OK, this is the big one, so let's get straight down to it.
Bob Dylan is the greatest rock/blues/folk singer/songwriter in history, and no one wil ever, EVER come close...period!
Now I know a lot of you reading this may consider that a little over the top, but to any Dylan fan, it happens to be a self-evident undisputable truth. 'Oh yes' I hear you say, 'But there's Paul Simon and Neil Young...and wasn't Dylan just a folk singer?'
Well say that to any Dylan disciple and all you'll get is a blank puzzled look, and then a smile of sympathy. We know...and you don't.
Trouble is, the guy's done so many great albums, its so hard to pick a favourite, but after careful consideration I've chosen the one about which Dylan once said 'People tell me they enjoy that album.Its hard for me to relate to that...I mean people enjoying that type of pain'
Recorded in 1974 in New York City, the album is an excrutiating insight into the breakup of a relationship, and although he consistently denies it, the songs, or at least the inspiration for the songs, must come from his split with his wife Sara.
The thing about Dylan is that he is an immensley private person. He tends to hide his personal experiences behind a wall of ambiguity. To paraphrase a line from Desolation Row, 'rearranges the faces, and gives them all another name', and by doing so, he enables the listener to put their own names and faces to the characters.
Having played this album several times during the course of this review (and many more times throughout my life) , I'm convinced that this is his greatest work to date, thus making it (as any Dylanologist will tell you) the greatest album by anyone...ever!
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