Am I A Bob Dylan Fan?
John has a theory.
“You can only have three artists or bands in your music listening rotation.”
This theory suggests it’s only possible to have three artists or bands in your music rotation. Anything more than three will result in your rotation to feel cluttered, and unfocused. Of course, you can still listen to more than three artists or bands, but realistically, you’ll always end up favoring your top three. Looking at John's music habits, his top three are the Grateful Dead, Phish, and Bob Dylan. About 95% of the time, when he has the aux cord, it's one of these three. Sure, he listens to other groups occasionally, but he’s devoted to these three.
When I first heard this theory, I was in denial. He’s biased because these three artists make up 90% of his iTunes storage. Plus I have an eclectic music pallet. I’m cultured and my Spotify yearly recap let me know I listened to 90 music genres last year! Then I looked at my recently played and realized I’m a fraud. I pretty much only listen to Toro y Moi, Mac DeMarco, and the $uicideboy$. Yep, pretty much 90% of the time I pull up my Spotify, it's going to be one of these three. That being said, even though these three are played heavily in my rotation, I am always open to trying out new music.
Nooot true, according to Matt and John. They would disagree with this take, as according to them, I’m picky. I think it’s because I have a reputation for completely dismissing the artists and albums they have recommended to me. For example, when John tried to get me to listen to The Band, I nicknamed "The Bland" because I found them very boring and average. Also, Matt tried to get me to listen to The Pixies, which I notoriously called the "Skipsies" since I ended up skipping a lot of the songs on an album he recommended to me. Since these two incidents, they have stopped recommending me albums…
Since I’m not longer getting any recommendations from them, I thought it would be a fun experiment to try to listen to one of their favorite artists that they both have in common, Bob Dylan. Of course, I've heard different Bob Dylan songs before, like some of his most famous ones, like "Like a Rolling Stone," and even a few tracks off Highway 61 Revisited. However, I have not had the chance to dive deeper into his discography. I know he's considered one of the GOATS of songwriting, but I’ve always had a rough time making it past his singing style. It is safe to say I was a bit worried that I would end up shitting on another artist that they like.
Despite my skepticism, my opinion of Bob Dylan has completely transformed after listening to Nashville Skyline!
My initial reaction to this album was, “Damn. Now THAT’s how you make an album!” There wasn’t one skippable song, the performances from Bob & Co were fantastic, and it even made me enjoy country and folk music. One thing that stood out to me was Bob Dylan’s voice. I'm so familiar with his sound from Highway 61 that this clearer and smoother version of Dylan was refreshing and fun to listen to. “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” is one track that comes to mind where he sounded great and would be a song I’d show people if they said things like “Dylan can’t sing.” On top of the nice vocals from Bob Dylan on this album, there’s some awesome instrumentation like that off of songs like, “Nashville Skyline Rag.” If modern country music had sounds similar to this track I’d be tuning into the genre more. There’s also something to be said about the simplicity of some of the tracks like “One More Night”. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s catchy, well-written, and has sweet vocals. Another nice bonus is that it is not just Bob Dylan who shows up for this album, there’s a Johnny Cash feature on the first track “Girl From the North Country.” This track totally sets the tone and made me feel like I was the world of Red Dead Redemption 2, eating baked beans by the fire. “DUUUUUUTCH!” As a whole, this album is smooth and warm and makes me want to listen to not just more Bob Dylan, but more country music
One of my favorite aspects of this album was its length. It runs only 26 minutes, and not one of those minutes is wasted. All 10 tracks are great, so the best way to enjoy the Nashville Skyline album is to listen to it from start to finish. I’m more of an album than a playlist guy, so having a short but impactful set of 10 songs makes me want to keep coming back and listening to this front-to-back. That is exactly what I have been doing too, it’s been getting many plays in my rotation.
Let’s revisit John’s theory. Is his theory busted? Since I enjoyed a Bob Dylan album do I now have a 4 artist/band rotation that I routinely go back to? Well, not yet. My most common rotation is and will continue to be Toro y Moi, Mac DeMarco, and the $uicideboy$. However, Nashville Skyline is a perfect album and will be a record I revisit. If more of Bob Dylan’s discography had a similar sound to this record, I think John’s theory would be busted. As for now, I’ll continue to enjoy this record and I look forward to checking out more classic albums Bob Dylan has to offer.
Written by Luke
