Attendees

Alan Kellman, Sanman at Evinyl

Transcript

Sanman at Evinyl: Hello and welcome to the ocean, an audio podcast delivered by Einyl. I am manager Sam Man. Sandy Freriedman here and I'm with my co-manager Al and…

Alan Kellman: Hey Sandy,…

Alan Kellman: how you doing?

Sanman at Evinyl: we are today talking about two specific albums by a specific artist who's in the news these days, which is because there's a movie out by him, but we try and make these things So, we'll not talk so much about the timing, So, today we're going to talk about two Bob Dylan albums. One, Highway 61 Revisited, chosen by Al, and Infidels's chosen by myself. So, why don't you talk why you like that album or anything about it? We're just going to free form it here.

Alan Kellman: periods in very different circumstances. So, I think that's good. Highway 61 Revisited is probably my favorite Dylan album and of course it's part of the focal point of the Dylan movie that's out right now. I don't know. So, it just kind of makes it topical in that regard. this is the first all electric album by Bob Dylan. the prior album, Bringing It All Back Home or Bringing It Back Home, whatever exactly the title had a lot of electric stuff, too. but this is the first fully electric album. it features, Mike Bloomfield on guitar. And I'm just so impressed by this album.

Alan Kellman: I hear this and it's, everything we listen to from the 60s, at least that I do. I mean, I get it out of context because I was a little boy when this came out and was not listening to music and now I hear it all these years later and it's all completely out of context. you hear it after having listened to so much music that is derivative of this. but in 1965 when this album came out there was nothing else like the electric blues there was so much blues in it…

Sanman at Evinyl: Mhm. Come on.

Alan Kellman: but it's countryfrified or americanized which of course that term didn't exist. I mean Dylan was just completely doing something different. and of course, a Rolling Stone is such an iconic song and Highway 61 revisited just rocks and Tombstone Blues just rocks and it does, with this Americana kind of feel that, didn't exist. I mean, I don't know what were the Beatles doing in ' 65. was it still I want to hold your hand? I guess probably they were past that at this point, but still there was nothing like this, I don't think, on the airwaves.

Alan Kellman: at least not on the popular airwaves. okay. Right.

Sanman at Evinyl: One of the things I point out is it's because it's similar to the record that I'm going to talk about, which is he doesn't write pop songs, right? He writes long they're lengthy songs. the fact that Rolling Stone was a pop song at over six minutes is still really unheard because of the nature of radio. But there's a little rebellion in this stuff right in the album I liked also Infidels but I think he started out he was because we just saw the movie so a complete unknown in case people want to go look at it.

Sanman at Evinyl: He was,…

Sanman at Evinyl: he was very much a folk singer and this is first album is not a folk album, right? Right.

Alan Kellman: Yeah,…

Alan Kellman: the one before that, it's got Subterraneium Homesick Blues and it's All Over Now, Baby Blues. So, he's stretching out on that album and much of that album is rock.

Sanman at Evinyl: Right. Right.

Alan Kellman: Again, subterranean homesick blues u is not a folk song. And I'd have to look at the track list,…

Sanman at Evinyl: That's okay.

Alan Kellman: but yeah, I mean that's a good album. That's a really good album. but this is the one that's,…

Sanman at Evinyl: Yeah. All right.

Alan Kellman: fully electric. and…

Sanman at Evinyl: And by the way,…

Alan Kellman: it just Yeah.

Sanman at Evinyl: we are not Dylan afficionados. So, let's just make that people want to comment on what we're saying. I am no Dylan expert at all, but I know.

Alan Kellman: I mean, and that's a danger here because I mean, I'm a Dylan fan. I like Dylan.

Sanman at Evinyl: Right. Yeah.

Alan Kellman:

Alan Kellman: and I've listened to him my whole life. But there are so many people in the world who know Dylan inside out and I ain't one of them.

Sanman at Evinyl: Right. Right. So everybody take that with the grain of salt in this discussion. These are just a lot of what we do here on this recordings that we do about music are just things we're passionate about and we want to share our passion and hope that maybe if you've never heard this album or by the way all these albums are in the Einyl on the EVA website with credits and…

00:05:00

Sanman at Evinyl: some album reviews and things like that.

Sanman at Evinyl: So, always click through to the site and check these out. so anything else do you want to say on that or sorry I interrupted you as I usually do.

Alan Kellman: Yeah. Yeah.

Alan Kellman: Yeah. Yeah. yeah. just my favorite songs on here are, honestly, I'm kind of done with a Rolling Stone. I mean, it's as great a song as it is. I would generally just skip over it at this point. But I love Ballad of a Thin Man,…

Sanman at Evinyl: All right.

Alan Kellman: which is that song which people might as Do you Mr. Jones. and Highway 61 Revisited, which starts off with I don't know if it's a kazoo or what it is. U, but in the movie, Dylan picks it up on the street corner from some vendor and just like Tom Thumb's Blues is great. And then Desolation Row is an incredible song,…

Alan Kellman: which that's the last song of the album. That one kind of veers off back towards the acoustic side just a little bit. Although I'm sure there's electric bass on it and…

Sanman at Evinyl: Yeah. Yeah.

Alan Kellman: and there's probably drums on it, too. But

Sanman at Evinyl: I have to see even I have to go back and I've heard these songs but you have to go back that's I think part of this what we're doing is like I haven't listened to this is good let me go listen to it again. there's many places to do that and interestingly we were talking before we started recording about hey this is not quite 20 years apart these albums and what he went through between becoming a pop star in 1965 and whatever he was in 1983 he's always an icon but he

Sanman at Evinyl: is, I think when his albums come out, people like them, some didn't like them. They were certainly not huge commercial successes,…

Sanman at Evinyl: over the years. he puts a lot of material out. So, …

Alan Kellman: And he has all these different phases and…

Alan Kellman: people react differently to the phases.

Sanman at Evinyl: Right. Right.

Alan Kellman: And infidels it's as he's exiting a phase and that phase being when he was born again and…

Sanman at Evinyl: Right. …

Alan Kellman: he was singing I don't know I guess Christian music. I didn't really listen to that too much but

Sanman at Evinyl: that's what I'm saying. he went through phases, but the funny thing about this album, like my brother's, much older than me. He's a big influence on my musical taste. this album, Infidels's, which came out in 1983, almost every song has a political element to it.

Sanman at Evinyl: And it was during the Reagan time. So, there was Joker Man is a little bit about Reagan and Neighborhood Billy is definitely about Israel. And there's a song called Union Sundown, which is about the demise of the unions, which is probably just as true today as it was. And then again, there's a song at the end called Don't Fall Apart Tonight, which is not quite 11 minutes, but it is six minutes. And it also does it meanders a little bit. it has a great hook. A lot of these songs have great hooks, but this album was my Dylan album. It's like I'm 20 when it came out or 19 or 20 and this is a new Dylan album and I really like it. It's my album that was Yeah,…

Alan Kellman: Right, right, I could relate to that too because I was 21 and…

Sanman at Evinyl: there was something about it. Yeah.

Alan Kellman: and his few prior albums there were the Christian albums I didn't listen to, although Slow Train Coming was a good album. but the last one was Saved and yeah, so this was all the classic Dylan was from when I was a young child and then I agree. Infidels came out and it was a good album and I really liked it at the time. I thought Joker Man was a great song and it was of my era. Yeah.

Sanman at Evinyl: sweetheart like you is I'm just gonna because I have the lyrics up on the site. I'm just going to read this if this is in between the chorus and the verse whatever bridge. you can make a name for yourself. You can hear them tires squeal. You could be known as the most beautiful woman who ever crawled across cut glass to make a meal like that. from 19 that's a sweetheart like you. But I'm saying his way to Well,…

00:10:00

Alan Kellman: for being, sort of misogynistic.

Sanman at Evinyl: I don't even know that I know, but I don't even know this song is about a woman.

Sanman at Evinyl: I think I don't know his songs are so whatever like but his way of his writing and…

Sanman at Evinyl: whatever and we're recording this the day after the Super Bowl where Kendrick Lamar was the halftime artist and he's similar I listen to his I try and follow it. It's not my genre, and…

Alan Kellman: Yeah, I can't follow it.

Alan Kellman: Yeah, it's hard to follow. Yep.

Sanman at Evinyl: it's a little bit like this, because all these songs he's never going to tell I don't think he's going, " I wrote this song thinking about this or that," but this album, I don't see that song about a specific woman, I don't know.

Sanman at Evinyl: But I think that's the visual that creates like you're going to crawl. You need to make a deal so badly you're going to hurt yourself to do it, whatever it is, But he's like that's Dylan, Whatever. we're not experts. You don't have to go, "What the f was that about? "Where did you come up you're writing about somebody who's nice and then you throw in this really,…

Sanman at Evinyl: I mean, you can't help but have that visual." And there's so much of that on this album. I don't know. I can't even Jokerman, I think has to be the favorite song.

Alan Kellman: Do you have a favorite song?

Alan Kellman: Yeah. Yeah, mine too. Yeah, for sure.

Sanman at Evinyl: And it just has such a nice hook and…

Alan Kellman: For sure. Yep. Yep.

Sanman at Evinyl: I don't know. but anyway, yeah.

Sanman at Evinyl: So, these are two great albums. They're both on the site. We'll probably more writing. We might do these audio reviews that are more summarizing, maybe a little more specific on some of the lyrics. But, yeah, these are two great albums and Dylan is definitely in the zeitgeist at the moment. So, we figured this would be a good next thing to do because, we're not tied to any particular format. So, in this case, we're going to tag this as album artist. and we'll put it in the mix here of all the things we're recording and…

Sanman at Evinyl: leave it for you to listen to and go enjoy. So, any last words, on this? Sure. Mhm.

Alan Kellman: Yeah, you just want to make one more point about it just about the contrast in those two albums and…

Alan Kellman: it's really, the way they're produced and the sound that they have. I already talked about Highway 61 revisited and…

Alan Kellman: this original Americana sound and I don't mean this to be criticism of Infidels but then Infidels is produced by a big rock star of the era that being Mark Knoffler of Dire Straits and…

Sanman at Evinyl: Mhm.

Alan Kellman: it just sounds so much just like a contemporary rock album. which again isn't meant to be criticism, but just in contrast to Highway 61 Revisited that's an album that when it came out was just like,…

Sanman at Evinyl: Mhm.

Alan Kellman: my god, what is this? And I don't know. Whereas Infidels is it just sounds like a rock album of its time with great lyrics and good songs by Bob Dylan. Absolutely.

Sanman at Evinyl: And by God don't, right? So now it's like you get to that.

Sanman at Evinyl: But by the way, we should add that, one of the reasons we do this with the E vinyl site is, we do try and keep all the credits and stuff. So you can see that, not only was it produced by Rler, but I forgot also that Sly and Robbie of reggae fame are on that as well, which I forgot about. and yeah, so it definitely has a reggae kind of tinge rasta thing to it.

Sanman at Evinyl: So yeah, and has a little bit of that style. So I don't know, maybe we'll do a recording about Reggae.

Alan Kellman: for sure.

Alan Kellman: Yeah, sounds good. as you know, I'm really into rock steady, Ska and the evolution into reggae, so I'll be happy to talk about that.

Sanman at Evinyl: Maybe we'll do that next time. All right. anybody, thanks guys for listening and check out the site and make some comments and we'll see you next time.

Alan Kellman: Take care.