By Chris Moore:
Although Sony Music has accused me of copyright infringement — then revoked their claim, then made it again — for posting acoustic cover versions of Bob Dylan songs, I am endeavoring to direct all my negative energy at the financial mega-power rather than at the singer/songwriter himself.
With that being said, I couldn’t allow today to slip by without tipping my hat to the man that sparked in me a passion for lyrics and music, albums and artwork, critical perceptions of social issues, and 1960’s American history.
To celebrate Bob Dylan’s sixty-ninth birthday, I’ve put together two more posts in my quest to review all of Dylan’s studio albums by New Year’s Day 2011. I already put Bob Dylan (1962) under the one-sentence microscope and wrote a full five-star Weekend Review of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963), so that brings us to The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964) and Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964), the last of his all-acoustic albums until the early nineties.
Before I leave you to my reviews, I want to make two additional plugs for Dylan. First of all, if you haven’t already, you should take a few minutes and check out the “Drawn Blank” series of Dylan-penned graphics at http://www.bobdylanart.com. I wish I could afford the actual prints, but I had to settle for l0w-quality j-pegs from the Cassandra and Train Tracks portfolios to use on my desktop, a nice affordable way to celebrate Dylan’s birthday!
Finally, I just read that Newsweek released its list of the top albums of the decade…
…and Love & Theft (2001) is #2!
This thrilled me more than it probably should have, as his September 11th, 2001 classic has been one of my favorite in his catalog since the day it was released. Well, technically the day after. (I remember writing in my journal on September 10th that nothing would stand in the way of me going to the CD store to buy Love & Theft on its release day, of course having no idea what tragedy was to befall NYC and the nation.) I love this album so much, that I actually own two different versions — the original edition, as well as the special edition released later with two additional tracks and different photos included in the packaging.
And, with that, I urge you to listen to a Bob Dylan song today, or better yet, a whole album! As for me, I’ve listened to two and if you’re interested, my thoughts on them will follow soon…