Published on Aug 17, 2000
With his fifth album,
Bringing It All Back Home, Bob Dylan alienated a lot of his
fans. He dared to do the unthinkable with his music – he introduced
electric guitars to the mix. Egads, people thought, has the poet of
our times sold his soul to the rock music devil?
It’s easy, over 30 years later, to sit back and explain why such
a move was hardly dangerous (or unexpected) for Dylan, but in 1965,
it was almost a sign of the apocalypse for afficionados of folk
music. It would prompt people to boo Dylan when he would pull out a
Stratocaster in concert, and evoked the cry of “Judas” from an
audience member at the mislabeled “Royal Albert Hall” concert a
year later. (You can hear that moment of history on
The Bootleg Series Volume 4: Live 1966 Royal Albert
Hall.)
But if people had been paying attention to the progression of
Dylan’s music from his self-titled debut from 1962, they would have
known that Dylan could not be limited by the acoustic guitar for
long. Even on his previous release,
Another Side Of Bob Dylan, you could feel a sense of musical
restlessness building, even though he dutifully stuck to the
acoustic on the album.
Besides, if you really listen to the electric side of
Bringing It All Back Home, people would have recognized that
this was the same young poet whose work they had fallen in love
with. If anything, the power of electric guitars (as well as a full
band for these tracks) freed Dylan up to create some more
thoughtful phrasing, as “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” proves. It also
seemed to bring out the humorist in Dylan, as “On The Road Again”
and “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” prove. (The latter track has quickly
become one of my favorites; I’d almost like to see someone create a
psychedelic cartoon to fit the music. If someone actually does
this, or wants to know what I picture in my head, drop me a
line.)
For the most part, the electric “set” (for lack of a better
term) contains some great music, from the opening call to attention
of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” to the franticness of “Maggie’s
Farm,” even to the gentle blues-like nature of “She Belongs To Me”.
If this was an experiment, I’d say it was a success.
Yes, Dylan had started featuring electric guitar (though an
acoustic was still used in many of the songs on the first half of
Bringing It All Back Home). But the second half of the
release should have quieted many of the folkies, at least for a
short time. For three of the four songs on the acoustic half of
Bringing It All Back Home have become some of Dylan’s most
recognized songs, from “Mr. Tambourine Man” (which The Byrds would
take to dizzying new heights) to “It’s Alright (I’m Only Bleeding)”
to “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (another song The Byrds would
cover).
Yet as good as these songs are, it almost seems anti-climactic
to hear Dylan back with the acoustic and sparse instrumentation, if
there is indeed any used on the songs. It almost feels like Dylan
had let Pandora out of the box on the first half of the album, then
changed his mind and slammed the lid back down on her for this
portion of the album.
Still,
Bringing It All Back Home is one incredible musical ride,
and remains one of my favorite releases in Dylan’s catalog. It’s
worth rediscovering if you grew up with Dylan’s music, and it’s
worth picking up if you’re just getting into his work.