Referring to critical response upon its release, Ian Bell wrote: “[S]ome would vouch that Blood on the Tracks was one of the best albums [Bob Dylan] ever made, and very possibly one of the best records anyone had ever made.” My opinion skews towards the latter. The album is a breakup album, but it is so much more than that. Dylan tells compelling stories of relationships, going through just about all the stages of grief along the way, conveying complications and heartbreak while still managing to crack a joke or two. Oh, and in the midst of it all there is an eight-minute story song that generates more drama than many movies I’ve seen. The alternate takes and other tracks we now have available to us (on The Bootleg Series and then More Blood, More Tracks) yield even more riches. Nothing short of a masterpiece.