All The Records I've Ever Owned

  Year Released: 1969 Label: Columbia Year Bought: 2007 On the cover of 'Nashville Skyline' a smiling Bob Dylan stares out at you, with his hand on his way to doff his hat. He seems happy, friendly, inviting. These are all themes that flow through the record itself, but there is one additional vibe: forgettable. I'm a huge fan of Dylan. He's made some of my favourite albums, but I just can't get on with this one.  He goes folk-country on this record, but aside from 'Lay Lady Lay' it all sounds pretty generic with not very memorable lyrics.  The album opens with a re-recording of an earlier Dylan tune - 'Girl From The North Country' - but this time with Johnny Cash on co-vocals. I've never really got on with this tune, and this strikes me as something that was better in theory than in practice. Apparently this album was notable at the time for Dylan switching his singing style from nasal to crooner, and that does make everything a bit softer, but ...

Year Released: 1966 Label: Columbia Year Bought: 2001 "You don't have it? That is perverse! Don't tell anybody you don't own fucking "Blonde on Blonde". It's gonna be okay." - Barry, High Fidelity And so, thanks to High Fidelity, I went to HMV on Oxford Street one afternoon in the summer of 2001 and bought Blonde on Blonde. I already had an early greatest hits collection that spanned Bob Dylan's output up until 1967, but this was my first album by the great man. Many consider Blonde on Blonde to be the first album - the first time an artist had thought about the coherence of a record as a singular art form, instead of a collection of songs. It is also thought to be the first double album - although the CD version that I have erases that presentation.  Recorded in Nashville by someone who was more at home in New York, Blonde is Blonde is seen as the final record in Dylan's folk rock trilogy - after Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revi...