Blood on the Tracks (1975) makes just about everyone’s Bob Dylan top-five album list, but I’d add that it deserves consideration among the top five LPs of the rock era. A triumph of songwriting, the unforced poetry of the lyrics was met measure by measure by the redolent melodies. Blood on the Tracks stood out back then as a comeback for Dylan after half-a-decade of inconsistent releases. More than 40 years later, Blood on the Tracks is, if anything, even more outstanding today.
The latest installment in Columbia Legacy’s ambitious Bootleg Series collects prime early versions of songs from the Blood sessions onto a single CD. It’s worth hearing for anyone who appreciates Dylan and the process of creativity. The 1975 album represented an ideal recorded version of these songs, yet the Bootleg material is fascinating for being 90-98% complete, falling short of the originally released versions for occasionally tentative performances and slightly less evocative word choices. Fanatics will opt for the six-CD set with everything that survived from the Blood on the Track sessions.
