Modern Times

Here is a review of the new Bob Dylan record that I wrote for "Travelogue," the news journal of Sojourn Community Church:

The More Things Change …
Dylan Reinvents The Wheel And Rides To The Apocalypse In “Modern Times”
by Bobby Gilles

In 1936, nine years after the advent of “talkies,” Charlie Chaplin released a mostly-silent film. Wrote it, produced it, starred in it. The film marked his defiance against synchronized sound movies even as its subject matter depicted, in often hilarious terms, one man’s struggle against apathy, ignorance and betrayal, while hoping for a love that will endure.

In 2006, Bob Dylan has released a mostly old-school record. Wrote it, produced it, sang on it. The record marks his defiance against modern music industry practices even as its subject matter depicts, in often hilarious terms, one man’s struggle against apathy, ignorance and betrayal, while hoping for a love that will endure.

Both titled their projects “Modern Times.”

Dylan’s “Modern Times,” inspired by his hero Chaplin’s film, continues his late-career renaissance by creating a mesmerizing universe of thunder on the mountain, fire on the moon, alley brawls, Alicia Keys, pistol poppin’, downed power lines, St. Herman’s Church, a thousand cows, pork chops, pie, wicked schemes, a twister, ladies in Washington scrambling to get out of town, a hammer and a pitchfork … a universe where a man vows to “walk the hard road down,” recruit an army of orphans, go “up north” to plant and harvest, all the while dreaming, “Some sweet day I’ll stand beside my King.” And that’s just in the first song.

Dylan told Kurt Loder in 1984, “… when you go to see a folk singer now, you hear somebody singin’ his own songs … I never would have written a song if I didn’t play all them old songs first…. There’s no dedication to folk music now, no appreciation of the art form.”

“Modern Times” puts into practice what Dylan has preached, delivering something old, something new, something borrowed, and lots of blues … along with swingtime jazz, rockabilly, country folk and dance hall ballads. Yes, Dylan = danceable ditties, as in swing, foxtrot, two-step and waltz, to name a few.

He performs an ambitious remake of Muddy Waters’ 1950 hit “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” with new lyrics that leave the former looking threadbare in wordplay, story development, metaphor, consonance and other poetic devices. Then he takes the title, partial melody and first line of the chorus from the 19th century ballad “Netty Moore” and fleshes out a non-linear tale of longing. Next he throws in songs that borrow, pay homage, or sequel Slim Harpo, Chuck Berry, Memphis Minnie, Merle Haggard, Nina Simone and others.

Apocalyptic images and scriptural allusions are, as usual, more abundant with Dylan than with any textual artist since Flannery O’Connor. In “Spirit On The Water,” watching his lady-love is like witnessing the Creation: “Spirit on the water / darkness on the face of the deep / I keep thinking about you baby / I can’t hardly sleep.” In other songs he is Fallen Man cast out of Paradise, Moses coming down the mountain, Ezekiel witnessing the shiny wheels in heaven and Solomon living through Ecclesiastes. In “Ain’t Talkin’,” a Cain-like figure hopes to stumble across his enemies while they sleep, as David found Saul. Unlike David, this narrator will “slaughter them where they lie.”

Recorded with Dylan’s touring band and self-produced so that it “wouldn’t sound overproduced,” “Modern Times” plays like a “whoppin’ good time” record from yesteryear, with expert but loose-playing musicians and Dylan’s gravel voice, imbued with the authority and limitations of age. Aside from a doomed attempt to make “proletariat” sound like a non-clunker of a word, and the usual fact that his five-to-eight minute songs have no more melodic development than the average three-minute tune, there’s nothing to complain about.

It’s the work of a master -- not one of his shape-shifting, revolutionary albums, but certainly a piece that will settle into the upper fourth of his canon and keep the old troubadour relevant in these modern times.