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Bob Dylan : Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ :: Track Review

By greg on 30 March 2009 in Featured Reviews, Tunes with 10 Comments

bob dylan Bob Dylan : Beyond Here Lies Nothin :: Track ReviewI suppose I couldn’t get away with a three word review of a Bob Dylan song by stating it was pretty f@&#ing cool, could I?  As if it were blessed by the ghost of Tito Puente “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” is Dylan’s first single from “Together Through Life” and it marks a southwestwardly change for the mighty bard.  The song has gritty texture with its zydeco accordion and stinging bluesy guitar and organ intro.  Stepping back from the 1940′s and 1950′s period pieces that Dylan has grown fond of recently, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” is a song of this era.

“Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” brings to mind the sardonic tone of  “Everything is Broken” and the brooding “Things Have Changed” showcasing a romantic lyric that estimates that as long as you have the narrator, who cares if the already rotten world turns to shit outside.  I dig the sentiment, and my only regret is that there’s not enough guitar licks in this abbreviated song.  If this is an early indicator of the tone,  sound and quality of the album, I’d like to add it to my best of list for the year.

Rating: star Bob Dylan : Beyond Here Lies Nothin :: Track Reviewstar Bob Dylan : Beyond Here Lies Nothin :: Track Reviewstar Bob Dylan : Beyond Here Lies Nothin :: Track Reviewstar Bob Dylan : Beyond Here Lies Nothin :: Track Reviewstar Bob Dylan : Beyond Here Lies Nothin :: Track Review

  • Mark

    Bob beefed up the band with organ and accordian,and the sound is an agreeable one.
    In this track Bob mixes Chicago blues with a bit of the border.
    The tune is based on the classic “All Your Love (I Miss Loving)” perfomed by Otis Rush-which in turn was developed from Jody Williams “Lucky Lou”.
    Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac then used this as a basis for “Black Magic Woman”, later popularized by Santana.
    Bob evidentally feels comfortable in the this vein as evident in his last two releases…

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  • Charlie

    I thought the melody sounded like something I had heard but couldn’t quite come up with it. Today I got it, All Your Love by Otis Rush from the Mayall/Clapton Bluesbreakers album. Mystery solved. Great song Bob.

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  • Rake

    This might be the first time I’ve been disappointed with a Dylan release. Lyrics are fantastic, but musically it is boring to me and not adventurous, reverting to motifs and styles of the past. I’d like a sound I haven’t heard before.

    (This is coming from a Dylan nut. I have all his albums, been to see him in concert about 15 time, have 8 books on him and his work.)

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  • Chris

    I’m a little disappointed. It does sound Under a Blood Red Sky-ish… and that’s a far cry from his recent (and best) work. The music style is nothing new, but more uneasy is the fact that it’s slight. It’s an okay song… sounded like he wrote it quickly, but not in a profound way, just a quick way, hence: a slight song. Hope the rest of the album is better! I’d hate to think he’s headed downwards after the peak of his last work from Time Out of Mind on…

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  • José (from Buenos Aires)

    I agree with Mark. As soon as I heard the song for the first time, “Black Magic Woman” came instantly to my mind; but I still cannot make up my mind whether this is good or not for the rest of the album…

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  • Charlie

    Actually check out Who’s been Talkin from the Howlin Wold London sessions.

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  • Pablo

    Not a bad song..it has his “unique” groove…but..why do so many of his songs theses days sound like they are all off one album?
    To really attempt something unusual (and i know he likes the crooners, Dean Martin…and Sanatra) What would it take to write an album that demanded a big band sound. Something with horns, flutes, strings…just lots of different arrangements..if it’s too hard for Bob to do or too boring…employ the arranger..sing the songs the compositions would hold up..the y just would!. It couldn’t be that hard to come up with something that moved the listener “in and out of time”..something like…hey is this a 1930′s dance track…or is this a 50′s big band feel” Geez..di’nt Ray Charles do something like that?…you know big band stuff and big band blues and then…some ballads. Bob has so much creative disposal and musical opportunities at hand..it fascinates me why he does not capture creatively other genres of music and play with them.

    This song sounds “SAFE” to me and as one guy who is not a Dylan fan said to me when i played him this track (and i didn’t word him up on the new album)..”what song off Modern Times is that one?”…i simply responded with “it’s an outtake..but he’s making a big band record..all brass, wind and strings..it’s gonna match his talent for lyrical melody” He said “how do you know that?”..I said ” Willie Nelson sent him some recordings of Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway songs…and they seem to have lifted him into a new realm…it was always on the cards”

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  • http://myspace.com/scottseverin Scott Severin

    I’m not familiar with the Howlin Wolf song mentioned. To me, it sounds like “Way Down In The Hole”, by Tom Waits. Like, exactly note for note, double stops and all.

    And, yeah, kinda underwhelming. I’ll reserve final judgement until I hear it in the context of the entire new LP

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  • mark

    Info I have shows Howlin Wolf recording “Who’s ben Talking” at Chess records in June 57. “Lucky Lou” by Jody Williams was recorded one month earlier, May 1957 at Chess..”All Your Love” by Otis Rush was recorded in 1958 at Cobra records…All are similar tunes…

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  • Margie

    The familiarity of the music caught me right away. Drove me nuts, til I came up with this: I think it’s similar to BB King & Eric Clapton’s Help the Poor.

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