Coming Back To Beauty: Kevin Rowland's Favourite Music | Page 7 of 14 | The Quietus

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

6. Bob DylanSad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands

I heard this in the summer of 1972. I was working in Clacton, washing up at Butlins. I had a feather cut, (laughs) that’s clothes again, the look again. I met these Scouse guys, they had long hair and loon pants but they were just much more easy going than the longhairs around Harrow. Harrow was a very divided area – a working class community, a middle class community and they didn’t mix. The middle class were the longhairs, they’d be carrying albums under their arms and if they smoked a joint it would be like a ceremony! Whereas these two, they’d just smoke them like cigarettes, like people do now. I’d never really heard any Dylan except the singles, but when they put on Blonde On Blonde I couldn’t believe it. Seeing that this was one side of an album – fifteen minutes? I just could not believe it. For me, it was the romance. It seemed so romantic. It’s such a love song. I got it, it affected me. The depth of it, there’s so much depth to it. 

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