Heartbreaking it may be to hear how underrated and unloved Together Through Life is when it comes to the discography of Bob Dylan, it holds some of his finest songs. He and the late Robert Hunter of Grateful Dead fame write groove-laden songs teasing anxieties and clarity in the face of romantic disaster. Life is reflected on as a long old highway – it can only mean one thing. Jolene marks a regal assessment from Dylan who departs from the usual layman of the folk genre and instead heads for the high thrones. King and Queen together and reigning, it is the long road of getting to the top which is charted on Jolene. This journeyman sense fits well for Dylan after his time trying and failing to stagger back to the top of the pile.
Safe to say Jolene gets him a step closer and it remains a crime this record of his does not get the wider reach it deserves. But is Dylan interested in those times at the top? He has his back to the hill, or at least the protagonist found on Jolene does. It is not like Dylan to admit he is out of fight and spirit but for his thirty-third album, he comes closer still to questioning his abilities as a long-running staple of music history. He has passed the peak of influence and cannot fit his way back into the fold. He does what all great artists do at times of career and commercial dismay – reflect. He moves along, the well-woven and already-trodden path ahead of him as murky as ever. But it is the tone taken, those last words of forthright power on the throne, which stick.
Rightly so. It provides Dylan with the chance to lament his success and the dumps his characters now find themselves in. Cheap pistols referred to as Saturday Night Specials make for a moody, blues-like tone which stretches to a period now adapted repeatedly by modern filmmakers hoping to rinse some extra worth out of reappraising the times. Not Dylan. He remembers the bloodlust and the thirst for success for it means moving out of wherever Jolene finds itself set. Together Through Life is full of those moments, tender strokes of not knowing where you are headed, just knowing your feet are moving. This is enough for Dylan and Jolene, a striking track of making moves, whether right or wrong. Movement is a sign of life and for that to be lived it means pushing through the streets and sleeping at doorways not your own.
Despite his time at the top of the pile Dylan still sees himself as an outsider. Understandable given he is no longer a chart stay and the times of its relevance have changed. So too has the man behind Jolene, a track which presents his skilful charms and all the heartbreak he holds when reflecting on the long roads of life. A staple of Together Through Life which works better alone than it does deep in the throes of this 2009 release. Long may it continue as a finer slice of the post-2000s originals, of which there are many but little when compared to the onslaught of traditional covers. No problem with that – Dylan has an infectious energy on those cover pieces, but it comes through sharper on originals like Jolene.
