"... periods of Dylan's work ..."

Well, I liked his earliest album, but by number 3 it was palling, then he went electric, and I enjoyed "Bringing It All Back Home" and "Highway 61 Revisited," but by "Blond on Blond" it was getting old-hat again. I didn't even listen to some of that 'middle period' stuff with the born-again-and-then-not material, but liked the stuff he did with the Willburys. There was one of his recent ones that struck me as more than decent, but I can't recall which one, and his latest (not the Christmas one -- the one before, that I got at a Starbucks) was pretty dull, though, bewing blues, was at least in a known tradition.

I think he did this thing of having really "hot" spells, then coasting (or at least turning cooler), and it may be the nature of musical genius. I know I had a period of writing in which I had idea after idea, and made at least a number of them work, then hit a dry spell. Writer's block, sort of, though it felt more like the well was empty than that the bucket had been stolen (somehow I hear the line, "The pump don't work 'cause the vandal took the handle," thinking of the metaphor I just used). I assume it might be the same with Dylan.

There are times you ache to say something, and can't think of an existing song that says it. Then you write. And when you write, other ideas come easily, even ideas you hadn't thought you'd write about, but there they are, so write away, right away.

And I guess there are times you can't think of diddley to say, even if you've set yourself up to create (no distractions, new strings, clean pad, lots of pens, liquid refreshment, maybe other musicians to interact with). Some of Dylan's imagery-filled songs, the ones from the late acoustic / early electric period, show a mind just snapping with energy, and I don't think he could keep that energy level going. I know I didn't.

As for specific periods I haven't mentioned, I can't think of them. In fact, I didn't really "get" Highway 61 till much later; when it came out, I was already lost in stringband music, and had nary an electric instrument to my name. Now, however, I can listen with an open mind, so I pick and choose among his songs, and probably conflate a bunch of them into a "period" that was in reality several different times in his life.


Bob