Blood on the Tracks

Blood on the Tracks is a 1975 album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In September 1974, Dylan entered the studio with a clutch of newly written songs, many inspired by his recent estrangement from his wife of ten years, Sara Lownds Dylan.

Aftermath

When Blood on the Tracks was first released, critical reception was somewhat mixed. Crawdaddy reviewer Jim Cusimano disparaged the album for its "instrumental incompetence" while NMEs Nick Kent described "the accompaniments often so trashy they sound like mere practise takes." Rolling Stone reviewer Jon Landau, arguably Dylan's most vocal critic throughout his early career, wrote that "the record itself has been made with typical shoddiness. The accompanying musicians have never sounded more indifferent...To compare the new album to Blonde on Blonde at all is to imply that people will treasure it as deeply and for as long. They won't...Blood on the Tracks will only sound like a great album for a while. Like most of Dylan, it is impermanent."

Related Topics:
Crawdaddy - NME - Rolling Stone - Blonde on Blonde

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Decades later, such assessments were very much in the minority. One of the most celebrated albums in rock history, in 1997 Blood on the Tracks was named the 11th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998 Q magazine readers placed it at number 45, while in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 29. It is number 16 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Related Topics:
1997 - HMV - Channel 4 - The Guardian - Classic FM - 1998 - ''Q'' magazine - 2003 - TV network - VH1 - List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Critic Bill Wyman would later call Blood on the Tracks " only flawless album and his best produced; the songs, each of them, are constructed in disciplined fashion, written and rewritten, formed in a way his songs almost never are. It is his kindest album and most dismayed, and seems in hindsight to have achieved a sublime balance between the logorrhea-plagued excesses of his mid-'60s output and the self-consciously simple compositions of his post-accident years."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Clinton Heylin would also write that Dylan had reinvented "his whole approach to language. Gone were the surrealistic turns of phrase on Blonde on Blonde, gone was the 'wild mercury sound' surounding those mystical words. In their place was a uniformity of mood, a coherence of sound, and an unmistakable maturity to the voice...He had never sung better.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Blood on the Tracks was not only markedly superior to the juvenile angst of Another Side of Bob Dylan, Dylan's last 'confessional' album, but the album of a man in his mid-thirties, coming to terms with all the water that has passed under the old bridge. For the first time he was confronting the previous decade as a survivor, willing to reminisce about a time when 'revolution was in the air,' while insisting that his primary concerns lay elsewhere."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite harsh reviews by critics like Landau and Kent, Blood on the Tracks still received its fair share of positive reviews upon its release. Rolling Stone published a four page debate between supporters and detractors of the album, while critic Paul Williams called it "the best album of the last five years by anybody."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Dylan's new stance is as disconcerting as all the previous ones," wrote Robert Christgau, "but the quickest and deepest surprise is in the music itself. By second hearing its loveliness is almost literally haunting, an aural déjà vu. There are moments of anger that seem callow, and the prevailing theme of interrupted love recalls adolescent woes, but on the whole this is the man's most mature and assured record." Christgau then gave the album an A rating.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When The Village Voice conducted its prestigious Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1975, Blood on the Tracks managed to place at #4; Dylan and The Band's The Basement Tapes reached #1, having been issued later that year.

Related Topics:
The Village Voice - Pazz & Jop - The Band - The Basement Tapes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The general public was also receptive to Blood on the Tracks; the album became his second consecutive American chart-topper and his sixth in the United Kingdom (Pat Garrett excepted).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As Heylin writes, Dylan would continue to mine the "rich vein of language struck on Blood on the Tracks" when he composed "Abandoned Love" soon after. Around the same time, Dylan wrote another new song titled "One More Cup of Coffee." Both songs would set the stage for his next album, one that marked another dramatic change in his musical direction.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~