Rough and rowdy ways is as good as anything Dylan has ever released.
I loved Tempest, but Murder Most Foul takes commemorative song-writing to a level it has never seen before. I Contain Multitudes is ballsy as fuck, and Goodbye Jimmy Reed just rocks. No idea if it’s an unpopular opinion. #Dylan
Oooh thats an interesting take. Most people like murder most foul, I can’t even bring myself to appreciate it let alone like it.
Meanwhile I contain multitudes I kind of like but feel like it lacks the subtlety I so appreciate in a lot of Dylan’s works.
I think this is his most well liked work post 80s but personally I’m not big on it.
For me I feel like the lack of subtlety in I Contain Multitudes is part of what makes it - once again, he reinvents himself and changes up his songwriting to create something that he would never have written a few years earlier.
I see it in relation to Crossing the Rubicon, which can of course be seen as a metaphor for his artistic choices throughout his career. Yet again he’s coming in like a bulldozer, comparing himself to Ceasar and boasting about the choices he’s made.
I think there’s also a lot of humour in being very subtle your entire career, winning a Nobel price, and then publishing a “rough and rowdy” album tooting your own horn in an over the top manner.
Yeah it does fall right in his character that way. Its exactly what you’d expect of Dylan.
My dislike, or more accurately the lack of love comes from the difference in taste. I can appreciate the album for what it is, but I don’t really enjoy it.
I was thinking of comparing it to changing of the guards, but crossing the Rubicon is the better comparison there.
Its far from the lowest Dylan has fallen. But where is the energy, the connections, the reasons why any of it matters!
I think some of the greatest folk songs ever written recount events that have happened, and sometimes ties them together with some interpretation of whatever it might mean.
You could argue the assassination of JFK is such a monumental event that it doesn’t need a song - just as I guess you could argue the same about the Titanic for -Tempest. I’d disagree - I’d say it would need an ever the greater song, and I think Dylan delivered perfectly in Murder Moust Foul.
I think most people would agree Blood on the Tracks is among Dylan’s strongest, though it’s hard to find an obvious meaning why it matters in most of the songs. They are incredible songs that take us along for the ride, and while it’s sometimes interesting to ask “what”, there’s rarely any point in asking “why”.
The whole album is full of crazy connections. Crossing the Rubicon has an insane amount of parallels to unpack. And I wouldn’t say Goodbye Jimmy Reed is lacking in energy!
I love Blood on the Tracks, Desire, and Street-Legal.
But his personal brilliance decreased. Brain damage and fame have bereft him of much relevant to say.
Cynicism and pride lead him to idolatry. Joey Gallo or Frank Sinatra arent worth remembering.
JFK is relevant. Murder Most Foul is an unlistenable 17-minute slog, coming from the same genius who wrote Subterreanean Homesick Blues. I am glad he listed all that stuff he thinks is relevant, its a censorship-resistant way to transmit the background of the time. Pretty clever actually… horrible though.
EDIT: If I ever manage to listen to the entire thing without falling into a coma, I will write an analysis.
