#31 Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan

Spoiler Alert: This post won't be very funny.  Seriously.  If you want humor check out the Transformer post.  If you want to oo and ahh about Bob Dylan, keep on a readin'.

I haven't posted on a Bob Dylan album yet because frankly, his albums are all so personal to me that anything I write about them will be like exposing a piece of me that's been so entwined with his music and too close to home to share.  I think a lot of die hard Dylan fans would agree.

However, Bobby D served as a recovery drink to the accidental Horcrux that was created when a part of my soul died listening to Liz Phair.  I've decided now that I will listen to a Dylan album after an album that has made me contemplate quitting this marathon.  You'll know all the albums I dislike by where a Dylan album follows.  I'm glad there isn't a shortage of Dylan on the list :)

This one is my favorite!!!

I'm also intimidated to post anything on a Dylan album because they are all so packed with genius that there is nowhere to begin and I could write a thesis on how important this album is, but I will spare you 50 pages of thoughts.

Instead, here are some album facts: Bringing It All Back Home came out in 1965 and was his 5th studio album, mixing rock and folk.  

and Here is the set list:

Subterranean Homesick Blues

She Belongs to Me

Maggie's Farm

Love Minus Zero/No Limit

Outlaw Blues

On the Road Again

Bob Dylan's 115th Dream

Mr. Tambourine Man

Gates of Eden

It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

As a kid growing up, I remember hearing "Mr. Tambourine Man" playing in the car on the way to school or in different rooms all over the house throughout my childhood.  I remember thinking that I wouldn't want a guy with a tambourine to play me a song because it would sound awful and that this song would do if he would stop trying to get someone else to sing a song.  But the tune stuck in my head for a long time, and when I went off to college, it was playing on the drive from Corpus Christi to North Texas and I remember looking out the window thinking I was going on an adventure and this song was sending me on my way.  The song has since changed more for me since and I hear it from different perspectives and view life differently through its lens each time it is played.  It is my all time favorite song, not to mention my favorite Dylan song.  It finds me when I'm alone, inside my own thoughts.  Like the time I flew across the country and had a few lay overs and I stopped at an airport book store in Tennessee and picked up "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and thought, meh, maybe I won't read it, even though I've heard great things, and I was about to put it down when I flipped to the dedication page and read what Hunter S. Thompson wrote:

"To Bob Geiger, for reasons that need not be explained here--and to Bob Dylan, for Mister Tambourine Man"

and like that I bought the book.  I read most of the book with Dylan singing in my ears.

Every song on this album has little lines of prophetic truths, moments of clarity, and it's not without a bit of silliness.  All and all, an excellent listen.

I'll leave you with a video:

 

Even though you'll never see this, I just want to say Thanks, Bob for making my life better by having you in it.

What RSM has to say:

It's very complicated to play with electricity," Dylan said in the summer of 1965. "You're dealing with other people. . . . Most people who don't like rock & roll can't relate to other people." But on Side One of this pioneering album, Dylan amplifies his cryptic, confrontational songwriting with guitar lightning and galloping drums. "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "Maggie's Farm" are loud, caustic and funny as hell. Dylan returns to solo acoustic guitar on the four superb songs on Side Two, including the scabrous "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and the closing ballad, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," arguably his finest, most affectionate song of dismissal.