Musical Interlude, Part Next

Anyone who's a Bob Dylan fan has a favorite album. Most critics seem to say Blonde on Blonde is the best, although my own favorite is Blood on the Tracks. It's interesting that, although Dylan is most widely recognized as a social and political commentator and critic, much of his best work is not political at all.

That's not to say that his exceptional body of socio-political commentary isn't an enormous part of his legacy. I'm just thinking of the great songs of the top of my head: The Times They are A Changing, With God on our Side, Masters of War, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, Hollis Brown, Only a Pawn in Their Game. Just a few of the masterpieces, and there are many more.

But my favorite Dylan music always seems to deal with matters of the heart. That's the theme of Blood on the Tracks, and...jeez, I just looked at the song list from Blonde on Blonde and I guess I see why the critics like it so much. But, again, it centers on matters of the heart. Much of his later work (Empire Burlesque, Infidels) shared that theme as well.

So, to the point. One album that seems to be overlooked by the Dylanology crowd is Desire. Although the opening song, Hurricane, is a viscious commentary on the false imprisonment of boxer Rubin Carter and got some popular notice, the rest of the album is incredibly haunting, confessional stuff that is a bit of a departure.

Anyway, it's full of songs that are so lyrically stark they can be hard to listen to in large doses. My own favorite, Oh, Sister, is almost plaintive. But the melodies and beautiful and the violin is the perfect compliment to the laments.

Give it a try.

By the way, while I was writing this I downloaded the remastered version of Desire from itunes. It sounds absolutely fantastic.