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... Most Of The Time (1989)
Having extolled the virtues of Daniel Lanois’ production on the ‘Oh Mercy’ album a couple of days ago, I’d now like to turn your attention to another outstanding song from that album but in a vastly stripped back form. There’s evidence as far back as ‘Empire Burlesque’, with its back-to-basics closing track ‘Dark Eyes’, that Dylan was itching to explore his single acoustic guitar and harmonica mode again. He contributed outstandingly to the Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly tribute ‘Folkways A Vision Shared’ in 1988 with that set up and finally indulged himself fully with the two wholly acoustic covers albums in 1992 and ’93. He clearly toyed with the possibilities around the time of ‘Oh Mercy’ too and, whilst you can’t knock the way that record turned out, for me this simple reading is the definitive version of ‘Most Of The Time’. The intimacy is exactly right for the song, just listen to the way Bob gets inside those words with a sensitivity that’s hard to resist.
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