Blood on the Tracks
Bob Dylan
1974

"Blood on the Tracks" is in its own way a gem among countless other cds I have bought and every song a work of art.

Robert Allen Zimmerman better known as Bob Dylan was a great song writer! He has produced over 100 songs of his own and this album has, no doubt, 10 of the top 15 he has written. He was born in the town of Duluth, Minnesota. He went to university and started his performing career in small clubs.

He, then, became known as Bob Dylan. Since this album was released he has done very well. The songs like ‘Hurricane' and ‘Blowing in The Wind' were known very well in the 60's, 70's and 80's. His children also became successful - one became part of a band I know very well, The Wallflowers. Just a few of the other albums he released were "Slow Train Coming," "Don't Look Back," "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" and "Planet Waves" which was followed by this album itself. The genre Bob is said to play is rock and country. As far as I can tell he does more of a country/story type of music...

There is a detailed and, for the most part, unique story of life and symbolism in each one of the songs on this cd that in it's own right deserves a sort of genre of its own.

The quality of the recording is great considering the album was published in 1974 by Columbia in Canada. The recording itself was done in a studio.

The song I found moved me the most was ‘Simple Twist of Fate,' a symbolic song that is about the choices we make in life and how our lives come to certain crossroads where you choose, sometimes too quickly, the path you would like to take. It also says that the path is, however simple a choice, always going to change you. The examples he uses are stories of people in love who make the choice not to love someone and be stubborn, but because love starts to rekindle their heart they see they had made a mistake and finally the male character goes to the docks but his partner has already left and he regrets that he took the path that was more proud than true to himself. I think the songs of Bob Dylan have great ideas and a great harmony of guitar and harmonica. His ability to incorporate symbolism is second to none. For example the title Blood on the Tracks might mean that his blood (hard work) is found in the songs he has written for this cd. That is if you have interpreted the sort of "tracks" he is talking about are the songs on this disc. I will say his voice is different but many would say this is his weak point, I think it is really cool that he uses his voice in the way he does but sometimes it is said that his voice is too scratchy. My advice is listen to the words and not the way he says them.

My readers should listen to this kind of music if they know the artist but not the cd. Those who do not know much about Bob Dylan, this is a great sample of the type of music he plays. I'm sorry I could not give you a clear and single word for the genre his work but it is very unique and if you like a good story and listen very closely to music then you will find this music a great work of art. In the end this compact disc is well worth the space in you music collection no matter how refined it might be!

http://www.bobdylan.com/