Poll: Nashville Skyline

Love this record -- so many good songs, and even the throwaways are delightful. "Peggy Day" never fails to make me chortle. I'm going with "Tell Me That It Isn't True."

Prefer New Morning, but "I Threw It All Away" is saved by some scorching live bootlegs, in which Dylan can't decide whether to accept the title as a fact or to stew with self-contempt.

yeah, that's true, Alfred -- that song can easily switch from "oh man, what the hell was I thinking when I threw it all away" to "i threw it all away and I do not care." Hard Rain version in particular for the latter. Actually the Rolling Thunder versions of Nashville Skyline songs are super-required listening.

is the "i threw it all away" guy the same as the "one more night" guy? or the "tonight i'll be staying here with you" guy? which song happened first? last?

my favorite dylan record, btw. i don't know if i can choose.

I used to listen to this album every single morning for awhile and while I love it all, I have a sentimental weakness for 'Girl from the North Country'.

i always thought it was bizarre that the career-spanning Biograph box set kicks off with "Lay Lady Lay". I know it was a big (his biggest?) hit, but it's not exactly representative of Bob, is it? That voice! Must've been so weird when this album came out.

This take on "Girl from the North Country" is so good. In particular, the stretch from 1:21 to 1:33, the "Well, if you go when the snowflakes storm/When the rivers freeze and summer ends" is pure magic. I can even narrow it down to the way he sings "when the snowflakes storm".

love love love love this record. has become probably my favorite dylan album in the past few years

will be very difficult to vote

i kind of see this as a companion album to 'self-portrait', which i actually think is really great

yeah self portrait IS secretly is great, and that's not just a contrarian opinion. the bootleg of that whole Cash/Dylan session is worth hearing. Maybe just worth hearing once, but worth hearing. It is pretty loose. But it's nice to hear those guys having fun together.

dylan's SHORTEST album??

yeah what is it -- 28 minutes?

I love the Dylan / Cash sessions but to call what they're having fun, well, it's that but it's awkward too. But the take on "Careless Love" is fabulous for sure.

kinda narrowed it down for me to 'north country' vs. 'i threw it all away' vs. 'lay lady lay' vs. 'tonight i'll be staying here with you'

You sayin this doesn't look like fun?
http://www.tvtalkin.com/images/large/bob03-06.jpg

tho it's a little hard not to vote for 'lay lady lay.'

always loved that line 'his clothes are dirty but his hands are clean / and you're the best thing that he's ever seen

a bit earlier, but oh man what a sweet shot
http://theplummetonions.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/cashandbob.jpg

"Lay Lady Lay" is one of the best ever Dylan songs, which makes this very easy.

and a bit later
http://www.alanmesser.com/CASH/Dylan%2BCash_jpg

the bit in Eat the Document with Cash too, wonder if I can find a video...

oh man, that is good -- the part in No Direction Home where they're singing "I Still Miss Someone"? Holy shit that sounds good.

i think there's a part in the infamous Lennon/Dylan cab ride where Bob sorta makes fun of Johnny Cash, but then immediately takes it back. It's like the most sincere moment of the whole movie for him.

slightly off topic:

but i always wish there is a nashville skyline era bootleg version of "senor (tales of yankee power)" i swear i can hear it in my head, sort of a marty robbins thing and it would be sweet

oh and this

yeah, m@tt i can see Senor done up in a Kris Kristofferson "Casey's Last Ride" kinda way, with Nashville Skyline Dylan singing ...

"Tonight, I'll Be Staying Here With You" but I love "I Threw It All Away" and "One More Night" almost as much.

it's amazing there were any drugs left for Bob after Cash came through!

haha, yeah. two walking pharmacies for sure. i love those clips.

Girl From The North County

was occupying my college around 1987 and someone put on I Threw It All Away. It was obviously Dylan, but sweet and heartbroken, not like the earlier amphetamine stuff. Bought the album as soon as I could. That track still sends shivers down my spine.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

still haven't ever heard this album

Somehow I missed this poll, but I can't argue with any of the top 3. This is such a great morning album.

Missed it as well. Would have gone with I Threw It All Away.

wish dylan did more albums w/ this country croon

really j0hn??

would have voted for "Tell Me That It Isn't True" but everybody OTM - such a fantastic album and one that always reconnect me with music when I lose the "faith"

wish dylan did more albums w/ this country croon
it is pretty weird to hear some of the earliest Dylan home recordings -- the country croon is in full effect! he just remembered that he could sing like that 10 years later.

is it rolling, Bob?

There's something about this album -- I don't think of it as his best, but I've played and enjoyed it more than any of the others.

really j0hn??

yeah I'm really undereducated in Dylan - I know Blood on the Tracks and John Wesley Harding and Desire, and I have a few more (B on B, a live Rolling Thunder one, Highway 61) that I've listened to a bit but couldn't really say much about.

It's funny, I had almost the exact same Dylan collection (minus Desire and live Rolling Thunder) for a long time but never really got into him that much. Then I picked up Nashville Skyline and for some reason it got me heavily into his stuff and made me appreciate his other albums a lot more.

oh wait I also have World Gone Wrong, that's like my favorite one

my favorite dylan record, btw. i don't know if i can choose.

― goole, Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:29 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

ditto!

and j0hn, that is totally insane! but i can sympathize, i somehow missed dylan for most of my life. all my bros in college were huge dylan-heads and i'm like wha i don't know this song at all

i'm just sorta surprised that someone w/yr job description wouldn't know dylan. how did you get hired anyway???

i'm just sorta surprised that someone w/yr job description wouldn't know dylan. how did you get hired anyway???

by being something other than yet another dude with an acoustic guitar who worshipped bob dylan

http://rockyourcareer.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/make-your-resume-stand-out/

bingo

losing strategy though because even if I'd never heard a note of Dylan it wouldn't stop ppl from goin' "oh, it's a dude with an acoustic guitar, it must be heavily influenced by Dylan"

oh wait I also have World Gone Wrong, that's like my favorite one

i just got this like two weeks ago, it's fucking awesome

so sad and great

yeah the vibe on that one is just super-intense

by being something other than yet another dude with an acoustic guitar who worshipped bob dylan

Your theory needs work, because I've been aggressively pushing my pan flute act in defiance of Bob Dylan for 3 years now with absolutely no success.

this and Basement Tapes are probably my faves. would have voted for "Peggy Day," probably.

I was gonna vote for the batman building, then i saw what board this was on.

lol

man the voice on this. did he ever sing like this again?

if you haven't heard it, you should get the Isle of Wight bootleg -- the only live outing of Bob's country voice. It's great!

I have just realized: "Bob's country voice" = Lefty Frizell

http://nationalskylinemusic.blogspot.com/

wrong band dude

lol

Ken Buttrey on the drums really grooves this whole thing. And wtf with the weird percussion thing on the verses of "Lay Lady Lay"? Heard this song 500 times and never noticed it until today. It works, though.

Underrated: "Country Pie". This smokes!

"i threw it all away" is the best song ever

Not going to argue with that

I have just realized: "Bob's country voice" = Lefty Frizell

I dunno if Bob's ever copped to it (I doubt it) or if anyone pointed it out at the time (I also doubt it) but it seems really obvious in retrospect

also Brad otm, "I Threw It All Away" should've won this

Ken Buttrey on the drums really grooves this whole thing

otm, great drums on this thing

Brad and I on mind lock as usual -- on Monday I blasted it in the car.

funny timing -- i've been listening to all of dylan's albums in order. some of em are new to me and some i haven't heard in forever. i did know this album but barely remembered most of it. it's delightful, and even tho its brevity is part of its appeal i can't help but wish there were more of it. the cash/dylan duet was the bit i remembered best, but "i threw it all away" is far and away the standout for me now.

I Threw It All Away is all-time. As good as any country standard.

Threw>Tonight>LLL>Everything else.

"I Threw It All Away" juuuust verges on being one of Dylan's anonymous standards ("Emotionally Yours," "To Make You Feel My Love," "Forever Young") just universal enough to get blanket covers; but the bourbon-soaked singing is so marvelous.

man, what a good feeling i get with this album. is happy crooning Dylan secretly the best Dylan?

Could be---also some on New Morning, and Travelin' Throughhas some great outtakes from Skyline sessions, incl. alternates I prefer for their liveliness ("Country Pie" and "To Be Alone With You" are two of my faves on the LP, although a poll choice would have been impossible), some fun Cash covers, and the apparently complete encounter w him, talking and singing---either way, his voice is almost overwhelming, while he's just being friendly, eager to re-connect, while D.'s playing it cool, responding mostly through crooning. Also some good stuff from this era on Another Self Portrait and 1970.

And the Cash and other country covers on The Complete Basement Tapes, "Wallflower" duet w Sir D. on The Best of Doug Sahm's Atlantic Sessions, "A Fool Such As I" and maybe "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue" on Dylan. Maybe some others from that as well, yeah I said it.

LLL is so deep and mysterious

I do think this one and John Wesley Harding is Dylan's best singing. I've seen it postulated that because he quit smoking after the motorcycle wreck was why his voice was different on those two albums. Not sure if that is the case, but his voice is much clearer on these two albums.

Yeah, he credited that in an interview back then. A couple more country chestnuts: "My Blue Eyed Jane," on A Tribute to Jimmie Rodgers, really a good various artists trib, and maybe the only release on his Egyptian label, also, "The Love That Faded," on The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams: his music to Hank's words, as he could have done for the whole album, but he said it was too great a responsibility---another good v.a. set, nevertheless.