Comments on: Scratch The Surface, Vol. I :: Blood On The Tracks

By: Christie

Christie — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:18:30 +0000

The anguished faces hiding in his hair. Do you see them?

Great album art. Greatest album. It breaks my heart every time.

By: elbow

elbow — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:37:52 +0000

I always loved the cover art for its grainy, distant, inward quality. The problem I have is that Blood on the Tracks always gets mixed up in my head with Love on the Rocks. Yik.

By: Bob Dylan - Tangled Up in Blue (New York) « Jolie Blanche

Bob Dylan - Tangled Up in Blue (New York) « Jolie Blanche — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:04:18 +0000

[...] 8, 2008 by mrrrty A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece for Aquarium Drunkard about how much I dislike the cover of Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. After loads of lively [...]

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:13:09 +0000

I agree with you about the strength of cover art, and I can see why you wouldn’t have listen to that album based on the art – it is not very inviting….
But on the other hand, as far as the cover being a completion of the album, this cover does work. It is sad , and hazy just like his life must have been at the time.

By: My Guitar Buddies

My Guitar Buddies — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:10:45 +0000

The Art of Cover Art…

Jim Morrison on the cover of American Prayer
I read a very thought evoking post in Aquarium Drunkard about album covers as appetisers.When I was much much younger, and CD’s were a futuristic not even thought of concept, there was nothing like …

By: Randolph

Randolph — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:48:15 +0000

It’s just one of those things I’ve never questioned. For it to fit my romantic connection to the album it would have to be something more autumnal, but then Dylan would never do something so obvious, save an album cover or two. But then watch the scene in i’m not there when Charlotte Gainsbourg and their children are in a park at fall as “Simple Twist of Fate” fills the air – it’s a mysteriously heartbreaking moment that makes me wonder what a more effective Blood On the Tracks cover could have done to complete the experience.

But in reality, it is what it is, and the only thing needed to complete the Blood experience is a heart once broken.

By: Matt Duke

Matt Duke — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:20:06 +0000

Super-humanly lame album cover. The first time I saw it I thought it was a Kmart “best of” Dylan album.

That version of “Tangled Up In Blue” sounds very similar to “Up To Me” off Biograph (also known as “the greatest Dylan song ever made”).

By: DustyDan

DustyDan — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:35:22 +0000

If you put it in context of Bob’s own parallel “Paul is dead” rumor, you can look at it as his morgue photo turned sideways while you look for the clues in the lyrics that Bob was not killed in a motorcycle crash, but instead was hit and killed — tangled up — by a train. Yes, there were buckets of tears, and he’s going to make you lonesome when he goes, after all, it’s doom alone that counts when the angel takes his crown of thorns and gives him shelter from the storm. It may have been a simple twist of fate, or an ominous idiot wind, but there is still that morgue photo if you hold the cover sideways, and ponder that Bob was replaced by his own Billy Shearslike look-alike — someone who looks just “like the jack of hearts.” Check out the lyrics for yourself, maybe you’ll see it from “a different point of view.” Life is sad, life is a bust. We’ll meet again someday on the avenue.

As for “Scratching the Surface,” I find that an amazing title for regular features about album covers, because one of my favorite album covers of all time is the Groundhogs’ “Scratching the Surface.” Hard to explain why — it just amuses me immensely.

By: Peter81

Peter81 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:42:35 +0000

I think context is important. I’ve never really thought of it as a bad album cover because I’ve only ever bought/known it in CD format and also I bought the album about 25 years after the fact. Its hard to be subjective about it, because I’ve always just known it, if that makes sense. Its beyond criticism because its iconic.

His latest album, Modern Times, has a horrible cover. If I was to glance at it in a music shop I’d assume it was one of the budget compilations for drivers who want to stay awake at the wheel and rock out to Foreigner.

By: JFK

JFK — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:32:25 +0000

Great feature! I second Mr. Jenkin’s nomination of TIM for your next ’scratch the surface’ installment.

By: Darkeyez

Darkeyez — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:25:57 +0000

The original version of this album was completely different than what you pick up in the store today, or from the 80’s on for that matter. The original had a different rear cover and the front was textured much like “The Times They Are A-Changin” which indeed gave way to the grit of it’s contents. You must look at this from the standpoint of buying them when they were released…big albums mean nothing anymore to popular culture and certainly nothing like what they meant to someone in 1975 buying “The new Dylan album” the day it came out!

By: Mr. Jenkins

Mr. Jenkins — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:55:40 +0000

Nice feature! Funny stuff all over-and let’s be honest-the fields of bad cover art are ripe for the picking. Although I don’t know if I agree that there are still great album covers coming out. I’ve never seen the Panda Bear one, but the National has boring covers (…ok, I kinda like the wedding thing on Boxer, but all the others barely look like they took any time or imagination at all). The Silver Jews JUST put out their first album without an ambivalent cover, and it features Babar, King of the Elephants. Not exactly Sticky Fingers, here. And the Hold Steady continue to blow my mind as an amazing band whose music seems to get better and better the worse their album art get. Now they’re trying to create their own Black Flag bars with the Stay Positive ‘infiniplus’ sign. Keep in mind, I’d much rather have the album art be crappy and the music be amazing than the other way around. But, honestly, with the exception of maybe Okkervil River, who’s continued use of Will Schaff’s amazing, constantly evolving art has complimented their artistic growth step by step.
But, this isn’t about that little rant, this is about your new feature, which I think is great. Next one you do should be TIM by the Replacements.

By: kyle

kyle — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:00:47 +0000

I think BOTT is a great album cover, very muddy and moody: the perfect feel for the album. Everyone keeps saying pixelated, but this is not pixelation, this is pointilism. Pixelation is digitally-based and has a cold, technological feel. Pointilism is an art technique that (through breaking an object or figure down into dots or points) renders a subject hazy or fuzzy, again the perfect feel for this album.

By: Blades

Blades — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:52:06 +0000

Seurat intimacy. Dylan offers his profile; he does not want to be looked having delved so deeply within. On the other side another man’s art keeps us at arm’s length, and the dust sleeve’s rich burgundy hides all. The needle drops, and ten extraordinary songs reveal all.

By: Denise Marie

Denise Marie — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:09:49 +0000

Drive up to Hibbing and check out the garage door of Bob’s childhood home…
Yes, the cover of Blood on the Tracks. Saw it last September. I think the cover is classy.