what am i missing? is it just fairly astute poetry with old wives'

for me it was the combination of spiraling surrealistic stories and demented carnival folk jaunts that really made this album click for me.

i was never much into this sort of music until i gave this album a few listens and it really surprised me. keep trying!

>>69141855
especially on tracks like visions of johanna where it just seems to go off the rails at some point and none of dylan's band seem to know where exactly hes going with all this but have been instructed to continue playing. its somewhat twisted and i like that

>>69141891
is there an intention in this or is it just surreal for the sake of it? appreciate your guys' help

>>69141966
i think it was everything that dylan was working towards. i think the intention was kind of similar to kanye's intention of my beautiful dark twisted fantasy. he was at the height of his fame and also getting flack for bringing rock into folk music. he kind of took this perspective of him and turned it inside out and made an album so nonsensical as to laugh in the faces of everyone criticizing him or calling him the voice of a generation. he despised that image of him.

i think its important to bring that context to this album because it really was an anomaly in dylan's discography and after his motorcycle accident shortly after the excess displayed on this album was never seen again, and dylan became very reclusive

How many times did you listen to it? I never "get" a Dylan album on the first listen but the more I listen to them, the more I love them

>>69142118
that makes sense. so it was kind of like he was spiraling deeper into his own legend, and he internalized the pressure until his perspective was so perfectly unique that he was only capable of creating this vaguely sad and celebratory album. is that close?

>>69142275
i've heard dylan since i was a kid, never was a big folk guy but i love on the beach and pink moon so i figured i'd go back to see what i was missing with dylan. listened through a lot of his earlier discography since then, and this in particular around 4 times

>>69142310
pretty much yeah. dylan was a huge pop star at the time and to get back at the people crowning him as such, he made this rather obtuse collection of songs. i think dylan before this one is the poetic and thought-provoking person that hes usually stereotyped as, but with blonde on blonde it seems he was having a bit of a laugh at that.

those are my thoughts on it at least

>>69142448
it makes more sense if he was being intentionally obtuse, funnily enough. i always knew he had a good sense of humor and utilized self-parody and liked to frequently say 'fuck you' with his art. i'll give it another try with that in mind

>>69142598
hope you like it!