Actually, it is the sound of Time Out of Mind that I find so atrocious, and that as a CD. I haven’t heard it on LP (guess you’re an even bigger fan of Bob than I, Slaw! ;-), and when mentioning it threw in Oh Mercy just assuming it, also being a Daniel Lanois production, was the same (I would listen to it now but for it being in storage at the moment, due to my current in-progress relocation to the Northwest. I haven’t heard it in ages, now that I think of it.). Guess I’d better not jump to conclusions so automatically!
I haven’t been buying as many audiophile LP reissues as I used to, feeling that my impending mortality is becoming alarmingly near, leading me to try and hear as much as-yet unheard music in my remaining time as possible. I’ve been focusing more on stuff like the latest boxsets---Bootleg Vol.12 and The Basement Tapes, both fantastic!
Bob smiling on both John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline was quite deliberate, I believe, and done for the same reason as The Band including a picture of themselves with their "Next of Kin" (as the caption reads) on the inside of the Music From Big Pink LP gatefold cover was. All three albums came out at the height of the "revolution", which pitched the older WWII generation against the younger, squares against the hip, alcohol against weed, earnestness against cynicism, church-goers against atheists, and, especially, parents against their children. Scowling was in style, as was everything else done in the spirit of the refusal to respect authority (Don Stevenson, drummer of Moby Grape, giving the middle finger on the cover of their first album. Just, you know, in general.)
Bob had been leading the charge against the hypocrisy and conformity of the 50’s and early-60’s American culture, but had his motorcycle accident in the Summer of ’66, just as the emerging counter-culture was starting to catch up to him. During his two years of "recuperation" (kicking his amphetamine addiction?), Bob got married, had a kid, adjusted to life in the country (Woodstock), and reflected on things. In 1968, out of nowhere comes John Wesley Harding, a complete rebuke of what was going on in the world he was returning to. The R & R music in vogue at the time of the release of JWH and MFBP couldn’t have been more different from them; psychedelia was rampant (even The Stones went there with the horrid Their Satanic Majesties Request), "songs" were the whole side of an LP, everyone was trying to play like they were virtuosos or "Classically-trained" wunderkinds, guitar solos went on foreeeeever, and lyrics were very preachy, judgmental, and holier than thou. And the music was loud---real, real loud (I have the tinnitus to prove it).
In 1968, Country music was viewed by the young as the music of the enemy---church going, flag-waving, work-ethic embracing, squares; the very subjects of the songs in Dylan’s previous albums. It was also viewed as the music of racists---music from and of the South. Here comes John Wesley Harding, and it’s about as Country as you can get! Pedal Steel Guitar, acoustic rhythm---no Marshall or Hi-Watt stacks, no distortion or wah-wah, no double bass drum kit. Very simple, quiet music, minimal playing, and short songs. AND, lyrics full of Biblical references. WTF?! Music From Big Pink comes out, and not only is the music not-dissimilar from that on JWH, but The Band takes a picture with all the members of their families, including their, horrors, parents, and includes it on the inner cover. AND, they do a Lefty Frizzell song on the album, fer Christ’s sake. WTF?! "You know something is happening, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?"
Dylan was now in his late 20’s, as were, though they were just releasing their first album, The Band. The same age as The Beatles, Stones, etc., but having spent the entire decade playing live six nights a week, they had become a real, real good band. All The Beatles said they were a much better band, as a band, before they became big. Imagine if they had kept playing live in clubs during the entire 60’s. George was knocked on his ass when he heard MFBP, giving a copy to everyone he knew. Eric Clapton dissolved the biggest band in the world, Cream, upon hearing MFBP. Hugely influential. These two albums started a whole counter-counter culture! Every good guitarist I knew ditched his Les Paul and Marshall for a Telecaster and Deluxe Reverb. I got rid of my second bass drum and extra toms, and had to completely rethink my approach to playing the drumset. Making music, not just playing an instrument, became what it was all about. All in service to the song. Dylan was always about the song.
Dylan was STILL the leader, and having spent all of 1967 being tutored in American music (remember, four of the five of them are Canadian) by Bob in the basement of Big Pink, The Band were also preaching the new Gospel. Unlike in ’65, Bob (and The Band) was now way out ahead of the youth culture (with whom he obviously felt no kinship), and few knew what to make of JWH and Nashville Skyline (and MFBP). Only some like-minded musicians (The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield), songwriters, singers, and smarty-pants.
So, perhaps to make a statement, perhaps just to be contrary, Dylan puts a picture of himself smiling on the covers of JWH and NS, and makes music with Country influences. The guys at Rolling Stone were caught scratching their heads, not realizing they were the new Mr. Jones. When Dylan’s Self Portrait came out two years later, the heading of it’s review in RS read "What is this sh#t?". The writer of that review (Greil Marcus) has recently admitted the error in judgment that review has proven to have been. It was caused by his ignorance and arrogance, to which he has not admitted.
Hearing now heard about the great sound of MF’s Nashville Skyline, I am anxious to get it and some other new audiophile editions (and the Oh Mercy album on Sony LP, which I don’t have), and get my new turntable put together up here in the dark, wet hills of Vancouver. Thanks for the education, Slaw!
