The big man is back this fall with a brand new album. Michael Amity looks forward with anticipation and back with respect for one of Dylan’s greatest reinventions.
“If there’s a poor boy on the street, then let him have my seat.
‘Cause tonight I’ll be staying here with you.”
Bob Dylan
What makes a great remaking? How does one get to the point of artistry where ideas jump across lines and inspire others from different walks of life? A great figure when discussing transitional artistry is the prolific Bob Dylan, a man who has been honored with countless awards, and with imitation, as the most covered man around.
What is it that makes artists love him? Is it his impactful lyrics? They are resolute, yes, and stand the test of time. Who doesn’t want to be on that bandwagon? But that’s too simple for me. Why him? What goes beyond words on paper to make a philosopher’s beard tickle?
Worth a solid look is Nashville Skyline, released 45 years ago, in 1969. Clearly one of his most unique records, Dylan was holding enormous attention when it dropped from his mammoth rise in the mid-sixties.
With Nashville there was a distinct difference from his previous work. It wasn’t in either of his recognized and acclaimed genres, rock or folk, but rather a first crack at a new one, country; so, yet another crossover. This was big. It cemented the fact that he would always do what wasn’t expected. People couldn’t know it at the time, but as his career trudged on, through multiple comebacks, he would drop gospel, blues and jazz records—all solid reinventions of himself.
If there’s one truism we get from Dylan’s trajectory, it’s that genres don’t encompass the whole of an artist. Each of his records turns out to be an interweaving blend. One of his recent albums, for example, Together Through Life, is under the American roots genre and features an accordion on every song. My point is, while his transition from folk to rock changed the world, his switch from rock to “other” was just as important.
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For some, Nashville is just a series of nice band jams with a typical sound for its genre. One only needs to see it as one of his fifty or so albums. It’s a nod to a great music town, a piece of the puzzle, but not one to dwell on, other than the fact it’s impressive for an artist to switch genres considering the pressures they’re under to succeed. Imagine if Justin Bieber wanted to come out with a reggae album, and it wasn’t a joke. That’s kind of the idea Dylan had.
But Nashville evidences more than a regular example of putting in work throughout to sustain one’s career. Some would say he has made lots of money by taking on an all-encompassing mold and embracing many style shifts. Those same people are always the first to call him a sellout for doing a Super Bowl ad. But I see it differently. It was part of his mystical movement to produce a floating arc for his art, one that would cover more ground with less effort. This is the goal for most of us as we get older, isn’t it?
Nashville gives us a lighter-yet-deeper lyric that says more with less. It shows a softer side of Bob, with wider symbols and simpler tones. This all lines up nicely with his previous record, the commercially successful John Wesley Harding. Dylan thought of Nashville:
“These are the types of songs that I always felt like writing when I’ve been alone to do so. The songs reflect more of the inner me than the songs of the past. They’re more to my base than say, John Wesley Harding. There I felt everyone expected me to be a poet so that’s what I tried to be.”
Safe to say, he had a wild ride in the ‘60s and wanted to end the decade on a calmer note. For Nashville, Bob fully dedicated to the new genre. He changed his voice from his patented nasally, moaning howls, to a smoother, deeper sound, even adding a southern twang, and decided to do only short songs.
As per the norm, Dylan was taking on Americana, going about it in uncharted, new terrain. To describe Nashville, it may be better to say what it isn’t: it’s not political or socially conscious, no personal narratives or historical references. The tracks are all quick and catchy, romantic in nature: simple metaphors done a million times.
Was he begging for a ‘So what?’ reaction, or telling us to ‘look the other way,’ ‘just listen in the background,’ ‘if we have something more important it’s okay, we can come back.’ I’m speculating, of course: Here’s what Dylan actually had to say:
“On Nashville Skyline you had to read between the lines. I was trying to grasp for something that would lead me on to where I thought I should be, and it didn’t go nowhere—it just went down, down, down. I couldn’t be anybody but myself, and at that point I didn’t know it or want to know it.”
Nashville displays all the signs that Dylan was going for a long haul: bigger than folk, of course, but also bigger than rock. Even as his prior shifts proved successful, here again on this record he changes, taking chances to reaffirm his career mantra.
And through his whole career, he had but a few hits as big as the album’s main single, “Lay Lady Lay,” so add commercial success to the accomplishments of this album.
Some of the other best tracks on it are “Threw It All Away,” “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” and my favorite song on the album, “Tell Me That It Isn’t True.”
In each of these titles, Bob is describing a journey away from tradition and beginnings to more complexity and substantial growth through understanding, but doing it with simplicity, which I admire. I think he wanted to be the best artist he could be, which meant being one who can relate to all artists.
For all his incomparable achievements, his greatest has been staying dedicated to his art and its appreciators; in that vein, Bob has earned a fan base more crazed and loyal than anyone else. He is a walking king who got his power by dedicating himself to art more than any commercial concerns that are often linked to the modern state of affairs.
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Bob’s 73rd birthday approaches, and he’s announced another album of brand new or previously unheard content, his 13th disc in the last 6 years. Seriously in his stride and not looking back, this is classic Bob, with extra bitters, as this has to be his last push.
Shadows in the Night is reportedly the title for his new album, due this August. I wonder how it will fare compared to his previous official release, Tempest (2012). That album was notably raw, with lines like “Another politician pumping out the piss” that attracted a new generation of youth, while showing how far the legend has come since his early protest days.
Along with the Shadows announcement, comes one of a new book out now called Dylanologists, by Pulitzer Prize winner David Kinney. As you maybe guessed, it’s about people who study Bob.
