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Scordatevi il Bob Dylan, menestrello scapestrato, icona di una generazione in movimento con la chitarra acustica in braccio e l'armonica. Scordatevi anche il 1963, il folk-revival, il festival di Newport con Joan Baez, gli anni del Greenwich e le folle che cantano "Blowin' in the Wind" e "The Time They are a Chaingin'" a memoria, come inni ideali del brivido di cambiamento che attraversava l'America.
Dopo il 1965 (il disco è del '66) il menestrello di Minnesota non impazzì, nè rinnegò il "movement" e i suoi ideali, nè tantomeno perse la sua forte coscienza popolare che sin dagli esordi lo aveva contraddistinto. Molto più semplicemente decise che era tempo di dare sfogo alla sua incontenibile creatività, tempo di attaccare le chitarre agli amplificatori, elettrificando il tutto pur mantenendo ben salda la sua fedele armonica tra le labbra.
In molti, all'epoca, considerarono la sua "svolta elettrica" come un" tradimento", una "ritirata" dal campo di battaglia, un passo verso quell'establishment da lui sempre aspramente criticato e sbeffeggiato. In realtà penso che Dylan volesse solo fare qualcosa di nuovo, di diverso e se questo voleva dire fare dischi come "Blonde on Blonde", ben venga anche qualche (a dir la verità abbastanza!) disco venduto in più.
In "Blonde on Blonde" il blues, il country, il rock ed il folk sono amalgamati in maniera stupefacente : testi bizzarri, assurdi, visionari, appassionati, poetici e romantici si confondono con un suono nuovo... più ricco e complesso di quanto fatto fino ad allora dal buon Dylan. Dopo questo disco la musica cambierà decisamente, molti fanno coincidere con questo disco l'inizio del "Rock" ... tutti i gruppi e i cantautori in particolare, chi più chi meno gli saranno debitori.
Il disco si apre con un blues sbarazzino, quasi un istantanea del suo periodo, in cui Dylan manifesta con tono ironico e rassegnato come qualsiasi scelta si faccia, si venga sempre e comunque bersagliati e criticati ("ti danno addosso e dicono che è l'ultima volta, poi ti ridanno addossso e allora tu ritorni indietro e ti danno ancora addosso").
Si prosegue con l'introspettiva "Visions of Johanna" e poi ancora "Stuck Inside of Mobile" inserita, tra le altre cose, nella colonnna sonora di "Paura e Delirio a Las Vegas".
Poi ci sono le dolcissime "I Want You", "Just like a Woman" e la mia preferita "4th Time Around".
Che dire di altro... uno dei migliori dischi di Dylan, sicuramente una pietra miliare del rock.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
03 Visions of Johanna (07:33)
Ain't it just like the night to play tricks
When you're tryin' to be so quiet?
We'll sit here stranded, though were all doin' our best to deny it.
And Louise holds a handful of rain temptin' you to defy it.
The lights flicker from the opposite loft.
In this room the heat pipes just cough.
The country music station plays soft,
But theres nothing, really nothing, to turn off.
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind.
In the empty lot where the ladies play
Blindman's bluff with the key chain,
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the D train.
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight,
Ask himself if its him or them that's insane.
Louise she's all right, she's just near,
She's delicate and seems like the mirror,
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here.
The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face.
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place.
Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously.
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously,
And when bringing her name up he speaks of her farewell kiss to me.
He's sure got a lot of gall to be so useless and all,
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall.
Oh, how can I explain? its so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna, they've kept me up past the dawn.
Inside the museums infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while.
But Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues,
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze.
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze,
And the one with the mustache say jeez, I can't find my knees.
Both jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule,
But these visions of Johanna they make it all seem so cruel.
The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him.
Saying name me someone thats not a parasite and I'll go out
And say a prayer for him.
But like Louise always says, ya can't look at much can ya man
As she herself prepares for him
My Madonna she still has not showed,
We see this empty cage now corrode,
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed,
The fiddler, he now steps to the road,
He writes everything's been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes.
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain.
07 Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (03:58)
Well, I see you got your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat
Yes, I see you got your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat
Well, you must tell me, baby
How your head feels under somethin' like that
Under your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat
Well, you look so pretty in it
Honey, can I jump on it sometime?
Yes, I just wanna see
If it's really that expensive kind
You know it balances on your head
Just like a mattress balances
On a bottle of wine
Your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat
Well, if you wanna see the sun rise
Honey, I know where
We'll go out and see it sometime
We'll both just sit there and stare
Me with my belt
Wrapped around my head
And you just sittin' there
In your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat
Well, I asked the doctor if I could see you
It's bad for your health, he said
Yes, I disobeyed his orders
I came to see you
But I found him there instead
You know, I don't mind him cheatin' on me
But I sure wish he'd take that off his head
Your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat
Well, I see you got a new boyfriend
No, I never seen him before
Well, I saw you
Makin' love with him
You forgot to close the garage door
You might think he loves you for your money
But I know what he really loves you for
It's your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat
08 Just Like a Woman (04:50)
Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as I stand inside the rain
Ev'rybody knows
That Baby's got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls.
She takes just like a woman, yes, she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.
Queen Mary, she's my friend
Yes, I believe I'll go see her again
Nobody has to guess
That Baby can't be blessed
Till she finally sees that she's like all the rest
With her fog, her amphetamine and her pearls.
She takes just like a woman, yes,
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.
It was raining from the first
And I was dying there of thirst
So I came in here
And your long-time curse hurts
But what's worse
Is this pain in here
I can't stay in here
Ain't it clear that--
I just can't fit
Yes, I believe it's time for us to quit
But when we meet again
Introduced as friends
Please don't let on that you knew me when
I was hungry and it was your world.
Ah, you fake just like a woman, yes, you do
You make love just like a woman, yes, you do
Then you ache just like a woman
But you break just like a little girl.
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Viva Lì
"Blonde on blonde è il primo LP doppio della storia della musica, praticamente un’opera monumentale."
"C’è tutta l’arte di Dylan, c’è mezza storia musicale americana di inizio anni Sessanta, c’è un modo geniale di concepire la musica adattandola a proprio piacimento."
Di j&r
"Dylan è 'una colonna d'aria' la cui brezza è il respiro e l'ispirazione per la sua arte."
"'Sad-Eyed Lady of The Lowland' è una delle vette massime della musica rock."
Di insolito
Se oggi Cristo fosse vivo, suonerebbe l'armonica, l'immagine perfetta di un hobo; avrebbe una voce sgretolata, rozza, anche incasinata se volete. Ma suadente come poche.
Blonde on Blonde, la meta a cui porta l'autostrada 61.
Di dashell
Con Blonde on Blonde Dylan diventa ladro di fuoco e incendia le aride praterie della poesia.
Disco imprescindibile per capire chi siamo e da dove veniamo.
Di luludia
La voce è bella perché è brutta e brutta perché è bella.
La bellezza brutta e la bellezza bella, il tenerle insieme è il vero colpo di genio di Dylan.
