If you'll be my flotsam, I could be half the man I used to

This morning, getting ready for work*, I put on Dylan's Nashville Skyline. I know his fans consider this record a big letdown in Dylan's catalog, especially following Blonde On Blonde and the masterful John Wesley Harding, and while I can't defend the consistency of Nashville Skyline - or explain Dylan's "sweet" voice - I think the record is filled with great songs. "I Threw It All Away" and "Lay Lady Lay", in particular, stand up to anything Dylan has ever recorded.

One of the reasons people often write-off this record and assume Dylan wasn't firing on all cylinders when he put it together is its length. Clocking in at 27 minutes, it belongs in that rarified field of early Beach Boys records for cheating the consumer by delivering an album barely longer than a single LP side. As far as I'm concerned, that's a reason for greatness. As Don Was pointed out years ago, most people don't listen past the first 30 minutes of any record anyhow. When you're getting ready for work, it's nice to have an entire record you can listen to before you head out the door.

On the subject of length: whenever I listen to Nashville Skyline, I always skip the first track. Always. It's "The Girl from the North Country", a remake of an earlier Dylan composition, performed with Johnny Cash. Apparently, the record company had Dylan include it as (1) Johnny Cash was really big at the time (1969) and (2) they didn't think he should put out a 23 minute record, which he was apparently ready to do. The track is OK, I suppose, but it's kind of melancholy, and lacks the full arrangement of the rest of the LP. I always skip straight ahead to "Nashville Skyline Rag", a great way to kick off any record, even if I'd never claim it's the equal of "Like a Rolling Stone" or "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

This led me to think of all the first tracks I generally skip on various LPs:

• "Who Loves the Sun" on the Velvet Underground's Loaded. Beautiful record; lame first track. Or, at least, a track that pales next to everything else on the record (yes, even "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" -you got to see him in the rodeo!), particularly the restored "Sweet Jane" that follows. Now there's a song to kick off a record.
• "Sunday Morning" on the Velvet Underground's debut. What is it about the VU? I actually like this track a lot, but I think "Waiting for the Man" is (again) a much stronger way to begin a record. Interestingly, if you have the 1995 Peel Slowly and See box, you can tell that "Sunday Morning" was only prepended to this record at the last minute (it's handwritten on the tape box, while the other tracks are typed out).
• "White Light / White Heat" by... nah, just kidding.
• The first two tracks of Blonde On Blonde. What is it about Dylan? He's notorious for his inability to consistently discern his best work from his worst, and the choice of "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" to open his arguably greatest record is a perfect example. Any way you look at it, this is a pretty weak song - like "Country Pie" but without the catchy riffs or lasting humor - and it's amazing that this made it to an LP while "She's Your Lover Now" never got out of the vaults and "Positively Fourth Street" was consigned to a 45. "Pledging My Time" is pretty good as an LP track, but also makes for a lousy opener. I go straight to Johanna on this one.
• The Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society. I love the title track, which opens the album. But I love the nostalgia and melancholy of "Do You Remember Walter", the second track, even more. It sounds upbeat, and the narrator is reminiscing of good times, but he's also talking about times that are not only gone for good but forgotten by many. It almost breaks my heart every time I hear it. I could probably write a book about the way this song makes me feel.
  

"Walter, you are just an echo of a world I knew so long ago / If you saw me now you wouldn't even know my name..."

* Yes, I got laid off last May, but oddly I still have my job as a fulltime employee. A ten-month layoff. Well, optional layoff. It's a long, boring story. My official end date is March 31.