Columbia 33235
Producer: None listed
Track listing: Tangled Up in Blue / Simple Twist of Fate / You’re a Big Girl Now / Idiot Wind / You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go / Meet Me in the Morning / Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts / If You See Her, Say Hello / Shelter from the Storm / Buckets of Rain
March 1, 1975
2 weeks
Following his stint with the Band and Asylum Records, Dylan returned to the Columbia Records fold. The result was one of his finest albums of the ’70s, with the veteran singer-songwriter showing new maturity in his work. Although no producer was credited, legendary Columbia staff producer John Hammond was present at the sessions, while Phil Ramone, who had worked with Dylan and the Band on their 1974 live album, Before the Flood, was credited as engineer.
“They were very quiet, unassuming sessions,” says Ramone. “John Hammond was there, but if anyone takes credit for producing Dylan, it’s an interesting concept… Never turning off the tape machines was part of the way you recorded Dylan. The notes just poured out of him. He would go from one song to another, almost like a medley. After the first night, John and I sat and tried to figure out what the real album was.”
The album ended up being Blood on the Tracks, which many consider Dylan’s finest post-’60s work. For Dylan, it was a bittersweet time. The album was recorded in three or four days at A&R Recording in New York. “He was extremely happy to be in that room, which had originally been owned by Columbia,” says Ramone. “He had come back to Columbia Records and was going through hell with Sarah, his former wife, at the time.”
While Dylan denied that the songs were autobiographical, many believe that they were, including Ramone, who says “You’re a Big Girl Now” was written about Sarah. Dylan, however, has suggested that the songs on Blood on the Tracks, including the album-opener “Tangled Up in Blue,” were influenced more by his interest in painting.
Whatever the case, Dylan “was loaded with songs,” says Ramone. Accompanying Dylan on the album were bassist Tony Brown, steel guitarist Buddy Cage, organist Paul Griffin, and banjo player Eric Weissberg. “They were all natural players who could shift with the wind, and that is what Dylan does — he is totally a man who is free musically. Dylan had never met the bass player before the sessions, which was not untypical Dylan.”
Such spontaneous methods of recording made it difficult for the session players, Ramone says. “He doesn’t telegraph what chords he is going to play. Sometimes he will have several bars and in the next version, he will change his mind about how many bars there should be in between a verse, or eliminate a verse, or add a chorus when you don’t expect it. He is truly spontaneous in all ways of life.”
Dylan, unhappy with an early version of Blood on the Tracks recorded in 1974, re-cut several tracks in Minneapolis in December of that year. However, Ramone says, “75 percent of Blood on the Tracks is the original album” that was cut in New York.
Blood on the Tracks also included such Dylan gems as “Simple Twist of Fate” and “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.” But like many of Dylan’s classic albums, it did not spawn a hit single. “Tangled Up in Blue,” the only charting single from the album, stalled at number 33. Still, Blood on the Tracks made Number One in its fourth week on the chart, becoming Dylan’s second chart-topper and second consecutive Number One studio album. Says Ramone, “It was a major turnaround in his life.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of March 1, 1975
1. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
2. AWB, Average White Band
3. Heart Like a Wheel ,Linda Ronstadt
4. War Child, Jethro Tull
5. Do It (‘Til You’re Satisfied), B.T. Express