Blood On The Tracks is one of Bob Dylan’s best loved albums. Released in early 1975, the album went through quite the process to get recorded. Working with Phil Ramone, Dylan recorded the tracks in New York before being persuaded by his brother David Zimmerman to re-record back in his home state of Minnesota a few months later. The released version is a mix of tracks recorded in both locations.
Clocking in at just under 9 minutes with 15 verses, “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts” is the only typical Dylan song here. The epic country hoedown spins a cast of characters taking up residence in a boozy saloon. With his first marriage disintegrating, most of the rest of the songs are in one way another about love and relationships. Reading about the songs 50 years later, it’s almost like reading about the last Taylor Swift album as reviewers try to figure out little clues in the songs on what was happening in his life. Dylan denies most of it and insists that the album was lyrically inspired by Anton Chekov. Tortured poets society indeed.
A beautiful track, “Simple Twist of Fate” goes from the third to first person as Dylan sings, “To know and feel too much within/I still believe she was my twin/but I lost the ring”. On “You’re a Big Girl Now” he then sings of “A pain that stops and starts/like a corkscrew to my heart/ever since we’ve been apart” before a flash of anger appears at the end of side one on “Idiot Wind”. Far more scathing than anything else on the record, here he sings of “idiot wind/blowing every time you move your mouth”.
The last three songs of the album touch on the complexities of relationships including the touching, “If You See Her, Say Hello” – looking back on a past partner and wishing them well regardless of how things ended. Lyrically more complex, “Shelter From The Storm” tells of a relationship where one is welcomed in from pain and turmoil before it all goes wrong. The album ends with the more lighthearted “Buckets Of Rain”. Like several tracks, the last two just have Dylan on guitar and the excellent bass playing accompaniment of Tony Brown.
The most well known track is the first song and only single, “Tangled Up In Blue”. At seven verses and no chorus, on paper this works as an older style Dylan song but this one sounds shot through the pop world and back through the other side. The drumming of Bill Berg give the track some oomph as Dylan turns in a staggering vocal performance. Both the song and album are highlights of the Dylan catalogue. Blood On The Tracks still gets mentioned in pop culture and is widely regarded as one of the best albums ever recorded. A truly classic album.
10/10
The Light Appears 