
They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn
But you wouldn’t know it by me
Every day’s been darkness since you been gone
~Bob Dylan (Meet Me In The Morning)

Certainly “Meet Me In The Morning”…. +
~Buddy Cage (when asked by Robbie Bossert in an interview about his best performance)

..the flawless blues of “Meet Me In The Morning”…
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

vimeo:

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Spotify:

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

September 17: Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks, Second Recording Session in 1974

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blood-on-the-tracks-album-cover

Bob Dylan’s second recording session for Blood On The Tracks continued on  September 17, 1974. Another important day in the studio.

Here are some quotes, facts & music….

We cut the entire album in one day like that. Now that blew my mind. I was 19-years-old and trying to learn how to make art. The style of the time was set by guys I was working with like Paul Simon, who would take weeks recording a guitar part only to throw it away. I thought that was the way one was supposed to do it: one note at a time and a year to make an album. Dylan cut the whole thing in six hours on a Monday night. I was confused. It was like the floor, barely built under my young soul, was being ripped apart, board by board.
Then Dylan came back in on Tuesday, and recorded most of the album again.
~Glenn Berger (Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks: The Untold Story)

Albums involved:

ALBUM Release date CODE
Blood On The Tracks 1975-01-17 BOTT
Biograph 1985-11-07 BIO
Blood On The Tracks – Test pressing  Nov 74 BOTT-TP
Jerry Maguire – Soundtrack 1996-12-10 JMS

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