#Untouchable quiet storm songs archive#
#Untouchable quiet storm songs series#

Though good records, they were placid compared to their predecessors, a calm after the storm. The music he made in this period of retreat вЂ“ secret вЂњbasement tapesвЂќ with The Band never meant for release, John Wesley Harding (1968), Nashville Skyline (1969), Self Portrait (1970) and New Morning (1970) вЂ“ turned its back on the world and its demands. вЂњOutside my family, nothing held any real interest for meвЂ¦ I was fantasising about a nine-to-five existence, a house on a tree-lined block with a white picket fenceвЂ¦ That would have been nice. вЂњHaving children changed my life and segregated me from just about everything that was going on,вЂќ he recalls in Chronicles. In the afternoons, he would write and paint, or visit neighbours, while Sara (typically for non-feminist Dylan) did the chores. Suddenly, he seemed content to walk his daughter to the school bus. Living with his new family, the almost supernatural creative fire of the mid-вЂ™60s passed from him like a fever. вЂњBut later, I had never met such a dedicated family man.вЂќ Bob had adopted Maria, SaraвЂ™s young daughter from a previous marriage, and the couple had four more children in quick succession. вЂњUntil Sara, I thought it was just a question of time until he died,вЂќ DylanвЂ™s personal assistant in Woodstock, Bernard Paturel, said. It was she who helped ensure his survival from the suicidal pace of his mid-вЂ™60s career, as much as the contentious bike crash вЂ“ on JвЂ“ which brought it to a halt. He adores his quiet, shy young wife, immortalised in вЂњSad-Eyed Lady Of The LowlandsвЂќ. He married the ex-model Sara Lownds on November 22 that year. He has put away the musical weapons that tore rock apart, and he has no plans to ever use them again.Дylan has lived in Woodstock since 1965. He is like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, hiding out in a farmhouse, wanting the world to forget him. But greatness is the last thing on DylanвЂ™s mind, his mid-вЂ™60s mastery an irritant heвЂ™s desperate to escape. These fans are desperate for Dylan to make another great statement, to admit he is musicвЂ™s messiah.

It is the height of the countercultural tumult in America, and the stray battalions fetching up at DylanвЂ™s door are looking for the legend they see as its leader: Dylan the acid guru of Blonde On Blonde, who laid down what rock could be, then vanished from view as a generation fell under his spell. Simultaneously, he wants to вЂњset fire to themвЂќ. With one part of his mind, Dylan fears his own weapons could mangle these fans. Rifles have been recovered from one persistent, insane intruder. They are coming for answers, or to stare and point, or with less clear, more malign motives. Hippies have been capering on his roof, swimming in his pool, fucking in his bed, marching up his driveway in straggling droves. Bob Dylan, the peace movementвЂ™s errant prince, sleeps with two single-shot Colt pistols close at hand, and the Winchester blasting rifle he calls вЂњthe EqualiserвЂќ stacked by his door. Blood On The Tracks is the record he pulls from the wreckage. With awful irony, it takes his marriage smashing apart to rekindle his art. At one time rockвЂ™s untouchable king, he seems washed up. For three years in the early вЂ™70s, he releases nothing at all. Trying hard to be a good husband, music ceases to matter.

#Untouchable quiet storm songs series#

It is the culmination of eight years in which Dylan, settled with Sara and their children, tries to evade his fame and talent, seeking a series of bolt-holes across America where he can somehow be ordinary again. It is one of DylanвЂ™s peaks, the record where his genius and frail humanity meet.

Written during their first separation, Blood On The Tracks is one of the most truthful dissections of love gone wrong in rock history, by turns recriminatory, bitter and heartbroken. Their 11-year marriage, one of rockвЂ™s great romances, is finished.Д«ut 30 years ago this month, in December 1974, Dylan was completing its true epitaph. In the furious slanging match that follows, she will later allege, Bob punches her in the face, damaging her jaw. But seeing her sitting with their children makes something in DylanвЂ™s wife finally snap. This one has even moved into a house on their estate. SheвЂ™s one of countless girlfriends Bob has been seeing over the previous year. Sara has just walked down to breakfast in their Malibu mansion to find Bob and their children sat down to eat вЂ“ with another woman. Bob and Sara Dylan are screaming themselves hoarse. This is the story of Blood On The Tracks, the album that marked the demise of DylanвЂ™s marriage вЂ“ and his artistic rebirth.

#Untouchable quiet storm songs archive#

In an archive piece taken from UncutвЂ™s January 2005 issue (Take 92), we look back at Dylan in 1975, when he turned the crisis of a deteriorating relationship into one of rockвЂ™s most compelling dramas.