Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan

I could not sleep the other night and my ipad was dead so the only choice I had for music was my phone. Luckily I did have a little Bob Dylan on my phone. Listening to this album I was reminded again how very special it was.

Dylan made several classic albums in the sixties. Over and over he bested himself with Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. From there his albums such as New Morning and John Wesley Harding while good did not measure up in his fans eyes.

Released in January 1975 Blood on the Tracks set a more modern benchmark in Dylan's career. With future releases not measuring up to or in the case of Time Out of Mind being the best album since, Blood on the Tracks is a demarcation point in his career.

Many speculate that Dylan was writing about his own life in a confessional way. He and his then wife Sara were in the process of splitting up and many of the songs do tend to deal with heartache and loss. Still Dylan insists he did not write his own life.

The album opens with one of the few songs in the Dylan canon that are included in almost every show. Tangled up in Blue remains one of the most popular Dylan songs, there are numerous verses and versions which are added and dropped depending on what seems to be Bob's mood. A great song.

Simple Twist of Fate is another concert staple, Dylan performed that last year here in Bangor. With each verse ending up in the same place it is easy to enjoy.

Your a Big Girl Now and Your Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go are two songs that were Zimmy to be talking to Sara these would be two of the songs he was using.

Idiot Wind is one of my favorites from the album. Bob stretches out the word Idiot into more syllables than you or I would and it is one I always enjoy. Years ago I heard a live version that was good too.

Side Two, in old album terms, starts with Meet in the Morning and ends with Shelter from the Storm and Buckets of Rain. The latter is another of my personal favorites.

Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts is a song that perhaps only Dylan could get away with, certainly in 1975. The song told over a consistent chord and riff in sing-talk Dylan style tells us all about what took place on a day in the west of old.

Outside of Tangled the most recognizable and perhaps best song on the album is If You See Her Say Hello. A song of Dylan telling friends what to say to an ex lover should they come across her and beseeching them to stop by if she is passing through. A song that we all can sing and many of us have lived it is Dylan, confessional or not, at his best.

This album consistently lands in the Top 10 or 20 albums of the rock era when those lists come out. It is in that place deservedly so. A fantastic album.