The 500 greatest albums – no. 16 – “Blood On The Tracks” (Bob Dylan)

At number 16 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 greatest albums is “Blood On The Tracks” by Bob Dylan.

At no. 16 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 greatest albums is Blood on the tracks by Bob Dylan.

I am a massive fan of Bob Dylan; to me he is the greatest songwriter of the last 60 years. As we shall see as we move into the top ten, Dylan has 3 albums in the top 16 of this list, with two in the top 10. That is testimony to his seismic influence on popular music, the only artists to have had more of an influence would be The Beatles.

Dylan is a poet, plain and simple. A poet who has set his poetry to the most popular medium of these times – songs. This album, released in 1975, is Bob Dylan laying his soul bare over the breakup of his marriage to Sara Lowndes. Every song, apart from the brief interlude “Lilly, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts”, deals with his feelings over the breakup of his 8-year marriage.

It is ironic that a man who is secretive in the extreme about his personal life is willing to pour out his heart in song in the way he does on this album. Dylan won’t even confirm why he changed his name from Robert Zimmerman, he won’t confirm any of the details of his supposed motorcycle accident in 1966, when he disappeared for 18 months; and he won’t confirm whether he had a second marriage in the late 1980s and early 1990s to one of his backing singers. Yet on this album he opens up in a way which is painful to witness. All his sadness, bitterness, longing for his estranged wife, false hope, anger, despair; they are all on display in these songs. At times they are painful to listen to, but they are so compelling in their depth of feeling that one cannot but listen.

Many people, wrongly I think, say that Dylan cannot sing. They are missing the point. Dylan does not sing, he communicates. Sometimes he chooses to communicate his songs in a growl, other times he will sing with a tunefulness which may surprise many who don’t know his work. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem possible to include any YouTube clips of the studio versions of any of the songs on this album, as Dylan and his publishing company do a pretty good job of ensuring all YouTube clips are removed.

But to hear Dylan at his melodious best, singing with a tender voice which may surprise you, listen to the most tender song on this album, “If You See Her, Say Hello”. Here are the lyrics:

If you see her say hello,
She might be in Tangier
She left here last early spring,
Is living there I hear.
Say for me that I’m all right,
Though things get kind of slow
She might think that I’ve forgotten her,
Don’t tell her it isn’t so.

We had a falling-out
Like lovers often will
And to think of how she left that night
It still brings me a chill.
And though our separation
It pierced me to the heart
She still lives inside of me
We’ve never been apart.

If you get close to her
Kiss her once for me.
I always have respected her
For doing what she did and getting free.
Oh, whatever makes her happy
I won’t stay in the way
Though the bitter taste still lingers on
From the night I tried to make her stay.

I see a lot of people
As I make the rounds
And I hear her name here and there
As I go from town to town.
And I’ve never gotten used to it
I’ve just learned to turn it off
Either I’m too sensitive
Or else I’m getting soft.

Sundown yellow moon
I replay the past
I know every scene by heart
They all went by so fast.
If she’s passing back this way
I’m not that hard to find.
Tell her she can look me up
If she’s got the time.

I have found this alternative take of the song, where the lyrics are slightly different. Also, the sound is not as full as in the version on the album, but it’ll give you an idea of the song.