Review:
“Bob Dylan lost some of his most loyal fans when he released Bringing It All Back Home after he did the unthinkable – he plugged in.” CS “With Another Side of Bob Dylan, Dylan had begun pushing past folk” STE and now, “for the first time, this folk music hero used an electric guitar, as evident from the very outset of Subterranean Homesick Blues.” CS the “raucous leadoff track and Dylan’s first top-40 single.” SM “He even pays tribute to electrified rocker Chuck Berry by borrowing from his ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ for the first track.” CS
“It’s not just that he went electric, either.” STE “The opener is only the beginning of the revolution.” CS “From start to finish, Bringing It All Back Home is one of Dylan’s most enduring statements, containing some of Dylan’s greatest songs and performances.” SM “He’s exploding with imagination throughout the record.” STE Home “had the requisite folk tunes that fans expected, it also contained songs of introspection and paranoia, alongside beautifully poetic love songs – all within the confines of a single album.” SM “This is the point where Dylan eclipses any conventional sense of folk and rewrites the rules of rock, making it safe for personal expression and poetry, not only making words mean as much as the music, but making the music an extension of the words.” STE
“He writes uncommonly beautiful love songs (She Belongs to Me, Love Minus Zero/No Limit) that sit alongside uncommonly funny fantasias (On the Road Again, Bob Dylan's 115th Dream).” STE
“Maggie’s Farm and It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) openly criticize the American government, spawning the catch phrase, ‘Money doesn’t talk, it swears,’ and infuriating listeners with the immortal line, ‘flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark.’” CS
“The nominal folk songs derive from the same vantage point as the rockers, leaving traditional folk concerns behind and delving deep into the personal. And this isn’t just introspection, either, since the surreal paranoia on [the aforementioned] ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ and the whimsical poetry of Mr. Tambourine Man are individual, yet not personal.” STE
“Dylan still remembers his folk heritage, delivering some of his best acoustic narratives, including It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue and the dream-like Gates of Eden. But for Dylan, the future was electric.” CS
“Dylan broke all musical boundaries.” SM with this “remarkable collection of songs unlike anything else up to that time.” SM “If you’re…just starting your Dylan collection, this is the perfect place to start.” SM
Review Source(s):
1.5
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3.5
