Week 7 Blog
This week I chose “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. The song is thought to be about a famous actress at the time, Edie Sedgwick. It was rumored at the time that she had a bit of a relationship with Bob Dylan and so he wrote the song about her life. The song starts by complimenting the appearance of Edie then slowly moves into a more sad feel as the song goes on. The title “Like a Rolling Stone” hints towards her life going downhill faster and faster “like a rolling stone”. This song was recorded in one take, which is cool to begin with but when you realize that the song totals 6 minutes you really start to appreciate how much of a feat that is for the time. When you realize that all the instruments which included a piano, guitar, bass, drums, and vocals all had to be in sync for the entire time you appreciate the musicianship of the artists who helped Bob Dylan record this song. The song has a blues feel combined with the simplicity of folk music. The backing instruments have very simple and repetitive rhythms. Overall I really liked the song and the backstory behind it.
I appreciate your further research into the backstory of the song because it is hard to get all that from the lyrics alone. I learn something new every day, but now the title of the song makes a lot more sense. I also agree in that it was a great feat to record this song in one go, especially with it being a full band instead of him being a solo artist which is definitely less of a feat. Solid song for sure.
ReplyDeleteI really like songs like this because this is the kind of song you don't hear very often. I like your description of the beginning of the song and how it went from complimenting a woman, to being more sad as the song continued. I also enjoyed the use of the harmonica in the song and how it it fluently worked with the overall song.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you looked into the meaning and backstory of the song. That is really interesting. It is so crazy that they were able to record the song in one take. That must have been such a crazy moment for them to experience. This is a very cool song.
ReplyDelete