To start off the new and improved Madly Beckons we have the wonderful and talented and bad diner breakfast lovin' Sean Burns! Sean is a musician based in Toronto, but more on him later.
February is here and it's actually been kinda nice this week. Except for Tuesday. Tuesday not so much.
I spent the night before in Airdrie visiting with my mom and grandma. I left early for work that morning at 7:20, and half an hour later I realized I was going to be spending a really long time sitting in my car. The Deerfoot was backed up to to Stoney Trail and according to 66CFR it was bumper to bumper all the way to Peigan (my exit). An hour into my commute I started foraging my back seat, looking for something edible. Instead I found my little HMV bag with two new cd's in it. And lo and behold it was February 1st! Which meant I could finally start listening to them! My options were either Bob Dylan or Tom Waits. Without hesitation I cracked open the Waits album and threw it in the console. And waited. And watched it fail. Made a few more attempts to get the player to read the cd, but it was no use. All I was left with was Bob Dylan. Highway 61 Revisited.
I was worried.
I like Bob Dylan, I really do. But I only have a 3 disc "best of" of his, and it something I can only take in small doses. I had estimated that I had at least another half hour in traffic (it ended up being another hour), and I was concerned about how an entire album of this dude would effect my already foul mood. I put the cd in.
AND IT WAS AWESOME. No one could have ever convinced me that I would love an entire album of Bob Dylan's this much. It's the only thing I've listened to all week.
Highway 61 starts off with 'Like a Rolling Stone', Bob Dylan staple. And then right into 'Tombstone Blues' and I just love this line:
The geometry of innocent flesh on the bone
And it just keeps being awesome. 'Balled of a Thin Man' kinda slows things down in the middle, but it is groovy and it makes me wanna take up smoking. And start a bring back smoking in bars campaign.
I can't even complain about the only song I don't like, 'Queen Jane Approximately'. I listened to it once and that's all I needed, I skip it every time now. But having such strong feelings about a song pleases me! You see, I'm an easy sell. There is very little media that I'm not a little entertained by, and sometimes that's kind of boring. So for me to never want to hear a song again... big deal! I don't think the song is a miss, I just kinda hate it. The harmonica made me want to throw myself outta the vehicle on the highway. Except I was only going 5 kms/hr so that wasn't going to do much damage. But yes. Lukewarm is boring. And there was nothing lukewarm for me about this album.
WOO!
Normally I'll post the Recommender's thoughts before I start, but I felt like I needed to save Burnzy's comments till the end here for my story to work. Do I need to explain these things to you? Probably not.
From the man himself:
"Revolutionary. His first full album with a backing band.
Of course everybody has heard "Like A Rolling Stone", but the real reality and gravity of how heavy the song is, and was at the time it was released, is nothing short of astounding.
It rocks hard and was almost like a fuck-you to a lot of people that wanted him to stay solo like the "old Dylan"... door opening, life-changing Album."
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