Music: Bob Dylan, ZZ Top

11 years ago, we lost many friends and families from the 9/11 disaster and still remember to this day and forever till we all departed from this world.  It was that week that Bob Dylan made his last epic classic album Love And Theft, an album so good that a second rate country band took that name.  Dylan never sounded more funnier and more rocking at his 61 years of living indicate.  That remains a A plus CD in my book although the cantankerous Bob Lefsetz has nothing to do with later day Dylan and on his latest blog thought the new Dylan was a joke of a album.  But if you have been listening to Dylan thoughout his 50 years of recording that every album has been a journey on its own and each album is as different than the other one.  Sometimes Dylan stubs his toe and makes a turd once in a while (Under The Red Sky, Budokan, Dylan And The Dead)  and sometimes what one thinks can be a classic, another thinks it's not, Blonde On Blonde is as overrated as Self Portrait is underrated.  And his born again albums have a charm of their own although I find Slow Train Coming is more of a chore to listen to more so than Shot Of Love although Saved I'll sit on the fence.  And Down In The Groove, probably would worked better had Dylan stuck with The Dead then do throwaway remakes on the Dylan And The Dead fiasco, his worst album in the catalog, maybe more than the 1973 Columbia barrel bottom scrapings Dylan LP.  But let's not talk falsely about his music, I don't have the space to talk about his catalog.

The biggest fart comes from Rolling Stone giving Tempest a five star rating and comparing it to Time Out Of Mind, for these ears it sounds more like Love And Theft Part 2 but more of a darker overtone in Dylan's lyrics.  It starts out great with Duquense Whistle, the outlaw begging Pay In Blood, (but not my own) and the talking blues rock of Narrow Way which is one of those Dylan numbers that he does so well, with the call and response of his band playing along.  Which sounds like Honest With Me Part 2.  Early Roman Kings, is where Bo Diddley comes out of the grave and sues him for ripping off I'm A Man to which it's note for note as Bob goes on about Early Roman Kings.  Or Bobby Fuller giving him the look after taking New Shade Of Blue for Soon After Midnight. Taken as single numbers Tempest is much better that way than trying to sit through 68 minutes of Dylan ramblings, to which Dylan concludes the album with 3 songs hitting a half hour and boring the hell out me beginning with Tin Angel which if you in the mood might make a good mini novel but the music drags too much for me to be interested.  And Roll On John, his John Lennon elegy again is close to eight minutes of tedium.  It certainly doesn't rock, it's more easy listening muzak.

Tempest, that 13:56 fantasy/reality story telling of the sinking of the Titanic is Bob has his longwinded, and just as tedious as the movie itself.  But it not a throwaway, you have to be in the right set of mood to listen and get through it all.  I have to marvel at the way that Dylan managed to make the whole 45 verses come together, this did took a lotta thought to get through it singing it as well as us trying to get through listening to it.

While Will Hermes marvels that Dylan is still on top of his game, actually Bob has been on top of his game for a good 15 years beginning with Time Out Of Mind when the critics just about gave up on him on Under The Red Sky, Dylan always has known what to do with a lyric or line and put it to his advantage.  And of course with him lifting a note from Bo Diddley or Bobby Fuller, he pays homage to their music by adding theirs to his.  But at age 71, Dylan's vocals you tolerate or hate and just forget the whole thing.  To which fairweather Dylan fans are advised to stick with the classics of the 60s and Blood On The Tracks.  If you have a complaint with his voice you are missing out on some of his finest albums in the later years starting with Time Out Of Mind, Love And Theft, Modern Times and to a lesser extent Together Through Life.  Tempest continues that streak of great to classic albums but in this day and age classic rock radio will not touch this, nor modern rock and even NPR (although KUNI did play a track from it the other night). Whatever the consensus, be it the folk that think his prime is long gone, or those who think every album is a five star album, Tempest is an album that people will be taking about for most of the month before the next big thing comes along.  It's dark, and it just may be the weirdest album he's ever put out (even more so than Saved or Down In The Groove) it's what Dylan does best, throwing curves and moving on to the next project.  Provided if he lives that long.

 http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/music/4525251/Review-of-Bob-Dylan-album-Tempest.html

As for ZZ Top, perhaps it's time for me to stop listening to their albums.  Inspired by their getting together with Rick Rubin, the end result came up La Futura (American/Universal Republic).  And may be more disappointing than Meselero their final RCA effort which went on too long for me.  No denying Billy F Gibbons can play some mean and greasy Texas based guitar and he does that but the problem is that the songs on La Futura come off tossed off and forgettible.  More like jamming and trying to see where things will lead and most of the album goes nowhere and is over recorded in the process. (The LOUDNESS factor again, if you have turn your presets on your stereo down two notches you know it's too loud). The usual talk about ZZ Top going back to their roots but the source seems to come from Rhythmneen the 1996 classic album while the ballad Over You recalls Rough Boy from Afterburner.  And the album suffers from songs needing a fade out rather than continuing to jam till it stops and the best song I Don't Wanna Lose, Lose, You suffers from that.  And that seems to be a problem with a Rick Rubin produced record nowadays, the guy knows not a fader that makes a song better known and which is why his AC/DC production didn't work so well either. The usually reliable Joe Hardy adds way too much loudness on the recording as well.

We don't expect an Eliminator or Tres Hombres  or even El Loco late in the game and perhaps ZZ Top is just better off sticking with La Grange or Legs when they play shows.  It's one thing to play lowdown dirty Texas blues and boogie but the majority of the time La Futura sounds too lazy for me to really care anymore. If you must get this album at least go to Best Buy and get the one with the bonus cuts Threshold Of A Breakdown and Drive By Lover, those are the two best songs off this album.

Grades:
Bob Dylan-Tempest B+
ZZ Top-La Futura C+

PS  Dave White seemed to enjoy the ZZ Top album better than I did as he puts his two cents in on the album.  You really don't need to turn it up loud, the engineer who recorded it does it for you automatically http://classicrock.about.com/od/artistsnz/fr/Zz-Top-La-Futura.htm 

For all the 5 stars kudos for Tempest, All Music Guide gives it a three and half star rating which is just right. Dave White again differs on my opinion, he only gives it 3 stars and a more critical take on it.  And he may have not seen the inside cover of Dylan smoking a cigar to give his voice that nice WC Fields sound.  http://classicrock.about.com/od/artistsaf/fr/Bob-Dylan-The-Tempest.htm

All Music Guide review:  http://www.allmusic.com/album/tempest-mw0002405466

Thom Jurek may have gotten the feeling right that the 14 minute title track and Roll On John does go on forever and make the album that much more of a chore to listen to.  In the end, the battle of the senior citizens of singer songwriting, Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas beats out Tempest in terms of what to get for your old Grandpa that used to be part of the Woodstock Nation or the Folk Explosion of the early 60s.

As for ZZ Top, my final thought is the same as my first impression, they went back to basics, they play well and if you enjoy their early albums you'll get a kick out of this, I just can't get into it, no matter how many times I play the damn thing.

Robert Christgau's Verdict on Tempest.

 Although his voice is crumbling audibly and his band is too often static, Dylan remains one of our more thoughtful wordslingers in the ever-changing trad mode he's made his own. Still, the meme that this album is a major statement where Together Through Life was a holding action bespeaks the unseen hand of the autohype machine and the superstitious fears that attend 70th birthdays. Although the four trad relationship numbers that open build nicely on Together Through Life's strategy and groove, the closers aim higher with dubious-to-disgracef​​ ul results. For all its well-borrowed tune and well-digested details, nobody's putting the 14-minute Titanic ballad on repeat, and the seven-minute John Lennon dirge says nothing at half speed just like the naysayers neigh. That leaves four tracks, and how much you admire this record will depend on how redolent you find two of them: the quiet jeremiad "Scarlet Town" and the quieter love-triangle cut-'em-up "Tin Angel." I say they'd be better faster, possibly. As for "Early Roman Kings," a black-comedy dis of the rich and richer, and "Pay in Blood," folk-music death metal via sanguinary imagery and microphone placement, you gotta love 'em. B PLUS

 PS: From Chris Morris to reply to Bob Lefsetz about his post about Tempest.

 
"OK, I don't think "Tempest" is everything many are cracking it up to be, based on my online listening.
But this raging douche bag Lefsetz, who has been known to swoon over Bryan Adams and always thumps the podium about the primacy of the marketplace, is talking about how Dylan should retire, how out of step and irrelevant the old goat is.

Hello? Dylan's last two studio albums, "Together Through Life" and "Modern Times," were in this country. His previous two albums were No. 5 and No. 10. That's four top-10 albums cut between the ages of 60 and 71. And the new album has a pretty good shot at being No. 1 next week. Yeah, it's been a long time since his last hit single. So fucking what? The man continues to sell records to a devoted audience. And Lefsetz would deny him the right to make them?

I guess there are a sufficient number of people in this country who still find both Bob Dylan's music and the album format meaningful. Sorry they no longer have a place in yours, Leftsetz. Now go away, please."