![]() ![]() ![]() This is not to say that Ritter doesn’t harbor his own malice. “Idiot Wind” is arguably the most venomous song in the Dylan canon, with that sneer of “you’re an eeeee-dee-yut, babe” and the fantasy death of the song’s subject-“ One day you’ll be in the ditch, flies buzzin’ around your eyes”-ouch.īob Dylan sings “Idiot Wind” with a characteristic sneer However, Dylan doesn’t maintain the humble act for long, and soon the blame shifts from “A Simple Twist of Fate” to his “idiot” ex within the space of three tracks. Ritter, too, states rather unequivocally in “New Lover,” “Perhaps the fault was mine / Perhaps I just ignored / who you’re always gonna be, / Instead of who I took you for.” Both men were forced to face their disillusionment head-on and acknowledge their role in keeping up the façade. In “Tangled Up in Blue,” he opines, “She was married when we first met / Soon to be divorced / I helped her out of a jam, I guess, / But I used a little too much force,” acknowledging that the relationship may not have been built on the healthiest of foundations. ![]() Perhaps this is why Ritter’s album, for all its clear and present heartache, is delivered with a kind of maturity and restraint not seen in Dylan’s work, which is far more immediate in its melancholy.ĭylan, for all his characteristic callousness, surprisingly opens the album hinting that he accepts some of the blame for his failed relationship. It’s true that Dylan did not officially divorce Sara Lownds until two years after Blood on the Tracks came out nonetheless, the album is heralded by many critics as one of the all-time great “divorce albums.” Interestingly, Ritter’s album came out about two years after his divorce from singer/songwriter Dawn Landes. Still, all of my interpretations should be taken on a metaphorical level and with copious metaphorical salt. The two albums portray men at roughly the same age (Dylan at 35 Ritter at 36) reacting to their crumbling marriages and starting their lives anew.Ī note before I begin my analysis: I realize it’s a fool’s errand to try and read a truthful biography out of the tea leaves left by any artist-especially Dylan-but the lyrics and sentiments present in both albums undeniably comment on a common human condition (heartbreak). It’s a phenomenal album, but I couldn’t stop comparing it to Ritter’s The Beast in Its Tracks, which came out only a few months ago. I was raised on a timeless mishmash of Dylan’s greatest hits, so it wasn’t until recently digesting his discography that I heard Blood on the Tracks in its entirety. Nearly 40 years separates the release of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and Josh Ritter’s The Beast in Its Tracks, but the themes are still familiar: divorce, heartbreak, introspection, and cautious optimism about new love. ![]()
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