Introductory remarks
Eyolf Østrem
In a blog post, Oisin OFaghain suggested I write the following about Desire:
I think Dylans best singing is on Desire and Rolling Thunder (the latter being the superior).
Desire stories (yes i just used story as a verb) the crap out of other story albums and yet its stories contain questionable biographies Joey, Sara, Hurricane.
It is (chord-speaking) probably his most straightforward album with major and minor chords, no capo and all standard tuning. A departure, but also lyrically it is a stand-alone album (probably closest to John Wesley Harding) because its lyrics are not complex but yet remain opaque: Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore.
So I did. I think I have a thing or two to say about Desire myself, eventually, but until I do, the above stands, with the possible qualification that it should start: While I listen to Desire, I tend to forget that Dylans best singing happened a few years later, during the Gospel period.