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''Oh Mercy'' is the twenty-sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 18, 1989 by Columbia Records. Produced by Daniel Lanois, it was hailed by critics as a triumph for Dylan, after a string of weaker-reviewed albums. ''Oh Mercy'' gave Dylan his best chart showing in years reaching #30 on the Billboard charts in the United States and #6 in the UK. ==Songs== The recording of the album is described by Dylan in his book ''Chronicles Volume One''.〔Chronicles Volume One by Bob Dylan 2004〕 Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin notes that Dylan finished recording the basic tracks for the album on March 29, 1989 but added new vocals (and other overdubs) for almost all the tracks the following month.〔Heylin, C., (2010), ''Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2006''. Chicago Review Press. pp. 370-371〕 The album opens with "Political World", a song that has been described as a "catalog of troubles...almost an update on 'With God On Our Side.'" A cranky tirade against the modern world, it begins with the verse, "We live in a political world/Love don't have any place/We live in a time where men commit crime/And crime don't have a face", to which Allmusic critic Thomas Ward commented, "… which leaves one to argue, which age does this not apply to?"〔http://www.allmusic.com/song/political-world-mt0001401535〕 Ward criticised the song's "irrationality and sweeping general statements", describing it as "on the whole () a rather trite, cloyed song."〔http://www.allmusic.com/song/political-world-mt0001401535〕 In regard to "Everything Is Broken", Dylan wrote, "Danny didn't have to swamp it up too much, it was already swamped up pretty good when it came to him. Critics usually didn't like a song like this coming out of me because it didn't seem to be autobiographical. Maybe not, but the stuff I write does come from an autobiographical place." A propulsive, riff-driven number, it was the first single issued from ''Oh Mercy''. "Ring Them Bells" is one of the more celebrated tracks on ''Oh Mercy'', and also where Lanois' production is at its most subtle and restrained. The song features some spiritual overtones, invoking St. Peter, St. Catherine and a "Sweet Martha" who may or may not be the biblical Martha. It opens with the verse, "Ring them bells ye heathen/From the city that dreams/Ring them bells from the sanctuaries/Cross the valleys and streams." "Ring Them Bells" may be the only song on the album that was released with its live vocals intact.〔Heylin, C., (2010), ''Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2006''. Chicago Review Press. p. 502〕 "One of my favorites is 'Man in the Long Black Coat,' which was written in the studio, and recorded in one take", recalls Lanois. Praised by author Clinton Heylin as a "powerful reinterpretation of The Daemon Lover motif", "Man in the Long Black Coat" also contains some prominent use of apocalyptic imagery, evoking a place where the "water is high" and "tree trunks uprooted". In his own assessment of "Man in the Long Black Coat", Dylan wrote that "in some kind of weird way, I thought of it as my 'I Walk the Line,' a song I'd always considered to be up there at the top, one of the most mysterious and revolutionary of all time, a song that makes an attack on your most vulnerable spots, sharp words from a master". The second half of ''Oh Mercy'' is notable for its sustained moodiness and resignation, often in relation to romantic dissolution. This is immediately apparent on the atmospheric "Most of the Time", which features the richest production on the album. Described as "magisterial" by Allan Jones of ''Melody Maker'', the narrator in "Most of the Time" sings of an estranged lover whom the narrator can't quite shake from his memories. The song addresses an irreconcilable, personal relationship, and this theme would continue through "What Good Am I?", a frank look at the narrator's moral worth, and "What Was It You Wanted". Though he is still uncertain of its origins, in his autobiography Dylan does write that "Disease of Conceit" may have been inspired by the defrocking of Jimmy Swaggart. Lou Reed selected this song as one of his 'picks of 1989'.〔''Rolling Stone'', March 8, 1990〕 The album closes with "Shooting Star", a wistful ballad of remembrance with possible allusions to the loss of Dylan's Christian faith. Dylan appears to address Christ: "Seen a shooting star tonight and I thought of me/If I was still the same/If I ever became what you wanted me to be". The next line, "Did I ever miss the mark or overstep the line that only you could see" makes an apparent reference to Joseph Addison Alexander's poem "There is a line by us unseen/That crosses every path/The hidden boundary between/God's patience and His wrath.". The words occasionally evoke some portentous imagery ("the last fire truck from hell goes rollin' by"), but it ends the album on a soft, romantic note. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oh Mercy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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