Classic Album Review: Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks

Has anyone ever more purely captured the human condition in song than Bob Dylan? I would challenge any critic to uncover an artist with more consistent range and poignancy. His staying power, bordering on divinity, lies in his application of simplicity, simple chords and a simple voice as a conduit for complex stories of simple human truths.\nDylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks is second only to Blonde on Blonde as the quintessential Dylan album. No appreciator of blues-americana could claim a complete record collection without this album. Dylan's dedication to his folk and blues roots remains true in this sad, homesick, regretful collection of traveling songs.\nWith iconic classics such as "Tangled Up in Blue," "Simple Twist of Fate" and "Shelter from the Storm," Blood on the Tracks has become firmly ingrained in our collective pop consciousness. In every song, Dylan plays on universal human experience to tell stories that stand the test of time like the works of Shakespeare, Ginsberg and Goethe. \n"Buckets of Rain" is the overlooked gem of this album. Buried as the last track, "Buckets" epitomizes the tangled mess of longing, respect and tired beauty, tinged with the misery that characterizes Dylan's romantically themed songs. The uncomplicated chord progression and child-like rhyme structure communicate the universality of unrequited romantic adoration. \nNo one in the history of music has displayed Dylan's influence and consistency. His unique storytelling style and cryptic wordplay have proved consistently iconic, and his coded imagery has provided critics and fans alike with debate fodder for decades. He has sung for the war-weary, the workingman, the heartbroken and the homesick. So long as these themes remain constants of the human condition, Dylan will remain a poignant staple of the American identity.