There's a new Bob Dylan album at large, and would you believe it, it's the number one LP in the US. It's the first time that the old croaker has managed this since the heady days of Desire, 30 years ago... Even more surpising...maybe..is that the LP is terrific; full of fire and brimstone bar-room R&B, and crooning country swing tunes which could have been recorded forty or fifty years ago. The lyrics are tremendous, and show an often overlooked sense of humour:
"I've been to St Herman's church, said my religious vows I've sucked the milk out of a thousand cows"
Never mind the cows - who the hell was St Herman??
No one can touch Dylan - he has an ever-changing set list on a never-ending tour, when plenty of his contemporaries would have been happy to slope off to Vegas and play the nostalgia card til they dropped dead.
He's keeping his art real, alive, and valid; making great records, and writing a fascinating and beautifully written autobiography.
Rock music is 50 years old, it's practitioners are at a pensionable age. Dylan shows how it's possible to keep doing this stuff with vigour and integrity, and dignity. If only he would have a word with Mick Jagger...
2 comments:
Not a Saint I'd ever heard of either - [URL="http://www.firebirdvideos.com/saintslives/lifeofherman.htm"]St Herman[/URL]. An Alaskan Saint who could control the elements. Cool.
Agreed on the new Dylan; I know that popular wisdom is that he had already returned to form with his last two albums, but I would have say that this is his best for a very long time. Two good albums in two weeks - I'm really enjoying the Charlotte Gainsbourg (Air/Neil Hannon/Jarvis Cocker) 5:55 - probably one of my best purchases of the year. Also revisiting Pixies and Sly & the Family Stone having picked up two of the new 33 1/3 books, as well as Black Box Recorder (The English Motorway System is beautiful and strange).
St Herman
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