# Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways



## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Anyone else giddy at the thought of this one? :tiphat:

It's released next Friday, 19th of June, and the full track list has been revealed:






*1. I Contain Multitudes
2. False Prophet
3. My Own Version of You
4. I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
5. Black Rider
6. Goodbye Jimmy Reed
7. Mother of Muses
8. Crossing the Rubicon
9. Key West
10. Murder Most Foul
*

We've heard 3 pre-released songs so far:


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I always look forward to a new Dylan record - however, I was not a fan of his "Sinatra" recordings and am glad to see a record of original songs. That said I was underwhelmed by "Murder Most Foul". Of these three I like "False Prophet" best.

His singing sounds good, but the production is a bit chubby, IMO. 

Bottomline, it's a new Bob, so I'll listen and am sure to find a few songs that I like enough to listen to again.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

SanAntone said:


> I always look forward to a new Dylan record - however, I was not a fan of his "Sinatra" recordings and am glad to see a record of original songs. That said I was underwhelmed by "Murder Most Foul". Of these three I like "False Prophet" best.
> 
> His singing sounds good, but the production is a bit chubby, IMO.
> 
> Bottomline, it's a new Bob, so I'll listen and am sure to find a few songs that I like enough to listen to again.


I'm with you on the Sinatra recordings, I couldn't believe he went back, and back, and back to do more, though a good pal recommends them highly, saying Dylan got to the core of these songs in ways few have. But I think "All songs written by Bob Dylan" on the sleeve is a gimme for me.

I loved _Murder Most Foul!_ I think it's incredible, complex, beautifully sung. But I see it's on a disc of its own on R&RW, which is odd - it'd easy fit on the same disc. _Key West_ is the second longest song, weighing in at a chunky 9' 34". I have to say, I like when Dylan gets deep into a long song...


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Kieran said:


> I'm with you on the Sinatra recordings, I couldn't believe he went back, and back, and back to do more, though a good pal recommends them highly, saying Dylan got to the core of these songs in ways few have. But I think "All songs written by Bob Dylan" on the sleeve is a gimme for me.
> 
> I loved _Murder Most Foul!_ I think it's incredible, complex, beautifully sung. But I see it's on a disc of its own on R&RW, which is odd - it'd easy fit on the same disc. _Key West_ is the second longest song, weighing in at a chunky 9' 34". I have to say, I like when Dylan gets deep into a long song...


I get you, I like many of his long songs - Boots of Spanish Leather can't be denied. I may soften up on it the more I listen. Anyway, it's good news for sure.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

The first interview, and sneak preview, in the NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/arts/music/bob-dylan-rough-and-rowdy-ways.html



> The songs seem to know themselves and they know that I can sing them, vocally and rhythmically. They kind of write themselves and count on me to sing them.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Dylan occupies a universe parallel with ours, running alongside ours at roughly the same speed. And he looks over at what's going on in our universe and comments upon it in unique songs, which he then sends over to us here. The Perfect Observer. That's why he got the Nobel Prize for Literature; richly deserved.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

I have the new one on pre-order along with the new Neil Young. Roll on next Friday!!


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Strange Magic said:


> Dylan occupies a universe parallel with ours, running alongside ours at roughly the same speed. And he looks over at what's going on in our universe and comments upon it in unique songs, which he then sends over to us here. The Perfect Observer. That's why he got the Nobel Prize for Literature; richly deserved.


He goes deep, for sure. I expect there to be a load of reviews over the weekend. So far, they've kept a deep embargo on things, but with a week left til the release, he'll be popping up everywhere!

:tiphat:


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Barbebleu said:


> I have the new one on pre-order along with the new Neil Young. Roll on next Friday!!


Who have you ordered it from? I'm hoping to get it in Dublin in Tower Records next Friday, I don't think I could wait if it's not dispatched until Friday, and I don't have it next weekend...


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Kieran said:


> Who have you ordered it from? I'm hoping to get it in Dublin in Tower Records next Friday, I don't think I could wait if it's not dispatched until Friday, and I don't have it next weekend...


Amazon.co.uk. They usually get it to you on the day. Not that it matters to me because I'm doing the download version.:lol: one minute past midnight!!


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Barbebleu said:


> Amazon.co.uk. They usually get it to you on the day. Not that it matters to me because I'm doing the download version.:lol: one minute past midnight!!


"It's soon after midnight, and my day has just begun." 

I'm tempted, but I might wait til morn and drive the 60km to Dublin, get the CD, go to a caff and experience some normality with a cappuccino and an almond croissant, open the CD and pore over the details. By then, I'll be saturated by reviews and will probably imagine the songs from the snatches of lyrics, but still, I love the old hard copy. Then patiently pushing the speed limit, I'll drive home and lie across the sofa after pushing play. I really can't wait, we all know he's not getting any younger..

EDIT: what did you think of the interview? A bit of detail in there, but the thing that screamed out to me was that he plays a fierce harmonica solo on Goodbye Jimmy Reed...


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

"I play Beethoven sonatas."

Made me think of something of a comparison.....the flattened third and seventh are to Dylan what C sharp minor was to Beethoven. They both seem to squeeze the soul right out of them.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Kieran said:


> "It's soon after midnight, and my day has just begun."
> 
> I'm tempted, but I might wait til morn and drive the 60km to Dublin, get the CD, go to a caff and experience some normality with a cappuccino and an almond croissant, open the CD and pore over the details. By then, I'll be saturated by reviews and will probably imagine the songs from the snatches of lyrics, but still, I love the old hard copy. Then patiently pushing the speed limit, I'll drive home and lie across the sofa after pushing play. I really can't wait, we all know he's not getting any younger..
> 
> EDIT: what did you think of the interview? A bit of detail in there, but the thing that screamed out to me was that he plays a fierce harmonica solo on Goodbye Jimmy Reed...


Good interview. When he was a young man he always sounded like an old blues man. Now he sounds just perfect. I've been a fan since 1962 and you either get him or you don't. I did from the off to my eternal joy.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Barbebleu said:


> Good interview. When he was a young man he always sounded like an old blues man. Now he sounds just perfect. I've been a fan since 1962 and you either get him or you don't. I did from the off to my eternal joy.


Yeah, I think that was his aim then, to sound like his heroes. Now he's gone beyond them. I've been into Dylan since 1984, Empire Burlesque was the first studio album I bought, but I had an uncle who sold bootlegs on O'Connell Bridge in Dublin, the he introduced me to the unreleased stuff, and I was hooked. Still am. Still amazed at how flexible Dylan is, that any single song can be sung in so many strange and different ways, that the one song becomes various songs.

The reviews are out today and they're all ecstatic about this record. Normally, I'd be wary, given how much they revere him anyway, but I get a feeling he's heading into a new rich phase of writing, different to the last couple of decades, and my hopes are high for this one...


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Room2201974 said:


> "I play Beethoven sonatas."
> 
> Made me think of something of a comparison.....the flattened third and seventh are to Dylan what C sharp minor was to Beethoven. They both seem to squeeze the soul right out of them.


This is technical, and so I don't understand, but are their songs you can reference so I might understand which songs he squeezed the soul out of? Not a jokey question, by the way, I'm always curious about this technical stuff...


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Kieran said:


> This is technical, and so I don't understand, but are their songs you can reference so I might understand which songs he squeezed the soul out of? Not a jokey question, by the way, I'm always curious about this technical stuff...


Dylan is an amalgram of Americana with roots in a number of important veins. Blues is one of them. Dylan has always considered himself to be part bluesman.

The flattened 3rd and 7th are the notes of the blues scale that differ from the major scale. If one uses the blues scale, it is the way that one sprinkles those notes in a song to reflect the emotional content of the lyrics that may be viewed as a "compositional method." Dylan has his own way of doing this. It can be something as simple as the guitar riff for _Meet Me In The Morning_ or as complex and as rich as the _Time Out Of Mind_ album.

Perhaps "squeeze the soul" is a confusing expression. Let me try another that is closer to the bone...to, as Anne Sexton once wrote, "wear your inside out." She was good at it, so is Dylan.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Barbebleu said:


> I have the new one on pre-order along with the new Neil Young. Roll on next Friday!!


Two excellent choices! I may eventually grab one or both in due time.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

3 sleeps to go til this is released.

The reviews have been ecstatic, and generally you could take this with a pinch of salt, but this time there hadn't been a single rebel voice, no renegade asking why the other critics have gone AWOL and lost their collective sycophantic heads, usually it's Alexis Petridis in the Guardian, but he 5-starred it, so the critics may actually be wholly credible.

Until this intrepid voice stood up and exclaimed that Bob is.............................................*OLD! *



> Bob Dylan's place among the Greats is not a fact for debating. When you lift an old Dylan record down from the loft or fish it out from the record shelf, it's a joy to wipe the dust from its cover and balance it under the player's needle. The problem is that with Rough and Rowdy Ways, the dust comes caked in. This is certainly an album that could hold its own next to some of Dylan's best. But Dylan's best are more than forty years behind him.


I take from this that it's "an album that could hold its own next to some of Dylan's best", so still a rave review, of sorts...


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

I do not believe that Dylan's best are more than 40 years behind him. Some of them are great of course, but I believe "Modern Times" is one of the best albums he ever did (I mentioned it in the thread below: "Dylan's Triplicate"). "Oh Mercy" and "Time Out of Mind" are also fantastic. "Together Through Life" also has a bunch of gems. I think history and critics will eventually catch up to the genius of "Modern Times." They're too stuck in yesterday to realize now.

V


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Varick said:


> I do not believe that Dylan's best are more than 40 years behind him. Some of them are great of course, but I believe "Modern Times" is one of the best albums he ever did (I mentioned it in the thread below: "Dylan's Triplicate"). "Oh Mercy" and "Time Out of Mind" are also fantastic. "Together Through Life" also has a bunch of gems. I think history and critics will eventually catch up to the genius of "Modern Times." They're too stuck in yesterday to realize now.
> 
> V


Modern Times took a while to grow on me, I have to admit. I think Beyond the Horizon queered the pitch for me, it still hasn't grown on me. Nettie Moore is one of his greatest songs, though. I think it's immense. "Love and Theft" is a huge work too. It has a wild feel, spontaneous and out of control. I get the feeling this new one will feel the same - I get the feeling he's gotten his mojo back!


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I kinda love this record! Anybody else listened to it yet? Highlights? Lowlights?


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