Search - Bob Dylan :: Nashville Skyline

Three Mighty Fine Records in One Collection

Zachary Hackett | Reno, Nevada | 05/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"John Wesley Harding - Gritty, Course, Driving and Stark, with a Bit of Country



When this record came out a lot of Dylan's fans were upset, because that singer of songs so complex with images that stayed with you long after the song had end, seemed to have gone country. But it didn't long before they realized that the complexity was still here, even thought the backing musicians had changed. The stories, those incredible stories were still here. Just give a listen to "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" and you'll see what I mean. And the word weaver is still doing his magic here as well, again listen to "Frankie & Judas."



Yes, gone are the rock musicians, replaced by country guys, Charlie McCoy on bass, Kenny Buttrey on drums and they help Dylan deliver a kind of haunting sound that has lasted through the years, making this record sort timeless, holding up as well now as it did way back then.



My personal favorite on this masterpiece of music is "As I Went Out One Morning." To me it seems like Dylan is singing about America and how Tom Paine would be so disappointed if he were alive today. And what would Rock have been like had Jimi not been able to cover the excellent "All Along the Watchtower." Then there is that landlord, that wicked messenger, that lonesome hobo and that escaping drifter. Mr. Dylan conjures images with words the way Van Gogh did with a brush. This album, though a change, is one of the best.



Nashville Skyline - Country Bob, but Still Incredible



This record opens with a haunting version of "Girl from the North Country," which Dylan sings with Johnny Cash. Haunting to be sure, because any song sung by Mr. Cash was haunting, but this one, with Dylan using his new countrified voice was even more so, spooky. This song alone is worth buying the album for. "Girl" is followed by the instrumental "Nashville Skyline Rag," which I've heard said is a reworking of the instrumental "The Cough Song," which first appeared on the "Stealin'" bootleg. I don't know if that's true, but it's a doggone good guitar piece.



And, of course, everybody knows "Lay Lady Lay" which was kind of a top forty hit and is still played on classic rock stations all over the world. It's a good song, but I like "I Threw it All Away" and "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You," better. This is a country album. "John Wesley Harding" with its country musicians leaned that way, but "Nashville Skyline" got all the way there and Dylan would stay country for two more records (some would say three), then he'd burst back on the rock scene with a vengeance. Still, country or not, this is a five star piece of work. Yes, Dylan did country, but he did it very, very well.



New Morning - Like Dylan Himself, This Record is so Hard to Define



After JWH and Nashville Skyline (which I like a lot), Dylan came out with Self Portrait. There are a few gems on SP but a lot of it was considered pretty lackluster when it came out. However three decades later and I have to admit, I play it all the way through on occasion and I enjoy it, even that corny version of S & G's "The Boxer". Anyway it appears that Colombia was in a hurry to get something out after SP to buck up what they must have thought was Dylan's sagging career, so they came out with this excellent album.



For me New Morning works in every way possible. I love the music. I love Dylan's voice here. I really like the lyrics and the background singers just seem to add to the whole mix. Yeah, a few records down the road they might seem to get a little Motownish, but here they just add to the overall haunting, spooky, bluesy and maybe even a little jazzy feeling of this record. And you know what, there is even a little C & W here. Like Dylan himself, this record is so hard to define."

Mr. D Reinvents Himself for These Three

Stephanie Sane | from the Asylum | 10/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

""John Wesley Harding" is another of those Dylan records that belongs in the top five. My dad told me that everybody was taken completely by surprise when "JWH" came out. Bob Dylan had come back from his motorcycle accident completely reinvented, but I don't know why his fans were so blown away, he'd reinvented himself once before, they should have just accepted it, or at the least gotten used to it, because Mr. Dylan has been reinventing himself for a long time now. Anyway this record was recorded with county musicians and has a country flavor to it, even though the songs like "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest," "All Along the Watchtower," "Down along the Cove" and the rest of the masterpieces on this album are anything but country. That'll come though, because Dylan reinvents himself still again for "Nashville Skyline."



Reinventing himself still again, Mr. Dylan has released a true country album with "Nashville Skyline." Gone are any hints of Dylan the protester, Dylan the rocker. This is pure country, purely enjoyable too. "Lay, Lady Lay," is the big hit from this album, but the eerily, haunting remake of "Girl From the North Country," done with the late Johnny Cash, is the song that sets the mood for this too short CD.



My dad says that when "New Morning" record came out that once again Dylan's fans were disappointed. I don't why though, because I love this record. Mr. D. plays a lot of piano on it and maybe he's no virtuoso, but he's plenty good. "If Not for You," made into a huge hit by Olivia Newton John and on of the best songs on George Harrison's "All Things Must Past," triple LP, is one of the best songs on the record. "Father of Night," is a gospel type number that tells or warns us, depending on your point of view, about Dylan's Christian period that we'll see a couple records on down the road. Dylan is different on this record, but then he's different on most of his records. He's not of those artists that's boringly the same, album after album, Dylan keeps growing and changing, sometimes we like him, sometimes we love him and sometimes we hate him. He's the poet of three generations and "New Morning has some of his greatest poems on it,



Reviewed by Stephanie Sane"

Three Records I Play All the Time

Danielle Lane | Horseshoe, North Carolina | 04/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My favorite song on JWH is "Dear Landlord." It's a lament driven by a soulful piano that will reach right into your soul. You can just feel the desperation the singer is crying about. "Only a Hobo," is another song where Dylan sings from the view of someone less fortunate. "I've served time for everything except begging on the street." What a line. You can just see this hobo Dylan sings about, a shyster, con man, often down and out on his luck. A hobo without regret and some advice to give, "Stay free from petty jealousies, live by no man's code, and hold your judgment for yourself, lest you wind up on this road." Dylan's hobo, like Dylan himself, is a lot of things, but a beggar he is not. Then there is the excellent song about that western outlaw, turned somewhat of a saint in the title song of this record, "John Wesley Harding" is Dylan accurate in his portrayal of the outlaw, well he misspelled his name, maybe that's a clue. Dylan is always doing that, surprising us and fooling us. This is an excellent record, full of fine music, double entendres and maybe some simple advice on how to live your life, like these outstanding words, "Live by no man's code."



NASHVILLE SKYLINE is a nice record, good to put on when you want to relax with a glass of wine and a good book. I know that's not the usual way one would listen to a Dylan record, but this is not a usual Dylan record. "Nashville Skyline" is full of uplifting, twangy songs, plus it has the Dylan mega hit on it, "Lay, Lady Lay which has always been a favorite of mine. I also like "Peggy Day" an awful lot as well as the duet Dylan sings with Johnny Cash, "Girl From the North Country." That song is just sublime. "Tonight I'll be Staying Here With You," is another sublime song about the narrator's lost love that will pull a tear from the driest eye, if you're a sentimental girl like me anyway. Then there is "Tell Me that it isn't True" another song about lost love, well a love about to be lost anyway, as the narrator is asking his girl about another man. Yes this is, at least up to now, a totally new direction for Bob Dylan, but it's a direction I kind of like.



There are spiritual overtones on this NEW MORNING and that is fine with me. Bob Dylan has always worn his beliefs on his sleeve. He puts it all out there and if you don't like it, tough. Well, in this case I like this record just fine. Bluesy sometimes, jazzy sometimes and always with those Bob Dylan lyrics you can take at face value the way Dylan says you're supposed to, or you can read all kinds of things into his words. Did he mean this? Did he mean that? It seems Bob Dylan is like a chameleon, so many different things to so many different people, but that's also okay by me, because he has been making the best stuff to listen to on my record player and now my CD player for the last three decades."