A Simple Twist Of Fate: Bob Dylan and The Making of Blood on The Tracks - Hardcover

Gill, Andy; Odegard, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306812312 ISBN 13: 9780306812316

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2004

Synopsis

In 1974 Bob Dylan wrote, recorded, reconsidered, and then re-recorded Blood on the Tracks, and to this day, no one who hears it can avoid being blown away by its emotional power. Commonly referred to as "the greatest break-up album of all time," it was written as Dylan's own twelve-year marriage began to painfully unravel. Songs like "Tangled Up in Blue," "Idiot Wind," and "Shelter from the Storm" have become the template for multidimensional, adult songs of love, longing, and loss.Yet the full story behind the creation of this album has never been told. The authors have drawn upon first-hand information and interviews with the musicians, producers, industry insiders, as well as Dylan's friends, associates, and relatives. A Simple Twist of Fate is an engaging chronicle of how one artist transformed his personal pain and confusion into great art.

About this title

About the Author

Andy Gill is a leading critic for The Independent, and has edited or written for NME, Q, Mojo, Rolling Stone, GQ, and Maxim. He lives in London. Kevin Odegard was a brakeman on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad when he was asked to play guitar on Blood on the Tracks. He has written for USA Today, Billboard, and other periodicals. He lives in Wayzata, Minnesota.

Reviews

This is a solid look at the background to the making of Blood on the Tracks, considered one of Bob Dylan's greatest recordings since its release 30 years ago. Gill is a skilled British music journalist, as is Odegard, who was one of the Minneapolis session musicians Dylan used to redo five songs recorded three months earlier in New York City. The authors look at the album they believe "set a new benchmark in confessional songwriting" by looking at it from every possible angle: Dylan's musical decision to return to folk after his electric and country periods; the disintegration of his marriage to his first wife, Sara, in the wake of Dylan's various affairs; his strained relationship with his younger brother, David, who helped remake the album in Minneapolis. While the authors do give a truly complete sense of the background that produced the album, much of this has been covered in far more detail in such books as Clinton Heylin's Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited (which the authors cite) and will be familiar to all Dylan fans. Fortunately, the authors shine throughout the rest of the book, which presents an enormous amount of previously unreported detail about the making of the album—down to the kind of microphones that were used. Their descriptions of the energy and enthusiasm of these musicians will make even the most hardcore Dylan fan hear Blood on the Tracks anew.
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In 1974, Bob Dylan broke a streak of wan and uninspired recordings with Blood on the Tracks, composed in the wake of the breakup of the singer-songwriter's 12-year marriage. The album was immediately hailed by fans and critics as one of his best. After cutting blood with a group of crack New York studio musicians, Dylan redid most of its songs in Minneapolis with a group of obscure local players, including coauthor Odegard, and the versions of "Shelter from the Storm" and "Idiot Wind" on the album are from the remake recordings. Exhaustive interviews with musicians from both sessions allow a detailed chronicle of the sessions and provide a harrowing portrayal of working with the mercurial, hard-to-please Dylan. Lengthy passages describing the early-'70s cultural and musical milieu and the sometimes-stormy relationship between Dylan and his brother, producer of the Minneapolis sessions, mostly just pad the text out to book length. Blood on the Tracks remains a high point of Dylan's career, and its many devotees will relish this thorough account of its making. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0306812312
• ISBN 13: 9780306812316
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256