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Questions, comments, criticisms and conundrums raised by listeners
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Postby Nigel w » Thu Jun 12, 2008 3:04 pm

I wonder if Dylan himself had any interest in this kind of sequencing. It's the kind of thing the producer would think about, whereas everything we know about Dylan suggests that he prefers a more accidental way of doing things. I don't think there's any reference in Chronicles to planning the running order of his albums.


I think Dylan was acutely conscious of every last detail in terms of how he presented his music, and particularly so in the 1960s when he was white hot. There's a line in Chronicles in which he says: "I try to use my material in the most effective way". It's a very simple statement and almost thrown away, but it's indicative of a sharpness of both purpose and vision, I think, and which I'm sure included decisions about sequencing and running order.

Apart from his deference to John Hammond at the very start of his career (and whom he still refers to throughout Chronicles as 'Mr Hammond' ) he never trusted producers, really. Remember, he sacked Tom Wilson half way through the sessions for Like A Rolling Stone - and Wilson was never even told why. The closest he's come to any real trust with a producer was Lanois, but even about him he writes somewhat sharply in Chronicles: "I was incapable of taking a lot of his emotional trips seriously." He now produces himself under the name 'Jack Frost', of course. He also sacked Albert Grossman as his manager when their contract expired circa 1970 and he never appointed another manager, opting instead for an array of advisers (led today by Jeff Rosen) and taking control of all major decisions himself.

Yes, I think he does like an ''accidental way of doing things'' in that he likes to leave room for spontaneity. But that's very different from being haphazard. I suspect he's rather carefully nurtured the whole 'accidental' notion in the same way that Neil Young has. In reality, his focus is razor-sharp, single-minded and all-encompassing of every detail. And - apart from the lost years when he stumbled through the 80s - it always has been.

Sorry, Des. Yes it has indeed become another Bobby bloody Zimmermann thread and I could spout Dylan theories all day if you let me, I'm afraid!
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Postby Adam Blake » Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:52 pm

Hey Des! How's about I hi-jack it and turn it into a Beatles thread! (and a big Macca style thumbs-up to Ray the Red for being another self confessed Beatle fan on everybody's favourite World Music forum)

A list of great Beatles songs that could originally be found lurking halfway through side two:

1. Baby It's You
(not as good as The Shirelles of course but nothing is)
2. You Really Got A Hold On Me
(ditto Smokey Robinson - and how many people were turned on to the Shirelles and Smokey Robinson by these cover versions? Millions, at least)
3. Things We Said Today
4. Every Little Thing
5. Tell Me What You See
6. In My Life
7. Doctor Robert
8. Lovely Rita
9. Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
10. Cry Baby Cry
11. Polythene Pam
12. One After 909

That would make a pretty good Fabs comp, as it goes. Certainly different...
(hee hee!)
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Postby Charlie » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:29 pm

Adam Blake wrote:A list of great Beatles songs that could originally be found lurking halfway through side two:

The point of this thread, Adam, as you perfectly well know, was to identify songs that stood head and shoulders above the rest of the company they found themsleves in, but which were nevertheless shoved down in the second half of their album's running order. Not one of those Beatles tracks deserved to be any higher than it was put, because of the daunting competition from the songs above them.

Now, go and start a thread about something interesting, to wake up the neighbours.
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Postby Adam Blake » Thu Jun 12, 2008 11:48 pm

OK, guv... I'll behave myself.

(see new thread)
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Postby Dayna » Sat Jun 14, 2008 3:28 pm

I don't know if my Gorillaz idea applies here or not, but there are a couple of very songs that are farther down on the disk.

Every Planet We Reach Is Dead is one. I don't know why it's called this, because it has nothing to do with space travel.
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