| Blood on the Tracks | 
 enlarge | Artist: Bob Dylan
Label: Sony
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $6.68
You Save: $7.30 (52%)
New (45) Used (14) Collectible (1) from $5.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 703
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 92398
UPC: 827969239827
EAN: 0827969239827
ASIN: B00026WU7I
Release Date: June 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Tangled Up in Blue | | • | Simple Twist of Fate | | • | You're a Big Girl Now | | • | Idiot Wind | | • | You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go | | • | Meet Me in the Morning | | • | Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts | | • | If You See Her, Say Hello | | • | Shelter from the Storm | | • | Buckets of Rain |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Inevitably, when critics praise a new Dylan album, they label it the "best since Blood on the Tracks," and with good reason. Inspired by a crumbled marriage, and recorded after a tour with the Band had apparently re-ignited his creativity, Blood is among Dylan's masterpieces. The album's epic songs are well known, but its real high points are the shorter numbers--"You're a Big Girl Now," the flawless blues "Meet Me in the Morning," and the sweetly devastating "Buckets of Rain." These are songs of "images and distorted facts," each expressed through tangled points of view, and all of them blue. --David Cantwell
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| Customer Reviews: Read 46 more reviews...
The album that set the benchmark in confessional songwriting February 19, 2005
62 out of 69 found this review helpful
It has been thirty years since "Blood on the Tracks" was released and of all of the albums recorded by Bob Dylan it is the one that has most increased in stature simply because every album produced since then has failed to rise to this level. I think the reason for this is mainly because it was born in a creative burst of pointed lyricisim as his marriage to Sara Lowndes collapsed, with all the songs written in two months in the middle of 1974. I would no more expect any personal turmoil to provide similar inspiration any more than I would have expected any of the songs on this album to rise to the level of social rhetoric found in his greatest songs of the Sixties.
In "Blood on the Tracks" Dylan also turned his back on his greatest backing band, returning to his artistic routes on an album that is largely acoustic-based. The songs run the emotional gamut from sorrow and regret to bitterness and pain. At the same time, despite the obvious point of origin for most of these songs, this is not an openly confessional album (cf. Courtney Love's "America's Sweetheart"). After all, we are talking the lyrics of Bob Dylan, which means cryptic riddles and allegories abound all laid out in ten classic tracks:
"Tangled Up in Blue" is the best song on the album and the ambguity about the characters and relationships Dylan sings about has only increased over the years with the shifting lyrics in various performances. The cover version by the Indigo Girls remains my favorite Dylan cover.
"Simple Twist of Fate" is another great four-word phrase in a song that represents the most overtly personal song on the album. The stark instrumentation only serves to highlight the heartbreak of the existentialist lyrics and the mournful sound of the vocals.
"You're A Big Girl Now" is a ballad on the end of a relationship and a sort of benediction in that clearly the woman is right to move on, but Dylan is still haunted by their physical encounters. You would think that this would have been the logical final track for the album, but it is not.
"Idiot Wind" is song on the album that most reminds me of an earlier Dylan composition, namely "Like a Rolling Stone," the pair being a set of put-down songs. The difference is that while both song lash out in lots of directions, this one keeps coming back to a certain "babe." This is another song that has changed over the year for various reasons that could well inspire a doctoral dissertation.
"You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" is a rather upbeat track, despite the descending chord progressions, and is usually considered a song hopeful of reconciliation rather than one eulogizing the breakup.
"Meet Me in the Morning" stands out musically as the most blues oriented track that always struck me as cleansing the palatte for what was coming next on the album.
"Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" is a 8:50 story song that basically wears down the listener's insistence that this is a biographical album. It also has a line that Dylan seems to sing with nic epitch and without affection, to wit, "and Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair." Pay attention next time through to that one phrase.
"If You See Her, Say Hello" probably represents the emotional low point of the album, with lyrics reflecting a singer who is crushed and embittered by the end of the relationship, turning his anger in on himself.
"Shelter from the Storm" is a song of simple beauty, based on three chords and a simple melody, underscoring a profound sense of loss. The song provides an avalanche of symbols and metaphors, but actually seems to end on an optimstic note.
"Buckets of Rain" provides a fitting finale, suitably depressing lyrics against a rather upbeat melody as irony once again abounds. After this song there is no where left to go.
"Blood on the Tracks" is listed by "Rolling Stone" magazine as the #16 record on the list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, between #15 "Are You Experienced?" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and #17 "Nevermind" by Nirvana. It is one of ten Dylan albums on the list, behind #4 "Highway 61 Revisited" and #9 "Blonde on Blonde." This For pretty much the complete story on the making of this classic album, check out "A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks" by music journalist Andy Gill and guitarist Kevin Odegard, who played on the five tracks recorded in Minneapolis. You can also listen to "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3" to hear the original version of "Tangled Up in Blue," "Idiot Wind," and "If You See Her, Say Hello" recorded in New York City in September to compare with the Twin Cities versions from December of 1974.
Great Artistic Achievement, Essential Remaster January 21, 2005
31 out of 35 found this review helpful
Dylan fans who know every nuance may be more qualified than I to report on the quality of a Dylan remaster. But collectors always have lots to wonder about when a new Sony remaster is released, so I will go out on a limb as the first to review this one, with emphasis on the sound. Maybe someone else can comment on the editing.
In my opinion, this reissue replaces one of the most abominable CDs ever to occupy the Sony/Dylan catalog. Other favorites like Blonde on Blonde, Highway 51, and JW Harding sounded pretty good in a relative way, but the previous incarnation of BOTT had such dismal sound it was almost unlistenable - whenever I heard it I got a headache.
So the new BOTT has a lot in its favor before the first listen, but actually hearing it is really a pleasure again for the first time since vinyl. For a recording of this significance, its been a long time coming.
I wouldn't say this is Dylan's greatest album, but I wouldn't say it isn't. Dylan had released a few clunkers before shocking everybody with the amazing coherence, narrative power, and universal relevance of Blood on the Tracks. Like Dylan's best albums, listening is like touring a gallery or watching a play as it goes from one dramatic scene to another. Dylan's migrant American romances consistently connect with the listener and draw more than ever from experience - where he might have been brilliant and condescending as a younger man, he now expresses pain, remorse and the need for love and forgiveness.
Still waiting for the Remastered Basement Tapes edition...
Like an old friend. April 15, 2007
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Even a cursed eighties born child of the disposible Killers-generation like me can appreciate the genius behind 'Blood on the tracks' In contrast to the commonplace acts of today, Dylans music has always sustained staying power and relevance and this record is still a great illustration of his amazing talent many years after its release. This is an important and poetic record which deals with real emotions (turning a failed marriage into a force for good) and contains some of his most eternal songs (such as 'Idiot wind' and 'Shelter from the storm') The virtuosity displayed on 'Blood' is rare and special. I would recommend this album to anyone.
You're gonna make me listen all the way November 18, 2006
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Of all the CD's in my collection, "Blood on the Tracks" is probably the one I've listened to the most. It works best when you can listen to it uninterrupted, as the songs lead effortlessly from one to another--I can't imagine listening to it on the "random" setting. Other reviewers here have provided excellent song-by-song synopses. It's hard to pick a favorite track--each has its own attributes: "Shelter from the Storm" and "Simple Twist of Fate" are the most poignant; "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Jack of Hearts" tell the best stories, and "Idiot Wind" is the best rant. I always love hearing "Ashtabula" rhymed with "old Honolula" in "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome". And did I mention the lovely guitar work on "Buckets of Rain" and "If You See Her, Say Hello"?
BOTT doesn't contain many of my all-time favorite Dylan songs (which include, off the top of my head--Like a Rolling Stone, Hurricane, Isis, Joey, Just Like a Woman, and Visions of Johanna; Jack of Hearts is probably in there somewhere), but it's my favorite Dylan album overall. The "listen all the way through" experience is rivalled only by "Time Out of Mind", but that's a different CD, a different Dylan and another review.
An Open Diary, One of the Great Albums March 6, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Written with a broken heart, an album that can make a grown man weep. One of Dylan's great efforts, arguably the best album of the '70s. If only he could sing :). As with a lot of Dylan's songs, the instrumental track grabs you and it's a bit of a let down when the familiar nasal voice enters the proceedings, but you're soon swept up in the sheer brilliance of the lyric and phrasing. You can listen to this album a thousand times and never get tired of it. One of the big 5 Dylan albums, along w/ Freewheelin', Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 and Bringing it All Back Home. My personal favorite, and I'm in the minority on this, is Bringing it All Back Home, which is IMHO the greatest album ever made in the rock/pop genre. Dylan changed music forever when he did his Ben Franklin imitation and discovered electricity. Before that he only introduced a theme song for a generation (Blowin' in the Wind) and the most powerful song of the '60s (A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall). Rock music grew up with Dylan. He broke all kinds of barriers (the length of songs, fused various genres and brought intelligence to lyrics). The Beatles could no longer sing She Loves You Ya ya ya after Dylan raised the bar. Jerry Garcia: No Dylan, no Dead. Check it out and you'll discover what I did: that the Jewish kid from Minnesota has the goods!
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