Blonde On Blonde (1966)

How do you follow something as sublime as Highway 61 Revisited? You come up with Blonde On Blonde, that's how. If hairs are to be split, this 1966 LP sits slightly below Highway 61 in my personal top ten of Dylan releases but for any other artist this would be a career defining work. Originally a double-LP, this album has more quality on it than you'll find in a hundred dollar U2 box set.

*Quibble alert* 

I'll get this out the way now. After banging on about the fantastic way Dylan's last two LPs opened - I don't like the choice of opening track on Blonde On Blonde. I like the song. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 is a good song, it's just not right for the LP. Not an LP that has Visions of Johanna, I Want You, Just Like A Woman AND Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. Rainy Day Women is a fine bawdy sing-along but it is fronting an album of real gentle beauty. It's not right. The track would be much more suited for the Basement Tapes or even just lower down in the track listing here.

I'd even go so far as to say that Pledging My Time (also a very good song) could do with moving down a track or two as well. Opening with those two -  while Visions of Johanna  is waiting for you at track three - is like waking on Christmas morning and having to play with the nuts and the chocolate orange in your stocking when you know there's a guitar shaped present sitting under the tree. 

*Quibble over*

The beauty of this LP is that once you've opened the guitar shaped present, there's another gift to open behind it, and another and another until you get to the one that looks suspicious like a hoverboard and, it turns out, it is. The hoverboard, of course, is Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands and I promise we shall pursue this analogy no further.

Visions of Johanna is, perhaps, Dylan at his lyrical finest. "Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet." Just perfect. Sad Eyed Lady - a lyrically beautiful paean to wife Sara - is not far behind. Dylan will continue to write lyrics streets ahead of (nearly) every other artist over the next forty years but I don't think he ever tops the writing here.

That said, I have been wrestling with this line: 

The kings of Tyrus with their convict list
Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss

What, exactly, is a geranium kiss and would one know if they had received one?

Side three is a delight - Most Likely You Go Your Way, Temporary Like Achilles, Absolutely Sweet Marie, 4th Time Around, Obviously Five Believers - none of these would feature in a Mojo Magazine style top 10 Dylan song list but each are well worth their place on a wonderful LP.

Recorded at the time that the whole Dylan turning electric 'Judas' hoo-ha was swirling around it is a remarkable piece in many ways. Simply as a musical piece it stands out but coming on the back of Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisted it forms the last piece of a trilogy unrivaled in rock. It also marks the end of a phase of Dylan's career; perhaps the most important stage of his career - not just for the music produced but for the profound influence it had on popular music as a whole. Am I over-egging the pudding? No, I don't think so, it is a damn eggy pudding.

It's been a pleasure listening to this over and over again this week. Let's move on - careful riding that motorbike now.

Out of five?

Five.

Favourite track?

Visions Of Johanna

Next up?

John Wesley Harding

Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

This is a very special album. To say there isn't a duff track here is to do the record a spectacular disservice. Every single song is worth its place on one of the greatest rock and roll albums of all time and some of them rank up there with the finest songs ever written. Ever. Like A Rolling Stone, Ballad of a Thin Man, Desolation Row, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, Highway 61 Revisited - good god, what more do you want?

From Times They Are A-Changin' to Another Side to Bringing It All Back Home to this, Dylan's growth as a songwriter is something to behold. If the strides made from Another Side to BIABH were remarkable, the leap to Highway 61 is something else. A number of the tracks from BIABH  - and this is said without the slightest hint of criticism - wouldn't have sounded too out of place if they'd have appeared on the Freewheelin'. Try to transpose any of the material on this LP to an earlier time and it'd stick out like the sorest of thumbs.

Lyrically, Dylan continues to move onwards and upwards in a league of his own and now, musically, he's at a pace. With the exception of Subterranean Homesick Blues (which in some ways sits closer stylistically to this LP than the the one on which it appears), the songs on the 'electric' side of Bringing It All Back Home often have the feel of Dylan plus backing musicians. Here Dylan and the band (not, The Band, not yet anyway) come together as one. It feels whole. Al Kooper's organ provides an exceptional motif throughout but the guitar of Mike Bloomfield and Paul Griffin's piano both add some gorgeous layers to already beautiful songs.

If the last one had one hell of an opening, this one is none too shabby either. A crack of the snare drum and off we go, Like a Rolling Stone.  The greatest song ever written? If there is such a thing then it's up there. One of the most important? Certainly. Am I answering my own questions? Yes.

Lyrically this is spectacular. Desolation Row is the exemplar but every song brings moments of brilliance. 

“The sun’s not yellow it’s chicken”

The cast of characters in Ballad of a Thin Man or Tombstone Blues alone create a narrative that elevate the lyrics to poetry 

"The geometry of innocence flesh on the bone
Causes Galileo’s math book to get thrown
At Delilah who sits worthlessly alone
But the tears on her cheeks are from laughter

Now I wish I could give Brother Bill his great thrill
I would set him in chains at the top of the hill
Then send out for some pillars and Cecil B. DeMille
He could die happily ever after"

and Highway 61 Revisited gives the best biblical story retelling in rock:

"God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, “Out on Highway 61”

Personal favourite is the first line of Tombstone Blues which would be relatively mundane but somehow are made intriguing by the addition of the last two words:

"The sweet pretty things are in bed now, of course"

OK, that bit isn't exactly Lear but tickles me every time. And we would be here all night if I started on Desolation Row.

Ultimately LPs don't get much better than this. Lyrically, musically, this is great and, historically, a seminal album to boot. There's nothing to criticise or debate here. 

Oh, apart from the sleeve notes. They're a lot of nonsense.
 

Out of five?

Five.

Favourite track?

(With all the caveats about Like a Rolling Stone) Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

Next up?

Blonde on Blonde.

Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

[Warning: The next two albums fit easily into the top 3 in my list of favourite Dylan releases and so might prompt some unpalatable gushing.] 

This must be one of the best openings to any album out there. A few chugs of acoustic guitar and then... twang - Dylan goes electric. If the infectious rhythm hadn't got you in a couple of bars then the lyrics were about to finish the job:  

Johnny’s in the basement
Mixing up the medicine

I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government

 

In my book that's up there with "Well it's one for the money, two for the show" in the pantheon of opening lines. And he carries on and on and on with a litany of perfect images. It may be surreal and have no discernible logical narrative but it all sort of make sense. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters and, of course, the pump don't work 'cos the vandals took the handles. It's absolutely perfect nonsense that, I guess, digs at the some of the dafter elements of the protest movement (if there ever was such a thing).

Given the brouhaha that Dylan's electrification caused, it's tempting to imagine a bearded folkie reverently sliding the vinyl from the sleeve, carefully placing it on the turntable and, with a shaking hand, lowering the needle into the opening groove and... then... BLAM! the shock of being face to face with a Fender Stratocaster causes him to swallow his pipe and cough burning tobacco all over Wavy Gravy who had come round for tea and lentils. Unfortunately, Subterranean Homesick Blues had already been out as a single for the best part of a month so this would not have happened. Which is a shame.

Still this is a seminal moment in the history of rock and roll (and that's not hyperbole). The only mystery for me is why those who had a philosophical objection to Dylan's use of electric instruments didn't have that tempered by the thought that 'actually, that is a damn good song.'

But I digress. Dylan clearly knew what he was doing and that was to cement what he had started on Another Side and run a country mile from the archduke of protest role that had been bestowed on him (though by releasing The Times They Are A-Changin' he was hardly blameless on that account himself). If the 'don't follow leaders' line in the opening track was just a hint, he goes full guns on the wonderful Maggie's Farm:

Well, I try my best
To be just like I am
But everybody wants you
To be just like them
They say sing while you slave and I just get bored
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more

Clear enough for you?

The irony here is that all but four of the tracks (Subterranean Homesick Blues, Maggie's Farm, Outlaw Blues and On The Road Again), production-wise, wouldn't be completely amiss if they were found on The Freewheelin'. She Belongs To You and Love Minus Zero have band accompaniment but are gently treated by producer Tom Wilson. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream is a slightly more raucous affair but is not a million miles away from the talking blues of his early albums, and side two of the LP is essentially, if not entirely, acoustic.

The difference here is not just the instrumentation but the songwriting. Dylan has found another gear on this LP; musically, yes, but more so lyrically. The imagery is stunning in places, the turn of phrase is perfection and it is always intelligent; It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) in particular showing off his ear for a beautiful line of poetry. To start to quote exemplars would probably lead to reproducing the whole LP and there are probably laws against such a thing.

Particularly effective and endearing is Dylan's use of tales of - dystopia would be too strong - shall we say, living in a persistently unfortunate or bizarre world. Maggie's Farm, 115th Dream and On The Road Again all follow this pattern,

Well, I woke up in the morning
There’s frogs inside my socks
Your mama, she’s a-hidin’
Inside the icebox
Your daddy walks in wearin’
A Napoleon Bonaparte mask
Then you ask why I don’t live here
Honey, do you have to ask?

It's a style that (probably) Dylan first adopted in the 1962 Freewheelin' outtake Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues and reaches its climax in Ballad Of A Thin Man which we shall come to next week.  

There are no weak points in this album which makes it difficult to critique. There are some songs that are, how should one put this.... not as excellent as the rest  - I'm not as crazy about Gates Of Eden as others and Outlaw Blues is probably lyrically the least notable of all - but it would be a churlish man who'd nitpick like that. 

[I was just debating the merits of Outlaw Blues when the track faded out and was quickly followed by the harmonica intro to On The Road Again -  a start of a song so gorgeous that it made the train of thought seem trivial. That's how good this LP is.]

It's an album to cherish and the fact that it doesn't make number one in my own personal Dylan chart is just a measure of the back catalogue we're dealing with here. And we're about to move on to Highway 61 Revisited. Crikey.

Out of five?  Five

Favourite track? Subterranean Homesick Blues

Up next? Highway 61 Revisited

Another Side Of Bob Dylan (1964)

In some ways this a curious LP, sitting awkwardly between The Times They Are A-Changing and Bringing It All Back Home. As the title of Another Side (apparently Tom Wilson's choice) not so subtly suggests, this is Dylan doing a quick side-step to escape the label of protest singer that he brought upon himself with his two previous LPs. That said, bearing in mind what was about to come, this isn't any great departure. It's a straightforward folk album, almost a throwback to his first release; just Dylan alone with a mixture of styles including a couple of lighthearted diversions.

Just like the first album Another Side was recorded in a hurry; finished in a day and sometimes it shows. Timings fall off on occasions, Dylan laughs at points (although that is endearing) and on Motorpsycho Nightmare there are hints that he hasn't quite worked out how the lyrics fit with the tune yet. Actually, at points in the recording he sounds a bit pissed (to our American friends, I mean drunk - which is not beyond the realms of possibility given an all day recording session and a fondness for cheap red wine) especially on the ale-house piano based Black Crow Blues.

Unlike on his previous LP, Dylan gives us a couple of humorous numbers. Both Motorpsycho Nightmare and I Shall Be Free No. 10 are amusing but, ultimately, inconsequential songs with the odd political wisecrack thrown in for good measure. Neither have the quality or consistency of some of his talking blues but they are decent enough and, essentially, funny. And yes, yes, I know I criticised the last LP for not having any lighter moments - I'm just saying, that's all.

There is also the first appearance of Dylan's venomous streak. He'd been no shrinking violet before - see Masters of War - but then it was political; this time it's personal. In Ballad In Plain D Dylan gives a gloves off account of his breakup with Suze Rotolo that ended with a spectacular row with her sister:

Of the two sisters, I loved the young
With sensitive instincts, she was the creative one
The constant scapegoat, she was easily undone
By the jealousy of others around her

For her parasite sister, I had no respect
Bound by her boredom, her pride to protect
Countless visions of the other she’d reflect
As a crutch for her scenes and her society

It's warts and all and a precursor to spleen vents like Idiot Wind and Positively 4th Street. Uncomfortable listening but a damn fine song.

This might sound like a bit of whinge but it's not. Though this LP appears somewhat of a brain-dump before moving on to the next stage of his career, there are many extraordinary songs here. Chimes of Freedom, To Ramona - especially To Ramona - My Back Pages, I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met), Ballad in Plain D and It Ain't Me Babe. Now those are songs. As a song writer, the quality that Dylan is, seemingly, churning out at this stage is something quite incredible.

[I particularly like the ending of the album,  It Ain't Me, which has a killer last verse. After imploring the woman to go away from his door because he's not worthy he finally admits it's because he's with someone else.

Go melt back into the night, babe
Everything inside is made of stone
There’s nothing in here moving
An’ anyway I’m not alone.

Genius.]

I stand by my opinion that this LP as a whole has an odd feel both in its rushed sound and its place in the evolution of Dylan as a recording artist  but, my, there is some quality songwriting. This is going to get four and a half stars in a line's time or so but only in the context that we're moving onto Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 next. For any other artist this would be an album to be jealous of. And knocked out in one day.

Out of five?

Four and a half.

Favourite track?

To Ramona

Next up?

Bringing It All Back Home.

The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964)

An album of early sixties protest songs is not always going to be your first choice of music to brighten up a cold autumnal morning. In fact, it's not going to be your first choice to brighten up anything. There are a lot of things to be said in favour of this 1964 LP but 'cheery' is not one of them. This album is hard work in places with Tom Wilson's bare-bones production emphasizing the bleakness of some of the material.

And, Lord, does he do bleak. In Ballad of Hollis Brown we hear of a South Dakota farmer hit so hard by poverty that he takes out his wife and children with a shotgun, North Country Blues laments the hardships faced by northern miners, Only a Pawn in their Game and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol deal with racism, murder and justice, and he returns to the dominant theme of Freewheelin' - war -  on With God on Our Side. The title track, The Times They Are A-Changin' is positively chirpy by comparison.

Unlike his previous two LPs, Dylan doesn't give us any light relief. No talking blues or Pretty Peggy-Os here. Even on the non-protest songs, Boots of Spanish Leather, One Too Many Mornings and Restless Farewell, the tone is solemn, downbeat.

[I'm never too sure whether or not the excellent When The Ship Comes In should be classified as a protest song, given that he wrote it in a fit of pique after being deemed too scruffy to be allowed entrance to a London hotel. As causes go, it's hardly the March on Washington.]

Bleak or not, there is real quality here; there is an irony that, given the album is presented as a collection of protest songs, the best material, particularly Boots of Spanish Leather and One Too Many Mornings, deal with matters of the heart (most probably Dylan's relationship with Suze Rotolo). The exception to this is the now classic The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol, which manages to tell a true story with a directness rarely used by Dylan before or since (or at least until Hurricane off the 1976 LP Desire) while still achieving a beauty within its imagery.

Hollis Brown, the darkest of all songs, works because of its relentlessness. Guitar and vocal pounds away using repetition to underline the desperation of Brown and the desolation of the landscape.

Your grass it is turning black
There’s no water in your well
Your grass is turning black
There’s no water in your well
You spent your last lone dollar
On seven shotgun shells

A picnic, it's not.

The title track has become so familiar that it is hard to listen to anew. Much like Blowin' in the Wind it is a testament to Dylan's lyrical touch and delivery that, almost half a century on, it still doesn't come across as hackneyed. Inevitably anachronistic maybe, but not a cliche. North Country Blues fares even better across the years; not simply lyrically accomplished but, in dealing with issues of economic decline and dislocation, just as relevant today. Musically, the only low point of the whole LP is With God On Our Side which, however clever the conceit, drags to the point of becoming turgid.

My main issue with this release, though, is the extent to which it is not often an easy listen. Sometimes relentlessly so. That is not bad thing in itself - I want Dylan to challenge me - but it means that the LP frequently gets overlooked when my fingers are flicking through the 'D' section of the record collection. And that is a shame, as there are at least three or four real classics here. Ultimately, perhaps, an album to like rather than love.

Out of five?

Four.

Favourite track?

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol

Next up?

Another Side of Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

Maybe this was a mistake. Perhaps albums should be listened to rather than studied. Study leads to questions, debate, and doubt; whereas before you just had a record you enjoyed. This was always going to be a eulogy to a great album. One of the best.

Don't get me wrong, this is still a great album. I just have some issues to be resolved now. But let's start with the eulogy first:

However fond I am of Dylan's first LP, his second - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan - has to be considered a huge leap forward in terms of song writing, performance and production. Eleven of the thirteen songs are credited to Dylan alone and, lyrically, it is a masterpiece. Written at a time when the cold war was turning decided chilly, Dylan takes on the prospect of the world getting blown sky-high with anger (Masters of War), idealism (Blowing' in the Wind) and humour (Talking World War III Blues). Growing racial tensions at home are also referenced in the powerful Oxford Town. And that hasn't even mentioned A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall which lyrically is one of the most poetic songs on this or any other album. By anyone.

It is also remarkable that The Freewheelin' has held up so well over last 40 years and more. Songs about war will always have relevance but the idealism of the early sixties can age poorly. Maybe these songs stand up just because they are so well written and sung. Lyrically, Blowin' in the Wind is that close to being trite but is saved by the gentle delivery and the beautiful melody (I can't stand Joan Baez's version as it comes across as oh so sanctimonious, which shows how much of a knife-edge the song walks).  

His voice here is great and the inclusion of other musicians on the recording is handled so skillfully and subtly by producer Tom Wilson that you can easily forget they are there. The essence of the quality of the album from beginning to end, though, is in the songwriting; Girl from the North Country and Don't Think Twice, It's Alright in particular are simply beautiful.

The main criticism of the album I have heard from discerning Bobcats is that it fizzles out with the two weakest songs on the album: Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance and I Shall Be Free. I think that is particularly unfair on Honey, which might not completely fit with the rest of the LP style-wise but is a damn good romp and we do like a romp. The complaints about I Shall Be Free anchoring the record are probably more justified. It is an odd choice for a finish; on the surface a fairly lightweight affair with some funny lines and even the odd bit of bawdy humour. But it's a good song, lighthearted yes, but that doesn't mean inane - there are enough personal and political references there to make it worthwhile. Maybe not 'last song on the album' worthwhile but still pretty good.

All in all, this is top notch. Widely considered one of his best and certainly the best all-acoustic LP. And a great cover too.

So what's the problem? Well, it's the tunes. Not that they are not good - quite the opposite, they are great. It's just that he didn't write most of them. They are nearly all traditional melodies that he has arranged and added his exceptional words to. Blowin' in the Wind is from the old spiritual No More Auction Block; Girl From the North County is Scarborough Fair; Masters of War is Nottamun Town; I Shall be Free is Leadbelly's We Shall be Free; and on and on.

I don't for one moment buy into the Dylan as plagiarist nonsense that was recent spouted by Joni Mitchell and others (an eloquent discussion of such claims is here). What he is doing on Freewheelin' is just part of the folk tradition of taking old tunes with no owner and giving them a modern working - as each of those melodies have received time and time again before Dylan got his hands on them. It's a legitimate process and Dylan has never been shy to admit the genesis of each of these songs. And anyway, the entire history of rock and roll is punctuated by the process of take and adapt, take and adapt from Bill Haley to Oasis.

What bothers me is whether this makes a difference as to the extent that this can be considered a great Bob Dylan album and not just another step in his songwriting education. Take Don't Think Twice. I've always considered that my favourite Dylan song of all. Looking into the song in more depth though and it appears that the melody is adapted from Paul Clayton's Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I'm Gone), a couple of lines from that song make it into the Dylan recording (just thank God he didn't take the title) and the guitar on the recording was probably played by Bruce Longhorne rather than Dylan himself. Does any of that matter?

If this was just another album then this would be neither here nor there. But this is one of the best. Tracks such as Don't Think Twice, A Hard Rain's and Girl from the North Country are absolute Dylan classics. Does it matter that the melodies from two of those are not Dylan originals? Is it just because it is Dylan that this is even an issue - it doesn't bother me that the Beach Boys' Surfing USA is identical to Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen, Flaming Lips' Fight Test is Cat Steven's Father to Son or George Harrison's My Sweet Lord turned out to bear a striking similarity to The Chiffons' He's So Fine. So why has this been nagging at me all week? It's must be just because of the esteem I have always held this album in and Dylan's place as the songwriter supreme.

Ultimately, sod it. This is a great album both musically and, especially, lyrically. It is Dylan come of age as a songwriter. I will admit to still having the smallest doubt in the back of my mind to how much it is Dylan's alone but I'll try and sweep that away so I can totally enjoy it in the way I use to.

Out of five?

Five.

Favourite track?

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

Next up?

The Times They Are A-Changing

Bob Dylan (1962)

While some mornings it may feel like it, I am not old enough to have seen Dylan during his Greenwich Village years. A fact that, when my time machine has had all its glitches ironed out, I would remedy right after a trip to the 1980s to have a sharp word with my sixteen year-old self. So – bootlegs aside –  this 1962 eponymous LP is the closest we are going to get to hearing what made Dylan stand out from all the other besweatered folkies and mutton whiskered troubadours performing at the Gaslight and other such hipster joints.

It’s because of that – and that this was the first LP that really turned me on to Dylan  - that this release, despite all its flaws and limitations, remains unparalleled in my affections. There are better Dylan LPs but it’s the dropped notes and unpolished edges (on Dylan's insistence, most of tracks were done in one take) that makes this such a special recording. It just sounds like a man in a room with a guitar and harmonica and a voice.

What a voice. If it wasn’t for the baby-faced Dylan staring you out on the album’s cover, you’d never place it as coming from a 21 year old. Not the growl of his later years but a rasp that suggests one too many nights on cheap red wine and cigarettes (which is probably somewhere near the truth). It has texture and can switch mood with the setting; mournful (See That My Grave is Kept Clean, In My Time of Dying), world weary (Man of Constant Sorrow, House of the Rising Sun), playful (Pretty Peggy-O, Freight Train Blues), sharp (Highway 51 Blues), full-on belting (Gospel Plow). And, damn it, he can be funny (Talkin’ New York):

“Somebody could freeze right to the bone
I froze right to the bone”

Ok, so it doesn’t work on the page.

It’s not perfect by a long way. Only two of the songs – Talking New York and the lovely Song to Woody –  are Dylan originals; the others are various folk standards and traditional songs. On the upside the choices are mostly good – especially the sublime Baby Let Me Follow You Down – avoiding any of the finger-in-the-ear dirges about long lost lovers from obscure parts of Scotland that must have plagued folk clubs up and down the land. On the downside, for those of us looking to hear that raw Greenwich Village coffeehouse Dylan, is that, by all accounts, very few of the song choices featured in his regular sets and the man himself was never pleased with the recording. And, personally, I would be happy if I didn’t hear anyone’s version of House of the Rising Sun ever again.

The strength of this LP is its charm. I can play this over and over more than most albums without ever tiring. There’s a nice variation of styles and tempos and enough top drawer songs to keep me happy for a long time. The fact that this is just the base camp in  Dylan’s recording career make it even more striking. A lovely place to start this journey.

Out of five?

Four.

Favourite track?

Baby Let Me Follow You Down.

Next up?

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

Dylan's LPs

Hello.

Hello. What are you doing here?

I've decided to write a review of every Bob Dylan studio LP. I'm going to spend one week listening to an LP, write my thoughts and then move on to the next.

Why?

I thought it would be fun.

But why?

Well.... I like Dylan, I like lists, I like talking about music and I own all of his LPs bar one, it gives me an excuse to listen to them all in order and.... well, why not. 

So are you some kind of Dylan expert?

Not in the slightest. I probably know more about him than say, the Pope does*, but in the pantheon of Dylanologists and Bobcats I am definitely at the amateur end of the spectrum.

And you expect anyone to read this?

Not really. The fun's all in the writing, innit?

Can anyone else add their two-penneth? 

Sure, come one in, the water's beautiful.

   

* I have absolutely no evidence for this. For all I know Benedict may keep Slow Train Coming on loop over the Vatican's PA system.