This is one of the first double studio albums ever released. At the time it was quite the achievement. Even today, there is no way that a record like this could be made. The whole thing sounds like it was recorded in a garage. You can hear all types of hoots and hollers from the musicians as they were going though the material. It has a homey type of feel. Dylan said that this album was the closest he ever got to getting the sound in his head into a recording. Some of the notes on Sad Eyed Lady explain that the musicains were just hanging out playing cards in the studio while Dylan wrote the lyrics. He gave them the outline of the song (Most Dylan tunes feature repeating patterns so it wasn't neccasry to give them the whole score, just the basic ideas), this would work fine except the band had no idea that the song they were playing was going to last for 11+ minutes! It was recorded at 4:30 in the morning in 1 take. The band keep thinking that it was going to end a time, Dylan would play another harmonica solo and go on to another verse. When you listen you can hear the dynamics going up and down about half way through. A brilliant moment in time caught on tape.
1 Comments
May 14, 2014, 2:30:30 PM
dean squishman - I was so happy to finally sit down and listen to this album. I had heard tracks from it over the years but never the whole album all at once. It took me back to a time when I was just discovering Dylan and would listen to highway 61 or bringing it all back home or another side of bob Dylan and not much of anything else. After a lifetime then of only listening to country music and hitting a glass ceiling of absolute boredom with that kind of music I wanted to hear something different ---but the same in a way and Dylan offered that in spades. And now years later I find myself so happy that there are still Dylan albums out there that are still to be discovered. I will admit that his more recent albums which sound so gruff have been a challenge to wrap my head around. Finding Blonde on Blonde was like finding another Highway 61 where I could settle into a world populated by all the characters that Dylan throws into his songs. I love that world ! This album stands out as one with a lot of heartbreak in it and I had no idea about that. I love it and I can't wait to go back and listen again. I love knowing too that Dylan has so many damn albums out there that given my pace of listening I may never run out of finding these gems that he has left strewn across the great soundscape like beautiful shells on an endless beach.