At night I dream of bells in the village steeple

Bob Dylan's "Desire" is one of my favorite albums. If I had to guess, I would say I've listened to it a thousand times. I am not sure if I have ever stated this on the blog, but I am an album listener. I do not put my ipod on shuffle, ever. Instead, I will pick out an album and listen to it the whole way through. Doing this puts a song into a proper content as the other songs and the general sound of the record develop a certain feel. In the great albums, that feel is carried throughout the record. For example, the song "Here Comes the Sun", which I am sure everyone knows, is a great song, but when heard with the rest of Abbey Road seems to make even more sense.

"Desire" was made after "Blood on the Tracks", which was the record that put Dylan back on the map. The album features a violin throughout that mixes with Dylan's harmonica in a type of double melody style that I cannot relate to anything else I've heard. There is also a female backing vocal that sometimes seems as a duet. Everyone I have talk to who knows this record, and including myself, thought the voice was Joan Baez, which seems to make sense except that the two of them had a little bit of a falling out sometime before this record was made. It is actually the voice of Emmylou Harris, who is still a significant artist now days.

Most of the songs are stories that develop plots with basic chord progressions. Right now 'Romance in Durango' is my favorite, but this changes several times per year. I love the line "I stayed up for days in the Chelsey Hotel writing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you" in 'Sara', which refers to the song Sad eyed lady... that he wrote for Sara. Probably the most famous song is 'Hurricane'. It seems like he put this song on the album just because he had it done and ready. The song doesn't really fit all that well and I sometimes find myself skipping the song, which is the first on the record, and starting with Isis. "I was thinking about turquoise I was thinking about gold. I was thinking about diamonds and he world's biggest necklace." I think the song means the material things did not compare or pan out like the love of his wife... hopefully.

I have recently been listening to The Arcade Fire's 'Suburbs'. This records seems pretty great and I will comment on it after listening to it another 50 times or so. I also just bought "The essential Woody Guthrie". Again, review to follow.

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