#187 - Dylan's Bitter Pill
Bob Dylan and His Band at the Chicago Theatre, 27 October 2007:
If it is possible to drain all the sweetness from music -- to remove all the melody and harmony, all the innocence and contentment -- Dylan has achieved that end. His music is nasty, brittle, and the sourest of sour.
It's not celebratory music, but bitter and ornery and almost brutish. The current Dylan experiment seems to be: how much ligament and tendon, how much fat and muscle and sinew can I tear away at my sound until it's pure bone: polished smooth with pain and Forever Old.
22 November 2007