From your ears to the multiplex: Bob Dylan’s 1975 divorce record Blood on the Tracks — featuring such album rock-radio staples as “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Simple Twist of Fate” — will be made into a feature-length film.
This, of course, isn’t Dylan’s first time to rub elbows with Hollywood types. He appeared in the classic Western film “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” and won a best song Oscar for his work on “The Wonder Boys.” But Dylan’s hall of fame career hasn’t, until now, included an film adaptation of one of his albums.
Blood on the Tracks, Dylan’s 15th studio album, certainly has the credentials — and the heartbreaking storyline. The project reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts and, in 2003, was ranked No. 16 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. “Tangled Up in Blue” was also a No. 31 hit in 1975. Over the years, Dylan has denied that the song cycle — which delves into a deep sense of loss, loneliness and heartache — had an autobiographical bent. But later, son Jakob Dylan said: “The songs are my parents talking.”
RT Features says Rodrigo Teixeira and Fernando Loureiro will produce the film. The company also says it’s still searching for a director with the “unique vision” to translate the album to screen.
Here’s a look back at our thoughts on ‘Blood on the Tracks,’ and six other classic Bob Dylan albums. Click through the titles for more …
BOB DYLAN – BOB DYLAN (1963): In the beginning, Dylan had an affinity for folk songs stirred vigorously with the syncopations of a blues — and that’s best experienced here, and on the early 1990s compilation The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3. In fact, the original liner notes to this, his debut album, call Dylan “one of the most compelling white blues singers ever recorded.” That only goes so far, though. “Talkin’ New York” shows where he’ll actually go, and boldly: toward a roughly hewn folk pentameter that shambles to the very thick of meaning.
BOB DYLAN – HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED (1965): Dylan’s second electric album solidified what many folkies had feared: Bob’s gone crazy. But in the best of ways. A tremendous effort. He also debunked what had initially been an overblown connection drawn between his music and the blues. Through you could infer that this title relates to the famous highway running through the blues-rich Mississippi Delta, it was during these sessions that Dylan laid down the law for guitarist Mike Bloomfield: “I don’t want any of that B.B. King shit.”
BOB DYLAN – BLONDE ON BLONDE (1966): The third of three folk-bending electric albums may be Bob Dylan’s finest release ever. “Spin” magazine said: “He’d make simplier records, more beautiful records, but he’d never made a better record.” Begins with one of Dylan’s more misunderstood tracks: Turns out “Everybody must get stoned,” well, it actually refers to … rocks. Heh.
BOB DYLAN – BLOOD ON THE TRACKS (1975): His most upfront, emotional recording, this album marked Dylan’s First Comeback. “Blood on the Tracks,” Rolling Stone said, “was roundly greeted as Dylan’s return to the poetic force of his classic LPs ‘Blonde on Blonde’ and ‘John Wesley Harding.'” It also feels like a backhanded farewell to the 1960s and its heralded idealism.
OH MERCY (1989): Maybe it was the clinging New Orleans nights, or the burgeoning talents of producer Daniel Lanois (who was at the same time working on a very fine solo debut and perhaps the Neville Brothers’ most realized studio effort, Yellow Moon). But Dylan’s bitter introspection sounds refreshingly in focus here, in what could be called his Second Comeback. Dylan’s biblical and lore-laden turns of phrase get a punching up from the Nevilles’ rhythm section — and the spherical keyboard and guitar musings of both Lanois and Malcolm Burn. Even the outtakes from this album, “Dignity” and “Series of Dreams” (both later included on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. 3), were gems.
TIME OUT OF MIND (1997): Seemed somewhat overcelebrated in its moment after a health scare for Dylan, as this one was ranked No. 408 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest records of all time in 2003. But it’s held up well as one of Dylan’s better album-length efforts. He seems to realize, during his first original songs since 1990’s Under the Red Sky, that the clock is ticking. In a larger sense, he’s a guy, in keeping with the title, who is out of time. Dylan is both misunderstood by a new generation, and also moving into the last third of his life. Lucky for us, he isn’t going quietly. Call it his Third Comeback.
TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE (2009): Dylan, commissioned to do some soundtrack work, kept recording with the assembled group — ultimately producing a powerfully personal result. This was a revelation in its stubborn unwillingness to move into the realm of Statements. Of Big Records. Of Career-Defining Blah Blah Blah. Dylan wants to make a small, good thing — focusing inward, mostly, talking about relationships with both honesty and a ragged sense of humor — and he brilliantly succeeds.
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