Blood On The Tracks

“Blood on the Tracks” by Bob Dylan (1975) It takes a remarkable talent to produce poetically powerful emotional scenes and evocative narratives in a musical idiom, and that is what is on display in this album. A bit of advice for those who are not Dylan fans: Listen to the stories. Listen to the expressions of love fulfilled or frustrated. Generate images in your mind, guided by the lyrics. Anticipate and cherish the moments when you say to yourself, “I never thought of it that way before.” You’ll find life expanding within you. And if you find Dylan’s vocals unbearable, start with “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts”. Listen to the creative variations in the synchronization between the poetic rhythms and the musical rhythms. You may not ‘get’ all the obscure references, but you’ll feel the feeling. Then you might be ready to embrace the passion of a man who sings to his estranged wife at the end of a failed marriage (in “Idiot Wind”): You’re an idiot, babe It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe. . . . We’re idiots, babe It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves. Try to put words to the development from the first two lines to the last two lines. This is not music for dancing, partying, getting stoned, lifting one up, easing one down, or background while one works. This merely culture-causing music fit for a serious listen. But if this album is over the heads of pop music consumers with three-minute attention spans, they should feel free to move on. I’ll stay awhile. Shelter from the storm. 5/5

To me, this is his last 5 star masterpiece album. Me and my friends were practically Dylan cultists back in high school so this one is burned into me. Probably the most personal Dylan ever got and perhaps the greatest breakup album of all time.

Confession time: I’ve never listened to a Bob Dylan album before. Couldn’t tell you why. He seemed, I suppose, too much of a Goliath to tackle; I’d missed my window, surely - where would I start? But here we are. My window opened, and I leapt through. I listened to this album three times yesterday, and will surely have to listen more, and more intimately to unravel all the rambling tales and hidden crooked melodies, and its deceptively simple-not-easy instrumentation. I will always feel like I’m not getting something when it comes to Dylan, and like I’m playing catch up, such is the weight of mythology that comes with such an artist. But I’m pleased to have finally broken the seal.

I really can’t stand Dylan’s way of singing.

No more Bob Dylan please

Shit, as always

Tangled up in blue is incredible. The rest of the album reminded me why I'm a distant admirer rather than a fan

You know how a harmonica sounds really annoying and whiney? Well, on this album Bob emulates a harmonica with his voice and sometimes doubles it with a harmonica too. Just can't get past the worst voice in music. Autotune wouldn't save this either. I'm sure the lyrics are cutting but can't get past the voice.

BOB FUCKING DYLAN

Following on the heels of an album where he repudiated his past with his greatest backing band, Blood on the Tracks finds Bob Dylan, in a way, retreating to the past, recording a largely quiet, acoustic-based album. But this is hardly nostalgia -- this is the sound of an artist returning to his strengths, what feels most familiar, as he accepts a traumatic situation, namely the breakdown of his marriage. This is an album alternately bitter, sorrowful, regretful, and peaceful, easily the closest he ever came to wearing his emotions on his sleeve. That's not to say that it's an explicitly confessional record, since many songs are riddles or allegories, yet the warmth of the music makes it feel that way. The original version of the album was even quieter -- first takes of "Idiot Wind" and "Tangled Up in Blue," available on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3, are hushed and quiet (excised verses are quoted in the liner notes, but not heard on the record) -- but Blood on the Tracks remains an intimate, revealing affair since these harsher takes let his anger surface the way his sadness does elsewhere. As such, it's an affecting, unbearably poignant record, not because it's a glimpse into his soul, but because the songs are remarkably clear-eyed and sentimental, lovely and melancholy at once. And, in a way, it's best that he was backed with studio musicians here, since the professional, understated backing lets the songs and emotion stand at the forefront. Dylan made albums more influential than this, but he never made one better.

There are some artists that should only be songwriters, NOT singer-songwriters. I'm sorry to say, but Bob Dylan is one of those artists. The man CAN NOT sing! I'll bury myself even deeper by adding that Bruce Springsteen is in the same boat, IMO.

fuck bob dylan

The album before was "The Dark Side of the Moon" so it's a tall order to follow but I think this manages. This is my favourite Dylan album. As i get older I feel that the older stuff Dylan wrote that previously were my favourites now seem a bit mean and childish. This album however has grown on me so much. There are not many catchy songs but the lyrics are really where this shines. Many of the songs feel like poems more than songs in a way. The songs are all scenes from a relationship and there is so much optimism and sorrow between the lines. I think it's clear that this is a more adult break-up album, there is not too much anger but just a lot of regret and reminiscence. Favourite songs is hard to say as it's such a slow burn. I have a few favourite lyrics though from simple twist of fate: """ He woke up, the room was bare He didn't see her anywhere He told himself he didn't care Pushed the window open wide Felt an emptiness inside To which he just could not relate ... People tell me it's a sin To know and feel too much within I still believe she was my twin but I lost the ring """ Clear 5 star from me.

Bob Dylan was one of the best songwriters of all time, and this is some of his best work. Idiot Wind is a work of lyrical genius. I love his trademark unconventional vocal delivery; to me it makes the songs more memorable than having a Michael Bublé type singing them. This album is going on repeat and straight to my personal collection.

tangled up in blue is a classic, rest is pretty much nondescript except vocals that rise up into a weird falsetto. Great song writing but otherwise not sure why Bob Dylan is so popular.

Bob Dylan’s voice is an acquired taste and baby I have ACQUIRED it. This album rules.

08/19/2022 About a year ago, I woke up one morning and went out to find garage or estate sales. I came across a house in Alamo Heights where an older woman was selling lots of items for dirt cheap. She had a box full of CDs that were only a dollar. Taking advantage of the situation, I bought Neil Young, Bringing it All Back Home, and Blood on the Tracks. When she saw what I had picked she sighed and told me “When [Blood on the Tracks] came out it was just incredible. I bought the record and would play it all the way through, and then I would turn it over and start it again.” I didn’t really understand why anyone would feel compelled to do that. I liked the album at that time but wasn’t fully in love with it like I am now and figured that anyone would get tired of hearing an album over and over again. Regardless, I took the CD home with me. I was lucky enough to still have a CD player in my car at that time, so I would listen to it when I would drive around San Antonio. I slowly began to fall in love with each song, and to this day I grow to love this album more and more with each listen. Falling in love, experiencing heartbreak, longing for something or someone long gone, and feeling emptiness that only some of the darkest times in one’s life can bring out are the languages of this album. There have been times when listening to this album sets me right back in those head spaces, and I can only imagine what Dylan was going through during the production and recording of this album. Divorce from his wife, loss, heartbreak. There’s some sort of timeless quality about this album. Something that sounds and feels like it was made centuries ago, but with the same freshness and raw vulnerability that still holds strong and fits right in the time that one listens to it now. Dylan truly bared his soul for this album, regardless of his petty insistence that these songs have no relation to what was happening in his life at this time. When I saw this album was the one assigned to me today, I was so happy and also thought it was the funniest thing, because just like how that old woman told me how she would play this album over and over, I had come to do the exact same thing. Just yesterday I was playing this album over on Spotify only to skip to playing the record and sitting next to the player as each track rang out. — No skips on this album for me. Although I think every track is wonderful in its own way, I’m extremely biased toward You’re A Big Girl Now, You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, Shelter from the Storm, and Buckets of Rain. — Otherwise, today has been very calm. Did lots of housekeeping today. Laundry, cleaning, unpacking, all that. School starts in just three days. I’m so nervous, but so excited as well. Listening to albums like these give me the strength to keep pushing. The only thing I knew how to do Was to keep on keeping on like a bird that flew Tangled up in blue

Perhaps because I was looking forward to it all day, or it’s been a while since I last listened, or what I look for from Dylan has changed, or I’ve changed, or I’ve never ‘got it’ before, but in the ten years and many listens since I first spun Blood on the Tracks this is the first time it’s sounded like a 5. And I don’t doubt that change for a second. I’d rather luxuriate in the delicious tangibility of growing with an album – surely one of music listening’s greatest and mysterious pleasures. So, what am I hearing differently? First, Dylan’s writing, which is equal to (no higher praise) Hank Williams in the way he uses the hook – often just one line: “shelter from the storm”, “a simple twist of fate”, “tangled up in blue”, “the Jack of hearts” – like a recurring dream or deadly obsession that pulls him back no matter how far he strays. Second, melodies and arrangements that are somehow both gentle and played with a muscular, sometimes even virulent, intensity and exactness, hoarily putting me in mind of a master painter – let’s say Turner out of laziness, though that’s probably a good comparison for delicacy qua intensity. And last, something extraordinary about the limitations of what he’s saying, or rather feeling. By which I mean that (to paraphrase something I read recently on the interwebs) these songs are about romance not love and, however gorgeously complex, are confined to one man’s limited and very solipsistic experience of those romance. Somehow, the narrower parameters improve the overall effect. Don’t ask me how. I’ll only say, “That’s art.”

One of my favorites from the first time I heard it. Beautiful lyricism, and no tracks I would throw out.

Nopy nope.

This was the first Dylan album I ever listened to that wasn’t a best of and it was the thing that finally helped me understand what people saw in him. The music is complicated, the lyrics are intricate and tell such vivid stories, and his voice sounds phenomenal. The only knock against it is that it isn’t quite as good as some of the albums leading up it, which is more just an indication of what an insane hot streak Dylan was on at that point in his career.

Had heard before one of my fav albums ever

Actually not terrible for a Bob Dylan album. He still can't sing for the life of him, but it was bearable and there wasn't too much harmonica. 3/5

Just the fucking best.

tangled up in blue, you're gonna make lonesome when you go

Loved it.

Thank god he turned down the volume of the harmonica from Blonde On Blonde, that could get very hard to listen to. Ok nevermind "you're gonna make me lonesome when you go" fucking killed my ears holy shit. The lyrics are really great and all, but none of the songs really hit me very hard. I think Bob Dylans music is a bit overrated, felt the same with Blonde On Blonde, except for "I Want You", that song is fucking exceptional. Some songs though, like "Lilly, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts makes me physically cringe because the intro is so horrible to listen to. And then of course a song like "If You See Her, Say Hello" comes and fucking breaks the mold. Fuck man. a 4 for that actually And "Shelter From the Storm" is quite good too. Was ready to hear a 5 but I just don't see it. An album of 3 but, If you see her, gets it to a 4 to me.

God were all the “great” songwriters mediocre fucking hacks? I swear to god, every one of the “great” albums on this list are tedious, mind numbing exercises in unmusical repetition. What the actual fuck am I supposed to take away from this album? Does ol’ bob know that there are more instruments than just the guitar? His Spotify calls him “One of the greatest figures of the 20th Century”. I wanna vomit. Stalin, Mao, Roosevelt, step outta the way! This nasally overrated fuck is here to spew pretentious nothing at you for an hour. Fuck rock & roll, fuck folk music, and fuck the baby boomers who ate that shit up, consequently forcing me to listen to all of it due to its “historical significance”. “Greatest songwriter of all time” my ass. The music is utterly unremarkable. And I’m not listening to the lyrics, you have to bribe me with good tunes first. Schumann was a real first rate songwriter, and you actually want to listen to his music even though it’s all in German. God this entire culture of ranking fucking albums based on historical significance is so goddam tedious, a way for musically illiterate tools to learn what they’re supposed to like and what they aren’t. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I FUCKING HATE BOB DYLAN

The first lp in this ist i couldnt listen to the end - his whining makes me sick

It’s an album like this that makes me reflect on how much this list has changed my perspective on music. I used to really hate Bob Dylan. I thought he had an annoying voice and boring music. I’ve really grown to appreciate a lot of new music and can feel all the raw emotion in a project like this. It’s truly beautiful music and bursting at the seems with soul.

Dylan's best 70's album. Tangled up in Blue may be his best song. Each track is great, showcasing a renewed lyrical strength and a mostly stripped back instrumentation. I even like the much maligned Lily, rosemary and the Jack of hearts! The only thing better (to me) is the original 1974 test pressing. 5 Heard before? Yes Owned: Yes 1/1001, 1/3 (33%) Will I get? Have several copies already! Recommend: Yes

makes me feel worse than my parents' divorce

A marriage falling apart makes for Bob's best album of the '70s.

From start to finish, this is Dylan's greatest achievement. It's his most literary record b/c it's his most confessional, his most sustained, his most motivated and focused. I guess love will do that to you - will exalt a writer to brass tacks. Featuring a vindictive storyteller getting his get back ('Idiot Wind'), and a nearly nine min interlude about Big Jim and the Jack of Hearts, the album tells it like it is by telling his version of it. As much as I revere 'Blowin' in the Wind,' 'Like a Rolling Stone,' and 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall,' I love those records b/c they speak to something culturally or societally universal. Here, Bob jettisons the cultural and societal for the personal - and he may just be a tad deeper b/c of that.

I decided to give this one more time to grow on me and I’m really glad I did. I’m not a native English speaker so with anything rich in lyrics I need extra time to truly immerse myself in the ideas of the writer. This is the best full album I’ve heard from Dylan and I’m gonna give it a 5/5 and continue to listen to it closely. He really captures different emotions that almost everyone goes through during break up and the fact that each song reflects a different perspective makes it so much better. I really love this and I continue to discover new meanings with each listen

40 minutes of perfect music and also a song about playing cards or something

The first time I heard this record was a shocking, exciting, revelatory, coming-of-age experience. I was just a kid, and I knew Dylan, but I had no idea of the significance and history surrounding the album, I had never heard of it in fact. It became one of my favourite records from the very first time I heard it. A few hundred times later it is still a fantastic, astonishing, breathtaking listen. There's an enduring magic about these songs that never makes them sound dated; on the contrary, it makes them eternal, somehow

Utterly unparalleled in quality, coherence, depth and range of emotion, plus epic singalongs, (personal) protest anthems twinkling tunes and tender – even heart-breaking – ballads. Not only are there no filler cuts, there’s nary a wasted note and Dylan’s voice has never been stronger nor clearer, and never more assured in delivery. One of the best records of all-time …. Easily top 5.

And I was listening to each side of the disc Words falling in my ears Hearing an album of pain and grief Lord knows there's some amazing tunes getting through Tangled up in Bob

How have I not heard his before! This is why I do this list..

Honestly loved it. Songwriting was great and the overall sound was so raw and emotional, though it ran probably 5-10 minutes too long. I’ll give it a strong 9

Un clasico, pero no me gusta Bob Dylan

One of my favourite albums

10/10

Tangled up in Blue, the first track is a great example of amazing storytelling and song writing. The instrumentation is also really good with the 12 string guitar shining throughout the whole song. Idiot Wind, contains some great songwriting. The song seems autobiographical but Dylan has denied it. Regardless, it conveys bitterness or anger and in another version that I found online I hear a bit of sadness as well. The chorus contains a little of Dylan's humor and the harmonica solo at the end is a blistering exclamation point on it all. "A lot of people tell me they enjoy that album. It's hard for me to relate to that. I mean... people enjoying that type of pain, you know?" - Dylan 1975 You're gonna make Me Lonesome when You Go is a nice western style country rock that throws in a bit of blues.

Never heard this album all the way through. Loved it.

Top 5 dylan easily. 10/10

Grande Dylan. O Raul Seixas dos estates

Never really listened to Dylan, but I enjoyed this a lot.

Dylans beste, og topp ti i vinylhylla. Alle må eie denne.

thoughts: good production other than man, that harmonica flies in loud as a MFer. i like the back half of this album a lot more; basically starting at “meet me in the morning” through the end, this is a phenomenal album. i’ll probably like this more on repeated listens songs: “simple twist of fate”, “meet me in the morning”, “if you see her, say hello” rating: 7.5/10

This is not the best Dylan for me, but I should say that the Wikipedia article on the page helped me to understand a little bit more of the importance of this album. Being the "most" personal of Dylan's work, it's increasing my evaluation of it. Musically, it's too much country for me, but it's still Bob Dylan and it counts!

Might be my favourite Dylan album and possibly emotionally the polar opposite of another favourite, Blonde on Blonde. Accessible and really good songs. Yes, it's about heartbreak, but good music just gets you.

An intensely personal album about being in and out of love. More direct than other Dylan albums, this has a strength that I didn't appreciate when I was a callow youth. Now, I get it.

Thorns: I'm not a huge fan of the way Bob Dylan sings. There are some singers where they no doubt have an amazing voice even if perhaps you don't like the song. In general I don't think Dylan is a great singer, when listening to the album at times it didn't bother me while other times it did. Often times the best part of folk songs are the lyrics but for me it's hard to focus on the lyrics if the melody is overly repetitive and doesn't hook me. Many of the songs on the album were too long and repetitive that my mind wandered off and I wasn't listening to what he was saying. Roses: There were catchy moments and none of the songs were bad to listen to, at worst they were repetitive or unmemorable. Standout songs: Tangled Up in Blue, Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

Goddamn this list for making me appreciate Bob Dylan. Ok, 5 songs in and I’m back to being annoyed by him. I think Dylan is just one of those musicians I can take in small doses, but more than 15 minutes and it starts to become excruciating.

Yawn. I know I’m supposed to love Bob Dylan and particularly this album. I don’t. It’s boring to me.

This is tough because it's Bob mfckn Dylan. I went through a Dylan phase in college and really loved his poetic ramblings. I guess my tastes have changed since I really don't have the patience for his nasal inflections and longass songs. I do like "Tangled Up in Blue" and other singles, just not a whole album at once.

Two rules, every line must rhyme no matter how nonsensical and every track must end in a harmonica solo. Only slightly better than the live double album that I was forced to skip.

Bd is lame

It's Dylan. I swear I hear a completely different thing than everybody else who listens to him, because I can't get into him at all. His albums are too long, the songs all sound the same, and his legendary (Nobel prize winning!) songwriting just does not speak to me at all.

I understand the influence, and honestly a great lyricist and intersting song structures..... but that voice.

This is kitsch, brute-force lyricism contorted to fit over instrumentals that are just happy to be there. I'm sure Bob Dylan plugging in his guitar was a watershed moment for a generation that just got done wetting themselves over Elvis Presley, but I can't understand from this record how Bob Dylan and his songwriting are considered to be legendary, ('Time is a jetplane, it just moves too fast') It's all so gauche and obvious and it makes me scared for the inner life of Dylan fanatics everywhere.

I do not like Bob Dylan.

Not a fan. Don’t like his voice and the music just too dull. Just don’t understand the hype.

Not for me

I discovered I do not like bob Dylan, or at least this album. Bonus: my headphones disconnected while I was in the bathroom, so my office heard a track or two and died of second hand embarassment

bobbyd

Один из самых влиятельных альбомов на свете... какая тут еще может быть оценка?

I mean, it's an out an out classic.

Tangled Up in Blue - 5/5 Simple Twist of Fate - 5/5 You're a Big Girl Now - 5/5 Idiot Wind - 5/5 You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - 4/5 Meet Me in the Morning - 5/5 Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts - 3/5 If You See Her, Say Hello - 5/5 Shelter From the Storm - 5/5 Buckets of Rain - 4/5 Average score: 4.6/5 (rounding up) i feel like the i'm the only music listener on this planet that isn't a Bob Dylan dickrider. i really haven't been a fan of the bits of his music i've heard. say what you want about his songwriting and influence on music, he's a DOGSHIT vocalist and it's not likely i'll change my mind about that however, this is probably the first album of his that i actually enjoyed for once. enough to forgive his bad singing anyway. we'll see how i like the rest of his discography as they come up, maybe i don't hate this guy's music as much as i thought i did

This is one of my favorite Dylan albums with Shelter From the Storm and Tangles Up in Blue as my two favorites on the album!

As if the sky opened up and the good Lord himself was singing from heaven on high - laying out how exactly it all went down. Bob is playing by a different set of rules here. Subtle brilliance abounds highlighted by the masterful production. But ultimately - this one hits the heart and provides solace for its many follies. 5+

Chicken soup for the sick body and soul. I savour Bon Dylan like my morning tea. Best when raining and sad.

Such a great album. I love listening to all the stories he tells. My favorite is Meet Me in the Morning.

Masterpiece. Some albums feel too good to review and this is one of those for me. I've always liked Dylan but lately I've been more and more impressed. A lot of these songs have worked there way into my life at different times, but listening to this front to back is truly jarring. Lately I've been listening to Simple Twist of Fate and Idiot Wind. The first verse in Idiot Wind brings me great joy. The punch line "I can't help it if I'm luckyyyyy", but the incredibly bizzare cadence "when they will I can ONly guUUEEssss". In Rolling Thunder Revue I saw him perform Simple Twist of Fate at a retirement home it looks like, and he completly changed the vibe to an upbeat soulful song (would be a great version to cover). But that totally changed my view of the song (On Netflix at the 1 hour 9 minute mark - its sick). Maybe TMI but when my first daughter was born and we finally got home I was playing various songs and Shelter From the Storm came on and my wife started crying tears of joy/relief/gratitude. One of the great moments of my life. That song also plays a pretty crucial role in the album as a relief from a lot of the sorrow and negativity. Dylan brings the charisma, obviously feeling a burst of inspiration from the divorce. One knock on this is that its a divorce album, which can be a bit of a grind. We get it man, its sad. Comparing this to the Marvin divorce album - making a wild assumption but it appears Dylan does his best work under these stressful circumstances and Marvin maybe did a lot of coke and did not. I'm sure you could write an essay on each of these songs so I'll stop here but god damn, thats one great fucking album. I wonder if there is a precedent for such a succesful artist to do their (arguably) best work 15 albums in. I'm going to say there is not. Bravo.

Kinda gay but listening to Shelter from the Storm made me tear up last night on my drive home from work thinking about how much I love my wife. Same with 'You're a big girl now' - even though I know it's about his divorce, I kept thinking about five-year old daughter starting kindergarten next week and being a big girl now and pondering the fleeting nature of life. Anyway, this review sounds like a lot of me me me me me. But the point is, Bob objectively sucks at singing and this really isn't my style of music at al, but somehow it all works well enough to evoke strong and real emotion from not just me, but so many different people from so many different walks of life for all different reasons, all without resorting to schlock or sentimentality. And that's why great art is a miracle.

I grew with with tons of respect for Dylan, and Hurricane was one of my favorite songs back in the day. But Bob has always been an old man playing old man music, to me and anyone else in our generation, so I have to some embarassingly admit now that the Chalamet biopic really breathed some new life into how I saw him, his music, and the folk music movement. Obviously a bit of Hollywood magic, but the energy felt so real in scenes where Dylan was introducing new songs he had written to other studio musicians or playing songs for the first time in front of audiences. Here, on Blood on the Tracks, that energy translates - Dylan has to be one of the best recorded artists. He's larger than life, not because he's a Morrison drunk or a Jagger showboat - just for being a damn songwriting genius. It all comes through on this recording, you feel like you're there in the studio hearing Dylan play these songs for the first time. I will never get sick of Simple Twist of Fate - beautiful chord progression and song.

Random thoughts: * I listened to this one twice. I can't remember if I've listened to this one before but I know this is considered one of Dylan's greatest albums. * Easy to see why just by having "Tangled Up In Blue" opening the album. * I love the Dylan quote about Tangled that the song took "ten years to live and two years to write". * Other great songs on here are "Shelter From the Storm" and "Simple Twist of Fate". * The rest of the songs were good to but none stood out to me but did beg for future listening and analyzation. * This is a classic album that everyone should listen to.

Masterpiece

Timeless

What do you do when an album is too painful to listen to? When listening to ¨You’re a Big Girl Now¨ takes you back to washing dishes and thinking about a girl in France who was out doing who knows what with who knows who? When it’s, in your humble opinion, the second greatest album of all time (after London Calling, of course)? You put on the album once every few years, talk a walk through the painful alleys of the past, and pretend it doesn’t still hurt as much as it did then. Bob Dylan crafted possibly the all-time greatest break up album, an album full of such opaque storytelling and specific emotions that they could almost apply to anyone, anywhere, at any time going through some sort of emotional turmoil. About the album: musically, nothing Dylan hasn’t done before or since. Lyrically, nothing he hasn’t done before or since. So why is it so special? Maybe because, for once, you can get a glimpse of the man behind the music and he’s telling you that he too feels the same as you. Best songs: ¨Tangled Up in Blue,¨ ¨You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,¨ ¨Simple Twist of Fate¨

Overwhelming. Bob at his best. Lyrical. Searing. Poetic. I obsessed over Greatest Hits (1967), and when this came out it took me from childhood to adulthood.

This one is IT. My favorite Dylan album. Jakob Dylan said this album is his parents talking to each other and I hear that. He just jumps right into it with Tangled Up in Blue. This is 1975 Dylan but that jingle-jangly guitar reminds us it's still the maestro, the poet, the troubadour. The hair on my arms stand straight up as he crafts such a story in just 13 lines: She lit a burner on the stove And offered me a pipe "I thought you'd never say hello," she said "You look like the silent type" Then she opened up a book of poems And handed it to me Written by an Italian poet From the thirteenth century And every one of them words rang true And glowed like burning coal Pouring off of every page Like it was written in my soul From me to you Idiot Wind: "I can't even touch the books you read." Ugh---gut punch that encapsulates heartbreak in a real visceral way...like when you learn that he's not really where it's at. The transition from You're a Big Girl Now into Idiot Wind always made me think they are two parts of one song/one story. "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" just gutted me as I've been crying everyday thinking of Sylvia going off to college. I understand the song is not about the love of a parent or...like all Dylan, can the meaning change with age? I watched him reading a book on the deck outside my office window as this played..."I'll see you in the sky above In the tall grass in the ones I love..." Yes, Dylan's meaning evolves as I age. 10 songs and each one pure perfection. His words just come Pourin’ off of every page Like it was written in my soul from me to you

94/100. A deeply emotional and powerful record. The storytelling is packed with character, honesty, and brilliance. It had me zoning out at times, lost in thought and self-reflection. It's a masterclass in songwriting, raw, reflective, and incredibly moving.

In my opinion, Mr Dylan has composed 5 albums that stand out from all his others. This is one of those albums, perhaps the best of the 5.

Blood on the Tracks doesn't even fall in my top 5 Bob Dylan albums, but I still love it. This album does include one of my favorite Dylan songs, meet me in the morning. "Little rooster crowing, there must be something on his mind. Well I feel just like that rooster, honey you treat me so unkind..."

Man, what an album. This might be my favourite. The guy is a poet. For me the highlight is Shelter from the Storm. The album is so raw and honest. Lyrically brilliant. Many of the songs feel like poems set to music rather than pop songs.

peak dylan without a doubt

My first Dylan album, an artist to this point I've eased on listening to as I know it will only lead to a deep dive. This was great. I will comfortably say if I give this another listen I'll never be able to turn it off

ABSOLUTE CLASSIC

This is the third or fourth Bob Dylan album I have listened to in this albums generator. This one is, I feel, more personal. His lyrics are genius. It is no wonder he got the Nobel in Literature. Each story in his songs conveys an important message. 5/5

The best album by the best lyricist of all time.

This has been one of my favorite albums of all time for 30 years.

A poetic masterclass

This is the 190th album I’m rating. After a break I come back to Bob Dylan. Adding to my Playlist - 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, and Buckets of Rain. Not Adding to my Playlist - Nothing. All in all I liked 10/10 songs. Bob Dylan is a great musician.

There's nothing more that needs to be said about this classic album. It has some of my favorite Dylan songs on it.

Great album - one of Dylan’s finest.

A classic, probably Dylan's best later period album. The albums after this one just don't have whatever this album does, no other way to explain it. Excellent lyrics and the accompanying music does its job to support what Dylan is putting out there. A easy 5 star album and one that I need to get back into my regular rotation.

Thoughts before listening: This is one of Bob's best. I guess it was probably a nice surprise for Dylan fans at the time since this came in the mid-70s after his heyday. Proof that Dylan could grow from the politically minded voice of the 60s into a 30-something tackling more auto biographical topics. Review: Looking at Dylan's discography, it's always interesting to me that this was released 10 years after his original run. Songs on here like "Tangled Up in Blue", "Simple Twist of Fate", "Shelter From the Storm", and "Idiot Wind" are on par with anything from Highway 61 Revisited or Blonde on Blonde and rank among his best songs ever. I'm also a big fan of "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts". Overall this is a fantastic album fully deserving of its place on this list and among Dylan's best. 5-stars