Bob Dylan's "Blood On The Tracks", Part 5: The Fatal Extension Course

Cover of Blood on the Tracks

by Garrett Sawyer

Part of the appeal of Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" is that the songs are undoubtedly part-autobiographical.

Although Dylan himself has vigorously denied that it is so Jakob, the youngest of Bob and Sara Dylan's four children, has stated: "The songs are my parents talking".

Tragically, some of what Dylan was portraying was the breakup of his marriage.

Ironically, what helped drive them apart wasn't infidelity on either of their part. It was art lessons. Around April 1974 Dylan began taking classes in art from a 73-year-old Russian immigrant named Norman Raeben.

What Raeben taught Dylan permanently altered the latter's way of thinking. Or as Dylan would recall later," I went home after that first day and my wife never did understand me ever since that day.

That's when our marriage started breaking up. She never knew what I was talking about, what I was thinking about, and I couldn't possibly explain it". To finish the album's songs:

If You See Her Say Hello: Now he's getting mournful and melancholy on us. She evidently has already left him long ago. Among the revelations he makes is that he seems to have made one last attempt to stop her from leaving one night but the scene that resulted left a bad taste in his mouth. Yet through it all he doesn't seem to harbor any resentment toward her.

Shelter From the Storm: Dylan was not the first to use this phrase. Creedence Clearwater Revival used it previously in 1970's "Who'll Stop the Rain" ("I went down Virginia, seeking shelter from the storm"). Here the theme is totally different. In a quiet acoustic song full of natural and religious imagery Dylan again recounts his loss of Sara. Following each verse is the simple rejoinder "'Come in' she said 'I'll give you shelter from the storm.'" More than once he seems to be comparing himself to Jesus when he refers to the woman in the song taking his crown of thorns or people gambling for his clothes in a village the way soldiers supposedly did after the Crucifixion

Buckets of Rain: The coda to the album. It's a quiet, almost playful finale to Sara (Sample lyric: "Little red wagon, Little red bike. I ain't no monkey but I know what I like"). It almost sounds like he's laughing through his tears. A fitting finale to an album full of sound and fury, signifying lots of things.

"Blood on the Tracks was recorded soon after Bob Dylan's and Sara Lownd's initial separation. The divorce was finalized in June of 1977. Theirs was a strained relationship for several years afterwards but eventually they made peace with one another well enough that they even considered remarrying.

Dylan's true feelings came out on his subsequent album, "Desire", on the song "Sara", where he called her his "Radiant jewel, mystical wife".

Wouldn't it be pleasant if great works of art like "Blood on the Tracks" didn't have to be the result of personal tragedy, heartbreak and loss? Perhaps the only good thing that can be said for hardships like the kind Bob Dylan and Sara Lownds underwent is that Dylan channeled his suffering into his art.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Bob Dylan's "Blood On The Tracks", Part 2: Blowing In The "Idiot Wind"

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, 1963 (Wikipedia)

by Garrett Sawyer

Like a modern-day Dante, Dylan chronicled the inferno of his disintegrating marriage with Sara Lownds.

Even the title itself carried the poetic device of a double meaning. There isn't a train in sight on this album.

So when he titles it "Blood on the Tracks" is he referring to railroad tracks?

Or does he mean musical tracks, in which case he's implying that the songs have lyrical "blood" all over them? You be the judge.

On with the songs:

Simple Twist of Fate

Here the narrator sounds like he's describing a chance encounter (the twist of fate of the title) that happened to someone else. The pairing falls apart after a night of passion although the man hopes that perhaps he'll get lucky twice.

Yet he eventually ends up revealing his own feelings about it when he sings, "People tell me it's a sin to know and feel too much within" as if to admit that he's been talking about himself the whole time but found it too painful to acknowledge.

You're a Big Girl Now

If this isn't a painfully candid assessment of his failing marriage with Sara then there's never been one. Think of an update version of "Just like a Woman" and you've got the essentials.

The song is replete with sad observations as to the state of their relationship ("I'm back in the rain and you're on dry land"), pleas to be understood ("I hope that you can hear, hear me singing through these tears"), promises to change, confessions of ignorance and inferiority and, finally, a wistful request not to "change horses in midstream" even as they've apparently already broken up.

Idiot Wind

This is the song he should have written right after "Like a Rolling Stone" (I don't know about all of you but I can practically hear him singing, "How does it feel ... to be as clueless as you are?"). The sarcasm, anger and outright hostility quite literally drip from the speakers. The only question left is, who's really the target of this poisonous musical dart?

The first verse sounds like it was written for the paparazzi, the second verse for all of their oblivious friends. But most of what follows sounds like he's telling Sara off (sample lyric: "You're an idiot babe. It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe").

One of Dylan's performances would seem to confirm this. Dylan sang "Idiot Wind" during a performance in Fort Collins, Colorado at Hughes Stadium. You can hear this performance yourself because it was included on "Hard Rain", Dylan's live album.

Does he sound even angrier than the recording? If he does, there's a possible explanation: it seems Sara was supposedly sitting in the front row.

What a canon of songs! Just in these three songs alone Dylan careens from hope to sorrow to dripping sarcasm and back again. And if the lyrics don't capture you the inventive, ingenious melodies will.

If you like Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" then you'll like a song inspired by the story of a soldier who died after returning from Iraq. For a limited time only you can download this song for FREE by clicking HERE.

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