I'm just coming up to mid life...Oh Mercy 1989
'I just did it automatically out of thin air, cast my own spell to drive out the devil....Everything came back, and it came back in multidimension. Even I was surprised. It left me kind of shaky. Immediately, I was flying high'
Sobering to reflect that this album was taken at the time as an old man's last testament - but he was only 56! And now so am I. Which is even more sobering.
Fair. What had happened by 1997, was that pop culture had skewed so youthwards that 56 was seen as ancient. Plus Dylan at that point was seen as a has-been by the media, a living relic. Throw in the album's darker themes, and it was a recipe for a reductive 'Old man's album about death' narrative.
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'I just did it automatically out of thin air, cast my own spell to drive out the devil....Everything came back, and it came back in multidimension. Even I was surprised. It left me kind of shaky. Immediately, I was flying high'
📷 Hedi Slimane