Search - Bob Dylan :: Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8

Lost in a Land; Oh God.

saul_the_owl | 09/09/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For me, it seems so clear that what Dylan wants, in his art, in his songs, he gets. When he wants to challenge the way people in general, at the time, think about the world, he reconstructs the simple folk tradition narrative, turns it on its side and says 'look.' When he wants to pull the carpet out under the very culture, society, he lives in, he does the same thing with pop music (or whatever you call the mid 60s stuff); when he wants to be content with his family and live in a simple world, his songs reflect that; when he wants to create a masterful, painterly drama (like Vermeer or any of the old greats) based on a series of Chekhov plays, he pulls from his heart and his life a masterwork indeed; when he seeks God, he creates some of the most urgent and personal spiritual gospel music of the past 50 years; and since then?

Post-'76 material by Bob Dylan should by no means be looked at simply as work by a legend that's past his prime but at least he's still trying. In my estimation, since the late 70s, Mr Dylan's work has taken on an added dimension, a spiritual component that looks beyond this world, drawing from this world while keeping it in the context of another, a greater world; and it seems to be no mythological world, but an earnest, heavily felt and believed in one. Not to say that everything since '77 has been great from this artist (formerly known as Zimmerman); much of the 80s material comes to mind, but I think it is more of the matter that he didn't know what he wanted, that he was lost, at least I think I can speak about that concerning the art, never mind the personal life, which isn't ours (you can't buy his personal life with a few clicks from this website). Actually, since Oh Mercy, there aren't any of his studio albums that I am particularly drawn to. But then this, like all the things that were previously scrapped were scrapped perfectly, to bring about a collection of songs that speak so directly to America and to the world we live in, throwing in proportions that are over and above it, beautiful arrangements and totally realized. If you get it, you can put it next to Highway 61 and say, of course that is great; but you can't accurately make a comparison. This stuff is looking at different things.

Of course, an album of outtakes is bound to be imperfect, so although some of the best songs in his career--again in my estimation--are here to be found, such as Red River Shore, Can't Escape From You, the live '93 version of Ring Them Bells, and Tell Ole Bill, to name but a few, there are unfinished songs on here, and not everything is top material. But don't dismiss it, is my take."