Album Review: "Tempest" - Bob Dylan

"Tempest": B+  It is not uncommon for a singer to get to the point in his life when he simply cannot reach the same vocal range that he was able to call upon in his younger days. Some decide to save face and concentrate more on writing, producing, managing or promoting other artists. Some, such as Paul McCartney, decide to battle on and more or less warble their way through some of the notes. Another tact is to speak some of the lyrics where once there was singing. Neil Diamond comes to mind. "It doesn't matter," their fans say, "we forgive you and we still love you." In Diamond's case, he is entitled to speak a few lines now and again because he is a great entertainer who gives a concert crowd their money's worth with every evening's performance. Not only that, the songs are his; he wrote them. In McCartney's case, not only is he the guy who penned the songs, he's a Beatle, for cryin' out loud! He don't need no stinkin' reason.

Now we come to Bob Dylan, whose first Top 40 song, Subterranean Homesick Blues, was released forty-seven years ago. Dylan just released his thirty-fifth studio album, Tempest, earlier this month. Dylan is another singer who talks his way through the songs. But unlike Diamond, who as a young man had excellent vocal chops, Dylan has used talking as his standard lyric delivery vehicle since he was in his twenties. Some early examples, all from 1965 and '66, include Positively Fourth Street, Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, and Just Like A Woman. In my view, Dylan has always been foremost a poet. He is a poet who sings his poems, if you loosely define "sings." And so it is that when the Duluth-born Bobby D, at the age of 71, releases a new album, the evaluation should give the most weight to the poetry. We already know he can't sing worth a hoot.

Not to belabor the point, but this truth was brought home when I played the first track, Duquesne Whistle. It had been awhile since I'd listened to Dylan, so his raspiness kind of jolted me as he started to sing after a fifty-three second instrumental intro. I quickly adjusted. It turns out that Duquesne Whistle is one of the highlights of the ten song album, and for my money contains the best musicianship. The snare drums of George G. Receli definitely remind the listener of the clickety-clack you'd hear on a train. The whistle brings back memories, both good and bad, for the singer as the southbound train gets him closer to his home town.

Most of the songs occupying the middle of the album are dark, and all of them are mysterious. In Soon After Midnight, among the slowest tempos of the ten selections, he appears to be apologizing to a woman he wants to return to after disappointing flings with others. A similar tone is struck with Long And Wasted Years, where once again he is heard apologizing. In Scarlet Town the singer describes where he was born, switching between praise and damnation. Which is it? Pay In Blood is another song which, even after several listenings, is subject to a wide spectrum of interpretations. Is the singer sentenced to hard labor in a prison, or is he calling out the dishonest politicians and their graft?

The last three songs of the album will probably generate the most discussion among Dylan aficionados. Tin Angel is a thumping nine minute slow story about a king who gathers an army to go after his unfaithful wife who has been whisked away by a rival chieftain.  The trick to understanding this song is to read the lyrics while listening, because the quotation marks on the lyric sheet enable the listener to figure out which of three characters is speaking.  It is my favorite song on the menu, one that conjures up vivid pictures in my imagination. The title track, Tempest, is a fourteen minute ballad telling a partly fictionalized account of the Titanic tragedy. The song has an Irish folk vibe, which is appropriate since the last port of call on the voyage was Cobh (fka Queenstown), Ireland. The album closes with Roll On John, a tribute to the fallen Beatle, John Lennon, who was, in a lot of ways, the English Bob Dylan.

Even though the album is dark and moody, Dylan does have some fun with a handful of lyrics, including "Shake it up baby, twist and shout" from Long And Wasted Years, "Little boy blue come blow your horn" from Scarlet Town, and "I heard the news today, oh boy" from Roll On John. 

I predict Tempest will go down as one of the best Dylan albums of the twenty-first century, yet I'm not sure it's deserving of a grade higher than B+.  The poetry is outstanding, but the randomness of the lyrics and the simpleness and sameness of the melodies are the counter-balancing aspects that I can't overlook.