So I've spent the last couple hours listening to U2 and that always reminds me of how awesome music is. if you haven't discovered launch.com go check it out. You can view most any music video. Ok, I don't know if that's true, but they had like 50 videos for U2. That's good enough for me to say they have most any music video.
I consider myself to be a huge fan of music, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm pretty much an amateur. My IPod is like 4% full (it's important to note though that it's an 80 gigger and I don't steal music). I still enjoy my guilty pleasures: Linkin Park and Blink 182. I know that's pretty much a sin to you music connoisseurs, but I can't help it. I listen to the greats and I still enjoy the cheap pop rock stuff. I share your hated for Nickelback if that helps. But let's not kid ourselves, Kelly Clarkson is good.
Just within the past couple years I've come to know and love the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. I did this with the help of two experts on the bands, Josh Corman and Daniel Leffel, respectively. They suggested what albums I should purchase first as an introduction to the band; albums that did a good job representing the music of the bands and albums that were good enough to make me want more.
Now, through the power of the blog, I've developed the desire to hear more Bob Dylan. I'm pretty sure all I know of him is Rainy Day Women from the Forrest Gump soundtrack (although I'm sure there are other hits out here I know). So the point of the blog is this: what are one, two, or three albums that would be good introductory albums for me to purchase/ask for for my birthday? I don't do greatest hits, they usually just lead to buying the original albums, let's cut out the middle man. Since I think there are only about two of you that read this, I charge you with finding the answer to my question. Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.
3 comments:
Alright, I would go with:
"Bringing It All Back Home"
"Blonde on Blonde"
"Highway 61 Revisited"
Those would be the three I would purchase.
And in fact, I may just go purchase them, because I have officially purged my entire library of every stolen song, and no longer have every Bob Dylan Album ever.
Jump, I can honestly say that my heart welled with pride at the mention of my name as a part of your experience with two truly phenomenal musical artists. Woot for you!
I second Petie's selections. All are tip-top albums and you would do well to get them. As Jack Black says in High Fidelity, "Don't tell people you don't own effing Blonde on Blonde. It's gonna be alright."
More specifically, I would add a couple of albums and put them in this order, representing accessibility, which is important with an artist like Dylan, cross-referenced with awesomeness, which is important for any artist.
1. Bringing It All Back Home - It's got great stuff and I think it only has one 19 minute long anti-rhyming behemoth song (partly kidding).
2. Highway 61 Revisited - Do me a favor. Listen to Help! by the Beatles, then to Highway 61, then to Rubber Soul. You can actually hear the influence rubbing off. This has "Like a Rolling Stone", as well as one of my five favorite Dylan tunes, "Desolation Row".
3. Blood on the Tracks - My personal favorite. A return to his old school roots after a series of more country tinged albums, Blood has "Shelter from the Storm", a guaranteed chill inducer, and "Tangled up in Blue", which is as heartbreaking as "Idiot Wind" is funny.
4. Blonde on Blonde - This whole record is poetry of the highest ilk laid over music. Dylan gets a little more experimental here, coming off his first full scale electric tour. To put that in perspective, the folkies who loved Dylan so much in the early years actually called him Judas when he first appeared on stage with an electric guitar.
5. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan - Has "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Masters of War". This is really a true protest record, but he rarely gets political, only more human.
I'm so very glad of your excursion into this particular music legend. Good luck and Godspeed.
Thanks for the advice Gents. Especially you Corman, very extensive. However, it's been awhile since you've posted on your own blog, and I'm gonna have to dock you points for that. Petie wins.
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