You make some interesting points about Blood on the Tracks, Gavin and I´m not going to argue with someone who shares my own high opinion of it; I imagine that both of us have spent many agreeable hours listening to this album with a sense of wonder.
On some of the tracks, he certainly sounds touchingly sincere, but I´d never say that Bob was "being completely honest about his personal life". In some songs he seems to be laying bare his heart, but I think Dylan is always the conscious artist first, and I´m not sure how many autobiographical details can be gleaned from the lyrics. Did he really get a job in the Great North Woods working as a cook for a spell ? Was he ever hunted like a crocodile, ravaged in the corn ? No, that´s Dylan the artist, inventing stories and crafting images for effect.
Not that it matters much; the metaphors, the sentiment all add up to a wonderful album and it´s rather like Chief Bromden says in One Flew Over The Cuckoo´s Nest; "It´s the truth, even if it didn´t happen that way."
BTW, have you come across these lyrics that Dylan wrote, but left off the album?
Shelter From The Storm:
Now the bonds are broken, but they can be retied
By one more journey to the woods, the holes where spirits hide
It´s a never-ending battle for a peace that´s always torn.
"Come in," she said,"I´ll give shelter from the storm."
If You See Her :
If she´s passing back this way, and I hope she don´t
Tell her she can look me up, I´ll either be here or I won´t.
__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953
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