27 December 2010

Dylan's Rolling Thunder on "Black Diamond Bay"

Bob Dylan's follow-up studio album to Blood on the Tracks, 1976's Desire, was written and recorded in New York city in 1975. It has always been a favorite of mine, in part because the songs are just flat out great and also because it came during a time when Dylan was organizing -- and reorganizing -- the Rolling Thunder Revue. I saw two great shows on that tour (New Orleans and Houston), but that's a story for another time.

Most of
Desire was co-written with Jacques Levy. And there is one song in particular that gets very little attention, Black Diamond Bay. I do remember one smart alack reviewer saying that Dylan must have been reading too much Joseph Conrad when he co-wrote this one. Other than that, silence. For me, this is a great little adventure story song built on a fine guitar riff -- thoroughly enjoyable for me because I love this outing as Dylan does Conrad.

But judge for yourself; here's the story of Black Diamond Bay.

Bob Dylan, Black Diamond Bay (1976, album version)

No comments: