Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan (1965)

ideated from: a favorite album that starts with ‘B’. Looking through the list I realized it wasn’t even easy to pick my favorite Bob Dylan album that starts with ‘B’, as Blonde On Blonde and Blood On The Tracks would also have fit the bill.

My attempt to write up Bob Dylan for the first time, without spilling 5000 words about how much his music has meant to me over the years or what a towering figure he is. Yeah, he’s ok, I guess, if you like this sort of thing.

This album was the transition from solo folk singer Bob Dylan to 60s rock n roll icon Bob Dylan. Side one is raucous blues rock that include some stone cold classics. Side 2 is more acoustic, but the toned-down music belies how deep and epic the songwriting is.

Tracks I Liked

Subterranean Homesick Blues - Look, it’s some white guy shit to say that Dylan “invented” rap. He definitely did not. But he did figure out that the pre-war talking blues tradition fit well in a pop song structure, and this is just a proof-of-concept that ended up being prescient.

Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream - There’s an understated joke in the part where he flips a coin, and it took me like 15 years of knowing this song to catch it.

Mr Tambourine Man - Trying to stay away from hyperbole, but this is one of the greatest songs ever conceived. Dylan’s version brings out the manic urgency of the lyric, whereas many other recordings of it emphasize the beauty rather than the edginess.

It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) - you get waves of meaning that wash over you so quickly you can’t process it all. A monumental achievement.