I started listening to Bob Dylan properly after Scorsese's fantastic bob-umentary No Direction Home.
The Highway 61 ('Judas') stuff is fine, but the really early folk stuff was much more interesting to me. It's got an honesty, and less a burden of reputation around it. The standout tracks for me are the unashamedly folk numbers, the left field covers of blues standards, the old Scottish folk songs, that lot.
I didn't expect the printed lyrics to be surprising, but they remind me of Thom Yorke's stuttering, malformed verses in OK Computer. From The Times They Are A-Changin':
I end then in the early evenin
blindly punchin at the blind
stutterin
an blowin up
where t go?
what is it that's exactly wrong?
who t picket?
who t fight?
Could easily be from a Radiohead album. And then of course OK Computer featured the Dylan nod Subterranean Homesick Alien…
Coincidence? Or SOMETHING MORE SINISTER?
Any other favourite albums with unusually printed lyrics?
09-May-06 at 7:12 pm | Permalink
Still not quite sure I know what you mean. I’m listening to some new Dresden Dolls stuff and too hyper to do my work.
09-May-06 at 7:29 pm | Permalink
‘his last painting’ by the Manics could be the one for me. Or any MSP song for that matter
09-May-06 at 7:29 pm | Permalink
loving the layout, btw!
15-May-06 at 9:41 am | Permalink
New Adventures in HiFi by R.E.M. Specifically E-Bow the Letter. Google the song title and read it all. Beautiful. I love this album because its so transient, not in just the Kerouac sense, although most of the songs are themed around travel, given that it was written and produced entirely on the road. But because it bridges their earlier commercial stuff with the latest, and sounds like nothing else they’ve ever done. Love it.
‘Smoke it, drink
Here comes the flood
Anything to thin the blood
These corrosives do their magic slowly and sweet
Phone, eat it, drink
Just another chink
Cuts and dents, they catch the light
Aluminum, the weakest link’