Modern Times is singer-songwriter
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
's 32nd
studio albumA studio album is an original collection of new tracks by a recording artist.It usually does not contain live recordings and/or remixes, and if it does, those tracks do not make up majority of the album and are often "bonus tracks"...
, released by Columbia Records in August 2006.
The album was Dylan's third straight (following
Time out of MindTime Out of Mind is Bob Dylan's 30th studio album, released in 1997 by Columbia Records. It was his first double studio album since 1970's Self Portrait....
and
"Love and Theft") to be met with nearly universal praise from fans and critics. It continued its predecessors' tendencies toward
bluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created within the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
,
rockabillyRockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
and pre-
rockRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
balladA ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative and set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later North America, Australia and North Africa. Many...
ry, and was self-produced by Dylan under the pseudonym "Jack Frost". Along with the acclaim, the album sparked some debate over its uncredited use of choruses and arrangements from older songs, as well as many lyrical lines taken from the work of 19th century poet
Henry TimrodHenry Timrod was an American poet, often called The Poet Laureate of the Confederacy.-Biography:Timrod was born in Charleston, South Carolina to a family of German descent—the family's original surname was "Dimroth". His father was an officer in the Seminole Wars and a poet himself...
.
Modern Times became the singer-songwriter's first #1 album in the U.S. since 1976's
Desire. It was also his first album to debut at the summit of the
Billboard 200The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling new music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, selling 191,933 copies in its first week. At age 65, Dylan became the oldest living person at the time to have an album enter the Billboard charts at number one. (
Neil DiamondNeil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter. Diamond is one of pop music's most enduring and successful singer-songwriters. As a successful pop music performer, Diamond scored a number of hits worldwide in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...
surpassed this in 2008, but Dylan regained the distinction four years later with
Together Through Life.) It also reached #1 in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
,
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
,
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
and
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, debuted #2 in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
,
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
and
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
. It reached #3 in the UK and The Netherlands and has sold over 4 million copies worldwide. As with its two studio predecessors, the album's packaging features minimal credits and no lyric sheet.
Band and production
The album was recorded with Dylan's current touring band, including bassist
Tony GarnierTony Garnier is an American bassist , best known as an accompanist to Bob Dylan, with whom he has played since 1989...
, drummer George G Receli, guitarists Stu Kimball and Denny Freeman, plus multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron. Dylan produced the album under the name "Jack Frost".
Early rehearsals were held in late January and early February 2006 at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in
PoughkeepsiePoughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, the United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany...
, New York. Days after the rehearsals, recording sessions were held at Clinton Studios in
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
where the album was recorded digitally in roughly three weeks.
While it had been marketed as the third in a conceptual trilogy, beginning in 1997 with
Time Out of MindTime Out of Mind is Bob Dylan's 30th studio album, released in 1997 by Columbia Records. It was his first double studio album since 1970's Self Portrait....
, Dylan himself rebuffed the notion. In an interview with
Rolling Stone, he stated that he "would think more of
"Love and Theft" as the beginning of a trilogy, if there's going to be a trilogy."
Anticipation
Dylan's historical stature, as well as his renewed critical acclaim following
Time Out of MindTime Out of Mind is Bob Dylan's 30th studio album, released in 1997 by Columbia Records. It was his first double studio album since 1970's Self Portrait....
and
"Love and Theft", helped to make
Modern Times a highly anticipated release. As with
Theft in 2001, Sony held a listening event for critics far in advance, but those invited were forbidden from disclosing details or opinions about what they heard prior to the official release.
Modern Times was leaked
onlineThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
through various BitTorrent and Dylan fan websites on August 21, 2006, after 30-second sound clips were released on the official
Sonyis a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding ¥ 7.730.0 trillion, or $78.88 billion U.S. . Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video game...
website. The album was first released in some European countries (including Germany and Ireland) on August 25, in the UK on August 28 and premiered in the U.S. on August 28 on
XM Satellite RadioXM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
, the satellite radio service that carried Dylan's
Theme Time Radio HourTheme Time Radio Hour was a one-hour long radio show hosted by Bob Dylan. Each episode was an eclectic, freeform mix of blues, folk, rockabilly, R&B, soul, bebop, rock-and-roll, country and pop music, centered around a "theme," with songs from artists as diverse as Patti Page and LL Cool J. The...
program.
Critical reaction
The response from critics was overwhelmingly positive. The publications
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...
and
UNCUTUncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a popular monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes a film section. The magazine also features articles covering music-related books...
both crowned
Modern Times with five-out-of-five stars.
Rolling Stone critic Joe Levy called the album Dylan's "third straight masterwork".
Robert ChristgauRobert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-professed "Dean of American Rock Critics". In print, he often abbreviates his name as Xgau....
of
BlenderBlender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
described it as "startling [and radiating] the observant calm of old masters who have seen enough life to be ready for anything—
YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright.Yeats may also refer to:* Yeats ,* Yeats , an impact crater on Mercury* Yeats , an Irish thoroughbred racehorse-See also:...
, Matisse,
Sonny RollinsTheodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the post-bebop era, Rollins' long, prolific career began at the age of 11, and he was playing with piano legend Thelonious Monk before reaching...
". Jody Rosen of the online magazine
SlateSlate is an English-language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft, as part of MSN. On December 21, 2004, it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
concurred, calling
Modern Times "a better album than
Time Out of Mind and even than the majestic
Love and Theft, which by my lights makes it Dylan's finest since
Blood on the Tracks". The album was also credited for original blues and folk rock music which was said to be, "hard to hear these days" by critics.
Alexis PetridisAlexis Petridis is the head rock and pop critic for UK newspaper The Guardian, as well as a regular contributor to the magazine GQ.Petridis was the final editor of now defunct music magazine Select; he also writes a weekly column in the fashion section of The Guardian's Weekend section...
in
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
ridiculed the lavish praise heaped on the album and wrote: "It's hard to hear the music of
Modern Times over the inevitable standing ovation and the thuds of middle-aged critics swooning in awe." While enjoying the record, Petridis said
Modern Times was "not one of those infrequent, unequivocally fantastic Dylan albums". Jim DeRogatis of
The Chicago Sun-Times appreciated the lyrical content but found fault in the languid music, writing that "with the exception of the closing track 'Ain't Talkin', one of the spookiest songs he's ever written, Dylan disappoints with...[his] inexplicable fondness for smarmy '30s and '40s
balladA ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative and set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later North America, Australia and North Africa. Many...
ry".
Perhaps the sourest review came from
Ron RosenbaumRon Rosenbaum is an Jewish-American journalist and author.Rosenbaum, born into a Jewish family, grew up in Bay Shore, New York. He graduated from Yale University in 1968 and won a Carnegie Fellowship to attend Yale's graduate program in English Literature, though he dropped out after taking one...
. Writing in the
New York ObserverThe New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests...
, Rosenbaum called
Modern Times, “a wildly overhyped disappointment... The new album is possibly the worst since
Self Portrait, with songs that rarely rise above the level of Dylan’s low point - and everybody seems afraid to say so."
Some reviewers who liked the album were critical of its musicianship, such as
The Chicago Tribunes Greg Kot, and Jon ParelesJon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s a contributing writer and...
of The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
, who wrote that "onstage Mr. Dylan’s touring band regularly supercharges his songs. But on Modern Times
the musicians play as if they’re just feeling their way into the tunes."
According to MetacriticMetacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, a site that tracks prominent critical opinion, Modern Times approval rating hovers around 89%, indicating universal acclaim and earning it the honor of 29th most-liked-by-critics album (on Metacritic) of all time.
The album also became Dylan's third successive album to top the Village Voice's '
Pazz & JopThe Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
' poll.
"Love and Theft" and
Time Out of MindTime Out of Mind is Bob Dylan's 30th studio album, released in 1997 by Columbia Records. It was his first double studio album since 1970's Self Portrait....
won in 2001 and 1997 respectively.
49th Annual Grammy Awards, 2007
- Bob Dylan won a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for the song, "Someday Baby".
- Modern Times won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album. By the end of 2006, Bob Dylan's Modern Times Album had sold over 10.3 million units worldwide.
Credit controversy
Shortly after its release, the album sparked some debate in the media concerning its songwriting credits, mainly the liner notes' contention of "All songs written by Bob Dylan", which appears in most editions of
Modern Times.
Adaptations
Many of the album's songs have roots in well-known older compositions, though in all cases, Dylan has given the songs new lyrics.
- "Thunder on the Mountain" has a second verse based on the song "Ma Rainey" by Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist who matched her male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.-Career:...
. Dylan cuts and shuffles Memphis MinnieMemphis Minnie was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist who matched her male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.-Career:...
's lyrics substituting Alicia KeysAlicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American recording artist, musician and actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York, where Keys made a television appearance on The Cosby Show at the age of four. She attended...
and Hell's Kitchen for Ma RaineyGertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey , was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues...
and her GeorgiaGeorgia is a state in the United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, it had been the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established, in 1733. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January...
birthplace. The reference to Keys was listed by Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...
as one of the ten weirdest shout outs in song.
- "Someday Baby" is based on an old standard that can be traced back to "Worried Life Blues", recorded by Sleepy John Estes, and made famous in versions by Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam "Lightnin’" Hopkins was a country blues guitarist, from Houston, Texas, United States.-Life:Born in Centerville, Texas, Hopkins' childhood was immersed in the sounds of the blues and he developed a deeper appreciation at the age of 8 when he met Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic in...
and Muddy WatersMcKinley Morganfield , better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the Father of Chicago blues". He is also the actual father of blues musicians Big Bill Morganfield and Larry "Mud Morganfield" Williams...
. It is sometimes referred to as "Trouble No More", and often credited to Muddy WatersMcKinley Morganfield , better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the Father of Chicago blues". He is also the actual father of blues musicians Big Bill Morganfield and Larry "Mud Morganfield" Williams...
.
- "Rollin' and Tumblin'" is a blues standard first recorded and possibly written by the bluesman Hambone Willie Newbern. An arrangement very similar to Dylan's but with different lyrics was a hit for Muddy Waters, who is also credited with writing the song. Except for the first verse, all the lyrics in Dylan's version are original.
- "When the Deal Goes Down" is based on the melody of "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)
"Where the Blue of the Night " was the theme Bing Crosby selected for his radio show. It was recorded in November 1931, backed by Bennie Krueger's band. The song was featured in a Mack Sennett movie short starring Bing Crosby....
", a signature-song for Bing CrosbyHarry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American popular singer and actor whose career stretched over more than half a century from 1926 until his death....
.
- "Beyond the Horizon" is based around the song "Red Sails in the Sunset
"Red Sails in the Sunset" is a popular song.The music was written by Hugh Williams . The lyrics were written by Jimmy Kennedy. The song was published in 1935. The song was written about Portstewart, a sea side town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.One of the earliest versions recorded was by...
," written by Jimmy Kennedy and Hugh Williams in 1935 using its melody and basic structure.
- "The Levee's Gonna Break" is based on "When the Levee Breaks
"When the Levee Breaks" is a blues song written and first recorded by husband and wife Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929. The song is in reaction to the upheaval caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927....
" by Kansas Joe McCoyKansas Joe McCoy was an African American blues musician and songwriter.-Career:McCoy played music under a variety of stage names but is best known as "Kansas Joe McCoy". Born in Raymond, Mississippi, he was the older brother of the blues accompanist Papa Charlie McCoy...
and Memphis MinnieMemphis Minnie was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist who matched her male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.-Career:...
. It has been previously adapted by rock acts such as Led ZeppelinLed Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in 1968 by Jimmy Page , Robert Plant , John Paul Jones and John Bonham . With their heavy, guitar-driven sound, Led Zeppelin are regarded as one of the first heavy metal bands, helping to pioneer the genre...
. The song has also been in the public domain since 2004.
- "Nettie Moore" takes its title, and some of its chorus, from an 1857 composition "Gentle Nettie Moore" by Marshall Pike and James Lord Pierpont, the composer of "Jingle Bells", though Dylan's melody and lyrics are otherwise unrecognizable, although the song shares a rhyme with "Moonshiner
Moonshiner may refer to:*Moonshiner, one who makes moonshine, illegal distilled alcohol*"The Moonshiner", a traditional folk song...
", a traditional folk song that Dylan recorded in 1963: "They say whiskey will kill ya, but I don't think it will" vs. "If whiskey don't kill me, I don't know what will."
- "Ain't Talkin'" derives its chorus from the more up-tempo "Highway of Regret" by The Stanley Brothers
The Stanley Brothers were a legendary American bluegrass duo made up of brothers Carter and Ralph Stanley.-Biography:Carter and Ralph Stanley hailed originally from Dickenson County, Virginia. The family soon moved to McClure, Virginia where their parents worked a small farm in the Clinch Mountains...
. The lyrics of the first verse seem to be derived from the first verse of "As I roved out", a traditional Irish song, performed by, amongst others, PlanxtyPlanxty is an Irish folk music band formed in the 1970s, consisting initially of Christy Moore , Dónal Lunny , Andy Irvine , and Liam O'Flynn...
. There are a number of songs that begin "As I roved out" and what follows is usually a flight of fancy or dream-like journey.
None of these previous incarnations or their authors are credited, though Dylan has casually acknowledged some of the uses. In a 2004
NewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly newsmagazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
online feature, Dylan mentioned that he was working on a song based on a Bing Crosby melody, now known to be "When The Deal Goes Down". Meanwhile, Dylan has a history of being open about his songwriting techniques, and his usage of older classics. For instance, in a 2004 interview with Robert Hilburn of the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...
, he stated,
"Well, you have to understand that I'm not a melodist... My songs are either based on old Protestant hymns or Carter Family songs or variations of the blues form. What happens is, I'll take a song I know and simply start playing it in my head. That's the way I meditate. A lot of people will look at a crack on the wall and meditate, or count sheep or angels or money or something, and it's a proven fact that it'll help them relax. I don't meditate on any of that stuff. I meditate on a song. I'll be playing Bob Nolan's "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," for instance, in my head constantly – while I'm driving a car or talking to a person or sitting around or whatever. People will think they are talking to me and I'm talking back, but I'm not. I'm listening to a song in my head. At a certain point, some words will change and I'll start writing a song."
In the same interview, Dylan added,
"(Blowin' In The Wind) ... I wrote in 10 minutes, just put words to an old spiritual, probably something I learned from Carter Family records. That's the folk music tradition. You use what's been handed down. '
The Times They Are A-Changin'The Times They Are a-Changin' is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's third studio album, released in January 1964 by Columbia Records.Produced by Tom Wilson, it is the singer-songwriter's first collection to feature only original compositions. The album consists mostly of stark, sparsely-arranged story...
' is probably from an old Scottish folk song... ('
Subterranean Homesick Blues"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, originally released on the album Bringing It All Back Home in March 1965. The following month it was issued as a single, becoming his first Top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hit and going Top 10 in the UK. It was subsequently re-released on numerous...
')... it's from Chuck Berry, a bit of, and some of the scat songs of the '40s."
http://www.calendarlive.com/music/pop/cl-ca-dylan04apr04,0,3583678.story
The lack of official credits is not a legal problem, given the age of the songs, but it troubled journalist Jim Fusilli of the
Wall Street Journal. Fusilli thought that this was contrary to Dylan's long track record of noting his influences, as in the liner notes of 1994's
World Gone WrongWorld Gone Wrong is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 29th studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1993.It was Dylan's second consecutive collection of only traditional folk songs, performed acoustically with guitar and harmonica...
. Joe Levy of
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...
claimed to have raised the question with Sony BMG executives, who shrugged it off as a non-issue.
Levy and many others have supported Dylan in the context of a larger, older blues and folk tradition of songwriters evolving old songs into new ones, which Dylan was no stranger to in the 1960s.
Pete SeegerPeter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early '50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's...
himself has previously expressed the view that Dylan is a link in this chain of folk and blues songwriters. Seeger has spoken many times about the folk process, often recounting that his friend
Woody GuthrieWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
once said to him "That guy stole that from me, but I steal from everybody". Ramblin' Jack at one time expressed similar sentiments: "Dylan learned from me the same way I learned from Woody. Woody didn't teach me. He just said, 'If you want to learn something, just steal it - that's the way I learned from Lead Belly'".
Additional sources
Two other sources of the album's lyrics were cited in the latter half of 2006. In September,
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
ran an article exploring similarities between some of the lyrics in
Modern Times and the work of 19th century poet
Henry TimrodHenry Timrod was an American poet, often called The Poet Laureate of the Confederacy.-Biography:Timrod was born in Charleston, South Carolina to a family of German descent—the family's original surname was "Dimroth". His father was an officer in the Seminole Wars and a poet himself...
. Albuquerque
disc jockeyA disc jockey is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, dis
k referred to phonograph records, while dis
c referred to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling...
Scott Warmuth is credited as the first to discover at least ten substantial lines and phrases that can be clearly traced to the
Civil WarA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
poet across several songs. Dylan and Sony have declined to comment on the matter, and Timrod's name is nowhere to be found on the liner notes. Robert Polito of the Poetry Foundation wrote a detailed defense of Dylan's usage of old lines in creating new work, saying that calls of
plagiarismPlagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered...
confuse "art with a term paper".
In October 2006,
The Nelson MailThe Nelson Mail is a daily newspaper in New Zealand. Founded in 1866, it is currently owned by Fairfax New Zealand. As its name indicates, it serves the Nelson region.-External links:*...
ran an article by New Zealand poet Cliff Fell exploring similarities between some of the lyrics in
Modern Times and the works of the first century Roman poet
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
. Fell cited numerous direct parallels between lines from Ovid and those in four of Dylan's songs. A sampling of these included:
- "Workingman's Blues #2"- No one can ever claim/That I took up arms against you. Ovid (Tristia, Book 2, Lines 51-53) - no one can claim that I ever took up arms against you.
- "Ain't Talkin'" - Every nook and cranny has its tears. Ovid (Tristia, Book 1, Section 3, Line 24) - every nook and corner had its tears.
- "The Levee's Gonna Break" - Some people got barely enough skin to cover their bones. Ovid (Tristia, Book 4, Section 7, Line 51) - there's barely enough skin to cover my bones.
- "Spirit on the Water" - Can’t believe these things would ever fade from your mind. Ovid (Black Sea Letters, Book 2, Section 4, Line 24) - I cannot believe these things could fade from your mind.
Fell considered the borrowings an homage and not plagiarism, noting Dylan's direct reference to Ovid in the album's first song, "Thunder on the Mountain", with the line "I've been sitting down and studying The Art of Love."
The Art of Love was one of the great poet's most famous works.
Artwork and versions
The album's cover photo is
Ted CronerTed Croner Ted Croner was an American photographer and an influential member of the New York School during the 1940s and 1950s. His images are said to represent the best example of this movement.-Biography:...
's 1947 photograph
Taxi, New York at Night. The image was previously used as a cover by the defunct band
LunaLuna was a dream pop/indie pop band formed in 1991 by Dean Wareham after the breakup of Galaxie 500, with Stanley Demeski and Justin Harwood...
for their 1995 single "Hedgehog/23 Minutes in Brussels".
The album was released in both standard and special edition formats, with the special edition including a bonus DVD of four Dylan music videos. The DVD contains "Blood In My Eyes" (Promo Video), "Love Sick" (Live at the Grammys 1997), "Things Have Changed" (Promo Video) and "Cold Irons Bound" (
Masked and Anonymous Video). The LP edition is a two-disc set, produced on 180-gram audiophile vinyl.
Track listing
- "Thunder on the Mountain" – 5:55
- "Spirit on the Water" – 7:42
- "Rollin' and Tumblin'
"Rollin' and Tumblin" is a blues song that has been recorded hundreds of times by various artists. Considered as a traditional, it has been recorded with different lyrics and titles...
" – 6:01
- "When the Deal Goes Down" – 5:04
- "Someday Baby
"Someday Baby" is a Grammy Award-winning song by Bob Dylan and is the fifth track on his 2006 Grammy Award-winning album Modern Times. A promo CD was also released with the album version of the track and a shorter edit version....
" – 4:55
- "Workingman's Blues #2" – 6:07
- "Beyond the Horizon" – 5:36
- "Nettie Moore" – 6:52
- "The Levee's Gonna Break" – 5:43
- "Ain't Talkin'" – 8:48
Chart positions
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 2006 |
Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling new music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
|
1 |
| Australian ARIA The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
Albums Chart |
Certifications
| Country |
Certification |
Sales/shipments |
Month/year |
| RIAA, US |
1x Platinum |
1,500,000 |
September 2006 |
|
1x Platinum |
1,000,000 |
January 2007 |
| CRIA, Canada A cria is the name for a baby camelid such as a llama, alpaca, vicuña, or guanaco. It is thought to come from the Spanish word criar.-Alpaca crias:...
|
2x Platinum |
2,100,000 |
March 2007 |