I didn’t want to do this, really. The Swole Ear gods convinced me of my foolishness, though. One cannot have a Minnesota Week on a music blog without Bob Dylan coming up. Regardless of how one feels about Bob Dylan, and his obnoxiously overrated music.
I don’t even dislike Dylan all that much. It’s just that BD fans are some of the most annoying people on earth. They’re right up there with your average thirteen year old Green Day fan, except they have a much higher, more pretentious opinion of their self, and the music that they listen.
So, it turns out Bob Dylan isn’t all that bad. There was actually a little bit of controversy surrounding this record, too, which always adds some intrigue. The second half features electronic instrumentation, which was pretty much what Dylan was known for not using. Honestly, I think that is the superior half, if anyone cares.
When I think of Bob Dylan, I’m thinking of the first half of this record—straight-up folk music. It was interesting to hear some electric guitars backing Dylan up instead of the typical acoustic. It’s also not made into too big of a deal—the record flows very naturally from acoustic to electric. I guess times were different back then, because Bringing It would be viewed as fairly tame if released as a rock album today.
So, perhaps I was a little unfairly harsh on Dylan. His music is solid. It’s just always tough to ignore annoying fans.
If you enjoyed this, here are a couple more artists from the mid-west (though not Minnesota) you might like to give a spin: Dan Bern (another mid-west Jew) and John Prine. Both are pretty great singer-songwriters.