Tempest Gives Bob Dylan the Last Laugh on the Skeptics

How can a 71-year-old singer (with a voice that is shot) manage to excite anybody?

Bob Dylan is sure to get people worked up when “Tempest,” his 35th studio album, is released on Tuesday.

I don’t know Bob Dylan. I have never met him. I’ve never spoken with him, either. But I can imagine how satisfying this period must be for him.

It’s immensely gratifying for a creative person to prove the skeptics wrong all the way. Despite appearances to the contrary, Bob Dylan is, indeed, human. He must be smirking right now, as he reads the largely glowing advance reviews for “Tempest.”

At the same time, it’s likely that Dylan never had a doubt that he could turn the clock back, one more time, and create a magical album. He did it on more than occasion. After getting widely attacked for “Self Portrait” in 1970, he came back, only four months later, in October, 1970, and gave us a present entitled “New Morning.” That album meant so much to Dylan that he described it n detail in his 2004 memoir, the excellent “Chronicles.” He did it 1989 when he made “Oh Mercy,” following years in the musical wilderness.

What’s the moral of the story, the moral of the song(s)? Simply that one should never bet against Bob Dylan.

JONFRIEDMAN.NET QUESTION OF THE DAY: What are you most looking forward to about “Tempest?”

Feel free to post your comment here. As always, be civil or be gone.

 

 

 

09
Sep 2012
POSTED IN Notes

  • Jamie

    Well, I have been listening to the album, which arrived by post from Amazon on Saturday and am enjoying it. But coming from Northern Ireland, what I am most looking forward to after the release of Tempest is for Bob to come to Belfast on his next European tour, visit the new Titanic Museum (I’m sure they will arrange a private tour for Bob) and for him to perform Tempest live on stage for the first(and only?) time.

  • David Desmond

    i don’t expect anything from Tempest; if it’s good, OK and bad OK. How should I know anyway? I’ve always like Self Portrait and never understood how people could be so wierd about it. Why? Because it was ahead of its time. Dylan was showing us a side of himself that was beyond rock n roll or Highwah 61 Revisited. It was showing us the side of him that came to influence so many other and later records at least beginning with Nashville Skyline and a country sound. He was showing his respect for a variety of roots music. All the Tired Horses could have ended up on New Morning. People were not ready for Dylan to show them some of his broad musical interests. It was like with the electric guitar at Newport. But Dylan knew it’d be poorly received. Brilliant musicians on S.P. I’ve talked with David Bromberg a couple of times about recording S.P. and New Morning and he said Bob said, Just play whatever you want. You don’t have to teach Dave the right chords lol. But the real musicians including Charlie Daniels and Bromberg and the Band et al the list goes on forever enjoyed the music. And it was a chance to hear Bob at Isle of White when he was playing hooky from Woodstock chaos. Too many fans have just been ignorant of roots music. S.P. was nothing new or wierd or bizarre, etc. No one was ready. So now I suppose they are. All the hoopla about Tempest. I’m happy for Bob but remember fans are fickle. And Bob never forgets that. If I like it, OK. If I don’t, no big deal. Write your overview on what S.P. really was. If you meet Bob, ask him about it. His response will be, “huh?”

    • Len

      Self Portrait i as terrible to my ears now then it was then. Dylan’s covers (outtakes and unused tracks on Cloumbia’s Dylan) are almost laughable when they don’t make you cringe. HE’s never been better than the thin wild mercury years.

  • anthony

    your right one should never laugh at bob dylan…..its bad for the soul

  • MS7

    Anyone else notice that Dylan’s new song, “Soon After Midnight” is just the melody from Bobby Fuller’s “A New Shade of Blue?”

  • Len

    “I don’t know bob dylan. Ive never spoken to him.” That’s obvious. Hey, youre entitled to your opinion but Tempest is ok not great and his voice is in worse shape than Tom Waits.

  • pete

    One of Bob’s best opening tracks ever, and an excellent closing pair, in fact trio. Overall, it’s rising in my estimation as I listen to it for the fifth or sixth time (I acquired a download in advance, and got the real thing last night from iTunes). I’ll give you my full opinion next year …