Just in case you missed it… Okay, so it’s Bob Dylan, you know his name, but do you know this album? Blond on Blond is, in my opinion, the seminal work by Dylan. It was at this time in his career when all the pistons were firing perfectly. You have 2 LP’s here, with the best songs finding their ways onto side 2’s and 3’s. “Just Like a Woman” is my favorite song by Dylan of all time. The way he scratchily, yet so beautifully sings, “She takes just like a woman, yes, she does/She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does/And she aches just like a woman/But she breaks just like a little girl,” breaks my heart each and every time I hear it. Dylan’s voice while singing is so magically intoxicating that his words become like alcohol, they make you swoon, and even though you know you should stop, you don’t. One of Dylan’s most overlooked songs, “Temporary Like Achilles” finds its way as track 2 on side 3. How? I have no idea. Dylan bellows, “Kneeling 'neath your ceiling/ Yes, I guess I'll be here for a while/I'm tryin' to read your portrait, but,/I'm helpless, like a rich man's child.” It’s magic. It really is. The simplicity of the words that he chooses seems to only magnify them as they grow into this grail of musical genius. He’s what musicians should want to be. Aside from Kurt Vonnegut, Bob Dylan is the most important cultural figure in the United States since Faulkner and Melville. He holds a pantheon of greatness around him as he unrolls beauty from the seemingly simple and understated. His genius is in the fact that he knows words hold value, and placed together can give a magical tone and nature to the simplistic making them no more. If you love music, and you don’t own this album, you must go out and buy it. If you can, find it on a 33, vinyl, and hear how Dylan’s voice sounds un-mastered, and you can really love this piece of art. Buy it, you won’t regret it.
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