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Your Learning Zone - Blood on the Tracks
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List Price: $13.98
Our Price: $6.31
Your Save: $ 7.67 ( 55% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Sony
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0827969239827
Format: Original recording remastered
Label: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: 2004-06-01
Studio: Sony
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: PERFECT.
Comment: Blood on the Tracks (1975) may not be Bob Dylan's greatest album, but it is certainly his most perfect. There isn't a single wasted moment on this flawless classic, and as it intently flows from start to finish with scarred passion and fresh acoustic beauty, it presents the listener with a clear image of the isolation, resentment and (sometimes) vindication that Dylan seemed to be experiencing at the time.
I wouldn't exactly call Blood on the Tracks a concept album, but the theme of a relationship that has fallen apart is apparent in nearly every song here. The collapse of Bob's marriage to Sara Lowndes is said to be the inspiration for the album.
One of the things that sets Blood on the Tracks apart from many of Dylan's other albums is the sheer beauty of it's sound. The wonderful melodies and handsome acoustic musical arrangements are just as remarkable as Dylan's poignant and thoughtful lyrics here. Where Dylan's singing and lyrics often carry the lion's share of the weight on his albums, here the crisp production gives the acoustic guitars and other instruments a chance to step up and add a whole new dimension of excellence to every song.
Pain, sadness, loneliness, anger and regret run through the songs here like a sharp silver thread of naked emotion. Tangled Up In Blue opens the album with a 5:42 minute folk/pop confessional of a relationship dying, drifting across the country solo, and broken-hearted loneliness.
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind
And I just grew
Tangled up in blue
Dylan angrily lashes out in the seething 7:48 minutes of Idiot Wind, a venomous hate epic that matches even legends like Positively 4th Street and Like A Rolling Stone.
Idiot wind blowing through the flowers on your tomb
Blowing through the curtains in your room
Idiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth
You're an idiot babe
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe
At 8:51 minutes, Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts is the longest song on the album, and also one of the more interesting. Over a country bass, brushed drums and church organ, Dylan strums his acoustic guitar, plays harmonica and sings a cinematic narrative using wild west poker game images and intrigue.
Simple Twist Of Fate quietly tells the lonely tale of a sleazy rendezvous in the city and If You See Her, Say Hello is heartbreakingly lonely and the saddest song on the album. Meet Me In The Morning and Buckets Of Rain explore folk/blues flat-top guitar picking, and Shelter From The Storm is an acoustic guitar traditional folk saga of a forsaken Dylan and the unidentified woman who offers him comfort and salvation.
I heard newborn babies wailin' like a morning dove
And old men with broken teeth stranded without love
Do I understand your question man, "Is it hopeless and forlorn?"
"Come in," she said, "I'll give ya shelter from the storm."
Blood on the Tracks is one of Bob Dylan's best albums. It's also one of his best selling albums. This is a good place to start with Dylan for the uninitiated, and an essential for any serious music collection. These are personal songs that are based on personal events so there isn't any of Dylan's famous political poetry or social protests here. This is a lonely journey through a difficult, dark and emotionally challenging ordeal. The title Dylan chose for this classic says it all. Blood On The Tracks.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of Dylan's best
Comment: This is such a great album. Tangled up in Blue and Shelter from the Storm are Dylan classics for sure, but every song is great!
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Comment: I've heard many Bob Dylan albums and been to dozens of concerts. Blood on the Tracks is one of his best. The variety of his voice and moods is unlike most I've listened to. I have an old 78rpm Blood on the Tracks album that I never listened to, but now I will, to get the feel of those old recordings he made. He is THE BEST.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Comment: This would be one of the five albums I would take with me if I was to be deserted on a small island for an extended period of time. I hope there would be electricity!
Customer Rating:
Summary: At long last...
Comment: I owned an LP copy of this album when it was first released. The music quickly grew on me, and I took the wonderful sound for granted. When I bought the first CD release of "Blood on the Tracks" the sound was so thin and tinny I couldn't listen to it. No longer owning a turntable by that time, I lived without this album for years, and missed it.
Finally, after too long a wait, we have a decent-sounding CD version of this essential Dylan album--two versions, actually, as an SACD Hybrid disc was released first, then this one. I am guessing that this conventional CD issue followed because the record labels have come to believe there is too little interest in the SACD format.
At any rate, both of the current "Blood on the Tracks" CDs sound good. If you do not own an SACD player, the two releases sound alike. Packaging is different for the two versions: the SACD is housed in a glossy paper "Digipak" made to resemble the original LP jacket design; the conventional CD is sold in a standard jewel case.
A word about the sound: this CD release seems a bit light in the bass range compared to my memories of how the LP sounded. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Too many "newly remastered" CDs are bass-heavy to the point of damaging the overall sound. The remastered "Blood on the Tracks" sounds balanced and the bass is present, just slightly less so than I remember. Since everything else sounds right to me, I am not complaining. I should add that I was unable even ONCE to listen all the way through the earliest "Blood on the Tracks" CD. I have played this remastered disc over and over, and have never tired of hearing it.
I have no idea whether or not the SACD Hybrid release of "Blood on the Tracks" will continue to be available, but both versions sound very alike on a standard CD player and this conventional disc is less expensive, so I would give it a high recommendation. If you were unfortunate enough to have owned the earliest CD release of this music, buy this one to cleanse your palate and rediscover one of Bob Dylan's truly fine albums.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Inevitably, when critics praise a new Dylan album, they label it the "best since Blood on the Tracks," and with good reason. Inspired by a crumbled marriage, and recorded after a tour with the Band had apparently re-ignited his creativity, Blood is among Dylan's masterpieces. The album's epic songs are well known, but its real high points are the shorter numbers--"You're a Big Girl Now," the flawless blues "Meet Me in the Morning," and the sweetly devastating "Buckets of Rain." These are songs of "images and distorted facts," each expressed through tangled points of view, and all of them blue. --David Cantwell
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