| Bob Dylan...Love And Theft Columbia Records...***** Bob Dylan�s new album shows the aging bard in fine form and we can only hope that we�ll be graced with many more such releases from his witty, incisive and brilliant pen in the future. When the Bootleg Series Box set came out a few years back, the critics and fans alike raved about how �Dylan�s throwaways� were as good or better than many other artist�s �keepers�. Now, as those self-same folk caper around at his feet, gushing in awe at his uniformly outstanding talent and amazing prolificacy, does Ol� Bob ever wonder what all the fuss is about? When Dylan puts out an album like �Love And Theft�, that�s so over-flowing with great music, one has to sit back and wonder how the hell he does it. You have to wonder how easy his poetic, surrealistic, stream of consciousness lyrics come to him, and how quickly his music comes together from all of his varied influences and inspirational sources. Is Bob Dylan ever really totally satisfied with his finished product? Some say the true and great artist�s muse is never satiated. Well, �Love And Theft� reeks of true greatness. It�s filled to brimming with snappy songwriting; at times slyly humorous and at other times laced with a touch of the winking devil. The music roams all over the landscape incorporating blues, country, rock and roll, and a peppering of the really old styles such as minstrelsy, rag-time and vaudeville. The album incorporates through-out it�s 12 tracks the pre-depression folk music genres such as those found on Harry Smith�s Anthology Of American Folk Music. Love And Theft is also an album that was recorded over a short period of time. The daily sessions only spanned a couple of weeks, and it�s obvious that the talents of Dylan and his crack band of musicians which he assembled really slammed this album out. Not to say that such a hurried schedule is a bad thing, Sometimes the best stuff comes quickly. �Love And Theft� contains many gems, and a few of my favorites include the following: �Mississippi� is a great country-folk song that talks about being trapped and in trouble, and staying in a place just one day too long. The recurring chorus of this song just goes to show-off Dylan�s captivating timing and ability to really capture the listener�s ear. �Summer Days� has a rockabilly, swinging beat that also tastes of Western Swing. It sounds like a song about having a good time, but with lyrics like �The girls all say your a worn-out star�, it deserves deeper listening. �High Water (For Charly Patton)� is a sort of reinterpretation of the original song as well as a tribute to Charly Patton, who was a blues singer and guitarist who preceded even Robert Johnson. Patton originally wrote �High Water Everywhere (parts I and II) about the 1927 Mississippi flood. �Moonlight� is probably my favorite song of all the cuts on �Love And Theft�. Written about meeting one�s love out in the moonlight, It recalls Louie Armstrong�s �Wonderful World� in flavor but with it�s nature references and dream-like quality, it�s an animal all it�s own. . �Love And Theft� is Dylan�s 43rd album, and where most artists have long since �stripped out the talent mine�, Bob Dylan�s still going strong. If your lucky enough to get hold of the special release of �Love And Theft�, you�ll also get a second CD that contains two previously unreleased cuts from 1961 and 1963 respectively. What amazed me is the fact that I could decipher little difference in the quality of the two songs that were almost 40 years old and the cuts on the new album. Dylan simply refuses to grow old, he doesn�t wear down with the years, and his voice just seems to keep that same timeless quality that has always been unlike any other. When most artist�s have reached the peak of their creative arc, and have long since started their inescapable decline, Bob Dylan just keeps on rising. |