1001 Albums Summary

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

Tom Verlaine’s lyricism on Marquee Moon, influenced by French and Bohemian poetry, filled to the brim with puns, double entendres, and other clever witticisms, could’ve been enough to establish the record as a classic in itself, but then, the interweaving, lyrical guitar playing of Verlaine and Richard Lloyd could’ve done the same. There are very few records I love as much as this one. It has had an immeasurable impact on the way I think about guitar playing, lyricism, even music itself. High praise, I know, but it’s entirely deserved. Standout Tracks: See No Evil, Venus, Marquee Moon, Prove It, Torn Curtain