New Bob Dylan album "Together Through Life" - anticipation thread

According to P4K:

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/dylancovbig.jpg

Great cover. I can't wait.

whoa that is a graet cover

I disagree!

The "Together" songs "have more of a romantic edge" than the music on "Modern Times," Dylan's 2007 album that debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 1. "The songs on "Modern Times" brought my repertoire up to date, and the light was directed in a certain way. You have to have somebody in mind as an audience otherwise there’s no point," Dylan says.

"There didn’t seem to be any general consensus among my listeners. Some people preferred my first period songs. Some, the second. Some, the Christian period. Some, the post Colombian. Some, the Pre-Raphaelite. Some people prefer my songs from the nineties. I see that my audience now doesn’t particular care what period the songs are from. They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don’t hang anybody up. Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up."

accordion on every song?

That's a cool quote. But I don't think people have wondered "if the human race is doomed" based on a particular Bob lyric for 30, maybe 40 years.

Do relatives come up to you at cookouts and ask when you’re going to write a song for THEM?

Oh yeah, one of my uncles’ wives used to pester me all the time, “Bobby, when are you gonna write a song about me … put me on the radio?” It would make me uncomfortable.

How would you get out of it?

I’d say, "I already did Auntie. You’re just not listening to the right stations."

accordion on every song?
Ooo-wee, I'm gonna love this album.

"I already did Auntie. You’re just not listening to the right stations."

^^^ love to hear this line in a Dylan song.

haha yeah - can totally hear it

i'm a "sweatshirt period" man myself.

this should be good! i've loved all of Dylan's last few albums, though Modern Times might've been my least favorite. Sounds like he's switching up the sound to some extent on this one, though I'm not expecting any radical departures.

finally a decent cover! though i'm not crazy about how the logo runs off on both sides, should have just had one.

nice picture though.

very very excited.

amazing cover indeed

the goofball loverman nashville skyline dylan is my favorite so woop woop!

That's a cool quote. But I don't think people have wondered "if the human race is doomed" based on a particular Bob lyric for 30, maybe 40 years.

That seems to be his point, though--he's relieved by it.

I bet he encounters a lot of these people though.

Yes. He probably does.

If this record is as good as the last two, he's in serious consideration for best record maker of the 2000s.

Modern times felt a bit like a rehash so im excited to hear him speak of not "milking" it

i found this pretty funny and it's today's news:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dylan-outhouse17-2009mar17,0,6819355.story

Bob Dylan's neighbors sing outhouse blues

Malibu residents say wind-borne odors from a portable toilet at the singer's compound are making them ill.

By Bob Pool
March 17, 2009

How sweet is life when you live next to a celebrity in Malibu?

Outside Bob Dylan's house, the answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.

That's what some of the singer-songwriter's neighbors are charging in an increasingly odoriferous dispute over a portable toilet at his sprawling ocean view estate on Point Dume.

Residents contend that the nighttime sea breeze sends a noxious odor from a portable toilet on Dylan's property wafting into their homes. The stench has made members of one family ill and forced them to abandon their bedrooms on warm nights, they say.

For more than six months, Dylan, 67, has ignored their complaints and their pleas to remove the outhouse, the downwind neighbors say.

"It's a scandal -- 'Mr. Civil Rights' is killing our civil rights," said David Emminger, whose home is directly behind the toilet -- which is apparently intended for use by employees of the entertainer best known for his 1960s-era protest songs.

Emminger and his wife have installed five industrial-sized fans in their frontyard in an attempt to blow the odor back at Dylan. They say the fans are no match for the ocean breeze that sweeps across the singer's land, however.

Dylan, who has lived in a compound next to Bluewater Road for more than two decades, did not respond to inquiries about the toilet. Neither did his New York-based attorney.

Malibu officials said they are investigating the complaint. As a result, they are unable to discuss the issue, they said.

But Dylan's neighbors who contend their patience has run out have plenty to say about the odor.

"It started in September. I'd go into the frontyard and get nauseous," said Cindy Emminger, 42. "I couldn't figure out at first where the smell was coming from."

Her 8-year-old son, David Jr., was sickened by the stench. Then she became ill too.

"We both have allergies and are sensitive to chemicals," she said. "I finally noticed that they had moved the porta-potty directly in front of my front door."

By some accounts, the city's response has been sluggish.

In January, one inspector reported that a city code enforcement officer was turned away by Dylan's security staff and told that he was trespassing. "He said they were going to sue the city," the inspector said.

Guards who staff a security shack near the edge of Dylan's compound around the clock are among those who utilize the toilet, neighbors say.

The guardhouse has been the source of controversy in the past. In 1989, when Dylan sought a permit to build it, Los Angeles County building and safety inspectors discovered it was not accessible to the handicapped.

According to county records, the singer bypassed accessibility requirements by promising, in writing, that he "would not hire any handicapped persons" to work in it.

Malibu City Manager Jim Thorsen denied Emminger's charge that officials allow celebrities to "dictate terms" to the city.

"There's no truth in that whatsoever. Everybody, in our opinion, is a high-profile person. We have to treat everybody by what the code says. It's not a matter of clout or of money. We treat everybody exactly the same," Thorsen said.

Although Malibu's municipal laws apparently do not directly address the issue of the permanent use of a portable toilet, one code section states that temporary structures connected to authorized construction projects must be removed upon completion of the project.

Another prohibits objectionable odor "in excess of what is normally found in the neighborhood."

"I drove by one time and couldn't locate the porta-potty or smell anything. I called the rental company on her behalf to find out what chemicals they use and forwarded that information to her," Thorsen said.

"It's worse when it's misty outside at night. We turn on the five fans, but it still gets inside our house. We're not even using the upstairs now. We sleep downstairs," she said.

if the writer was a true Dylan fan it would have been an idiot wind pun rather than the tired Blowin In the Wind reference ...

"It's worse when it's misty outside at night. We turn on the five fans, but it still gets inside our house. We're not even using the upstairs now. We sleep downstairs," she said.

How did this Onion article mistakenly get published in the LA Times?

Why does Dylan have a portable toilet on his estate?

'Mr. Civil Rights' is killing our civil rights

lol dylan as "mr. civil rights"

Bob Dylan, age 67
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/3234/week_1/010208_AP620911012_200.jpg

also what kind of jumbo size pissing in the wind solution to things is fighting ocean winds with fans in your garden?

the record cover is nice but it would be better if the text didn't have the distressed contempo-design thing going on.

Are you saying that Dylan can't shop at Ikea like the rest of us?

i think a label mixup is going to result in people wondering why dylan is on the cover of the next shawn mullins album

idiot wind pun ...

The stench from folk-rock troubador Bob Dylan's Malibu estate has neighbors screaming "Oh Mercy"

"Dylan refuses to crawl out his window"

"Malibu's Neighborhood Bully"

In response to his neighbors accusations, Mr. Dylan said "most likely you go your way, and I'll go mine."

"According to county records, the singer bypassed accessibility requirements by promising, in writing, that he 'would not hire any handicapped persons' to work in it."

ha, PROBLEM SOLVED

"The legendary rocker's neighbors claim they don't need a weatherman to tell which way the pungent smell from his port-a-potty blows."

"Tangled Up in Poo"

hahahahaha

"I ain't gonna poop on Bobby's farm no more"

http://bobsbooks.files.wordpress.com/2006/05/bob.jpg

"All I really Want to Doo-doo"

/sry

http://i41.tinypic.com/30i80gm.jpg

hmmm http://gawker.com/5171617/bob-dylans-gay-kiss
is that two guys on the cover? doesn't look like it to me, but maybe I'm wrong. I mean, Dylan is Mr. Civil Rights, after all. Maybe he's coming out in support of gay marriage.

he put a glory hole in his portapotty

He was lucky just be emBOYed.

it is. look at the arm around the neck. seems a very positive thing to do (which i know sucks and it would be nice if it could be inconsequential and devoid of context but right now, that picture and together through life is pretty resonant).

plot thickens, kinda
http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/allthepiecesmatter/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/9780679734918.jpg

pitchfork also linked to the original collection, called by bruce davidson the photographer, really cool pix

http://www.edelmangallery.com/davidsonshow1.htm

o man, i want to be in that brooklyn gang 1959 hell yeah

"We both have allergies and are sensitive to chemicals"

I hate Californians.

"Cats in the Well"!

my only regret was not just saying eff it, taking today and tomorrow off from work to continue on for tonight's Pittsburgh show. oh well.

It just occurred to me: "Tight Connection to Your Heart" would sound splendid with an accordion.

here's my pool for this tour:
* Moonlight (8)
* Beyond Here Lies Nothin' (3)
* I Want You (9)
* Forever Young (6)
* High Water (For Charley Patton) (4)
* Po' Boy (5)
* All Along the Watchtower (1)
* It's All Good (6)
* If Not for You (9)
* Summer Days (3)
* Shake Shake Mama (4)
* Like a Rolling Stone (1)
* Ballad of a Thin Man (3)
* Mr. Tambourine Man (7)
* Rollin' and Tumblin' (1)
* My Back Pages (6)
* When the Deal Goes Down (5)
* Mississippi (6)
* Things Have Changed (3)
* Floater (Too Much To Ask) (7)
* House of the Rising Sun (20)

^^point values after each pick...the House of the Rising Sun thing is something we do as a team together...there's a 20 point tier that has EVERY song he's ever done live even once...like weird stuff like London Calling comes up on it....so anyway it's such a long shot that we usually all take the same one and figure if you're gonna get lucky on a blind pick you might as well maximize for the whole team**

**only oddity was one tour when "Cats in the Well" popped up in the 20 point tier

none of those choices seem totally unlikely ... I still find it kind of amazing that he's refused to play "Mississippi" more than a handful of times over the years. Kinda thought after all the alt versions on the last bootleg series that he'd make it a mainstay for some reason. I mean, it's probably one of my favorite Dylan songs ever! He's done every other song from that record more, I think.

I guess I'm lucky - the only time I've seen Dylan this century he played "Mississippi." It was such a great show that I've been loathe to see him again - it just isn't going to live up (plus, I don't like the bands he's had since the "Love & Theft" tour):

Portland Maine
Cumberland County Civic Center
November 23, 2001

1. Hallelujah, I'm Ready To Go
2. One Too Many Mornings
3. Desolation Row
4. This World Can't Stand Long
5. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
6. Not Dark Yet
7. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
8. Lonesome Day Blues
9. Mama, You Been On My Mind
10. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
11. Tangled Up In Blue
12. Summer Days
13. Mississippi
14. Drifter's Escape
15. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

(1st encore)
16. Things Have Changed
17. Like A Rolling Stone
18. If Dogs Run Free
19. Honest With Me
20. Blowin' In The Wind
21. All Along The Watchtower

(2nd encore)
22. Knockin' On Heaven's Door

yeah that Love & Theft band was crazy good -- have you ever heard a bootleg-y comp called Pathway to the Stars from (I think) that fall US 2001 tour? It is fantastic, pretty much great performances all the way through ...

oops, my bad, that comp is actually from fall 2000 ... still! great stuff.

No, I haven't heard that? Any chance it might show up on Doom & Gloom?

That first ? should be an !

it might?!

interesting post i came across, looks like nick southall bait:

http://floweringtoilet.blogspot.com/2009/04/bob-dylan-together-through-life.html

Don't understand how those diagrams work - you have to set a recording level for the LP in, no? And you can set that at whatever you want. You could blow it into the red or make it barely audible. Without knowing how the LP was recorded, these images don't mean anything, do they?

First of three consecutive shows tonight in Chicago.

Has anybody seen him on this leg of the tour, following a month-long break after the summer "ballpark" tour with Willie and Mellencamp? Is there really NO opener at all? trying to figure out when to arrive...

and apparently Charlie Sexton is back in the band! can't wait to see him, as I never saw him in the Dylan band the first time.

Missed him in Denver last week (9-week-old baby wouldn't allow it), but yeah, Sexton is back in the band, which is interesting. Haven't heard any recordings from the current tour, but the setlists have looked good. He's been opening some shows with "Change My Way of Thinking" of all things.

no opener. saw him in Berkeley a few weeks ago. Zimmy was performing as if he was in an exceptional mood, and i don't doubt it has anything to do w/the fact that CS is back playing with the band. the only thing i did not like that night was the mix - the bass drum took over and it sorta sounded kinda crappy overall. but Bob sounded tremendous.

nice, thanks for the feedback guys. psyched. (and congrats, tyler!)

what does yr baby have against dylan???

she thinks he's overrated ...

what's her view on the Christmas album? Congratulations!

She says the Christmas album is his best since Blood on the Tracks. Oh yeah, her name is "Challops".

it's funny, feel like this one has already slipped through the cracks like a forgotten 70s or 80s album....

listening now, i think i underrated this at the time!

I had always judged this album as a disappointment after L&T and MT, but in the past few weeks I've done a complete 180 on this one.

oh c'mon it's Dylan -- he must record ONE disappointment

very underrated

I liked this more than the previous two, but liked the more recent two even more than this one. I’m currently working my way back, will be interested to see how these older ones strike me now.

(I’m speaking of his albums of original material, not the Sinatra ones.)

These songs don't announce themselves as important songs like the many epic tracks on the previous two, it ends with a hilariously cranky "get off my lawn" old-man grumble, and his voice sounds a bit more crackly perhaps, but at 45 minutes this thing is very listenable, the first half in particular is very solid, the second half amiable and loose, and I love the accordion, particularly on the wonderful "If You Ever Go to Houston".

yeah the Los Lobos vibes were cool

You like Together Through Life better than Love & Theft?

Me? No

I do, enjoy it more, yes. I’m not that big on Love and Theft... the songs are too old-timey for me, or something. (Even its best song, “Mississippi,” turned out to be the least good version, of the four versions.)

That seems crazy to me. Love & Theft is sometimes in my top 5 Dylan and is my favorite of his post-Christian albums. Songs seem so much more distinctive than Together Through Life, which I can only vaguely recall one song (something about hell being where his wife is from).

I was right about the cover art 11 years ago. A real fucking turd

The last cut and "I Feel a Change Comin' On" are the songs I burned on a CD-R long ago.

I like the cover art!

Yeah, me too. His album covers for the past 20+ years have mostly sucked but this one is good.

O. Nate: doesn't it end with 'it's all good'? I thought that was a high point, not a grumble but more a cynical critique a la 'things have changed'.

I'd like to admire this LP a bit more than I do. But I'm always up for bringing minor and underrated Dylan back.

Yeah, "It's All Good". I just pictured Dylan hanging out in Malibu and hearing surfer/Big Lebowski types saying "It's all good" too many times and getting good and steamed and then writing this song. It's a funny song, and the gallows humor fits these times. I wouldn't say this album is necessarily better than L&T, though to be honest I haven't played L&T in probably a couple of years whereas I've played this at least 3 or 4 times in the past few weeks.

People in the country, people on the land
Some of them so sick they can hardly stand
Everybody would move away if they could
It's hard to believe but it's all good

I do remember it as the best thing on the LP!

The songs on TTL tend to be underwritten from a lyrical perspective, less lyrically dense than on most of his post-millennial albums. They tend to be metrically tight and with crisp rhymes. They can either sound a bit whispy or suggestive, depending on how receptive you are to them. I don't know important the Robert Hunter co-writing credit should be credited for this. It reminds me of another oddball Dylan album (John Wesley Harding) which also has a lot of shorter songs.

Finally had a chance to revisit this (on a long drive to pick up lunch). It has a few great songs, a few skippable songs, and (on the whole) a loose, groovy, almost jammy quality that I guess just appeals to me. The album would sound great playing loud in a dark, near-empty Santa Monica bar at midday, as you drink and shoot pool (or something).

Re: "It's All Good" –

It's a funny song, and the gallows humor fits these times.

– totally, I couldn't help but think "how appropriate" as I listened to it.

a loose, groovy, almost jammy quality

Totally agree with this. Band sounds like it's having fun. So does Dylan.

a few skippable songs

Can't agree with this. The album's only 45 minutes long! There's nothing I'm tempted to skip. Songs that seemed inessential at first listen have grown to be some of my faves (e.g. "Shake Shake Mama")

Yeah, the basic blues jams do turn out to be essential. I think the ones I found myself skipping after a minute or so were "Life Is Hard" and "This Dream of You."

Aw, those are both pretty songs with kinda dark lyrics. I like em.

I just wasn't in a shufflin' mood, maybe!

That quote Josh posted elsewhere still cracks me up. If it was 2008 and someone told me "Dylan's taking his band into the studio, but he's actually replaced his guitarists with Mike Campbell and David Hidalgo," I would have had pretty high expectations. To their bewilderment, they spend most of the time listening to old blues records and more or less recording covers with the words swapped out. (If that wasn't enough, Dylan called them back and had them do more of the same...except this time with Christmas songs, with lyrics intact.)

It's probably the weakest album of "originals" he's put out in the last 30 years, but I listened to it today, and to my surprise I've grown to like it. It's no masterpiece, but it's not ambitious either, and not in a bad way. It just sounds like Dylan wants to have fun, and I think he succeeds in doing that. There's one big caveat - you have to ignore "Life Is Hard" altogether. Ironically, it's the one song that made this album possible, but it just flat out sucks. Coming right after a strong opener, it KILLS the momentum and I think it takes a long time for the album to recover. Without it, the whole thing keeps moving, and it even seems to build to an awesome climax when Dylan sings:

I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver
And I'm reading James Joyce
Some people they tell me
I've got the blood of the land in my voice

It really is addition from subtraction, and what's left isn't too short either - you still get 40+ minutes of music over nine songs.

That should probably be "It sounds like Dylan's only interested in cutting a simple, fun album, no more and no less, and I think he succeeds in doing that."

it's funny those lyrics could have come from Murder Most Foul