Nashville Skyline

by

Bob Dylan

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Along with The Byrds' "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo", Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" is the beginning point of the greatest inroads country music ever made, into rock music. Dylan was criticized in the mid-60's for abandoning acoustic folk and then in 1969 for abandoning the artsy rock of "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde On Blonde". But herein lies the essence of Dylan's greatness. His uncanny sensibility and his profound ability to fully grasp a genre and make it his own. The songs on this album are deceptively simple and straight to the point. Bob abandoned all socio-political ranting to make an album of pure joy that celebrates the highs and lows of love. Aside from the classic "Lay Lady Lay" we have the underappreciated "I Threw It All Away", "Tell Me That It Isn't True" and "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" as well as the uptempo feelgood shuffle of "Country Pie" and the instrumental "Nashville Skyline Rag". Even Dylan's humorously out of tune and badly timed duet with Johnny Cash on "Girl From The North Country" seems to work perfectly here. The only criticism I have of this great album is that it's too short, running less than 30 minutes. By the end, you want the music to just keep going. Dylan chose to close out his work of the tumultuous 1960s with a serene, easygoing and non-combative work of art. Excellent!

I know a couple of people who love, love, love this album, but I can't quite see why. It certainly is warm and charming; its country sounds and melodies are set right off with a good, heart-felt, spontaneous duet with Johnny Cash on the classic "Girl from the North Country." Check out Dylan's voice! It takes some getting used to, and I still can't figure out why he "smoothed it out." Oh well. But too many songs rely on easy (lazy?) rhymes and ideas, and the whole thing is less than half an hour long, with one song ("Nashville Skyline Rag") a rather pedestrian instrumental. Of course I'm not trying to be critical of Dylan's desire over the years to experiment with styles and confound fans and critics; it's just that this one seems a little too relaxed and simple; it lacks depth. "John Wesley Harding" sounds simple and straight-forward, but it is not at all. OK, enough bitching: the songs "I Threw It All Away," "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" and "One More Night" are very good, and "Lay Lady Lay" is a Dylan masterpiece. There's a great bootleg out there of the entire Dylan/Cash sessions that yielded "Girl from the North Country"--it opens with a cool version of "One Too Many Mornings." I really recommend "Nashville Skyline" only for Dylan fans; the sad thing is that it's a little more accesible (to those who can't take his "normal" singing voice) but not nearly as challenging or, indeed, satisfying.