An Open Letter to Douglas Wolk and Pitchfork, RE: Bob Dylan’s ‘Together Through Life’

This entry was posted by harry s truman on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 9:14 pm.

Dear Douglas,

Your review of Together Through Life is really bad. You dismiss the album as derivative, yet your review reads more like an amateurish “pastiche” (in your case, of bad Pitchfork reviews) than Dylan’s work ever will, even considering his efforts to compile music of the past and be a “one-man preservation society.”

“He might have something good in him sometime. He’s worth keeping an eye on.” You accuse Dylan of the sin of “lazy” writing, yet that was the best closing you could come up with?

It’s also pretty hilarious how you pretend that you’re an expert on old time music by name-dropping Willie Dixon and making like you’re remotely familiar with “Nadine” and “Lucille.” I agree, Dylan’s “Jolene” sucks (so does Dolly Parton’s, kind of), but your argument against it only makes you look like a pretentious ass.

Maybe I should congratulate you for not trying to conceal the fact that your review is just an attention grab, but I’m more inclined to say that you (and Pitchfork) should be embarrassed. A bad Dylan review can be be done well but this wasn’t the way; your sloppiness made your motives all-too-apparent.

Pitchfork overshot greatly by giving Dylan’s previous album, Modern Times, an 8.3, but giving the comparably much better Together Through Life a 5.4 isn’t going to make up for past bad judgment. In this case, it only serves to hurt Pitchfork’s dwindling credibility. Better luck next time; Pitchfork is now 0 for 2 on the last two Dylan albums.

I hereby give your review a 2.8, and Bob Dylan’s album a 7.7.

Best regards,
Harry