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Blood on the Tracks: Dylan Looks Back

Larry Sloman, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1974

NEW YORK — It looked like old times at Columbia's A&R Studio September 16th. John Hammond Sr. was there, Phil Ramone was working the board. Eric Weissberg and Barry Kornfeld, two old Gaslight regulars, were unpacking their guitars. And sitting out in the cavernous studio, acoustic in hand and harmonica holder in place, practically hidden behind a battery of six microphones, Bob Dylan was creating another album. And it was almost as if Dylan were consciously conjuring up the ambience of the early '60s, surrounding himself with the same familiar faces, attempting to exorcise, as he put it on Planet Waves, "the phantoms of my youth." And by all accounts, he was eminently successful.

Total word count of piece: 2026

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