A Sweetheart Like This !

Woken up earlier than usual yesterday and unable to go back to sleep , I more or less randomly happened to play Bob Dylan's 'Sweetheart Like You' from his Infidels album. .Absolutely adore that song but I was hearing it after a fairly long gap- and ended up listening to it all through the day ! 

And what's not to. 

Strong raspy old Bobby vocals spewing out lines like "You could be known as the most beautiful woman / Who ever crawled across cut glass to make a deal " beginning and riding on a rock solid foundation of  reggae+ska-But-Not-Quite rhythm section and ending with one of the greatest in the short-and-understated category of guitar solos in my book. 

Infidels is an interesting Dylan album for two reasons : a. it was the first after his Christian  phase and b. it had a distinct modern Eighties sound. The sound is in many ways a precursor - albeit less organic / more synth in texture and , yeah,  also less brilliant overall  - to the superb Daniel Lanois produced  Oh Mercy from 1989. Infidels has two of the most brilliant Dylan songs ever - this one and of course the colossal  Jokerman ! (Many also include  I and I in that list but, pardon pun,  I and I myself don't )

Some good reads here : a Rolling Stone album review and interview with Bob from that period,  a nice New Yorker piece on Dylan in the Eighties and a Guardian article on his partnership with Mark Knopfler -  guitarist on Dylan's Christian trilogy opener Slow Train Coming and , more to the point, the producer on Infidels) 

Which brings me nicely to that brief cascade of crisply articulated notes and perfectly stated phrasing that is the guitar solo ending this gem. For the longest time - WTF ! Until this morning actually , a good  25 years after I'd first heard it - I thought it was Mark Knopfler's. Like the trademark staccato rhythm guitar chops in the background, it certainly sounded very Mark Knopfler-ish. Unlike the rhythm guitar which is indeed MK   though, it's actually Mick Taylor on lead.   

Great solo. Great bass. Great lyrics. Great voice. Great song. 

Not-at-all-great video. Naturally- combine Early Eighties videos in general with Bob Dylan music and what else would you get ! :) Among other things, it throws up not only an incorrect but also a very random lead guitarist. 

And then again, who cares !