BOB DYLAN

„New Morning“

(Columbia, 1970)

No, don't get angry yet, this won't be the only record by Bob Dylan in this series. But it just pooped up. Somehow it is this album that always pops up on my record player. Yes, I still own a vinyl-copy of "New Morning". It is scratched and bent and it crackles through the speakers like a rustling sheet of paper, but that fits the atmosphere. Even though recorded in the late Sixties, already with a lot of electric guitars, organs and all the other instruments that made one jerk shout "Judas" at Bob Dlyan (better than being shot, I should add), it is an old-fashioned record. Check out a crooner like "Winterlude", a jazzy-blues like "if dogs run free" and all the other song that remind strongly of the very young Bob Dylan. It all comes back on this Lp. Moreover, check out the old Black and white-photograph of a very, very young Bob Dylan next to an older black woman, sitting at the piano. It looks like early Fifties to me. That is the spirit of this Lp.

Okay, I am no Dylanologist. I own some of his records, and I miss a few even I myself deem to be important. I know, a lot of people would know, who that old woman on the backcover next to Bob is. But some people also go through Bob Dylan's trash every week to see if they can find something of interest. You can only take it sofar without getting psychotic.

"New Morning" is a perfect record for saturday or sunday mornings. When you have to get up but don't have to go to work. It starts of with the perfect love-song "If not for you" and that is a good moment to grab the person next to you and plant a deep look in his/her eyes. If they are already open, since I imagine, you are still lying in bed on sunday mornings. The next songs fly by as smoothly and beutifully as the first one. This is perfect Dylan. The chord-changes, the gravel-voice that tries to keep up with the empathy but actually adds a lot of uniqueness and necessity to the songs. If you dig Bob Dylan whenever he uses electric guitars and organs than you HAVE to live through this record.

The second side has even more highlights, so that is a good reason to get out of bed and walk to your record player to change sides. Of course, if you have your record player next to your bed, you are well off. Everone should have a record-player in their sleeping room. A CD-Player hasn't got the same feeling, but it's okay. Well, in some instances even a tape-recorder will do. Believe me, its better than the inevitable TV-set. And try to keep away from early-morning radio stations, because there's too much forced happiness and stupid jokes by stupid people and that will make your day miserable. But a record-player is best. You can stack your morning- and evening-records in the same room, all the Curtis Mayfield you like to have sex to and all the Bob Dylan you want to wake up to. (A stack of records always looks good.) Structure your day and life with music and you'll have a more beutiful life. Believe me, it won't be like a movie-soundtrack. As soon as you get to a gospel-song like "Sign in the window" you'll know what I mean. That song ebbs and rises with an imbeccable dynamic, that will make you shake your head and groove along no matter what. Blessed be the man who wakes his woman with a Bob Dylan-album.

The next songs change from slower tunes to more bluesy or even country-esque, harmony-oriented songs. My personal fave is the fourth song on the second side: "The man in me". Of course, I am an addict to The Big Lebowski, which features this song prominently, but I had that record before the movie came out. Yeah, I checked it back again, and it all worked together. But this is one of the greatest songs of all times. I know, everyone has their own favorite Bob Dylan-song, so we might argue, but that is actually of no interest or importance. This is mine. "The man in me" encompasses all the feelings I have sometimes, when I try and try to live my life the best way. When I have given all I can and there is no reward in sight, but I know that I have done right, and I know that actually times are good. Don't tell me that talking about the "Man" in me is chauvinistic or anti-feminist, cause if ou think so, you are a complete dickhead. In the end it is a love song. True, romantic, kitschy and beautiful love that you have to experience to understand the song. All the angst and thoughts when your life starts turning around 180 degrees because of this one women (okay, person... whatever) are in this song. Some people, like me, always hide their feelings and it takes a lot of very good perception and insight to understand them. But they do that, because they want to stay themselves, and that is not even a fixed state yet. Well, I could talk, but Dylan put it into perfect words: "The man in me will have some times to keep from being seen / but that's just because he doesn't want to turn into some machine" and "takes a woman like you, to get through, to the man in me". Perfect song.

The album ends on a slow note with "Three angels" the postscript-like "Father of night". And what you might do now is to get up and start the day. You couldn't do it any better way.
Coming up in this series: Gun Club  – „Pastoral Hide & Seek“, Beasts of Bourbon – „Sour Mash“, Shorty  – “Thumb Days”, Sisters of Mercy – “Vision Thing”, MC5 – “Kick out the Jams”, Guided by voices – “Bee Thousand”, Nick Cave – “Tender Prey”, Tom Waits – “Small Change”, Fugazi – “Margin Walker”, Napalm Death – “Scum”, amm.