from Inside A Prune

(continued from editorial for issue 19)
It has been argued to me that this is a deliberate device and one must listen to the album as a whole and then it all magically fits together though not within any given song. This may be true ­ certainly there are recurring major themes: faith, fanaticism, war, the beginning and end of all things and the love that transcends time and death and many others (often shared with the previous album of new material) but I’d have to force myself into believing this as it hasn’t ‘clicked’ for me, yet. I hope that one day it does and I can step back from worrying about the slapdash nature of the songs with their seemingly random borrowings and appreciate it as much as those who have lavished such praise upon it.

This overwhelming hype may actually be influencing my reaction. I don’t want to think I am that easily swayed however and have tried to take that implication into account while making these comments. I’m simply telling you the answer to the question ‘how does it feel?’ for me.

I certainly do not decry Dylan sales and attention after all these years of supporting his case, often to widespread derision, but I am uneasy with a Dylan album that general listeners describe as ‘nice’ or ‘pleasant background music’. I am even more uneasy at critics saluting it as a ‘major album’ while the likes of: New Morning, Planet Waves, under the red sky, Nashville Skyline and Shot of Love are described as ‘minor albums’…oops no, I’d better not go there, told you it was as well I never finished my review!

Apart from anything else I do not want to finish Judas! on a downer. So let us leave my feelings on Modern Times’s place in the canon and salute the memory of Judas!’s five years by extending heartfelt thanks to all contributors (especially those stalwarts who appeared time and again), all photographers, in particular staff photographer Duncan Hume and John Hume for so often turning up with shots just when we most needed them and our loyal letter writers. Thanks too to Peter Vincent, for his proof-reading input into many issues and Pia for helping behind the scenes throughout the 20 issues.

You are not quite getting rid of me from the Dylan fanzine world altogether, I will soon be editing a column with a Judas! style article in Isis that will feature both established and new writers if not something from myself.

But that is for the future, here at Judas! Central we are saying ‘fare-thee-well’.

There’s not much more to be said It’s the top of the end. I’m going, I’m going, I’m gone.

Adios Mes Amigos

Andy & Keith