Worst of the Best: "Jack of Hearts" off Blood On The Tracks. I'm not the biggest Dylan fan, but Blood on the Tracks, in my opinion, is one of the Best Albums Ever. Jack of Hearts? One of the WORST SONGS EVER. From the shitty harmonica playing we've come to expect, then the organist getting caught off-guard (woops, no chord change all of a sudden, gotta get back to playing that first sustained one-note thing I was doing---man am I one stoned hired-gun studio musician!) through to the whole lame narrative that's like a predecessor to the Praire HOme Companion movie, and to top it off, Dylan's own smug, laughing-to-himself vocals that make it sound like we're missing something (surely there must be a third level to this that is actually funny and intriguing? --No, I'm pretty sure it's just about a guy doing it in an old-timey cabaret with some showgirl while his friends rob a bank next door. Naughty! What is this a dolly parton movie?), which we're not. This song actually, quite literally bums me out every time I hear it. It's like the feeling of finding you're dad's stash of stockpiled Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues --like "ooh, this is not entirely morally upright!" but then, "jeez, this is a pretty lazy way to get your rocks off." and then for some reason this makes you hate him.
Or something like that. Which, btw, I never found such a stash, exactly. and I don't hate my dad. But that's how Jacob Dylan feels when he hears "Jack of Hearts". Like "Dad left Mom and me
so he couldwrite about old-time speak-easies. I'm so worthless. I'm gonna go start the Wallflowers."
