With a few notable detours, the 79-year-old icon hasnt embraced the role of a public activist in decades.
It makes for an exquisite, haunting listen.
Like Dylans rise in the early 1960s, it comes during an inflection point in our country.
Credit: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
I’m a man of contradictions, I’m a man of many moods.
Dylan has always employed self-awareness as both a songwriting tool and a weapon against critics.
But there is something darker at play than wistful references to bygone eras.
Columbia
For Dylan, the big and small truths of life can be grim.
Got a tell-tale heart like Mr. Poe, he sings.
Got skeletons in the walls of people you know.
That sense of morbidity moves through the rest of the record like an undertaker.
Shimmy your ribs, I’ll stick in the knife/gonna jumpstart my creation to life.
(In addition to the protest singer label, Dylan has often bristled at this title as well.
“I never wanted to be a prophet or a savior,he told60 Minutesin 2002.
I could see myself becoming him.
Wit aside, death still abounds.
Its a drop in the bucket next to the flamenco-led, Grim Reaper-starring tale Black Rider.
At least, not at first.
The Blood Stained Banner is the nickname of the final flag of the Confederacy.
The Civil War and JFKs assassination represent two major markers in a country that was built on violence.
LikeRough and Rowdy Ways, America is and has always been haunted by death.
