Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks (LP) Vinyl

Blood on the Tracks is the fifteenth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on 20 January 1975 by Columbia Records and marking his return to the label after two albums for Asylum. It met mixed reviews on release but has since been acclaimed as one of his finest records and one of the greatest albums ever made.

The Album

Dylan wrote the songs during the summer of 1974, after taking art classes in New York with the painter Norman Raeben, whom he credited with transforming his understanding of time. Recording began at A & R Recording Studios in New York on 16 September 1974 with Phil Ramone producing. Dylan worked at speed, moving from one song to the next as though they were part of a medley, and after ten days across four sessions the album was finished, mixed and cut as a test pressing.

Dylan played that test pressing to his brother, David Zimmerman, who argued the record would not sell because its sound was too stark. At his brother's urging Dylan re-recorded five of the songs at Sound 80 in Minneapolis over two days at the end of December 1974, producing those sessions himself. The finished album carries five New York takes and five from Minneapolis.

The songs have long been read as a response to Dylan's estrangement from his then-wife Sara; their son Jakob Dylan said of the record, "that's about my parents". Dylan has consistently denied the reading, telling Bill Flanagan in 1985: "A lot of people thought that album pertained to me. It didn't pertain to me." In his 2004 memoir Chronicles, Vol. 1 he attributed the songs instead to the short stories of Anton Chekhov. The album reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 and number 4 on the UK Albums Chart, and "Tangled Up in Blue" reached number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Artwork

The front cover is a profile portrait of Dylan taken by Paul Till with a telephoto lens at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on 10 January 1974, solarised and hand-coloured so that it reads as a painting rather than a photograph. A burgundy panel to the left carries the artist name and album title in underlined white type. The back cover reproduces a lithograph by David Oppenheim, with the package designed by Ron Coro.

This Pressing

This is the Columbia reissue, catalogue number 88697159481, pressed in the EU on 180 gram black vinyl as a single stereo LP playing at 33rpm. The disc carries the orange and yellow Columbia label and sits in a plain white inner sleeve, and the jacket is the variant that reproduces the David Oppenheim lithograph without the Pete Hamill liner notes.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Tangled Up In Blue (5:40)
2. Simple Twist Of Fate (4:18)
3. You're A Big Girl Now (4:36)
4. Idiot Wind (7:45)
5. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (2:58)

Side B

1. Meet Me In The Morning (4:19)
2. Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts (8:50)
3. If You See Her, Say Hello (4:46)
4. Shelter From The Storm (4:59)
5. Buckets Of Rain (3:29)