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Pastimes : Links 'n Things -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HG who wrote (419)	9/8/2006 12:14:14 PM
From: HG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 536

Bob Dylan Modern Times (Columbia) Those not totally au fait with the arc of Mr Zimmerman's recent career may be a little non-plussed by Modern Times. For starters there's that title. What exactly is modern about 10 songs whose lineage resides in pre-rock 'n' roll, country blues and swingtime jazz? The key, naturally, is irony. Dylans creative renaissance (beginning with 1997's bleak, Time Out Of Mind and continued with the jauntier, rockabilly inflected, Love And Theft, has seen him delve deeper and deeper into his roots until he's indivisible from his influences. Backed with verve by his current touring band and beautifully self-produced (under the pseudonym Jack Frost); Modern Times is the exception that proves Bob's recent assertion that most modern music is poorly-recorded pap. It's a warm and utterly engaging album. Filled with wittily self-depreciative asides ('my mind tied up in knots, I keep recycling the same old thoughts'), heartfelt love poems and (most surprising of all) harsh political critique (couched as ever in Biblical terminology) on the grand finale, ''Ain't Talkin' - Dylan's 44th album is more than we could have expected from this 65-year old enigma. The worrying musings on mortality have given way to a frankly peppy acceptance of his place in the world. He even name-checks Alicia Keys! It's as though Dylan's worried, worked and rubbed away at these genres, smoothing his muse to the same archetypal condition of the originals he loves so much by Woody Guthrie, Big Joe Turner and Merle Haggard. He's sacrificed artifice (and fashionability) for the real deal. It really doesn't matter that his sound is almost inseparable from the original templates (''Rollin' And Tumblin''' doesn't even get a name change while ''Beyond The Horizon'' is basically ''Red Sails In the Sunset'' with new lyrics); Dylan's now lived and experienced enough of this stuff to really inhabit such genuine Americana. As he says on the opening track, ''Thunder On The Mountain'': 'Gonna sleep over there. That's where the music's coming from. I don't need any guide, I already know the way.' An album of the year, in any century... Reviewer: Chris Jones Spirit on the water Darkness on the face of the deep I keep thinking about you baby I can't hardly sleep I'm traveling by land Traveling through the dawn of day You're always on my mind I can't stay away I'd forgotten about you Then you turned up again I always knew We were meant to be more than friends When you're near It's just as plain as it can be I'm wild about you, gal You ought to be a fool about me Can't explain The sources of this hidden pain You burned your way into my heart You got the key to my brain I've been trampling through mud Praying to the powers above I'm sweating blood You got a face that begs for love Life without you Doesn't mean a thing to me If I can't have you I'll throw my love into the deep blue sea Sometimes I wonder Why you can't treat me right You do good all day And then you do wrong all night When you're with me I'm a thousand times happier than I could ever say What does it matter What price I pay They brag about your sugar Brag about it all over town Put some sugar in my bowl I feel like laying down I'm as pale as a ghost Holding a blossom on a stem You ever seen a ghost? No But you have heard of them I see you there I'm blinded by the colors I see I take good care Of what belongs to me I hear your name Ringing up and down the line I'm saying it plain These ties are strong enough to bind Now your sweet voice Calls out from some old familiar shrine I got no choice Can't believe these things would ever fade from your mind I could live forever With you perfectly You don't ever Have to make a fuss over me From East to West Ever since the world began I only mean it for the best I want to be with you any way I can I been in a brawl Now I'm feeling the wall I'm going away baby I won't be back 'til fall High on the hill You can carry all my thoughts with you You've numbed my will This love could tear me in two I wanna be with you in paradise And it seems so unfair I can't go to paradise no more I killed a man back there You think I'm over the hill You think I'm past my prime Let me see what you got We can have a whoppin' good time