Blood on the Tracks

Blood on the Tracks
Studio album by Bob Dylan
Released	January 17, 1975
Recorded	September and December 1974
Genre	Folk rock
Length	51:42
Label	Columbia
Producer	Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan chronology
Before the Flood (1974) Blood on the Tracks (1975) The Basement Tapes (1975)

Blood on the Tracks is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 15th studio album, released by Columbia Records in January 1975. The album marked Dylan's return to Columbia after a two-album stint with Asylum Records.

The album, which followed several years of lukewarm reception for Dylan's work, was greeted enthusiatically by fans and critics. In the years following its release, it has come to be regarded as one of his best albums; it is quite common for subsequent records to be labeled his "best since Blood on the Tracks."^[1][2][3][4] It is also commonly seen as a standard for confessional singer-songwriter albums; though Dylan has denied that the songs are autobiographical, his son Jakob Dylan has stated: "The songs are my parents talking."^[5] Most of the lyrics on the album revolve around heartache, anger, and loneliness. In 2003, the album was ranked number 16 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The album reached #1 on the Billboard U.S. pop charts and #4 in the UK. The single "Tangled Up in Blue" peaked at #31 on the pop singles chart. The album remains one of Dylan's all-time best-selling studio releases, with a double-platinum US certification to date.^[6]

Notes

The songs that make up Blood on the Tracks are seen by most Dylan biographers as having been inspired by his personal turmoil at the time, particularly his separation from his then wife Sara Dylan.^[7] However, Dylan has never said as much, and in his 2004 memoir, Chronicles, Vol. 1, he purported that the songs have nothing to do with his own personal life, and that they were inspired by the short stories of Anton Chekhov.^[8]

All 10 songs on the album were originally recorded at New York City sessions produced by Phil Ramone. With Columbia set to release the LP, Dylan pulled back at the last minute, and at year's end re-recorded five of its songs in Minneapolis with a crew of area session musicians assembled by his brother, David Zimmerman. All but one ("Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts") of the scrapped New York songs have seen official release. The New York version of "You're a Big Girl Now" was released on 1985's Biograph. The other three ("Tangled Up in Blue", "Idiot Wind", and "If You See Her, Say Hello") were released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3 in 1991. Also included on that box set was "Call Letter Blues", an outtake from the New York sessions.

Dylan's fans theorize endlessly about his reasons for revamping the album, with one unconfirmed view being that the musical feel of the album had been monotonous, with too many songs in the same key and the same languid rhythm. It has also been said that, just two weeks before the release of Blood on the Tracks, Dylan played an acetate of the record for his brother, his ensuing comments leading Dylan to re-cut the album.^[9]

Told of the album's lasting popularity, Dylan was later to say (in a radio interview by Mary Travers): "A lot of people tell me they enjoy that album. It's hard for me to relate to that. I mean, it, you know, people enjoying the type of pain, you know?"

The song "Up to Me" was not released on this record, but appeared on the Biograph box set.

According to Jimmy McDonough, prior to releasing Blood on the Tracks, Dylan visited Neil Young in his home in Florida to showcase the songs on the album and seek out Young's opinion.^[10]

Reception

Professional ratings
Source	Rating
Q	December 1993
Warr.org	[11]
Allmusic	[12]
Rolling Stone	(Positive) [13] (Jonathan Cott)
Robert Christgau	(A) [14]

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Track listing

All songs written by Bob Dylan.

Side one

1. "Tangled Up in Blue" – 5:42 (Minneapolis)
2. "Simple Twist of Fate" – 4:19 (NYC, Sept 1974)
3. "You're a Big Girl Now" – 4:36 (Minneapolis)
4. "Idiot Wind" – 7:48 (Minneapolis)
5. "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" – 2:55 (NYC, Sept 1974)

Side two

1. "Meet Me in the Morning" – 4:22 (NYC, Sept 1974)
2. "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" – 8:51 (Minneapolis)
3. "If You See Her, Say Hello" – 4:49 (Minneapolis)
4. "Shelter from the Storm" – 5:02 (NYC, Sept 1974)
5. "Buckets of Rain" – 3:22 (NYC, Sept 1974)

Chart positions

Personnel

• Bob Dylan – Vocals, Guitars, Harmonica, Organ, Mandolin
• Bill Peterson – Bass
• Eric Weissberg – Banjo, Guitar (NYC Sessions)
• Tony Brown – Bass (NYC Sessions)
• Charles Brown, III – Guitar (NYC Sessions)
• Bill Berg – Drums
• Buddy Cage – Steel guitar
• Barry Kornfeld – Guitar (NYC Sessions)
• Richard Crooks – Drums (NYC Sessions)
• Paul Griffin – Organ, Keyboards
• Gregg Inhofer – Keyboards (Minneapolis Sessions - one of the local musicians hand picked & recruited by David Zimmerman)
• Thomas McFaul – Keyboards (NYC Sessions only)
• Chris Weber – Guitar, 12 String Guitar
• Kevin Odegard – Guitar
• Phil Ramone – Engineer
• Pete Hamill – Liner Notes
• Paul Till – Photo
• David Oppenheim – Illustration
• Ron Coro – Art Direction

See also

• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

References