Bob Dylan-Nashville Skyline (1969)
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Nashville Skyline
Label: Columbia
Format: LP
Cat #: KCS 9825
Year of Release: 1969
Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1969 Stereo Pitman Pressing
Listed Condition: VG/G+
Sell Date:3/6/21
Sell Price: $10.99
Discogs Last Sold: 3/5/21 VG+/VG+ $12.00
Low: $3.00 G+/G
Median: $8.53
Average: $9.55
High: $49.95 NM/NM OPEN SHRINK WRAP COPY with "Featuring Lay Lady Lay" HYPE STICKER!! Vinyl surfaces present as full, deep gloss with no visible wear or blemish. Labels are flat and clean with zero spindle marks. Jacket is inside mostly intact, crystal clear shrink. No dings, cuts, clips or holes. Own a TOP COPY Buy 4 or $100 and receive free shipping!
Current low price: $4.00 F/VG Low condiion, $5.29 G+/G+, $8.00 VG/VG
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 43
Have/Want: 1187/268
Time it took to sell: 6 years
Where and When Bought: passed down by aunt around '76 or 7
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A
Sad To See It Go: Yes
Given that this is Bob's 80th birthday, I wanted to serve up some pie with this recent sale, left in reserve over a couple months for discussion. Country Pie, that is.
I now enter the 6 days of the year where I'm 3 decades apart in age with Dylan, not 29 years. I never put too much stock in astrology but being identified as a "twin" in celestial psyche can be a fulfilling prophesy that one can be proud to own.
This was the first Bob album I heard start to finish that disappointed me in some way, maybe for that country setting which I wasn't attuned to yet in any capacity that was I was in Folk, Pop, Rock, Classical, Soul and yes, Disco. My Aunt gave this to me sometime in the mid-70's so my "2-eye" Columbia copy wasn't trashed the way the mono ones that my mom gave to me in very early childhood were. I had Greatest Hits Vol 2 on cassette so was familiar with "Lay Lady Lay" and "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" and liked them fine. In fact I have a childhood memory of "Lay Lady Lay" playing on the Mexican Midhaven jukebox in Worcester on Highland St. down the road in short walking distance from where Rolling Thunder played at the Worcester Auditorium and also a short walk from where I grew up. Why I picked that song with my quarter selection that day, I don't know. Maybe it was the only record of his on the jukebox and it stuck out in my mind as something I was familiar with, though I was familiar with quite alot in the mid 70's. I would scour the jukeboxes anytime my parents took me to a restaurant. Hell, I'll scour them in a bar to this day and have been known stuff a 5-spot to impose my musical will on people if I'm liquored up. I do stick to one song a band and generally keep away from Bob in a bar oddly enough. Depends on the company.
So Nashville Skyline filled a hole in my knowledge. For some reason my mom stopped buying his albums after Blonde on Blonde and didn't resume until Blood On The Tracks through Slow Train Coming, so I had to fill in the holes of this era myself. I think my aunt showed pity that I had so many Bob Dylan records but I made it clear as a 7 year old that I didn't have that one, so she unexpectedly said I could have it. I was not as lucky flipping through other peoples collections, nor did I aspire to hijack their Bob records I didn't have, this was just a one shot experience.
One peculiarity of this copy of Nashville Skyline being important only to me was "Gwiz" was emblazoned on the back with magic marker. Being a Gwiazdowski, I had only know this nickname previously to be my dad's nickname at his job where he taught emotionally disturbed kids that had to live at the school. I did not know my aunt also had this nickname at some point. I did not inherit this nickname until I had this teacher Arnie Ham in the 8th Grade that worked with my dad in the 70's. I told him to look at the class list because he knew my dad. He was confused and looked down the list and yelled "GWIZ" when he recognized the name, and for the rest of Jr. High and High School that was my name. I would not be able to shed it in college as my freshman roommates decided that upon telling them how to pronounce my name that my nickname clearly was Gwiz, without knowing that was my moniker for the previous 5 years in school setting (but not my "adult" world of radio or Friendly's). At some point I just embraced it and only girlfriends or family would call me "Dave" or "David" and to everyone else I was "Gwiz" although I always call myself "Dave." Referring to your own nickname seems awkward when you try it.
The Japanese buyer sent me a note "I love your vinyls," and I loved them too, but you gotta store it and pay for it if you move around NYC like I do.
So why do I consider Nashville Skyline an A record and not an A+. Why do I not dock it in estimation like Before The Flood? Well, there are only 10 cuts, so let's go track by track. I gave a headphone listen to the vinyl for the first time since the SACD came out, so I'm playing it on the desktop again now as my guide.
Side One starts with the Johnny Cash duet remake of "Girl From The North Country." It's a stately reworking for sure and it is what it is. Bob's going high vocally, which really dispels quite a bit of the endless digs on his singing abilities. "Nashville Skyline Rag" is an instrumental introduction of the band, and fits the record as a concept piece. "To Be Alone With You" became a regular on the Never Ending Tour sans the question "Is It Rolling Bob?" It cuts out fast. "I Threw It All Away" I know out of context originally from Greatest Hits Vol. 2, and think of this as the upper tier of the record. It's also a rare instance where I would rather hear this version over the Rolling Thunder one. Understated chorus versus bombast for this one. "Peggy Day" seems a bit slight, but I remember it from way back when so what does "slight" really mean? A night with Peggy Day might be better than a month of nights with someone else.
If Peggy was real, I don't think she was the Lady on the big brass bed that opens Side 2. That was someone of substance that deserves to be handled with the cleanest of hands. Even if the thoughts are more in line with the clothes dropped in the hamper for the maid to handle. "One More Night" somehow I forgot about. I vaguely remember it, but that makes me like it more right now. Another Tonight song. No light will shine this evening. Another "recent" Never Ending Tour rework, 'Tell Me That It Isn't True" has been shaped in my head from live performance to the point where the studio version sounds like an alternate reality. Same with "Country Pie." Oh me! Oh my! "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" closes the album. This one maybe I like the Rolling Thunder version better or as much as this one. It works in and out of context as a standard. So there you have my brain on the Skyline.
80 years! Happy Birthday Bob!
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