Street Legal

I have been listening to Street Legal this week. A much undervalued and great album. (It might be my own flight of fancy, but I hear an echo of these melodies in the songs of Jakob Dylan in The Wallflowers' album Breach. Hmmm... that's a pretty good album too!)

Anyway, between blasts of old favourites, it is good to bring out the CDs that haven't had an airing for a while. They sound fresher and you remember why they mesmerized you in the first place. Baby Stop Crying is fantastic. Is Your Love in Vain? really gives a little insight into Bob Dylan's mind... there is always a level of misunderstanding in relationships and it is interesting to hear that concern in song. It is quite interesting to hear the line:

'All right, I'll take a chance, I will fall in love with you; If I'm a fool you can have the night, you can have the morning too.'

That almost sounds like 'falling in love' in this instance is a conscious decision to let the guard down, rather than a spontaneous emotion. I like the thought of that - feeling unsure and knowing there is a good possibility that you will come off worse, but going ahead and jumping into the abyss anyway. A mix of logic and emotion that really rings true - especially when coupled with the doubts that the potential partner really understands you or is in the relationship for the right reasons. Boy, Bob knows how to touch a nerve with a simple line and a quick vocal inflection.

This album has plenty of good tracks. True Love Tends To Forget, Where Are You Tonight (Journey Through Dark Heat), and the filthy (!) New Pony are all well worth a listen.

We went for a day trip to York today - the long hours on crowded trains left me plenty of time for my iPod as I took the time to contemplate the Yorkshire scenery - the seemingly contradictory beauty of the rolling dales and the incongruous industrial blots along the wayside. My Dylan soundtrack fits with a train journey - the rhythms and cadences are perfection. I lost myself in tracks like Brownsville Girl, Forever Young and Series of Dreams ... Dylan's songs (although he has negated this in his autobiography) have a nostalgic feel and an emotional rise and fall that seem to completely fit journeys. Wandering feet, moving on, loss, change, endings... Dylan is the constantly moving troubadour and balladeer in the old style of the medieval minstral. He sings the times and rings the changes as he moves from town to town. What greater music for a journey? Of course, this could all be part of the illusion:

I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still.