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1981, la musica sta cambiando, specialmente il "vecchio" rock sembra quasi essere soffocato da nuove "avanguardie rock" come la New Wave e l'Heavy metal, agli opposti, che scalano classifiche e convincono folle di fans. Dylan, dà un colpo di coda alla sua vecchia musica che aveva già visto due epocali cambiamenti di pelle, dal folk degli esordi al successivo rock-blues con cui aveva poste le basi per un genere di artista rock a cui in tantissimi si sarebbero ispirati. Questo Shot of Love chiude la trilogia "cristiana", dopo Slow train coming (1979) e Saved (1980); dei tre album viene considerato il più debole ed è proprio questo il punto su cui penso di suscitare non poche polemiche, perchè, in controtendenza rispetto a tante autorevoli opinioni, credo che invece questo album, sia dei tre, il più ispirato e chi scrive, ritiene Slow train coming e Saved (il primo mezzo gradino sopra il secondo) due ottimi album, "mezzi capolavori "diceva un mio caro amico quando non voleva spendere con troppa leggerezza la parola (pesante) capolavoro. Una delle ragioni per cui il disco è stato bistrattato è il fatto che il colpo di coda alla vecchia musica di cui parlavo sopra porta l'artista nel terreno del pop, dopo il Gospel che aveva condito il rock dei primi due capitoli della triade cristiana, ora è la volta che il rock dylaniano si "sporchi"di pop, ma lasciando molto viva la bellezza assoluta delle composizioni contenute in questo lavoro, anzi più in risalto rispetto alla"forzatura" gospel dei precedenti lavori. Shot of Love, apre il disco, ed è una canzone "perfetta", dominata da un equiibrio musicale incredibile, rock su una ritmica quasi reggae con i cori gospel che ricordano la provenienza dal precedente repertorio: reputo questo pezzo un gioello di composizione. Segue un altro pezzo incredibilmente innovativo, Heart of mine, dopo tanti anni un pezzo d'amore, gli ultimi molto cupi li abbiamo sentiti nel vecchio (1975) Blood on the tracks: siamo nel campo del pop più puro con un sapore quasi funky; Dylan ospita due grandi musicisti, amici, Ringo Starr e Ronnie Wood. Altro capolavoro è Lenny Bruce, dedicata ad un comico ebreo che ottenne nei primi anni 60 un certo successo in America, ma fu anche molto avversato per il turpiloquio che spesso usava nei suoi spettacoli e che in quegli anni era assai fuorilegge:il pezzo è un delicato blues-gospel pianistico, frutto come ammesso dallo stesso Dylan, di una fugace improvvisa ispirazione ed inciso in presa diretta. Reggae puro e Blues sanguigno sentiamo rispettivamente in Dead man, dead man e Trouble, due brani di ottima fattura che accompagnano alla conclusiva Every grain of sand, a parere mio una delle canzoni più belle di Dylan, un inno liturgico, una preghiera pop, sui cui accordi sono stati composti innumerevoli pezzi negli anni successivi.
A chi consiglio questo disco ? A tutti coloro che pensano di essere grandi conoscitori di Dylan, ma questo gioiello non lo hanno mai sentito o se lo hanno fatto gli hanno dedicato un ascolto superficiale.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
03 Property of Jesus (04:36)
Go ahead and talk about him because he makes you doubt,
Because he has denied himself the things that you can't live without.
Laugh at him behind his back just like the others do,
Remind him of what he used to be when he comes walkin' through.
He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone
Stop your conversation when he passes on the street,
Hope he falls upon himself, oh, won't that be sweet
Because he can't be exploited by superstition anymore
Because he can't be bribed or bought by the things that you adore.
He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone
When the whip that's keeping you in line doesn't make him jump,
Say he's hard-of-hearin', say that he's a chump.
Say he's out of step with reality as you try to test his nerve
Because he doesn't pay no tribute to the king that you serve.
He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone
Say that he's a loser 'cause he got no common sense
Because he don't increase his worth at someone else's expense.
Because he's not afraid of trying, 'cause he don't look at you and smile,
'Cause he doesn't tell you jokes or fairy tales, say he's got no style.
He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone
You can laugh at salvation, you can play Olympic games,
You think that when you rest at last you'll go back from where you came.
But you've picked up quite a story and you've changed since the womb.
What happened to the real you, you've been captured but by whom?
He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone
04 Lenny Bruce (04:35)
Lenny Bruce is dead but his ghost lives on and on
Never did get any Golden Globe award, never made it to Synanon.
He was an outlaw, that's for sure,
More of an outlaw than you ever were.
Lenny Bruce is gone but his spirit's livin' on and on.
Maybe he had some problems, maybe some things that he couldn't work out
But he sure was funny and he sure told the truth and he knew what he was talkin'
about. Never robbed any churches nor cut off any babies' heads,
He just took the folks in high places and he shined a light in their beds.
He's on some other shore, he didn't wanna live anymore.
Lenny Bruce is dead but he didn't commit any crime
He just had the insight to rip off the lid before its time.
I rode with him in a taxi once, only for a mile and a half,
Seemed like it took a couple of months.
Lenny Bruce moved on and like the ones that killed him, gone.
They said that he was sick 'cause he didn't play by the rules
He just showed the wise men of his day to be nothing more than fools.
They stamped him and they labeled him like they do with pants and shirts,
He fought a war on a battlefield where every victory hurts.
Lenny Bruce was bad, he was the brother that you never had.
08 In the Summertime (03:36)
I was in your presence for an hour or so
Or was it a day? I truly don't know.
Where the sun never set, where the trees hung low
By that soft and shining sea.
Did you respect me for what I did
Or for what I didn't do, or for keeping it hid?
Did I lose my mind when I tried to get rid
Of everything you see?
In the summertime, ah-a in the summertime,
In the summertime when you were with me.
I got the heart and you got the blood,
We cut through iron and we cut through mud.
Then came the warnin' that was before the flood
That set everybody free.
Fools they made a mock of sin,
Our loyalty they tried to win
But you were closer to me than my next of kin
When they didn't want to know or see.
In the summertime, ah-a in the summertime,
In the summertime when you were with me.
Strangers, they meddled in our affairs,
Poverty and shame was theirs.
But all that sufferin' was not to be compared
With the glory that is to be.
And I'm still carrying the gift you gave,
It's a part of me now, it's been cherished and saved,
It'll be with me unto the grave
And then unto eternity.
In the summertime, ah-a in the summertime,
In the summertime when you were with me.
10 Every Grain of Sand (06:12)
In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There's a dyin' voice within me reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair.
Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake,
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.
Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear,
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer.
The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.
I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.
I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light,
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space,
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.
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Altre recensioni
Di ilsuonatorejones
Non fosse per una delle dieci migliori canzoni di Dylan, presente su questo album, "Every Grain Of Sand", non ci sarebbe motivo di parlare di "Shot Of Love".
Le perle si disperdono nel nulla.
