Beginning with a nasal, amateur yodel, evolving into a
mellow country croon, moving through to the more balanced vocals of the 1970s,
onto the butch prison lesbian with laryngitis sound of the 1980s, and finally to
the “car progressively driving down a gravel road sound” of today, Bob Dylan’s
voice, it can be said, has been through more change than an alcoholic hobo with
kleptomania. Some might say that he
should give up before he becomes inaudible.
Some may say he should take up recording death metal. And of course, everybody else will say he should
keep going until either he drops dead or Jesus comes back, whichever comes
first.
And despite being 71 years old, his latest (and possibly his
greatest) creation is a corker of an album. Highly diverse and darker than a photophobic hermit’s bumcrack, Tempest takes Dylan to a new creative high,
telling stories about the Titanic and throwing John Lennon into the equation
for good measure. “Duquesne Whistle”
starts off with a Canned Heat on meth jingle and carries on with Bob singing an inverted rendition of "Thunder on the Mountain" in
the style of Louis Armstrong missing a testicle. The bluesy “Early Roman Kings” balances out
the tempo against the former, “Tempest” tells an enlightening story about the
sinking of the Titanic, and “Roll on John” is probably the best “Lennon” song
since Elton John’s “Empty Garden.” And
there’s the rest of the record, for which it should be a legal requirement to
play from start to finish the first time around. I recommend “Tin Angel”, “Pay in Blood” and “Narrow
Way.” Bob is old, but his music is gold.
A