Some folks can’t stand Bob Dylan’s voice. 
He has often been criticized for an inability 
to sing or play the harmonica. With the exception 
of a few songs Dylans’ catalogue has received 
little to no air play on FM stations. Yet Dylan 
remains the most honored and respected American 
recording artist of all time!
 

WORLD GONE WRONG, Folk album of the year, 
is masterful and intimate performance of 
traditional blues and ballads delivered in 
hauntingly authentic, minimally produced 
installments of passion, precision and power. 
It is Dylan paying homage to American music 
unplugged and up close as if he were in your 
living room. 
  

The cryptic insert accompanying the album/CD 
penned by Dylan is as enigmatic as the 
songwriter but reveals Bob’s beliefs that 
these old traditional songs are as revelent 
today as in years past. In explaining the 
songs Dylan waxes philosophically couching 
their meaning in modern present day settings. 
In doing so he transcends time with a continuum 
of artistry that is no less than Brilliant.
 

A close listen to WORLD GONE WRONG  
proves Dylans’ magnificent and  virtuous 
playing and singing style. Hidden in simplicity, 
he dramatically uses his aged pipes and under 
produced arrangements to their fullest effect, 
squeezing every last nuance from both guitar 
and voice. (This begs one to consider that 
may be it’s Micheal Bolton who cannot sing!)
 

Every Song on WORLD is exceptionally done 
and respectful to the original while surpassing 
it in quality. "Love Henry" is about 
a woman who kills her lover and courts a little 
bird for comfort. But the bird refuses her 
knowing that if the woman could kill her lover 
she would certainly kill the little bird too 
despite all her promises. In explaining the song 
in his insert Dylan suggests that the song is 
about the government and huge corporations. I 
suggest that the little bird represents how 
we should be thinking! 
 
"Stack A Lee" may be where Stagger 
Lee came from. It’s about drinking, fighting 
and murder. Dylan claims that the message of 
the song says that "no man gains immortality 
through public acclaim. Truth is shadowy. In 
the pre-postindustrial age, victims of violence
were allowed to be judges over their offenders 
the song says a man’s hat is his crown." 
 
"Blood In My Eyes" deals with money 
and romance from a male’s perspective. Give 
me love and affection or give me my money back 
is the theme. For Dylan it seems to be a 
greater message about being ripped off by 
whorish corporations, religious institutions 
and governments. 
 
The distant past becomes the present 
WORLD GONE WRONG and Dylan becomes 
"Trance Channeller Extrordinaire" 
for long forgotten ghosts of bluesmen and 
balladeers. No wonder Jack Nicholson 
referred to him as "The transcendent Bob Dylan." 
 
TIME OUT OF MIND,  pop/rock album/CD 
of the year, has been called by other critics 
"the best Dylan since BLOOD ON THE TRACKS." 
It is a good album but I wonder how 
familiar those critics were with Dylan’s 
other post 1974 albums. INFIDELS  
and even SHOT OF LOVE that rival that claim.
 
Yet TIME OUT  is a great album. Garth 
Brooks is having even greater success with 
his lackluster version of "Make You Feel 
My Love" off this new Dylan album. (NO 
you didn’t think Garth wrote that did you?) 
The Dylan version is much more passionate. 
 
Dylan explores his own mortality in "IT’S 
NOT DARK YET’ and "TRYING TO GET TO 
HEAVEN". There is a sense of spirituality 
that permeates these songs and (My Heart Is 
In the) "HIGHLANDS"; an odd title 
for a Jewish boy from Hibbing Minnesota. 
Yet the Celtic Highlanders did have 
a god named Dylan! 
 
While this Album is being compared to 
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, "LOVE 
SICK," "DIRT ROAD BLUES." 
" MILLION MILES," and "CAN’T WAIT" 
recall earlier albums like BLONDE ON BLONDE, 
HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED and THE BASEMENT TAPES. 
There is that odd "MR. JONES" 
feel to some of these songs. The Hammond B3 
organ is ever present lending the cuts a 
vintage or  Retro feel.  This is a lush 
production with great instrumentation by a 
top notch band that includes Jim Keltner 
on Drums. 
bdpoe@aol.com