Bob Dylan - Tempest

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – “the best Dylan album since Blood on the Tracks…” Whenever Bob Dylan puts out a new album that’s any good, the inevitable comparisons to that great album seem to make their way into print.  And so it is with Tempest, Bob Dylan’s newest.  Critics everywhere have fallen over themselves in heaping effusive praise on Tempest.  Is Tempest a good album?  Yes.  It’s very good, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it great, or to say it’s “the best Dylan album since Blood on the Tracks…” [For the record, that honor goes to “Love & Theft,” IMHO].  Though Tempest is not as great as some reviewers would lead you to believe, it definitely extends Bob Dylan’s winning streak that he started with 1997’s Time Out of Mind.  Since that album’s release, Dylan has alternated between being playful and being serious.  “Love & Theft” and Together Through Life were playful, each with some laugh out loud moments.  Modern Times was a somewhat serious album that had its playful moments.  I put Tempest in the same category as Modern Times, only he’s just pissed off and he’s not shy about letting you know about it.  His moods go from wistful to feisty to lecherous to just downright mean.  Tempest is in a dark place.

Dylan’s ragged voice has been going the way of Tom Waits the past couple of albums, but it’s a lot better to take than the nasally whine of his early years.  As on 2009’s Together Through Life, David Hidalgo from Los Lobos lends his talents to the proceedings.  It seems Dylan has a weakness for Hidalgo’s accordion and violin.  Charlie Sexton and Stu Kimball are still a great guitar tag team, and David Hidalgo’s guitar is thrown into the mix for good measure.   Donnie Herron is as versatile as ever, playing whatever the songs need, be it the steel guitar, mandolin, banjo or violin.  The rhythm section of Tony Granier and George Receli is solid as always.  Dylan has once again made an album that sounds old timey without sounding outdated.

Duquesne Whistle – The video for this one is pretty violent.  It starts out innocently enough with a guy who sees a girl to whom he’s attracted, steals a rose from a sidewalk flower stand, and gives her the flower.  Soon after, some kidnappers grab him off the street, beat the shit out of him, and then turn him loose.  But at least the video does follow the narrative about this guy wanting to follow this girl anywhere she wanted to go.

Soon After Midnight – Bob is a creature of the night, always on the prowl for female companionship.  He’s been with Holly [who took his money], Charlotte the Harlot [who dresses in scarlet], and Mary [who wears mink].  He has a date with an unnamed “fairy queen” [has he been to Bon Temps, Louisiana?], but he has his heart set on someone else with whom he’d rather spend his nights.  There’s a guy named Two Timin’ Slim, whose corpse he’d like to drag through the mud.  Bob isn’t in his “happy place” here.

Narrow Way – The story of every couple who splits up…Dylan is not happy about it.  This song has another blues-standard riff that I just can’t place, but I know I’ve heard it before somewhere.

Look down angel from the skies
Help my weary soul to rise
I kissed her cheek, I dragged your plow
You broke my heart, I was your friend 'til now…

We looted and we plundered on distant shores
Why is my share not equal to yours?
Your father left you, your mother too
Even death has washed its hands of you…

You got too many lovers waiting at the wall
If I had a thousand tongues I couldn't count them all
Yesterday I could've thrown them all in the sea
Today even one may be too much for me…

Long and Wasted Years – Here’s an old married couple who have been together for a long time [maybe too long], way after the thrill has gone.

It's been such a long, long time
Since we loved each other and our hearts were true
One time, for one brief day, I was the man for you

Last night I heard you talking in your sleep
Saying things you shouldn't say
Oh baby, you just might have to go to jail someday…

I think that when my back was turned
The whole world behind me burned
It's been awhile since we walked down that long, long aisle

We cried on that cold and frosty morn
We cried because our souls were torn
So much for tears, so much for these long and wasted years…

Pay in Blood – This song drips with contempt for some woman who had done him wrong. Some unnamed women were similarly skewered in Like a Rolling Stone or Idiot Wind. 

“I could stone you to death for the wrongs that you done/Sooner or later you make a mistake,
I'll put you in a chain that you never will break/Legs and arms and body and bone
I pay in blood, but not my own.”

“Another politician pumping out the piss/Another angry beggar blowing you a kiss/You’ve got the same eyes that your mother does/If only you can prove who your father was…”

Scarlet Town – I don’t know where Scarlet Town is, but I know that I don’t want to live there.  This song has a rarity for any Dylan song – a guitar solo.  This one bears a strong resemblance to Forgetful Heart [from Together Through Life] and the early version of Ain’t Talkin’ [from Tell Tale Signs].

Early Roman Kings – I like this one – a lot!  I’ve heard the tune before, back when it was called Mannish Boy [or Bo Diddley’s I’m a Man – take your pick].  David Hidalgo’s accordion plays the Mannish Boy start-stop riff where you’d expect to hear a harmonica.  Who are these “early Roman kings” in their sharkskin suits?  Are they the Wall Street bankers who are “too big to fail”?  Whoever they are, Dylan calls them out –

They’re peddlers and they’re meddlers

They buy and they sell

They destroyed your city

They’ll destroy you as well

They’re lecherous and treacherous

Hell-bent for leather

Each of ‘em bigger

Than all of them put together

Tin Angel – This one has a love triangle where everybody dies.  The man suspects wife is cheating, and he asks servant where she went.  The man goes looking for wife and finds her with her lover.

The man says "Get up, stand up, you greedy-lipped wench/And cover your face or suffer the consequence /You are making my heart feel sick /Put your clothes back on, double-quick"

She replies "Oh, please let not your heart be cold /This man is dearer to me than gold"…to which he retorts "Oh, my dear, you must be blind /He's a gutless ape with a worthless mind…"

The other guy then killed the man who was cheated on, but then she in turn kills him.  After he dies, she kills herself. 

Tempest – a 14-minute song about the sinking of the Titanic which was taken from an old Carter Family tune.  Why?  The ship sank 100 years ago.  Did Dylan feel left out of commemorating this event?  I like the melody, but 45 verses are a bit much to take.  Desolation Row this is not.

Roll On John – Tempest ends on somewhat of a bummer with this, an elegy for John Lennon that’s about thirty years late.  Again, why?  George Harrison was the Beatle that Dylan was close to, not John Lennon.  I wonder if Dylan ever heard Lennon’s homemade Serve Yourself or the other uncomplimentary Dylan parodies from the Lennon box set?  I’ve listened a few times now, and I get the impression that this isn’t a heartfelt tribute to a dead colleague as it is an impersonal ode to a legend.  That Bob Dylan actually knew this legend is mere coincidence.

                                         

Starting with the movie soundtrack song Things Have Changed, Bob Dylan made two decisions that have paid enormous dividends for his career.  The first decision – produce his own records [under the name of his alter ego Jack Frost].  The second decision was to dispense with the studio musicians and make records with his touring band.  They know what he wants, and they deliver.  He has not made a bad record since making those decisions.  Tempest is a solid outing that continues Bob Dylan’s resurrection.  It’s an album worth owning.

Standouts:  Pay in Blood, Early Roman Kings, Narrow Way, Scarlet Town