A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks

Rating:
Summary: Way too much padding...
Review: As I've long believed that Blood On The Tracks is the finest LP by the finest writer/musical artist of his generation I was certainly looking forward to this new book that focuses upon just this album.

I have to say that I am more than a little disappointed to find an already slim volume so enormously padded by lengthy discussion and summaries of 101 things that are far better covered elsewhere. What is here on BOTT could have been published as a long Mojo article.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting insiders' tale of the making of a classic LP
Review: Blood on the Tracks is my favorite Dylan record, so I was learnign more about its creation. The book is pretty good in giving the rundown on the NYC and Minneapolis recording sessions. The only weak point is Gill's analysis of the songs, critiques that pale in comparison to those of other writers whom he quotes. That aside, the book gives Dylan his due as a rock genius without smacking of hero worship.

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Summary: Are we rolling, Bob?
Review: Books about the "Making Of" an album seem to be coming out with increasing frequency. Ashley Kahn has written two excellent books about the making of classic albums: "Kind of Blue" and "A Love Supreme", and among the albums in the rock cannon deserving of this sort of treatment, "Blood on the Tracks" has to rank pretty high. It is an iconic recording, with a great back story: by far Dylan's most confessional work, he recorded two versions: one in New York, with Phil Ramone producing, and then, after deciding he wasn't satisfied with that, a second, with uncredited musicians in Minneapolis. The version that was ultimately released has some of the New York tracks, but is mostly the Minnesota sessions. We have access to some of the alternate, New York tracks (including a version of "Simple Twist of Fate" that I had not known about, on the "Jerry McGuire" soundtrack)-- the lyrics differ slightly, and the sound overall is more introspective and intimate. What would the original have been like?

Regrettably, the book is not up to the standard Kahn has established for others working in this genre. When it focuses on the task at hand-- the making of the album, what went on during the sessions, the response to the record-- it is interesting stuff, albeit a little bit more technical than anyone probably cares about. I suppose the microphones that were used, and the makes of tape decks, and the brand of tape are interesting in a way, but not really so very interesting as to merit inclusion in an already thin book that has been puffed up with stuff about Nixon and Vietnam that reads like it was cribbed from some news magazine's end of year wrap-up. I'm really looking for more stuff like the fact that Mick Jagger was in the booth getting wasted while the steel guitar parts were being overdubbed. Or the thoughts of the musicians as they worked through this material. Or the backgrounds of the Minneapolis guys, who were, it turns out, local jazz musicians. Or the story about taking "Tangled Up in Blue" up a key, to A, forcing Dylan to sing at the outside of his range, and lending the song a haunted quality missing from the earlier take-- or subsequent live versions.

We probably know as much as we ever will about Dylan's personal life from the songs themselves, although some of the gossipy bits are interesting-- I enjoyed the stuff about the Columbia A&R woman he seems to have written "You're Going To Make Me Lonesome When You Go" was written about (so that's where Ashtabula is!). There is enough interesting new information here to make a worthwhile, in depth magazine article. The rest is so plainly filler that is actually annoying. I never fell for "Self Portrait", and I was never fool enough to buy "Dylan"-- the album of "Self Portrait" out-takes, but buying this comes close.

Rating:
Summary: Crap...pure crap
Review: EVERYONE knows the story: Dylan records one of his greatest albums in NY and goes to Minnesota to re-record parts of it, completely ruining it in the process. Whoever wrote this book should listen to the original tapes. Then he should collect every copy of this tripe and burn every last one of them.

Rating:
Summary: Essential for fans of this album.
Review: For those who don't know, Blood on the Tracks was recorded in NYC in late 1974. Dylan then re-recorded 5 of the tracks with local Minnesota musicians and released the album in 1975. It went on to be one of his most successful albums ever. It's a great treat to have one book focus on one classic album. This book goes into every possible detail of the recording of these 10 songs, from who they were written about, how and where they were recorded, to how the musicians were chosen. There is a lot of detail into the actual recording from the musicians who played on both the NY versions and the Minnesota versions which is pretty interesting b/c some of them did not like Dylan's recording process while some of them thrived in the improvisational nature of it. The most interesting piece is hearing how the Minnesota musicians feel 25+ years later about not being credited in the liner notes--some are upset, some are surprised, and some just don't care. This is a terrific book and I can only hope that similar books will be written, focusing specifically on Blonde on Blonde or Bringing it all back home.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I agree with everything in the previous review ("Way too much padding") although it deserves more than 1 star. I purchased this slim book despite its steep price because I thought it would be an in-depth examination of one of my favorite albums. I was so disappointed to find myself barely skimming over pages of fluff.

I'm sure Dylan's legendary press-shyness is a large part of the reason the authors simply didn't have much material. But they seem to have forgotten their audience: serious music fans. Don't distract us with side stories on Nixon, Bob's houses, etc. And most people who will read this book already know all of the background stuff on the other music of this time period.

**The best part** : the description of the Minneapolis tracks. The local musician's (esp. drummer Bill Berg) and guitar shop owner Chris Weber's role on these tracks are classic stories. This is what I thought the whole book was going to be about when I bought it.

**The worst part** : At one point, I felt like I was reading a rough draft of the book. Pg 24-- they talk about the record company releasing a "spoiler" album of bad outtakes. Pg 34 (that's right, just 10 pages later) they repeat the same story. Did anyone edit this thing?

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Summary: BLOOD ON THE TRACKS FACTS
Review: It's a good time to be a BOTT fan. I recently found Mary Lee's Corvette's version of BOTT on CD as well as a bootleg CD of some of the New York sessions songs (which incorrectly listed the studio dates as September 12th, 16th, and 23rd instead of the 16th, 17th, 19th, and 24th and sounded more like demos then anything else). Anyway, imagine my delight at finding this book sitting on the shelf at a local bookstore while browsing in the music section. At first glance at the title, "A Simple Twist Of Fate", I thought that this was just another Dylan biography. Luckily, the subtitle, "Bob Dylan And The Making Of Blood On The Tracks", was also printed on the spine. When I snatched the single copy off the shelf, you'd have thought I'd found the Holy Grail. Not far off the mark for me considering that apart from my March 13, 1975 issue of Rolling Stone (Volume 182), I hadn't read more then a sentence or 2 about BOTT anywhere else. It's about time that some light was shed on the making of this seminal recording. Very informative, long overdue, and a must have for any true BOTT fan. Come read the Blood On The Tracks facts.

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Summary: The fascinating story behind Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks"
Review: Last night I attended "Blood on the Tracks Live" at the Pantages Theater in Minneapolis, " at which Kevin Odegard and the other uncredited Twin cities musicians who recorded with Dylan 30 years ago played the entire album live (some of the band members and some invited guest artists, such as Mary Lee Kortes of Mary Lee's Corvette, did the singing). Eric Weissberg was also in attendance, so the NYC contingent was represented as well. "A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks" is really the first book on Dylan that I have read, even though he is a native of the Zenith City (I was out on the deck grilling listening to his concert with Paul Simon when Dylan pointed out he had been born over the side of the hill), so none of this was old hat to me. This was also the first book about the making of an album so I was fascinated by the details: learning how Odegard's suggestion for changing the key for "Tangled Up in Blue" made such a difference in the vocals is an example of the memorable detail that made this book worth the reading.

The setting is thirty years ago, when Dylan's marriage to his first wife Sara Lowndes was falling apart and he recorded "Blood on the Tracks," considered by many to be one of the greatest breakup albums of all time. "Rolling Stone" magazine listed it as #16 on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time List, putting it behind "Highway 612 Revisited" (#4) and "Blonde on Blonde" (#9) in terms of the Dylan oeuvre. The songs were all written in two weeks and originally recorded in just a week with the bluegrass band Deliverance in September of 1974. However, in December of 1974 Dylan played the album for his brother David Zimmerman in Minneapolis, who urged recutting some of the songs with unknown local musicians, thus setting up the great debate over which sessions yielded the greater glory. For the record (pun intended) the five Minneapolis tracks were "Tangled Up in Blue," "You're a Big Girl Now," "Idiot Wind," "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts," and "If You See Her, Say Hello." However, because the album covers had already been printed, Odegard and the rest (drummer Bill Berg, bassist Billy Peterson, guitarist Chris Weber, keyboard player Gregg Inhofer, and mandolinist Peter Ostroushko) did not get credit.

I also found it interesting to reconsider the album as setting "a new benchmark in confessional songwriting," because I have never really thought of "Blood on the Track" in those terms. I had known that Dylan repeatedly dismissed the idea that this album provided great insights into his psyche, but then that is not exactly the sort of thing you would expect a writer to easily confess to anyway. After all, he once introduced "Tangled Up in Blue" onstage as taking ten years to live and two years to write. For me the lyricism was always the main attraction. Ironically killing time before the concert we went to go see the less than worthy film "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" in which the title character gushes on about her rock star idol who is the greatest poet since Shakespeare; I have always considered Dylan a legitimate poet and would just point to the titles of songs like "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Simple Twist of Fate" as being emblematic of his stature as a lyricist.

Consequently, since "A Simple Twist of Fate" the book focuses more on the musical part of the equation. Specifics on chords and what key the harmonica is in are pretty much lost on me, but Odegard and his co-author, journalist Andy Gill, take pains to put such things in terms that neophytes like me can appreciate. For those who are interested in how current events and personal biography work their way into music attention is paid to that side of the creative process as well, although obviously Odegard is primarily concerned with what happened in the studio. The idea that "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" could be done in one take boggles the mind.

The end result for me is more of an interest in reading more about the nuts and bolts of the act of creation for other great albums than in wanting to read more about Dylan. The MC at the show last night was doing a nostalgic trip down memory lane, asking the audience to remember what it was like the first time they heard "THE ALBUM," and when he pulled the LP out of the brown paper bag it was "Sgt. Pepper." Of course it is now sadly a pair of Beatles too late to really get the full story on that particular classic album, but I am sure we can all think of some other treasured albums that gets into this sort of detail and not the shallow skimming we get on VH-1 specials.

Final Note: Best songs in the concert? Clearly "Idiot Wind" with vocals by Adam Levy of the Honeydogs. The encore piece, when everybody came on stage to do "Tangled Up in Blue" again comes in second.

Rating:
Summary: A far deeper inspection of Dylan's relationships
Review: Simple Twist Of Fate isn't just another biography of facts about rock musician Bob Dylan: it's a narrowed focus on the making of his Blood on the Tracks album, a break-up album written as his 12-year marriage unraveled, and it comes packed with insights based on first-hand interviews with musicians and producers, Dylan's friends and associates and relatives, and industry professionals. In using the album as a starting point, Andy Gil's examination provides a far deeper inspection of Dylan's relationships and life than the general biographical sketch could offer.

Rating:
Summary: Self indulgent
Review: The Dylan gossip and details about the recording sessions are essential for any true Dylanphile, but the authors' analyses of Dylan songs are at best self indulgent and at worst a 9th-graders' pompous research report. Skim it to avoid the weak attempt at literary interpretation.