Today, Jan. 20, marks the 40th anniversary of Bob Dylan's classic album Blood On The Tracks, a highly emotional and devastating set of songs which was seen by many as a stellar return to form for the iconic singer-songwriter, and is arguably his last truly great album. In celebration of this incredible album, here are its 10 songs ranked, from weakest to best.
10. Meet Me In The Morning
Dylan recorded half of Blood On The Tracks in New York City and half in Minneapolis, and while I prefer nearly all of the New York tracks (they're generally prettier and more stripped down), one that isn't quite as strong as the others is Side B opener "Meet Me in the Morning." It's the only song on the album more indebted to blues-rock than to folk, which results in it sounding far more repetitive and predictable than the other songs, leaving less room for Dylan's lyrics to roam as free as they normally do.
9. Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts
Bob Dylan has been known to write a lengthy epic or two, and the best ones, such as "Desolation Row" and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," come in the form of gorgeous ballads. Though "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" matches those classics in expansive lyrical power, its bouncy country arrangement is a bit too repetitive to justify the song's running time. Four to five minutes would have worked, but nine is just way too much.
8. You're A Big Girl Now
On some of his classic mid-'60s songs such as "Like a Rolling Stone" or "Subterranean Homesick Blues," Dylan's snarling sing/speak vocal delivery totally works because of how raw and visceral the arrangements of those songs were, but it doesn't work nearly as well over the more delicately arranged songs on Blood On The Tracks, particularly "You're A Big Girl Now." This is a song with a beautiful chord progression that demands a sweetly sung melody, which Dylan unfortunately doesn't provide.
7. Idiot Wind
Though Dylan's primary state of mind on Blood On The Tracks seems to be heartbreak and overwhelming sadness, he does take an eight-minute detour back to the anger of his Highway 61 Revisited days for "Idiot Wind," a tremendous takedown about people who are "planting stories in the press." Even if the music (particularly the chorus) is a bit too upbeat for the message he's trying to send, you can't beat the unrestrained fury of lyrics like "One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzing around your eyes."
6. If You See Her, Say Hello
Though Bob Dylan is perhaps the most iconic folk singer in American history, the only "folk" instruments he regularly employed in his early days were acoustic guitar and harmonica, which is why it's so strange to hear him backed by mandolin and 12-string guitar on "If You See Her, Say Hello." However, based on how achingly beautiful the song ended up being, he should have used these types of instruments more often.
5. Buckets of Rain
As fascinating as Dylan's music was when he worked with a backing band, part of me wishes that he had recorded the entirety of Blood On The Tracks the way he had recorded its closing track "Buckets of Rain," with just some acoustic guitar, a bit of reverb, and some tasteful basslines mumbling underneath it all. It more accurately reflects the confessional singer-songwriter mode he adopted for the album, and though Dylan denies that these songs are personal or autobiographical, the sound of his voice soaring above his guitar bursts with inner turmoil.
4. Shelter from the Storm
Being the album's penultimate track, "Shelter from the Storm" almost seems like the first half of the metaphor that Dylan completes with the album's closer "Buckets of Rain." "I'll give you shelter from the storm," he sings from the point of view of a woman, but in "Buckets of Rain," Dylan reveals that the storm she's protecting him from actually comes from inside of himself, as he sings "Buckets of rain/Buckets of tears/Got all them buckets coming out of my ears." This may or may not have been intentional, but either way it provides an incredibly powerful conclusion for the album.
3. Simple Twist of Fate
The chord progression for "Simple Twist of Fate" may just be based around a basic chromatic sequence, but it's still the most surprising and beautiful sequence on the entire album, a brillliant accompaniment to Dylan's haunting and picture perfect lyrics about being alone and rejected in the middle of a busy city.
2. Tangled Up in Blue
Being the only single released from Blood On The Tracks, "Tangled Up in Blue" is the album's most famous song, a dense and cryptic account of a love affair that has come to represent the album as a whole. The song is epic-mode Dylan at his best: amazingly rich lyrics, a loose yet effective arrangement, and a memorable melody, coming in at a relatively palatable 5:42.
1. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
Although superficially "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" sounds like it could have been included on one of Dylan's first four albums, with its hastily strummed acoustic guitar and wistful harmonica lines, its deeply lovelorn lyrics are unique to Blood On The Tracks and stand in stark contrast to the socially conscious lyrics of his early work. It may be the album's shortest track, but this only proves that Dylan didn't always need 12 verses to write something so emotionally powerful.
What are your favorite songs from Blood On The Tracks? What did I get wrong? Let us know down in the comments section below!
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