New morning (Bob Dylan) (LP 2437 - 2446)

Bob Dylan   New Morning (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1970) ***  

Bob Dylan   Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (Vinyl and CD, CBS Records, 1973) ****  

Bob Dylan   Planet Waves (Vinyl and CD, Asylum Records, 1974) ****  

Bob Dylan/ The Band   Before The Flood (Vinyl, Asylum Records, 1974) ***** 

Bob Dylan   Blood On the Tracks (Vinyl and CD, CBS Records, 1975) *****  

Bob Dylan   More Blood, More Tracks - The Bootleg Series Vol 14 (CD, Columbia Records, 2018) *****  

Bob Dylan   Bob Dylan Live 1975 - The Bootleg Series Vol 5 (2CD, Columbia Records, 2002) *****  

Bob Dylan   Bob Dylan - The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings (14CD, Columbia Records, 2002) *****  

Bob Dylan   Desire (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1976) ****

Bob Dylan   Live In Colorado 1976 (CD, EMC Music, 2011) ****

Genre: Pop rock

Places I remember: Marbeck's Records, JB Hi-Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Shelter From The Storm (Blood On The Tracks)

Gear costume: Tangled Up In Blue (Blood On The Tracks); The Water Is Wide, Oh Sister (Live 1975)

Active compensatory factors: I was back on board for 1970's New Morning after the dire Self-Portrait and the country croon of Nashville Skyline. New Morning isn't great but it's back to familiar style for me and a lot easier on the ear.

It starts off with If Not For You which is also on George's All Things Must Pass album. I also have Olivia Newton-John's excellent version on a single. After that great start comes some nice songs but nothing brilliant.

His soundtrack for the Sam Peckinpah movie, Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, is mainly instrumental music but it also contains the brilliant Knockin' On Heaven's Door. 

This is one of my favourite albums. The music perfectly evokes the right atmosphere and has lasted a lot longer than the film (which I've only watched once).

When Bob reunited with the Band, they collaborated on Planet Waves. It's a fun, playful collection. First track is a standout (again). This time it's On A Night Like This that gets the juices flowing.

Unlike the previous couple of albums that had only one really strong song, Planet Waves has a few - apart from On A Night Like This there is You Angel You, and the two different versions of Forever Young.

Dylan was obviously well and truly back as the live album Before The Flood, also from 1974, showed. The album has Dylan in cahoots with The Band again for a live tour and the strong relationship and sympatico arrangements are a feature 0f this landmark double album.

The bonus is that along with Dylan songs, The Band's signature songs are also peppered strategically throughout the set. 

Dylan's acoustic bit in the middle of the set is a standout as well, with a righteous version of It's All Right Ma, I'm Only Bleeding worthy of particular note.

Blood On The Tracks is my favourite Dylan album. I fell for it big time in the late seventies when I borrowed it from the Auckland Library and got Dylan for the first time. That led to borrowing all those early albums.

It's a stunning, perfect album - I could have put any of its tracks in my highlight sections above. Full of passion and full of real Dylan, or as real as we're ever going to get. He's denied they are autobiographical songs but I don't believe him.

Sure, there are elements of invention in Idiot Wind, but its twists and turns, and reference to his sweet lady, ring true for the estranged Sara. As do other songs like If You See Her Say Hello.

The Bootleg Series Vol 14 album provides acoustic versions/takes from the sessions that produced Blood On The Tracks. I've got the double album version - less is more.

It's as stunning as the 'real' album, which goes to show - the songs are the real stars, and that this was a true purple patch.

The Rolling Thunder Revue years (1975 to 1976) are a favourite period for me. Actually, I'm pretty obsessed with the revue and have already mentioned the single album Hard Rain in my blog already.

The double Live in 1975 album is a classic as well, with Joan Baez's duets a stunning highlight.

I also have the 14 disc set which includes all of the performances on that tour during 1975. It's remarkable how consistently brilliant each night is. Dylan is on form every time!

There's also the Netflix documentary (Rolling Thunder Revue - A Bob Dylan Story) that Martin Scorsese put together. It's great too!

That whole revue tour is Dylan in prime condition - enigmatic, masterful, playful, poetic, searching.

Desire contains many of the songs he was singing during the Rolling Thunder Revue. So, Desire includes Hurricane, Oh Sister, Romance In Durango, and Sara (who was still his wife at this point, they would divorce in 1977).

His last great studio album until...(insert your own choice here - mine is Infidels).

Bob Dylan Live In Colorado documents the 1976 part of the Rolling Thunder Revue. Joan appears again, on three tracks, adding her distinctive colouring to Bob's delivery. 

The ragged, jagged delivery of songs like A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall is again the feature, and again - I love it!

I didn't collect any of his other seventies albums at the time. I'm not sure why, and I haven't back tracked to buy Street Legal, Slow Train Coming, Saved, or Shot Of Love.

Where do they all belong? Next up is the post 70's material.