It took me a while to discover Dylan's Nashville Skyline, too long, I'd say. Most of my listening consisted of skipping to "Lay Lady Lay," but as it turns out, that was a grave injustice. I don't know how I did it, but I lived without the Cash/Dylan version of "Girl From North County" for most of my life. I also lived without what is possibly the best piece of evidence for my theory that Dylan actually has a good voice and that he has much more control over it that most people think. I've always liked Dylan's screeching voice, but this is the record for all the people who bitch and moan about it.

"Girl from North County" features a polished Dylan, a classic Cash, and some simple accompaniment. This is what Dylan sounds like when he does a country record, and yes, there is a vast difference between country and folk even if the words can be combined to serve as a generic term for the people who may listen to it. "Oh, those country-folk!" Folk is, as the name implies, everyman's music, it is the people's music, not the performer's. This is why that kind of music is forgiving of low-fidelity not-quite-beautiful voices and overall crudeness. Country, however-or at least the kind played on Nashville Skyline-is crafted in the studio from calculated performances and clean production.

Although Dylan had already moved away from his bare-bones folk roots (he had gone electric in 1965), this is yet another departure, albeit a short one. Skyline fell between Dylan's prime and a slump filled with cover records and New Morning (all of Dylan's music sins were washed away with the release of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid in 1973, which featured Dylan's now legendary "Knocking on Heaven's Door").

So this leaves us with a very strange record; it marked the end of an era, but didn't sound much like the era that was ending. It was between what were arguably Dylan's best and worst times, but it's never really grouped with either. Was this a version of Dylan going electric again? Moving further from his roots? Luckily for his "Judas!"-shouting fans, he would return, more or less, to his folk sound on Self Portrait, an album which was bad enough to get people to wonder if he was putting out double LP's of absolute shit on purpose to smite his fans.

Even though die-hard Dylanites may find it too polished, or too Nashville, Skyline might just be the important baby step for the friend who hasn't yet let Dylan break in his soul. They won't be getting the full Dylan effect, since his voice has been tamed and lamed and his back up band is more organized than the riff-raff that backed him on Blonde on Blonde (The Band-the group who backed him on Blonde-had released their debut, Music from Big Pinkd, in 1968). But I'm not too concerned with the anti-Dylanites-it's their loss. However, for those of us whose desert-island-record collection consists of a Dylan album or two, this record does have its appealing aspects.

To start-although it may sound negative, and it is definitely un-Dylan-these songs are simple. Dylan songs never had intricate arrangements, but on Skyline Dylan departs from his "Voice of a Generation" persona and sings simple pop/country songs. Dylan fans love him for his lyrics, 7-minute narratives, his poetic voice, and I do too, but it is something to hear Dylan using his talent for songwriting to write something that is this light and agreeable off-the-bat, although it may not be not as profound, perhaps, as other material of his.

I personally find more of a change than when Dylan went electric. When Dylan started to play electric guitars in front of an audience at the Newport Festival in 1965 he could still keep the attitude of being an outsider commenting on life and on those who were seen as being in the inside; Rock and Roll has always been rebellious, and so has folk, is a much quieter way, but, the music being played on Nashville Skyline isn't rebellious, it isn't daring, it's quite the opposite: commercial, clean and safe.

Yet it would be an oversimplification to call this "Dylan selling out." This was his second album after his famous motorcycle crash, the first one being John Wesley Harding. He was shook up, and had changed his direction, starting with John Wesley and completing his change with Nashville. Had he finally given in to some magical combination of money, women and country-music-wizards that he had kept at bay the years prior? No. This theory-however dumb-is disproved by the fact that he (almost) returned to form 2 years later.

In fact, as it would turn out, both Nashville Skyline and Self-Portrait were intended to shake off obnoxious fans and the people who were invading his house in Woodstock. In his memoir, Chronicles, Dylan said of these people, "These gate-crashers, spooks, trespassers, demagogues were all disrupting my home life. Everything was wrong, the world was absurd. It was backing me into a corner. Even persons near and dear offered no relief." His remedy? Knowingly and purposefully alienating his fans.

Perhaps. But now we have a bit of a curious situation. In this time which Dylan said he was set out to make as few fans as possible, a time he explained by saying: "Art is unimportant next to life, and you have no choice. I had no hunger for it anymore, anyway," he recorded some really important, and seemingly sincere music. He recorded The Basement Tapes with The Band, and John Wesley Harding, along with the aforementioned albums in this post-crash Woodstock period.

That confusing bastard. Maybe we just must ignore Dylan's intentions and listen to the album, regardless of whether it was meant to invite us in or shoe us away. Make your own judgments, but I for one can't quite believe that Dylan was trying to push people away when he recorded "Lay Lady Lay" or rerecorded "Girl From North County."