Tuesday, December 15, 2009

RVOW: Desire by Bob Dylan (1975)

RVOW is back and this week I'm spinning Desire, Bob Dylan's second straight Album of the Year (1975's Blood on The Tracks and Desire in '76) according to Britain's New Musical Express Magazine. Blood on The Tracks is universally heralded as Dylan's best work of the decade; complete with "Tangled Up in Blue," "Shelter from the Storm," and "Simple Twist of Fate," but Desire did top the charts in the U.S. for 5 weeks and is a record that I can never go too long without revisiting. One main reason is the band. Howie Wyeth on drums and Scarlet Rivera on "gypsy" violin are instrumental standouts in this traveling ensemble and show known as "The Rolling Thunder Revue," (see The Bootleg Series Vol. 5). More widely praised, but then less known, is the beautiful face and marvelous voice from Gram Parsons recordings and tours before his tragic death a few years prior, Ms. Emmylou Harris. The duets can't really hold up to Parsons and Harris' country balladry, but Emmylou and Dylan do light up the entire record (Harris is only absent from "Isis," and "Sara," the passionate autobiographical "letter" to Dylan's then recently divorced ex and mother of Jacob Dylan of Wallflowers fame). The best duets are undoubtedly "Joey," the story of the then recently deceased New York gangster "Crazy" Joe Gallo, and "Oh, Sister," which concludes side one. The end of side one also holds the most beautiful and integral violin performances in both the afore mentioned ballad "Oh, Sister," and the arabesque "One More Cup of Coffee." The true power and skill of the band are best represented on "Black Diamond Bay," and the opening epic; "Hurricane," a strophic poem told in "cinematic" storytelling style about the wrongful arrest and conviction of boxer Ruben "Hurricane" Carter. Carter was eventually released on appeal some twenty years later, but was never exonerated for the murder of two men and one woman in Patterson New Jersey in 1966. The song was the biggest hit of the record peaking at 33 on the Billboard charts and remains the most well-known track on the record. It even appeared in "Dazed and Confused," and that scene has since been referenced on shows like "The Family Guy." The last collaborator on this record that absolutely must be mentioned and who could easily be referenced as the most important is co-writer to every track save "Sara," Mr. Jacques Levy. Dylan and Levy have contributed brilliant A-B-A-B rhyme schemed couplets on tracks like "Isis," and the Tex-Mex "Romance in Durango," which stand up next to any lyrics in the entire Dylan catalogue. This record has it all for Dylan fans and together with the live recordings represented on the 1975 edition of the Bootleg series mentioned above represents the height of the 70's and one of the highest peaks of Dylan's career as performer and songwriter. It feels good to have this now certified double-platinum album on vinyl and be able to let it cruise around the needle the way it was originally intended to. Go dig.

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