Bob Dylan – ‘Modern Times’
In 2006, following a critically favoured run with Time Out of Mind and Love And Theft, Bob Dylan treated his loyal fanbase to a third, equally laudable album: Modern Times. This successful run followed an uneven period for the legendary songwriter over the previous decade. As with the two preceding albums, Modern Times follows a soft blues and rockabilly trend rich in balladry well-suited to Dylan’s lower, leathery late career vocal range.
The album opens with ‘Thunder on the Mountain’, an upbeat blues track with fine instrumentation and lyrics to boot. In the dense verse, Dylan sews threads of wild west imagery and religious contemplation together between inter-verse guitar solos plucked straight from the 1950s.
In the second verse, Dylan sings of the New York-born singer Alicia Keys: “I was thinkin’ ’bout Alicia Keys, couldn’t keep from crying/ But she was born in Hell’s Kitchen, I was living down the line/I’m wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be/ I been looking for her even clear through Tennessee”. Dylan had seen Keys perform at the Grammys in 2002 and was inspired by her talents.
Dylan continues this more uptempo rhythm and blues energy in ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin”, but before that, he eases the listener in for the long haul with the respite of ‘Spirit on the Water’. Whimsical country guitars bring a sense of juxtaposing optimism to the lovelorn lyrics: “When you are near/It’s just as plain as it can be/I’m wild about you, gal/ You ought to be a fool about me/Can’t explain/ The sources of this hidden pain/ You burned your way into my heart/ You got the key to my brain”.
After the rip-roaring ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin”, Dylan resumes his mellifluous country tones in ‘When the Deal Goes Down’. The track is based on the melody of Bing Crosby’s ‘Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)’ and, as such, was a source of controversy upon the album’s arrival.
Although Dylan’s ballad contained his original lyrics, he was called out by the media in reference to the album’s liner notes, which stated: “All songs written by Bob Dylan”. Several other tracks from the album were included in the debate due to their derivative qualities. Dylan didn’t credit the artists but casually admitted to deriving his melodies from legendary artists. As Pete Seeger once quoted Woody Guthrie while discussing the folk process, “That guy stole that from me, but I steal from everybody.”
What Modern Times loses in pace through the back half, it makes up for in overall quality. The powerfully suppressed ‘Workman’s Blues #2’ tumbles with a similar weight to 1997’s ‘Not Dark Yet’ with its plaintive piano runs and Dylan’s ever-pensive and poignant lyrics: “Now the place is ringed with countless foes/ Some of them may be deaf and dumb/ No man, no woman knows/ The hour that sorrow will come”.
‘Nettie Moore’ shines as another highlight moment on the album. The pulsing piano rhythm is well-adorned with powerful verse wherein Dylan laments his titular lost love. In classic Dylan fashion, though, this emblematic focus makes way for philosophical rumination: “Well, the world of research has gone berserk/ Too much paperwork/Albert’s in the graveyard, Frankie’s raising hell/I’m beginning to believe what the scriptures tell”.
Modern Times bows out on the epic ‘Ain’t Talkin”. In the spirit of Dylan’s previous lengthy album closers, such as ‘Desolation Row’ or ‘Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’, ‘Ain’t Talkin” spins forth for nearly nine minutes. With hypnotic fiddles and country guitar sounds reminiscent of 1976’s Desire, Dylan puts the listener in a lyrical trance that plays out like a film in the mind.
Discussing Modern Times in an interview with Rolling Stone at the time of its release, Dylan noted its entranced conception. “I’d make this record no matter what was going on in the world,” he said. “I wrote these songs in not a meditative state at all, but more like in a trancelike, hypnotic state.”
Contrary to its name, Modern Times is a nostalgic record that hears Dylan reflect on his life through a present philosophy. With derivative rhythm and blues and country styles and a couple of lines seemingly influenced by those found in old texts, Dylan came under fire for plagiaristic tendencies. However, these few borrowed phrases and melodies cannot detract from the album’s undeniable lyrical power and instrumental beauty.
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