Fans of Bob Dylan are split on whether his efforts on Nashville Skyline are “up there with Blood on the Tracks.“
Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in January this year, is celebrated as one of the finest moments in his career. Fans are now wondering whether Nashville Skyline is up there when it comes to quality works from Dylan. A post to the r/BobDylan subreddit saw one fan suggest the album was up there with Desire and Blonde on Blonde as one of his best musical achievements. Fans were split on the take, which saw one user consider it one of the all-time greats in Dylan’s discography. Their post reads: “This is a top three Dylan, change my mind! I personally believe that Nashville Skyline is one of Dylan’s best albums.
“Up there with the likes of Blood on the Tracks, Desire, and Blonde on Blonde. It might even be my favourite. (Desire and Blood on the Tracks are hard to beat, though) I mean, there is not a bad track. Country Pie, Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You, and One More Night being my top three. I really don’t know why this album is one of my favourites, but it is!”
Members of the subreddit were unconvinced at Nashville Skyline being up there in the top three, with several albums ahead of the Johnny Cash-featuring release. One fan wrote: “The following albums exist: Blood on the Tracks, Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, Planet Waves, Bringing It All Back Home, The Times They Are A-Changin’. Perhaps that will shake things up a bit?”
Another made further album suggestions, though praised Nashville Skyline as one of Dylan’s better, shorter albums. They wrote: “Nashville Skyline is a great short album, but I think I would place Freewheelin’, Desire, John Wesley Harding, Slow Train Coming, and possibly Street-Legal and Rough and Rowdy Ways, above it (in addition to the ones you mentioned).”
A third user suggested Nashville Skyline‘s influence is understated, and shared a quote from musician Nick Cave. They wrote: “I love his voice in this album. That and how succinct the songs are. I watched a video once where Nick Cave was asked, ‘What’s a song that he wished he wrote?’
“He brought up I Threw It All Away by Bob Dylan. He said the song is very simple, but brilliant. I agree with him.” Cave confirmed he had bought several copies of Nashville Skyline, and went on to say he wished he had written one song from the album himself.
He said: “Well I like that Dylan song I Threw It All Away off Nashville Skyline. There was always something about that song, that was so simple, and an audacity to this sort of simplicity to that song. But it was so… so powerful at the same time. For me, at least. I was always ragingly envious of that song.”
