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Post by raliverpool on Jan 9, 2021 18:29:24 GMT 1
152 Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
The folk rock sixth studio album by New York born Robert Zimmerman; Dylan used rock musicians for the first time as his backing band on every track of the album, except for the closing track, as a way of conveying his lyrical poetry to create songs that captured the political and cultural chaos of contemporary America.
Highway 61 Revisited opens with his greatest hit "Like a Rolling Stone", which has been described as revolutionary in its combination of electric guitar licks, organ chords, and Dylan's snarling, sarcastic voice over 430 seconds. Allegedly Miss Lonely, the song's central character, is based on Edie Sedgwick, a socialite and actress in the Factory scene of pop artist Andy Warhol whom had been dating Dylan, and had just dumped him...; "Tombstone Blues" is an early Rolling Stones like blues rocker driven by Michael Bloomfield's lead guitar, is notable for being one of the first songs attacking the US folly in the Vietnam War; "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" is a slower piano lead bar blues number with Dylan showing some vulnerability & sadness in his vocals; "From a Buick 6" is basically an embellishment of Sleepy John Estes' 1930 song "Milk Cow Blues" over a raucous uptempo blues track; Whilst Side 1 finishes with the ominous, menacing "Ballad Of A Thin Man" highlighting "the spooky organ riffs" played by Al Kooper, attacking "Mr Jones" his lyric prop for a well educated Philistine/Square. A great way to end the first half of the album.
Side 2 opens with "Queen Jane Approximately" regarding as the more sympathetic sibling to "Like A Rolling Stone" (allegedly) lyrically about his ex, fellow folk singer Joan Baez; the title track opens with the words "Oh God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son'/Abe says, 'Man, you must be puttin' me on'" and continues in this vein on a Boogie blues number until the end the Highway leads to the start of World War III on this humourous yet sarcastic number; "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is better despite possessing six verses and no choruses about the narrators experience in Mexico with unsavoury types and wanting to get back to NYC; but the album finishes with the one acoustic number "Desolation Row" an 11 minutes 21 seconds epic which takes the form of a Fellini-esque parade of grotesques and oddities featuring a huge cast of iconic historical fictional & real characters. It also highlights whilst Dylan was no singing, his phrasing and vocalizing when on the top of his game such as on this album closer was in its own way as impressive as Frank Sinatra at his peak; or Kendrick Lamar in the past decade.
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Post by smokeyb on Jan 24, 2021 21:52:17 GMT 1
158 Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way (2002)
One of a few RHCP albums I own, so many great tracks on it.
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Post by smokeyb on Jan 24, 2021 22:00:47 GMT 1
153 The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1965)
As an avid Beatles fan, I love this album. Even a so called filler track is better than most artists can achieve.
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