SACD is a doomed format.

As is the human race eventually, but I wonder why you say that. I don't know anything about it.

I'm just glad to read that the discs will be playable in regular CD format: been waiting for ages from some decently remastered versions of these great albums (have the gold disc version of Blonde On Blonde, but have longed for good copies of Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home). Also agree that Blonde is the man's greatest album, even with the interminable "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands."

i just think sony's marketing strategy has been incredibly stupid. it has taken them forever to get out hybrid discs...which is the only way this beast will ever catch on...because most folks are not going to be won over because sacd's 'sound better'...i just don't thing the general public cares about it.

now, if they start dumping hybrids of everything on the market at 'regular' cd prices they might just catch on.

I am certainly not going to make a format decision until it is "decided" which format will stick. DVD Audio which seems to be a more universal technology, or the proprietary SACD. I did a business case on this in business school once and Sony and a few other companies stand to make almost all the big time money on SACD's where DVD Audio is a much more open format where more companies will be able to make their money, not just Sony.

you're right, making a format decision at this point is risky business.

sacd may well sound 'better' than redbook cd...but it also may turn out to be the betamax of this century.

another interesting issue with 'good' sound is what's going on with most of today's pop music.

to make everything appear louder the music has been compressed to within' an inch of it's life. there's almost no dynamic range on modern pop and rock recordings.

this is one of the things that make's me doubt most folks are going to hear, or care about, the difference between cd and sacd (or dvd-audio)

The one thing that interests me is that we have this whole surround sound idea, but I had heard rumors of being able to record and program CD's that could play to a specific speaker in a specific setup. Like if Radiohead wanted to use the back left speaker in a 6 speaker arrangement for a clarinet played through a glass with the bottom cut out of it, they could put just that sound there.

I just imagined a whole new world in recording, making it even more of an experience as opposed to the way music is presented today. I just think it is cool that they could LITERALLY put you exactly in the middle of their practice space. Drummer in front guitar on your right, singer on your left and the bass player behind you,etc.

Alright. I know. I am a dork.

You guys are definately smoking something. Blood on the Tracks is by far the best Dylan album.

Desire is the best Dylan album.

yeah Desire's awesome too. Better than Blonde on Blonde, not as good as Blood on the Tracks hehe

Dylan in the '70s is like Elvis in the '60s - get your clues free of charge right here!

Desire is good, but there isn't a single song on it that compares with "Visions of Johanna" or "Fourth Time Around" -- and his band isn't anywhere near as good as the classic line-up he had for Blonde, particularly the interplay between Al Kooper's organ and whoever was playing guitar that continue to make "One of Us Must Know" and "Stuck Inside of Memphis" so endlessly fascinating. Another hang-up I have with Desire is that it includes "Joey," a truly sophomoric deification of a two-bit thug, Joey Gallo, whose lyrics are among Dylan's most unintentionally laughable: "It was true that in his later years/He would not carry a gun/I'm around too many children, he'd say/They should never know of one." Thanks Joey -- we all feel a lot safer.

Rodney, according to my pal Clinton Heylin's book "Dylan: The Recording Sessions," it was Robertson on "One of Us," while Wayne Moss, Jerry kennedy and Charlie McCoy all played guitar on "Stuck"

Ultimately it's a matter of taste, but I like "Hurricane" and "One More Cup of Coffee" as much as any other songs Dylan ever did. In general, Desire sounds more "musical" to me than most of his albums. Of course, I'm not as interested in lyrics as I am in melody and harmony, so perhaps my priorities are screwed up with respect to Bob Dylan.

"Joey" does strike me as a questionable character to defend, particularly after a song for "Hurricane" Carter. What's next, an ode to Lee Harvey Oswald? But what the hell, he's just painting a musical portrait.

BTW, my second favorite album would probably be John Wesley Harding. Is that more heresy?

Thanks, Eric -- that sounds like a book I'd like. To follow this point a little further, the band truly is one of the things that makes Blonde so enduring, in those songs I mentioned and others. Dylan is front and center, of course, but there's a lot to listen to besides the vocals, and the riff-swapping only adds to the whole picture. I think that's why that record just continually holds up to thousands and thousands of listenings.

JR -- funny you should mention Lee Harvey Oswald. A little known fact about Dylan is that following Kennedy's death he received the Tom Paine Award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Union in November 1963 for his advancement of civil rights, and made some disturbingly cryptic remarks indicating that he somehow identified with Oswald: "But I got to stand up and say I saw things that he felt in me." Boos followed, and the awards ceremony was a disaster -- the civil liberties people felt he had cost them money in donations. Dylan offered to stage a concert on their behalf, but apparently nothing ever came of it. Thankfully, no Oswald song followed either.

John Wesley Harding is one of my favorites too. Probably in the top 3.

No question John Wesley Harding is one of the greats.

Great story I hadn't heard before Rodney, thanks!

i've never read any books on Dylan...so i've always been mystified by this:

why does Dylan sound like a drunken lounge singer on Nashville Skyline?

you know, what weird "Lay Lady Lay" voice.

That's my favorite Dylan voice: forcing it through the top of his larnyx, putting the errrr in it like Boz Scaggs, much better than the typical ewww voice.

My favorite Dylan voice is the 70s circa Rolling Thunder Review tour. The bootlegs from that tour sound great!

First time I heard "Lay Lady Lay," I remember thinking: When did Dudley Do-Right start singin' country?

exactly!!