May 2011 sees the 70th birthday of Bob Dylan. To celebrate, we're taking you on a journey through the lesser celebrated avenues of his back catalogue. A journey down Highway 61 that won't stop off at 'Blowin' In The Wind', 'All Along The Watchtower' or 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door' but will call by...
Forgetful Heart (2009)
I’ve been enjoying a bit of a Dylan-fest these past couple of months and finding the incredible thing about a back catalogue such as this is the regularity something special reveals itself. Often it’ll be a track such as ‘Forgetful Heart’ that had previously been enjoyed in the context of its parent album without standing out too much. The thing that soon becomes apparent is that there isn’t really a weak period in Dylan’s work, not in the way that popular opinion would have you believe anyway. There isn’t one single era that can be wholesale written off. 1970’s ‘Self Portrait’ remains a puzzle but there’s still tracks like the infectious country-rock of ‘Gotta Travel On’; a cover of a folk tune by The Weavers and many other folky acts too. Besides, in the same year as that notorious record he put out one of his finest ever albums with ‘New Morning’, one we’ll be visiting later on this month. Dylan’s 1980’s are often discarded and yet at times the negative issues are merely centred around some awful period production that has dated badly. For the most part his composing could still hit the mark, although perhaps at a little less prolific rate. Don’t forget though, with the inclusion of four or five harshly overlooked tracks, 1983’s ‘Infidels’ would have basked in the return-to-form-masterpiece plaudits that 1989’s ‘Oh Mercy’ ended up winning. Even the religious period has some treasure for those willing to wade through the Christian fog. Other than a dry couple of years between 1971 and 1973, there hasn’t been an era when you could safely take your eyes and ears off of Dylan; he’s always got something left in the bag. And just how wonderful is it that today that’s still the case? 2009’s ‘Together Through Life’ had a looser vibe on first listen, apparently knocked out quickly with his touring band, sonically breaking from the rolling and tumbling of the previous two records. ‘Forgetful Heart’, like most of the album, was written in collaboration with Gerry Garcia’s former lyricist Robert Hunter and it’s a solid piece of classic Dylan in waiting. As a tune it could one day realise the same kind of mainstream crossover success as ‘To Make You Feel My Love’ if dressed with enough pop sheen. There’s plenty to cherish lyrically as well, my favourite being the closing couplet: “the door has closed forever more, if indeed there ever was a door’.
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