Journey Through The Past : Bob Dylan : Blood On the Tracks

Blood on The Tracks, while not held in particularly high regard at the time of its release is now routinely placed in the top 3 Dylan albums, along with Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited (and that means it is in the top albums of all time by my reckoning).

The album was apparently already to release covers printed etc when Dylan decided he wanted to record the whole thing again.  I have heard many of the original tracks and I have to agree with Dylan - the original versions lack the vibrancy of the final ones. The originals are generally played slower and as such have an added poignancy however it is the album versions that I play most often.  Ironically it is the once impossible to find original versions that are easiest to find on Youtube and so the links below are to those versions.

I also remember when it came out in 1975 DJs on 2ZM (Lloyd Scott and Paul Holmes in particular) used to play Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts (Original Version). I think being the "rebels" they were (ha!) they liked the fact it was so long.  I remember how I thought it was so clever at the time and it was for that song that I eventually bought a second hand copy in 1979.  It was on one of our flat forays to The Mousetrap - a great little second hand record story on Bealey Ave at Carlton Corner.

I still have that copy I bought then and play it every 2-3 months - pleased to say it is still in good nick.  I always play it all the way through - however ironically every time I think about skipping Lily's story.  There are gems aplenty on the album and many lines I quote when the occasion seems right.   If you see her say hello is one of my all time favourite songs and Tangled up in Blue is not far behind. Other highlights basically include the rest of the album (bar Lily)  but Idiot Wind does stand out - this original acoustic version is somber rather than vitriolic!!

I hope that this being the 40th anniversary year that it will get the Bob Dylan Bootleg version and we will get both album versions together (I already have a poorly transferred bootleg and some of the tracks on other releases).