dylan

All right, let's get the jokes out of the way first.

How many roads must a man walk down before he totally loses his way and has no direction home?

If you've been 10,000 miles in the mouth of a graveyard, shouldn't you retrace your steps or you'll end up on Desolation Row?

Or are you a firm believer in the direction principle called "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"?

Oh, what I am talking about?

Well, it seems that Bob Dylan, he who has more gravel in his voice than … Read more

"All I can do is be me, whoever that is."--Bob Dylan

That's the thing about Mr. D, he never stands still. He's always evolving and these four newly remastered CDs, "New Morning," "Before the Flood," "The Basement Tapes," and "Dylan and the Dead," are proof of that.

I'll tell you upfront I've always had a thing for "New Morning," and I was bummed when it wasn't part of the 2003 SACD release collection. Sony put out 15 titles in one big chunk, and they were pretty amazing.

These four new titles were last remastered 20 years ago, so I had my hopes up. The new ones come in Digipak cases (matching the look of the SACD versions) with new photos, but no new liner notes or bonus tracks.

OK, now that I finally have a newly tweaked "New Morning," was it worth the wait? Released in 1970, "New Morning" kicked off the second phase of his long career. There's no big hits, but it's one of Dylan's most consistent albums, not a weak tune in there.

The sound is very warm and natural, and Dylan's vocals sound like he's in the room with you. The new CD sounds so close to the sound of my original LP it's scary. It's interesting, I can hear the analog master tape's hiss more clearly on the CD (it's not obtrusive, but it's there) than the LP (the LP's surface noise obscures the tape hiss). "New Morning" is one of Dylan's forgotten gems.

"Before the Flood" is a live, two-disc album, originally released in 1974. Dylan's vocal style was always changing, and he sounds completely different here. The songs tempos are much faster than the studio versions, and Dylan's almost screaming the lyrics. He's backed up by The Band, and they're terrific. They get to do a nice set of their own tunes. Sound quality is average for a live 1970s set. … Read more

Iffy sound quality isn't a new problem. Bad sound can't directly be blamed on digital, analog, vinyl, CD, or even MP3. Those are release formats; the quality of the recording itself is what I'm talking about.

Granted, personal taste plays a big part in defining good or bad sound. For every person who says the sound is clear and detailed, there's another who thinks it's ragged and harsh.

That said, the trend of late is toward spitty distortion, the kind that obscures the sound of the vocals and instruments, and buries them in grunge. I'm not opposed to grit that adds an edge to music, but I can't stand recordings made by people who either don't know what they're doing or are too deaf to notice the error of their ways.

Bob Dylan, of all people, agrees with me.

"You listen to these modern records--they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like--static," Dylan said in a Rolling Stone interview with Jonathan Lethem in September 2006.

He's not just referring to other people's records; he included his own record, "Modern Times," in his rant: "Even these songs probably sounded 10 times better in the studio when we recorded 'em." I believe Dylan. That album was a blurry wall of sound. You can hardly hear individual instruments.

The worst recording of 2009 so far--it's still early--is the Heartless Bastards' "The Mountain" CD. It's too bad because I really like the music. It rocks hard, and I love Erika Wennerstrom's strange voice, but there's severe distortion whenever she sings loud.

The distortion was so incredibly annoying that my speakers' tweeters sounded broken. If the distortion just appeared on the hard-edged, bluesier numbers, I might have thought that it was intentional, but the sound was just as ragged on "So Quiet," in which Wennerstrom is accompanied by violin. … Read more

Her pseudonym is Natalie Dylan. Because she is a woman of impeccable taste, I imagine that she named herself after Natalie Wood and Bob Dylan.

If you have not yet been propositioned by her publicity, Natalie, 22 years old, is selling her virginity to the highest bidder at Bunnyranch.com. The leading man's offer currently stands at a breathtaking $3.8 million.

The Bunny Ranch, for those who haven't been initiated, is an extremely famous brothel in Nevada, and perhaps you, on hearing this news, will be wondering just what criteria she will be using to cherry-pick her … Read more

OK, I admit Dylan Kehde Roelofs works of art have absolutely nothing to do with audio, but they remind me of vacuum tubes. They're incandescent light bulb sculptures, but it turns out Roelofs is contemplating a move to also do audio related pieces, "I'm a bit of an audiophile myself - wait 'till you see the homemade triodes (tubes) I've been working on. Might make a nice amp someday, or just a horrible, distorted Theremin."

His current works that combine glass blowing, electrical and lighting design are incredibly beautiful. They're produced in limited editions … Read more

It's one of those as you like it stories. We like the music that we like. Me, I hated the sound of Bob Dylan's "Modern Times" CD that came out last year, and Bob wasn't too crazy about it either. "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like--static." That's what Dylan told Jonathan Lethem in Rolling Stone magazine, September 7, 2006.

I dissed Modern Times for its muddled sound. Dylan's vocal was … Read more

Todd Haynes' new Bob Dylan biopic "I'm Not There" stars Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw playing different aspects of Dylan's life. The film comes out later this month, but the soundtrack is here now. The 34 track, two-CD set mixes interpretations by what I call "Baby Bobs," artists, many born before the music was originally recorded, and "Boomer Bobs," Dylan's contemporaries. And curiously enough, the Baby Bobs mostly dish out for note-for-note recreations of the originals, while the oldsters veer off in different directions.

Jeff … Read more

We take pride in our diverse catalog on Download Music. Whether it's hip-hop, indie rock, electronica or whatever you're into--we dish out the freshness every week in our newsletter. This week we got a taste of Bob Dylan's new box set (aptly named Dylan) for you to hear. Plus, The Fray just reissued its career-changing 2003 EP The Reason, while Motley Crue unleashed a new live double disc. If you're looking for something new and different, check out Mobius Band, Tunng, and Prefuse 73. Since there's some much to swallow, we made it simple for … Read more

You know the times are a-changin' when you see Bob Dylan in a commercial for the Cadillac Escalade. In an ad campaign beginning today with a 30-second TV spot, the counterculture icon is shown driving across the desert behind the wheel of the '08 blingmobile in an effort to highlight its as-standard XM Radio. Dylan hosts his own "Theme Time Radio Hour" show on XM, which will this week feature a Cadillac-themed episode.

In today's press release, Liz Vanzura, Global Marketing Director for Cadillac, said that the automaker was "pleased to join XM in this exciting … Read more