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Bob Dylan
Modern Times
(Columbia)
The Music Box's #1 album of 2006
First Appeared in The Music Box, September 2006, Volume 13, #9
Written by John Metzger
It’s a strange thing to consider, but after spending decades avoiding the
media, Bob Dylan suddenly has opted to embrace it. In the past few years, he has
appeared in television commercials, granted interviews, and become the host of a
weekly satellite radio program. He also has published the first installment of
his autobiography; he was the subject of an expansive PBS documentary by Martin
Scorsese; his music soon will be featured in a Broadway play; and six actors (Cate
Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Julianne Moore, Heath Ledger, and
Charlotte Gainsbourg) are slated to portray him in the upcoming biopic I’m
Not There. Yet, for all of the exposure that he has received of late, he
remains an enigma, and his latest effort Modern Times is a contemporary
classic that only enhances his mysterious aura.
Dylan’s recent resurgence seemingly began in 1997 when, shortly after being
hospitalized with pericarditis, he issued Time Out of Mind, a brilliant
work that presciently spoke to his own brush with mortality. In crafting his
follow-up effort Love and Theft — which, released on September 11, 2001,
featured lyrics that were eerily prophetic — Dylan jettisoned Daniel Lanois’
dark, swirling atmospherics to reveal the timeless blues, country, and jazz
refrains that initially inspired him. Herein lies the first perplexing factor
about his latest endeavor: For a guy who has spent his career differentiating
each album from its predecessor, Dylan appears to have gone out of his way to
make certain that Modern Times is a companion not only to Love and
Theft but also to his legendary output from the ’60s.
With minor modifications, Dylan pilfers both the traditional-turned-Muddy
Waters gem Rollin’ and Tumblin’ as well as the Sleepy John
Estes-by-way-of-Lightnin’ Hopkins nugget Someday Baby. Similarly, he
twists Memphis Minnie’s When the Levee Breaks into his own statement
about the Hurricane Katrina debacle. When he isn’t busy swiping music directly,
Dylan harvests the scraps of his memory, borrowing whatever past bits of pop
culture that he can find that are suited best to his needs. The title of When
the Deal Goes Down alludes to a song by the Mississippi Sheiks, while its
opening line immediately brings to mind Cole Porter’s In the Still of the
Night. Elsewhere, Spirit on the Water conjures Nina Simone’s I
Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl, and Thunder on the Mountain strips
bare his own Highway 61 Revisited in such a way as to cast it back in
time where it can cross paths with Chuck Berry and early electric, urban blues.
In effect, Modern Times presents a refined rendition of the approach that
Dylan took with Love and Theft, and his backing band brings the sort of
sophistication and urgency to its subtle shadings and loose grooves that is
necessary for making the outing work.
In shaping his public persona, Dylan, of course, has become a master at
misdirection, and throughout Modern Times, he applies his sleight of hand
technique to his lyrics. At first glance, Spirit on the Water is a
seductive love song, but as it progresses, it becomes apparent that Dylan is
pining for reconciliation in a troubled relationship that he can’t seem to leave
behind. Likewise, the venom that lurks inside Someday Baby builds upon
the apocalyptic air that not only pervades the opening Thunder on the
Mountain, but also resurfaces with increasing regularity as the set winds
toward its inevitable conclusion, and thus it provides a seamless segue into the
album’s most direct track Workingman’s Blues #2. His personal state of
the union address, this latter song serves as the collection’s Rosetta tone by
bringing its title into sharp relief.
In 1936, Charlie Chaplin’s slapstick comedy Modern Times marked the
end of the silent film era, and Chaplin essentially used a love story as the
basis for addressing America’s social, political, and economic conditions as
well to reflect upon the dehumanizing aspects of an increasingly automated
existence. For its revival in the ’50s, the movie’s central theme was given
lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons — "Smile, though your heart is
aching/Smile, even though it’s breaking" — and Dylan has employed all of these
concepts as the template for his work. His Modern Times is equally
cinematic and important, and throughout the collection, he cryptically echoes
Chaplin’s sentiments via his own heartfelt allegories. Despite the trials and
tribulations that his characters have endured, connection to one another as well
as to a higher power is what they ultimately seek. There’s a genuine yearning
for love that is tucked inside Workingman’s Blues #2, and no matter how
bad the relationships become, there also is a strong desire to allow them to
perpetuate. "You think I’m over the hill/You think I’m past my prime/Let me see
what you’ve got/We can have a whoppin’ good time," Dylan coyly sings in
Spirit on the Water, taking a stab at his critics while trying to win back a
former flame who wasn’t exactly faithful.
Not surprisingly, as he ruminates upon the age-old issues of life, death,
love, and work, Dylan offers few answers to the questions that he raises.
Instead, he is content merely to point out the darkness that has settled upon
the world, and in that regard, Ain’t Talkin’, the final track on
Modern Times, provides a great deal to ponder. Its mournful arrangement,
along with its foreboding lyrics, magnifies the notion that contemporary
society’s problems have a lot to do with the spiritual vacuity that has been
fostered by technological innovation. With the resulting disintegration of
civility, peace has given way to never-ending war, and vengeance and personal
self-interest increasingly have begun to trump the betterment of the community
at large. These philosophical streams of thought aren’t new, of course, but
although his appropriations are blatant, Dylan clearly has made them his own by
summarizing 70 years of history with a single, 60-minute masterpiece. 
Modern Times is available from Amazon.com.
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Modern Times [Deluxe Edition] is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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49th Annual Grammy Award Winner:
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance
Someday Baby
49th Annual Grammy Award Winner:
Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
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