In
1974 Bob Dylan wrote, recorded, reconsidered, and then re-recorded one of the
best-selling studio albums of his entire career. It was called Blood on the
Tracks, and to this day few who hear it can avoid being transformed by its
emotional power. Often referred to as "the greatest break-up album of all
time," Blood on the Tracks was written as Dylan's own twelve-year
marriage began to unravel. Songs like "Tangled Up in Blue," "Idiot Wind," and
"Shelter from the Storm" have become templates for multidimensional adult
songs of love, longing, and loss.
Yet the story behind the creation of this album has never been fully told;
even the credits on the present-day album sleeve are inaccurate. Dylan
recorded the album twice - once in New York City, and again at the eleventh
hour in Minneapolis with a tag-tag gang of local musicians, quickly rewriting
many of the songs in the process.
A Simple Twist of Fate is the story of one man's creative renaissance. With
the help of a mysterious painting teacher who was rumored to be the son of
Sholem Aleichem, Dylan emerged from a creatively fallow period in which he, as
he put it, "had to learn to do consciously what I used to do unconsciously."
