Wow, that's pretty wacked. Really odd but cool. I've got to spend more time on youtube. Doesn't hurt that it's got one of my favourite VU songs as its backing (more on them in a moment), and with some pretty cool visuals in there.

Re the Dylan, I'll confess my multi tasking was somewhat limited - I think I managed to read four of Wallace Stevens' shorter poems in two hours. Just to end the suspense that's been killign you all for the past week, the album I was listening to was Bringing it all Back Home, which I've always thought of as a transitional album (ie from folky Bob to blues rocky Bob) but actually the blend that's on that record is fantastic. Some of his best (or my favourite anyway) material - Tambo Man, It's All Over Now, Subterranean Homesick, It's Alright Ma - and then some songs that fly below the radar that are amazing - like She Belongs to Me, Love Minus Zero. What a great record.

Up until last Tuesday I would have said, fairly reflexively, that this was my favourite Dylan record. It probably still is. For me Blonde on Blonde doesn't quite compare song for song, though it has a some great tracks, and perhaps as importantly, it is a little bit "more of the same", stylistically, whereas 61 was Dylan as a rocker, full bore, for the first time. Both are great records. I do really like Blood on the Tracks, but it's the sixties Dylan that really works for me, and Blood is more of a return to form than him at his peeak, in my opinion.

The other record that I would put forward is The Freewheelin' Bob, which is one of the great folk records of all time, wouldn't you say? Mr. Mercer, enough silence from you on this.

And speaking of VU and Derek, we had beers at Betty's last night (always a fruitful combination for blog topics) and discussed the following two (related) topics:

- what is the greatest debut album of all time? Tough one I know....More manageably, which ten make it into the pantheon?
- and secondly (could be the same bands), which bands are the best examples of having enormous promise based on the first (or first few) releases only to end up as relatively minor contributors to music history? Which current bands are in danger of joining that group?