Bob Dylan - My Rough and Rowdy Ways /2020) Anticipation and Discussion Thread

dang yeah, 6 kids right? $50M apiece

Jesse’s been disowned. Bob hated American Wedding.

I saw this thread was bumped, and was hoping it was for an end-of-year discussion about how good this album was.

I honestly think my experience of this year would have been completely different (and probably much worse) without "Murder Most Foul" coming out when it did. It somehow seemed to meet the needs of the moment - at once something to puzzle about and something to help us grieve - and then look ahead to what was coming: "The soul of a nation been torn away," "If you want to remember you better write down the names," "It is what it is, and it's murder most foul."

"key west" was the one for me. was not expecting for emotional breakdowns to be soundtracked by a new bob dylan song, but it's just astonishing and beautiful

Jesse’s been disowned. Bob hated American Wedding.

However he absolutely loves How High, so it wall comes out a wash.

Wall wash too, sure, why not?

I've tried returning to this album and found three tunes disposable ("Black Rider," "Goodbye Jimmy Reed," maybe "False Prophet"), love "Key West" and "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You" and "My Own Version of You."

I agree with Lily Dale - not in a profound emotional sense, just in that it was a delightful and exciting aesthetic surprise served up at a time when that was very welcome.

The other day I saw the name 'Lily Dale' in a folk song's lyrics and thought: is that where the name of that ILX poster comes from?

I enjoy 'Goodbye Jimmy Reed' more than anything on this record - which is probably my favourite record of the year as I don't know any others.

I haven’t even been thinking of “Murder Most Foul” among the tracks of 2020 – it feels like something that lives apart from everything else. Like it would be weird to have it at #5 or whatever, you know?

Goodbye Jimmy Reed is definitely among the top of the latter day Dylan blues vamps

According to Spotify, "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" was my most-played song of 2020, which sounds right.

My name comes from Trollope's The Last Chronicle of Barset - less because of any identification with the character, more because it's a book I love and am always evangelizing about. I sort of regret choosing a username that sounds like it could be my real name, though, just because I don't want to confuse people.

I've meant to ask you, Lily, about your name. I keep evangelizing about Trollope to my friends.

Ha, I was wondering as well. It is also a Spiritualist town in Upstate New York.

I started using it years ago to post on the Guardian books blog, because that comments section can get fairly male-dominated and I wanted a name that was identifiable as female. I'm glad I chose a book that I still love.

It's hard to really explain my feeling about "Murder Most Foul," but it's not quite a personal feeling - though I do feel a deep gratitude toward Dylan for releasing it the way he did, so that it felt like a gift. It's more that it was the first great piece of art to come out (that I took notice of, anyway) that seemed like it reflected the world of the pandemic and not the Before Times. We were all re-reading The Plague and cobbling together pandemic playlists and trying to find works of art that seemed to contain some sense of what was going on. And then "Murder Most Foul" came out, and it was like it not only met us where we were but had somehow gone ahead, set guide-ropes for spring and summer 2020. That was the moment, for me, when that sense of intense dislocation eased, when art caught up with the change in the world and everything came back into focus.

I just meant to italicize "personal," not "feeling." Anyway, you get the idea.

i've made up my mind' turns me into a puddle every time i listen

― ACABincalifornia (voodoo chili), Tuesday, July 7, 2020 6:43 PM (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

has evolved into one of my very favorite Dylan songs

Me too! So beautiful.

I find that even the songs that don't work as well for me have some intensely poignant and gorgeous moments. "Mother of Muses" is not my favorite song on the album, but the last lines are so devastating that when I hear them I briefly feel like it is.

mother of muses is the one i can't warm up to, lyrically it's pretty rough

Overall I agree, but if you can listen to Dylan singing "Got a mind to ramble, got a mind to roam/ I'm traveling light, and I'm slow comin' home," without feeling like all your insides have just been wrenched out of place, you are stronger than I am.

The line "It just takes me awhile to realize things" from 'I made up my mind' cuts me like no other Dylan line

I never really warmed to this album as a whole, but when individual songs come up in a shuffle I enjoy them. It’s prominence on year-end list has surprised me a little, but I guess a lot of people are feeling it so probably it’s the kind of thing I’ll rediscover sometime.

“I Contain Multitudes” is definitely immediate canon though.

xpost to Heez: "I hope that the gods go easy with me" is the line from "I've Made Up My Mind" that has that effect on me.

I'm trying not to read too much into this that isn't specifically stated, but I think there are a few factors leading to this showing up so high on so many lists - a) it is legitimately good and his best record since Modern Times, maybe even Love and Theft; b) it's a relief to hear him move out of the Sinatra classic songbook mode again; c) he's been steadily building up goodwill for his whole career with the excellent Bootleg Series and stuff like the Rolling Thunder doc, so there's just a general appreciation in the air; d) a little bit of it is surely the realization that we don't just know how many more new albums we're gonna get from Dylan at this point - given the surprise loss of Bowie, Prince and Petty, I seem to see a move towards appreciating artists and handing out some laurels while they are still around to receive them.

Again, all of this is speculation on my part and is in no way meant to diminish a legitimately great record that will be very high on my personal list too, I'm just surprised to see even Pitchfork placing it so highly. I mean, Rolling Stone, Uncut and Mojo aren't a surprise at this point, but seeing it on so many younger oriented outlets' lists too is a bit of a shock.

all those reasons otm and I'd add that the mood of the album (incl some of those lines quoted above) has more than a taste of that wistful end-of-career capstone feel, esp when compared to his recent American songbook output. Obviously all of the above lists predate yesterday's news that he sold the rights to his catalogue, but that + turning 80 this coming year + COVID putting a stop to the Neverending Tour makes me wonder if he's gonna move towards more of a retirement phase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0l73uDeEA

I wouldn't read too much into the publishing right sale; lots of big artists are doing that lately.

(also, the deal reportedly excluded any future songs he writes, which probably suggests he plans on writing some... otherwise why not throw that in too, for an extra mil)

(granted, I've had a few beers, and my analysis may be colored by my desire to see Dylan record & perform for 20 more years)

"Murder Most Foul" is still the greatest track of 2020 for me

this is a pretty wonderful album to sink into right now.

and spotify kind of comes into its own when you think “hmm i’d like to hear some more bob dylan”. well, here’s the complete basement tapes. here’s every studio album. fuck.

listening now to “i forgot to remember to forget”

B-b-b-ut what about "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know"?

This album is simultaneously super fun and so 2020. I was driving home from the store and was struck by:

play "Jagged Little Pill", play Alanis
Play for the big-mouthed girl named Janice

i could listen to 'murder most foul' for almost ever

there are so many places it could go/have gone/might have gone/even if not but still

otm

^^

i want to suggest adding "Key West" to the pantheon. those are always temporary and fleeting, always changing in and out. but key west will be there frequently

I still like 'Goodbye Jimmy Reed' more than almost anything else on the LP!

goodbye jimmy reed RULES

It's a good driving album. At least the car is where I've listened to it the most. Being able to focus on Murder Most Foul while highway driving is nice.

When he sings 'the healing virtues of the wind' in Key West and his his voice minutely cracks. Damn.

I mentioned the song the other day to someone, and for the first time the other person immediately knew what it was. Before I said anything about the song, they said “key west is fine and fair”, and we both said “if you’ve lost your mind, you will find it there”, and then I said “key west is on the horizon line”. We just left it at that, which made me feel really good.

Because obviously, ok I guess we both know this song then

i want to suggest adding "Key West" to the pantheon. those are always temporary and fleeting, always changing in and out. but key west will be there frequently

― Karl Malone,

Truman had his White house there!

Drunken Truman: “I don't love nobody, give me a kiss / Down on the bottom, way down in Key West”

Harry and Bess liked his Old-Fashioneds.

Anyone see this month’s shows? Especially good to see he’s doing “Key West” and “I Contain Multitudes,” as well as “False Prophet” and “Goodbye Jimmy Reed.”

I saw him two nights ago at the Beacon. He did everything off R&RW except “Crossing The Rubicon” and “Murder Most Foul.” He played an upright piano, staying behind it for most of the show. Sometimes he’d pick up a mic and sneak toward center stage, then move back to the piano. A friend told me he’s apparently frustrated with being able to remember lyrics, so it seems likely they’re all on the piano (at one point between songs it looked like he was flipping through a binder). His band was incredible, inhabiting his songs like few others I’d heard. His drummer on this tour is Charley Drayton (bassist/occasional drummer with Keith Richards, bassist on Neil’s SNL appearance), and he was so perfect. When Bob introduced the musicians at the end of the show, he said, “Boy, Charley’s really something on the drums, isn’t he?” The quieter new songs, especially “Mother Of Muses,” were so beautiful, and I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such an intense degree of collective concentration at a show — everyone was hanging on every syllable.

Wow. Sounds amazing.

This is a good review, and largely tracks with what I experienced (“They’d come from far away” — I traveled from 3 hours north of NYC, and ran into a friend from Massachusetts).

https://www.hotpress.com/music/a-triumphant-bob-dylan-comes-home-to-new-york-city-22881777

Only part I’d take issue with is “most masked throughout the show.” I’d say maybe 1/3rd of the audience was masked. You had to show proof of vax to get in, but it was still frustrating to see so many unmasked. I mean, jeez, at least mask up because Bob is 80 and you don’t want him to catch a cold.

Thanks for the review; sounds great. I would have liked to caught one of the shows as it's been 10 years since I saw him last.