Blonde on Blonde is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as a double album on June 20, 1966, by Columbia Records. Recording sessions began in New York in October 1965 with numerous backing musicians, including members of Dylan's live backing band, the Hawks. Though sessions continued until January 1966, they yielded only one track that made it onto the final album—"One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)". At producer Bob Johnston's suggestion, Dylan, keyboardist Al Kooper, and guitarist Robbie Robertson moved to the CBS studios in Nashville, Tennessee. These sessions, augmented by some of Nashville's top session musicians, were more fruitful, and in February and March all the remaining songs for the album were recorded. Blonde on Blonde completed the trilogy of rock albums that Dylan recorded in 1965 and 1966, starting with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. Critics often rank Blonde on Blonde as one of the greatest albums of all time. Combining the expertise of Nashville session musicians with a modernist literary sensibility, the album's songs have been described as operating on a grand scale musically, while featuring lyrics one critic called "a unique mixture of the visionary and the colloquial". It was one of the first double albums in rock music. The album peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200 chart in the US, where it eventually was certified double platinum, and it reached number three in the UK. Blonde on Blonde spawned two singles that were top-twenty hits in the US: "Rainy Day Women ♯12 & 35" and "I Want You". Two additional songs—"Just Like a Woman" and "Visions of Johanna"—have been named as among Dylan's greatest compositions and were featured in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. In 1999, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was ranked number 38 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2020.
Well now, I expect you're all reading this waiting for some crude blonde on blonde story that has nothing to do with this album. So, here goes... I once met these two blonde, lesbian twins. They were so in love with their own image that they, as you've already guessed, started banging eachother. They would scissor so hard against eachother , that one day they caught fire and burnt to death. The end.
The man won a Nobel Prize for Literature, and this album is the reason. It's an accomplishment of a lifetime, even before the lyrics are set to music. I don't think I have the words for this one. It's great. It's great. Best track: Visions of Johanna
Dylan said: "The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind was on individual bands in the Blonde on Blonde album. It's that thin, that wild mercury sound. It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up."
Well over two decades ago was the night that caused my hearing problems. There was a fabulous show upstairs at the El Mocambo that evening. My ears were rInging for two weeks after that show and the moment when they started ringing was during the song Absolutely Sweet Marie and more specifically when the lyrics "to live outside the law you must be honest - Dawlin!" were whaled into the mic and the inbred drummer thrashed the cymbal with superhuman strength - he was trying to show his manliness since he was quite obviously sweet on my friend Julie - a fact which her husband found more entertaining than the concert. No it wasn't a Dylan concert. It also wasn't George Harrison's much better known but painfully boring cover version. It was none other than Jason and the Scorchers. My brother probably doesn't remember sending me a tape of Jason's music during university and probably hasn't thought about that band for decades. I, on the other hand, think of the band every time I say "pardon". If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing We've had so many Dylan albums I really didn't think I had a five left for him, but I dug one up thanks to Jason, Warner and the inbred drummer.
I went out with a Johanna... this song was probably longer than our date.
Gawd, his voice may be distinctive and cool and all that, but his singing style makes me want to gouge out my ears. Pick a note and stick with it, buddy. What is with all this pitch wandering mid-syllable? Eh-EEEEEH-verybody must not copy this guy. Lyrics are probably pretty good though. And musically… sure! So a solid three st-AAAA-aaars.
Songs too long-winded for my liking. The lyrics are good but not sure I need quite so many verses per song.
Bob Dyldo.
very large amount of harmonica. in a bad way. it was very loud and annoying. i mean don’t get me wrong, he has talent, but this album did nothing for me.
I love this album very much. It was the first Bob Dylan album I properly listened to when I was about 15 and it blew my little mind. The structure of the songs was so different to anything else and the lyrics were supreme. God bless Bobbles.
I wanted to give an impartial listen to this one, I wanted to know if I know Dylan because my parents love him or because the music... I even read the generational warfare that are the reviews prior to the listen which make some good points but, caught myself humming and closing my eyes enjoying this gem. Even before I understood English language I loved Dylan. This to me, is another 5/5.
Do you know what perfect pitch is? It’s when you pitch an old sofa into a dumpster and it lands on a box of harmonicas. #jokes Harmonicas aside, I like the ballad-y tunes on this album a lot. “Just Like a Woman,” “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” and “Fourth Time Around” all work for me so much better than the bluesy uptempo stuff like “Temporary Like Achilles” decidedly does not. I probably would’ve been one of the jerks who went to see Dylan and booed when he got out his electric guitar. Kidding, I would do that when he got out his harmonica, so I would’ve been booing the whole show.
I don't know what can I say about this one
I'm not going to get into whether this is Dylan's BEST album. That just feels like too weighty of a proclamation for anyone to make, and I'm pretty sure that personally, there's one or two I'd pick over this one. Probably. Depending on the weather and the day of the week. That said, there is almost no potential for argument that this is among his best and most important work, and that he is one of the most important musicians and artists of the past century. So, no way I'm rating this anything less than 5 stars. One thing I love about this one is the variance in the tracks included - which feels pretty different than, say, Blood on the Tracks or Desire. There's epic ballads like Visions of Johanna or Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, there's raucous romps like Rainy Day Women and Leopard Skinned Pill-Box Hat, there's the more likely radio friendly singles like I Want You, Stuck Inside of Mobile.., and Just Like a Woman, and also the sleeper tracks, songs like Fourth Time Around and Obviously Five Believers, that are maybe less memorable or iconic, less likely to make a greatest hits comp, but still very strong and interesting songs on their own. It's worth clicking through to the Wikipedia link, assuming you're listening digitally, to take a look at how the track listing splits up over four sides of a vinyl double album. The whole flow works pretty amazingly, with the bulk of the album switching up tempo and feel nicely, bookended by some of the more rocking songs (Rainy Day Women and Obviously Five Believers open side one and end side 3) and then Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands tacked on as the fourth side all by itself, feeling almost like a "hidden track" on a CD release, an interesting and epic coda on the whole thing. Look, if you are into Dylan, you can feel one way or another about where this album fits into his body of work, but I'd be surprised if anyone who likes him thinks it's crap. If you aren't into Dylan, it's worth making some effort to dig a little deeper into his music, and if this doesn't work as your starting point, I'd say it's well worth checking out some of his other stuff.
It's a masterpiece. He spends too long on the harmonica and if you're not using good speakers his voice can be nails on a chalkboard but it's song after song of depth, beauty and perfection. It's not even his best album but there are songs here that are just timeless. If you don't respect Dylan, you don't like modern music.
The last of his rock trilogy, Blonde on Blonde might be Bob Dylan's best album as well as his most sweeping and expansive. Backed by a host of studio musicians as well as members of his live band, Dylan delivers a wonderfully produced and arranged album that is stunningly cohesive. Dylan's storytelling and songwriting is also at its best on this album with a forward driving feel that carries the listener from one song to the next.
Dylan is one of those rare artists who I don't like to write or say too much about because whatever I have to say feels so, I don't know, unoriginal. It's not even based upon how much I like his music; it's more about how and what he wrote, recorded, performed, etc., and the immeasurable impact he had upon such a massive amount of music that followed. Regarding this particular album, although I did own it at one point, I didn't know it was his seventh studio album, and it was still only 1966. Makes me realize there is so much to his catalog (preceding and following this record) that I really don't know at all, so it will be great to explore it all deeper. This album has a lot of great stuff in it. Man, what a freaking writer.
It's daunting to thoughtfully take on any Bob Dylan album, even one I've listened to numerous times. Blonde on Blonde is more than a little intimidating in that regard. Other albums are mere collections of songs. This album is a whole universe, encompassing 14 other universes. People try interpreting his lyrics all the time, but I think Dylan resists that sort of analysis. It's like the album cover, it gives a hazy impression of the man, but focus in too closely, and it's increasingly harder to see. Blonde on Blonde is one of the most beautiful, perfectly crafted albums ever made. It's Dylan at his peak as a songwriter. When you realize how many of these songs were written as they were being recorded, it's pretty mind-boggling. This is some of the best songwriting ever done, and Dylan just kind of spun them out in the moment and called in the band when he needed them. No songwriter comes close to touching the quality of these lyrics and they flow from him so naturally. The album is full of gorgeous compositions, due in no small part to the brilliant work of Al Kooper and Robbie Robertson, as part of a crew of seasoned studio musicians. It’s full of languid, melancholy songs that somehow blend perfectly with the irreverent, blues-based ones, even though on paper they shouldn't. The lyrics run the range from delicate and vulnerable, to jocular and obtuse, to acidic and surreal. The scenes he paints with his words are masterful, as I said, universes unto themselves. Every song here individually is a gem, there is no filler. Put them all together and you have one of the greatest 72 minutes of music you will ever hear. It gets better every time I hear it. Fave Songs (All songs, in order from most to least favorite): One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later), Visions of Johanna, Temporary Like Achilles, Just Like a Woman, Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, Obviously Five Believers, Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine), Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, Fourth Time Around, Absolutely Sweet Marie, Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat, I Want You, Pledging My Time, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Personally, I consider this album to be the Bob Dylan's, magnum opus. Blonde On Blonde is one of the greatest double albums of all time, right up there with Exile On Main St., The White Album and The Wall. Essential!
The surreal nature of Dylan lyrics always surprises me - they approach a feeling of laziness in how simple they are, but so much colour and fantastical imagery is evoked that it's hard to believe they just came outta nowhere. The musicality in this record is surprisingly diverse, from raucous blues stompers like Rainy Day Women, and Most Likely You Go Your Way, which is still a staple in his live shows over 50 years later, to the Norwegian Wood 'homage' of 4th Time Around. It's fun, it's sad, it's whimsical and a little bit magical.
One of the most culturally significant albums. He's a poet and a storyteller. By most accounts the guy can't sing, but it really doesn't matter. His music and this album illuminates in such a deep inexplicable way that surpasses judgement of conventional skill.
While my favorite band has always been, and remains, the Beatles, my favorite solitary artist is, and always will be, Bob Dylan. Some of my earliest childhood musical memories are of my parents playing Dylan’s second LP, 'The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,' released right before my fourth birthday. My dad had a mahogany colored Gibson acoustic guitar and would strum along while singing these folk masterpieces. Later in college, my roommate turned me on to the outstanding 'Blood on the Tracks,' recently released. And before and after those two, there was the brand new electric sound of 'Bringing It All Back Home' and 'Highway 61 Revisited' in the 1960s, then at the end of that same decade the new country sound (and very new voice, literally) of 'Nashville Skyline,' the mid 70s Americana collaborations with The Band, the end of 70s/early 80s born-again Christian LPs, followed by the very un-Christian titled, 'Infidels,' and so on and so on. If you want to ride or die with Dylan, you better put on a helmet first. But 'Blonde On Blonde' is possibly my very favorite of the lot, partly due to an unexplainable experience I had while listening to its final track. I believe it must have been the winter of 2004, and I was sick with the flu. I don’t get sick, much, but when I do, it makes up for lost time. So there I lay in bed with a fever, aching all over, burning up one moment, freezing the next, dark yellowy green snot dripping out of my nose, dark yellowy green vomit projecting out of my mouth and, yes, dark yellowy green shit flying out of my ass. My ears were the only healthy functioning, dry orifice remaining on my body. I was ingesting some over the counter meds, but nothing that rendered me in an especially altered state of consciousness. I had the state of mind to drive myself to the hospital, if it had come to that, as long as there were plastic sheets covering the seat. Anyway, I had recently purchased a copy of 'Blonde On Blonde' on CD, already familiar with several of the songs, but having never listened to it in its entirety (the way LPs used to be formatted.) So, engulfed in blankets like a human burrito, I popped the CD into my Sony Discman and pushed play. I don’t really remember anything until the final song, 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,' which I very much recall with the clarity of John on the island of Patmos receiving what we now refer to as 'The Revelation,' coincidentally (providentially?) also the final track of the New Testament. I was transported for the next eleven minutes into some other plane of existence. I was in a near dream-like state of consciousness, yet not unconscious; totally unaware of any feeling in my body, while at the same time completely aware of the lyrics and music I was hearing. It was not so much an out of body experience as it was a kind of spiritual transcendence. After the song concluded, everything returned to normal like Jesus’ disciples own experience on the mountain following his transfiguration as witnessed in the gospels. I immediately replayed the song, but nothing happened. And I’ve never been able to duplicate the moment, although I’ve played that song and this LP countless numbers of times over the almost two decades since. Quantum physics is confirming the claims that mystics and shamans from all the religious traditions have been making for eons: the existence of a universal consciousness or ‘field’ from which anyone may access wisdom, guidance, and inspiration concerning things as varied as the invention of mechanical instruments to the composition of a song. I believe this is what I tapped into on my sick day, as well as what Dylan tapped into when he wrote his songs. I know this somewhat through my limited understanding, but much more so from my own personal experience. All my good ideas come from elsewhere, beyond me, when I get out of the way. The only shitty ideas are the ones that my own mind constructs independent of inspiration. Watch some of these documentaries featuring Dylan’s early years and observe how he sits and taps away on a typewriter composing lyrics while people are partying all around him, sometimes even playing their own songs! It’s incredible. He’s not thinking. He’s channeling. The thinking part comes later during the editing process, when the mind serves its rightful purpose. But the mind needs to be corralled for the initial inspiration. I know this to be absolutely true. And Dylan has said as much himself in interviews, if you can decipher his evasive, contradictory answers from one interview to the next, often accompanied with a gleam in his eye and a slight grin, as if to echo Jesus’ equally ambiguous remark ‘let those who have ears, hear.’ Now, its one thing to have this gift (but by that I don’t mean to suggest that its only available to the few- it’s yours for the receiving, too); but, its another thing altogether to be able to then communicate it musically in an enjoyable, accessible way, solo, or in a band. Once Dylan decided he wanted other players, he would simply go from one to another, inviting those who were in current communion with the muse and dismissing those who had temporarily fallen out. Didn’t matter so much how well one played necessarily; rather, how well one’s vibrational frequency was in alignment with his own, which in turn was in constant fine tuning to the Field’s. Therefore, sometimes you get Al Cooper’s uniquely organ work, the little fills throughout ‘I Want You.’ That’s a very popular and easily recitable song. But have you ever been aware of how important Cooper’s part is in the overall sound? One minute Hargus ‘Pig’ Robbins is tinkling some blues piano Fats Domino shit (and I’m using that to indicate high respect) in the background of ‘Pledging My Time,’ or ‘Temporarily Like Achilles,’ then, out of the blue, on ‘One of Us Must Know,’ Paul Griffin is now doing all these Gershwin-esque fills. Lead guitarist, Robbie Robertson shares his thin, wild, searing blues guitar solos on ‘Obviously 5 Believers’ and especially ‘Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,’ only to find Dylan himself, in a response to John Lennon’s ‘Norwegian Wood,’ just softly finger picks his way through ‘4th Time Around,’ while Robbie takes five for a cigarette. Too much thinking and overdub guitar-ing would have killed that song. And was Dylan’s voice ever more beautiful than on this LP, soaring on ‘One of Us Must Know,’ then softly lamenting, longing on ‘Visions of Johanna.’ Filled to the brim with mirth, he can’t help but chuckles occasionally at the double (at least) entendre, not to mention the general hilarity of the party encircling him, on ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.’ If anyone ever tells you Dylan can’t sing, crack ‘em over the head with your copy of 'Blonde On Blonde.' No, on second thought, save that to play. Hit ‘em instead with one of those awful Britpop records. Dylan purposefully slides up and down one note to the next, and purposefully changes the cadence to fit where the lyrics have taken him. He’s not in the least concerned about making verse number three longer than the preceding two, if that’s where the muse has traveled. ‘Visions of Johanna’ is one of many examples of this. The only genre of music that’s more liberated then Dylan’s is ‘free’ jazz. Finally, the lyrics. There’s a reason why he was awarded the 2016 Noble Prize in Literature. This review is already way too long, so I’m not about to start quoting the wonder captured in every single song on this LP from ‘balancing a mattress on a bottle of wine’ to ‘Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles’ to the famous and oft quoted, ‘to live outside the law you must be honest.’ His gift for pictures, scenes that are first heard through the ears and then painted across the inner eyes are absolutely stunning. And unbelievable contemporary. The rhymes on the bridge of ‘Just Like a Woman’ read with a cadence to rival any modern hip-hop master. Remember, now, this is the year 1966! (By the way, it’s very helpful to see these lyrics printed, so one may catch the nuance of his referring to the subject of ‘Just Like a Woman,’ as Baby with a capital ‘B’ rather than baby. The latter is a term of endearment. I think the capital ‘B’ Baby is something else entirely.) Sagacious, tender, and viciously hilarious, like my favorite of the bunch from ‘Absolutely Sweet Marie’: ‘Well, anybody can be just like me, obviously. But then, now again, not too many can be like you… fortunately.’ That one lyric alone is worth the cost of the whole thing, at least as far as I’m concerned. But in addition to its figurative meaning, I also hear this quite literally. Anybody can be just like Dylan, obviously. I mean, he is just a human, like you and I, and thus just a drop in the universal ocean, also like you and I, obviously. But then, now again, as the 13th century Persian poet Rumi also expressed to the contrary: maybe we’re not really just a drop in the ocean, you and I, and Bob Dylan, but instead are the entire ocean in one drop. The fact that so many are caught in the delusion of their perceived differentiation is rather 'un'fortunate.
Dylan winds in and out of folk, a choice which elevates this work above the shorter and more straightforward layouts of the previous two albums. Less straightforward comes with a huge caveat: The lyrics, of course. On Blonde On Blonde there is still plenty of ambiguity, but the songs often extend their roots into familiar ground. The result is a set of songs romantic, wistful, at times bacchanalian, and with a killer set of closers. I'm still a bit cool on Dylan, I think because of his voice, but this is a prima facie masterpiece of his style.
Blonde on Blonde integrates traditional blues material with modernist literary techniques to form a cache of songs which tread a fine line between surrealist and literal, earnest and flippant, delicate and course, and manage to teeter on the brink of lucidity, offering plenty of questions, but, unlike Dylan the Folkie, Dylan the Modernist gives no answer. By utilizing repetitive, craggily abstract compositions, blending blues, rock, country, and folk, driven by cutting guitars, honeyed organ, and crisp piano riffs, the music matches the inventiveness of the songs. A rich, careening, dense album of unending revelation driven by witty wordplay, a fusion of the literary and the conversational, at once vague and precise, filled with bizarre imagery and excellent music. Standout Tracks: Visions of Johanna, One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later), Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, Just Like a Woman, Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine), Absolutely Sweet Marie, Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
The thin, wild mercury sound.... the culmination of a year and a half that changed not just Bob Dylan's trajectory but the face of rock music. Never has it become so literary, so surreal, so grounded in it's New York meets Nashville trek. A undeniable peak on a mountain that would contain many peaks, Blonde on Blonde is one of the few descriptors of the year 1966 that can be seen as accurate; such was the sprawling scenes shown in the songs that felt lived in from the moment it was heard. Bob may have been hopped up on whatever poppers that came his way but even that version of Bob was miles and leagues ahead of almost anybody in the ever changing rock and roll landscape. I hate to say that it was a good thing that he crashed his motorcycle and retreated into the radical world of homespun sparseness because, if he hadn't, we would have been treated to a world of diminishing returns in the follow-up to Blonde on Blonde. Change was imminent but nobody knew it at the time, not even Bob, which was why he gave us his then-best. Nearly sixty years and we remain in awe. Everybody must get stoned!
Bob Dylan is a prolific song writer as evidenced by this album. He is the most covered artist of all time in terms of the number of his songs that have been covered [4th most in terms of total number of cover versions of his songs]. https://247wallst.com/special-report/2021/12/08/most-covered-artists/11/ His voice isn’t the best, well not close, but it is an acquired taste of mine. I think this stands out the most of Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands. Still a good song but his voice is strained in the beginning and it gets better throughout. If I were to be allowed to only listen to one song for the rest of time, it might be Visions Of Johanna. I can’t get enough of this song. Even though it’s 7+ minutes, I am always disappointed when it’s over. I love so many other songs on this album, too many to name. This album is a masterpiece. Of the 350+ albums we’ve had so far, Led Zeppelin’s II is the only one I would put ahead of this and it’s verrrry close. And this isn’t even my favorite Dylan album.
I can't stand Bob Dylan's voice, it turns out, but this album perfectly depicts blues from that era.
I love Dylan and think this is a really good album but he does need to learn when to shut the hell up sometimes and finish a song before it ends up 15 days long
Blonde On Blonde, a highly misleading album title that. There's no hot Scandanavian girl-on-girl (or Scandanavian boy-on-boy) action to be found here.
I had a classic rock phase in high school where i started getting into all of the big names, but Dylan eluded me a bit. I ended up going to a concert around 2002 of his and it was a bit of a disaster, I barely recall it but reviews were that he was out of it and his voice was a disaster. I still made an attempt to get to know his music and became familiar with some of his more popular songs; so from this album I knew "Rainy Day Women" though I thought it was just called "Everybody must get stoned" and as a teen discovering cannabis I thought it was the funniest song ever. I also knew Just Like a Woman but otherwise these are new to me. Dylan never really grasped me, I heard he was this amazing poet and songwriter and I could hear hints of it in the songs I did know but still it never clicked. Now on my 2nd full Dylan album since starting this process I'm starting to see it. I think you need to really sit and get into a groove, not just pick up one song on a playlist with a bunch of other guitar rock, it's not going to land well, but if you can get into an album and listen to it through you really do get into the right mindset. I can appreciate this music a lot more, still not something I would go out of my way to seek out, but I appreciate it and its place on this list.
I could listen to Dylan forever and never quite grasp the meaning of his lyrics. Perhaps the elusiveness is deliberate; maybe we will never get it but the intrigue keeps us returning. On Blonde on Blonde, there are times when Dylan seems to push the listener away - Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35 is an irritating in-joke amongst the band; harmonica solos blast the ear drums; Dylan’s voice lacks any gravitas. But then tracks such as Visions of Johanna, I Want You, Stuck Inside of Mobile… and Just Like a Woman make you reconsider; beautifully performed, produced exquisitely and rewarding on repeat listening. So keep listening forever and try and fail and fail better to understand the twentieth century’s most elusive musician.
This list is kind of making me a Bob Dylan fan. I never really was one before this - not sure why exactly. I get it, okay? I get it.
The least accessible Dylan album but most rewarding. By the time I'm leaving this review, this is only the 4th time listening to this album, and it hasn't quite clicked like his other albums. This is the last of his golden age, with his next masterpiece not appearing for nearly a decade with Blood on the Tracks. At this point, he has matured his sound, knowing what he's capable of and delivering exactly that... I believe he called it the "wild mercury sound" whatever the hell that means. Very strong tracks, some bluesy, some just plain romantic in acoustics. It's all beautifully arranged, not once did I feel any segment was off or excessive, which has happened for previous albums. I say this is his most inaccessible because the songwriting is arguably his best. There's just a significant shift from the instrumental focus of his previous albums to his lyrical genius. I mean obviously, his sound is perfected here, each track is colorful and full of personality, but it's not as flashy as before, and you really need to pay attention to this one. With its double-length, it's really difficult to "get it" in just a few plays, you really need to break it down and digest it all. But I was thoroughly impressed by the insane imagery he plays in many of these tracks. Some songs you have full humour ("Rainy Day Women"), seriousness ("Sad-Eyed Lady"), but more often than not a fair mix in between. I hope to appreciate this one more over time.
It's hard to believe "Rainy Day Women" was a smash radio hit back in '66. I don't remember hearing it in Sudbury. I like the story that Bob sent someone out to round up a brass section and vocalists (shouters) in the 2 in the morning and he insisted that they all must be intoxicated. That explains a lot. He dabbles with a bluesier sound on this LP here with songs like "Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat" and "Pledging My Time". The album is like his version of "Rubber Soul", introducing a different styles and longer songs. I've always been a fan of "Stuck inside of Mobile, and of course "I Want you" and "Just Like a Woman" are the signature tracks. "Visions of Johanna" I have never been as crazy about as the critics.
Working both sides of the veil with loosey goosey rhymes drawled through a mouth coated in rubber, and flanked by a band that whips around like a 240 volt cable gone wrong, this is a spectacular mess of barely contained chaos magic. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Blonde On Blonde is the perfect example of my problem with Bob Dylan. He is a writer, a lyricist, a poet but musically his songs don’t hold up much. He tells a story but adds several chorus and sometimes an harmonica solo ending up with a long, very long, song. He is not a vocalist and therefore often sings poorly but the most tedious aspect of the album is its redundancy and the feeling that the last song is just a extension of the previous ones. It feels flat. With time, perhaps, and attention to every second of the album, it may be indeed a masterpiece. But for now, Blonde On Blonde is a simple blues and country album with Dylan’s lyrics and poetry on it.
I get that this is a monumental classic, but I just don't enjoy the vocals and the compositions are like keeping buzzing fluorescent lights on while I'm trying to sleep. Not that I don't enjoy droning harsh electronic tirades. Taken as elementary blues and jester poet rambling there's clear space to relax.
I like Bob Dylan. However I still think this is perhaps his most overrated album. It's not bad but only a few of the songs really grab me. The harmonica playing on this album can be really shrill at times which doesn't help. That said, Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands is tremendous and the harmonica playing there is rather nice. It's definitely one of my favorite songs of Dylan. I know a lot of people love this album. I merely just like this album and would rather listen to several other of his works before picking this one.
Good music, incomprehensible vocals; pretty standard Dylan
God sangskrivning, fortællende, masser sf harmonika og klaver, lange numre, lavt tempo
I don't get i !......
This is clearly Dylan more mature and complex than on ‘Freewheelin ’, the other Dylan album I’ve listened to on this list. I still don’t get the fascination with his music. There is no sense of melody and his voice in goddamn awful
better than the rock shit you have been recommending me but anyone who plays the harmonica should be put in a cage and have boiling oil thrown at them. No harmonica -4 with harmonica -2
It's impressive that Bob Dylan is so successful in music with a voice this horrible
Assault by harmonica
Honestly I can't really stand Bob Dylan, his music, and his voice.
Vägrar lyssna på den här clownen.
Whiny, nasal, overrated
Wailing harmonica and Bob Dylan's voice. If only you could add some bagpipes and an accordion to round out the horror. What a horrid combination of sounds. If perhaps he just read out his lyrics I could appreciate this. Instead I have to sit through this sonic assault.
It’s bob dylan
Perfect
I'm conscious of a certain pressure to "get" the Dyl man sometimes and at the start of this I just wasn't there. But after it settled in a really enjoyed it. Also been finding a new appreciation for the blues lately so this album was very relevant. Loved his response to Norwegian Wood as Fourth Time Round. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands was my easy highlight.
Judas!
Me pensé mucho darle las 5 estrellas, pero es que incluso con lo quemadas que pueden estar las más conocidas de este disco, la verdad es que todas son unas joyas que no tienen falla: melodías que te llegan, armonías que están probadas, instrumentación limpia pero no por eso sencilla y letras que, aunque de pronto divagan muchísimo, siempre tienen alguna frase o verso que se te queda.
Lovely stuff
A classic of course. Actually not my favorite of his 1965/66 trilogy of amazing albums, but still a great one. 4.5 stars.
"4th Time Around" When the Beatles released their sixth studio album, Rubber Soul, in December 1965, John Lennon's song "Norwegian Wood" attracted attention for the way Lennon disguised his account of an illicit affair in cryptic, Dylanesque language.[88] Dylan sketched out a response to the song, also in 3/4 time, copying the tune and circular structure, but taking Lennon's tale in a darker direction.[88] Wilentz describes the result as sounding "like Bob Dylan impersonating John Lennon impersonating Bob Dylan".[27] Twelve years after its release, Dylan said: "The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind was on individual bands in the Blonde on Blonde album. It's that thin, that wild mercury sound. It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up."[133] For critics, the double album was seen as the last installment in Dylan's trilogy of mid-1960s rock albums. As Janet Maslin wrote, "The three albums of this period—Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited both released in 1965, and Blonde on Blonde from 1966—used their electric instrumentation and rock arrangements to achieve a crashing exuberance Dylan hadn't approached before."[134] Mike Marqusee has described Dylan's output between late 1964 and the summer of 1966, when he recorded these three albums, as "a body of work that remains unique in popular music."[135] For Patrick Humphries, "Dylan's body of work during the 14-months period ... stands unequalled in rock's 30-year history. In substance, style, ambition and achievement, no one has even come close to matching Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde."[136] Dylan scholar Michael Gray wrote: "To have followed up one masterpiece with another was Dylan's history making achievement here ... Where Highway 61 Revisited has Dylan exposing and confronting like a laser beam in surgery, descending from outside the sickness, Blonde on Blonde offers a persona awash inside the chaos ... We're tossed from song to song ... The feel and the music are on a grand scale, and the language and delivery are a unique mixture of the visionary and the colloquial.
Classic
This app is so weird - it throws up repetitive Afrobeat by some serial sex pest or completely anonymous Mitteleuropean electro-swing one moment and then - bam! - hits you with one of the most brilliant songwriters at the peak of his powers. Still, no complaints - any excuse to listen to this, albeit (whisper it) I actually prefer Dylan's post-millennium death rattle voice.
Classic album. In my top 10 for sure.
Dosc dlugo bylo czekac, ale wreszcie pojawio sie granie Dylanowe i to od jakiego albumu, konczacego trylgogie wczesnej tworczosci, 2 lata 3 albumy, zmiana stylu z grajka folkowego countrowego na bardziej rokowe brzmienie, ale sam album to potezny kamien milowy nie tylko w karierze dylanowej, ale i ewolucji muzyki popularnej, jest to pierwszy podwojny albumik, wiec 4 strony wynylaka i godzina 12 wedrowania miedzy stylami i tematyka liryczki, w tej wedrowce dylanowi towarzyszy glownie the bang, znani takze jako the hawks, czyli kanadyska banda okolo rokowa, ktora znana z swych skillsow dopiero rozpoczynala wspolprace z bobem, do tego dochodzi jeszcze kilku muzykow, w tym joe south na gitarce, a jak to z nagrywaniem dlanowym, to robione w 3 studiach pol roku, a wiekszosc kawalkow dwa trzy tejki miala robiona jedynie, wiec calkowicie inna filozofia niz komercyjne szlifowanie danego tejka, zeby wyciagnac z niego co sie da ciaglym powtarzaniem go, doskonale slychac to na tej plycie, gdzie traki brzmia po prostu jak jamowanie, a nie material nagrywany na vynylaka, najbardziej to slychac na obviously 5 believers i deszczowo dniowej kobiecie, czy chocby na konczacym plyte i zajmujacy cala czwarta strone sad eyed lady, nie mozna tez zapominac o tym jak wygladaly sesje dylanowe, na ktorych niektore traki byly pisane w calosci, a potem jamowane i na plyte, lirycznie album oscyluje wokol najbardziej popularnego motywu w muzyce, wiec milosci, prawdopodobnie jego wieksza czesc jest poswiecona jednej z warholowej muz, ale nie zglebialem tematu, bo wystarczajaco przyjemne jest sluchanie kunsztu piora bez poznawania jego backstory, o ile to nie byl album ktory sklonil mnie do harmonijkowania, to jednak jest to jeden z najlepszych dylanowych harmonijkowych materialow, jest przepelniony trakami, ktore wplataja wstawki typowe dla dylana, albo tez na zakonczenie pojawia sie charakterystyczne brzmienie bluesowej harpy, traki jakich jeszcze nie mialem na plejce, a bym dodal po tym odsluchu to beda leopard skin pill box hat, temporary like achilles i stukowany w mobilku, ktore az dziwne ze wczesniej nie bylo dodane, nawet jesli nie jest to moj ulubiony dylanowy material, to i tak ocena topkowa, bo bobo = topo
Love the jingle jangle!
Another great album from Dilly
Well what can I say, it's bob! Bluesy white poetry
Never really given Dylan a proper listen but absolutely loved this.
One of his best albums. Still prefer Highway 61 Revisited and The Times They Are a-Changin', but this is great music.
All time classic. One of the best ever.
I mean, what can I say that hasn't been said already? Everything is pretty excellent; the writing is poignant, the melodies are tragic, the instrumentation is beautiful.
Dylan at his best.
Wow, I’ve always like Dylan in theory more than in practice. This is a great album. How did I miss it!
Listen just in time. Missed this kind of music
Really enjoyed it, and I can understand why this is considered one of the greatest albums. Visions of Johanna, Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat, and Stuck Inside of Mobile were among my favorites from the album.
The perfect Bob Dylan album
EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED
10/10, that was a classic
A classic, but Dylan's not my thing
What to say? One of the few 'best' + 'classic' albums that totally stands up to it's rep.
Pretty likeable
Definitely growing on me, it has a whimsical charm.
I mean, how can you not love this album. The lyrics are outstanding and there’s enough variety in the music to justify the longer songs and not making this a chore to listen to. Fave tracks: “Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues” “Rainy Day Woman #12 and 35” “Visions of Johanna”
one of the best!
WAHOO
Yes, yes, yes…was a little unsure on track one but it just grew with soul, and lyrical genius, and something I can only describe as “oomph”, into signature Dylan and it’s marvelous.
Side C kinda drags, but “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” has me crying and throwing up at work; let’s call it even.
The master at his best, whimsical, fun and musically varied.
The first one I already love. Will listen today with special attention
Ok
Esse aqui eu já deixei até salvo o comentário antes de reescutar pela milésima vez Vai tomar no cu, discao do caraio Bob Dylan é pica demais e é muito bonito tbm
My second favorite Dylan album.
Perfect album. So many great moments. Probably the best Dylan album of all time.
Oh, I was wondering when Bob Dylan was going to show up on this list. Off the top of my head I don’t quite remember what’s on this- Will definitely give it a few spins today. OK, this is definitely one of Bob’s better albums. Memphis Blues, Visions of Johanna, Leopard-skin Pillbox Hat, Just like a Woman and then the opener, the ubiquitous Rainy Day Women #12 and 35.
Very nice. Dylan always takes a couple of listens for me, but this was different. More focused.
There's a reason he won the Nobel prize.
Now that is the foundational Bob Dylan that I was expecting. Great folksy sound, really does have a populi feel.
This deserved every lick of hype it gets. Excellence, through and through.
One of the best albums of all time. Like poetry.
What is there to say about Bob that hasn't already been said. His songwriting and lyricism is unparalleled, and this is probably among his best albums, competing with Blood on the Tracks. Each of his songs evoke the feeling of reading an entire novel to me, they are absolutely jam packed with story. Fav Tracks: Rainy Day Woman, I Want You, Obviously Five Believers
One of the best folk albums out there. Peak Bob Dylan, incredible songwriting and storytelling. Nothing else to say. Fave songs: Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, Visions of Johanna, I Want You
This is probably the Dylan album I already knew the most tracks off, from various greatest hits compilations, covers and whatnot. Happy memories of many childhood evenings listening to the likes of Just Like a Woman and I Want You while playing Lemmings... I think the lush production and poppier structures of these songs really suits him, and was happy to discover a couple more that fit this mould, like Stuck Inside of Mobile. You could squish this into a 9-10 track single album and it'd be a legit 5 stars - no rounding necessary - but it loses a bit of momentum towards the end. 4.5.
This is one of the most inspired and inspiring slabs of vinyl ever dreamed up by a human. Incredible from start to finish. Can I give it a 6?