The lighting strike of desire and its rolling thunder

56 minutes too short. Post-Rolling Thunder Revue, using his folk troupe as a jug band consisting of Roger McGuinn, Joan Baez, poets, outlaws, misfits, and the ever-enchanting Scarlet Rivera toting her snakes, candelabras, and swords, the troupe later picking up Joni Mitchell along the way. Upon Dylan’s return home, the album Desire would be released. The second and last attempt to salvage his marriage to Sara Lownds.

The cover featured Dylan in a multicolored woven wool Peruvian coat gifted by Dennis Hopper. Dylan was a fan of Hopper as much as Hopper was a fan of Dylan. After Easy Rider, Peter Fonda's outcast film had made its run in theaters. Hopper would start filming his own artistic film, begging Dylan to be the sole provider of the soundtrack, though it did not come to fruition.

• 

• 

• 

Dylan made multiple trips to visit Hopper in his home in Taos, New Mexico, to preview what would be Dennis Hopper's "The Last Movie," in which the Peruvian coat was worn. The last movie is a one-of-a-kind film showcasing the effects of filming in remote locations and exposure to sex and violence. The traditional society's misinterpretation of the western world.

The coat would be the star of Desire's cover, and in Desire's case For once Dylan had one thing to say, one thing to reminisce, and a whole world to imagine: continent-to-continent mystery, death, and God, along with the mesmerizing vulgarity of "hurricane". Emmylou Harris would feature on the album, just barely there, like Dylan’s siren subconscious spotted high notes and harmonies like a Jackson Pollock. Scarlet Rivera's heavy violin setting the tone and Dylan’s stern voice of acceptance along with exhaustion through harmonica creates a complexity of emotions. Truly an album like no other

Hurricane opens the album as a cause that prompted Dylan to revive Woody Guthrie. In 1967 Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, a middleweight boxer, was wrongfully convicted of a triple homicide in New Jersey. After police arrived and got a suspect description, Carter and his passenger John Artis were pulled over because of the matching car given in the description. Though Carter and Artis did not match the killers, racial injustice would come into play. Carter and Artis would sit before a judge, sinking deeper into his seat as an all white jury crowded behind him, his freedom in their hands. Carter was convicted and sentenced to 30 years to life.

In 1974, Carter released his autobiography from prison, The Sixteenth Round: From Number 1 Contender to #45472. Dylan read Carter’s story, and arranged a visit to Carter. Dylan never thought he had the power to change, but he knew he had the power of an audience. After Desire was released, Hurricane would instantaneously become controversial due to a racial slur used on the track. Dylan felt the slur use was necessary to portray the vulgarity and racial prejudice of the trial.

Hurricane opens slow and steady, a calm before the storm and tensions rise, and so does chaos, fast and loud behind Rivera, mirroring the strong feeling of injustice in Dylan’s voice. The last fading seconds of Hurricane's composition could be the entire 8 minutes of the track. Dylan’s harmonica and Rivera’s violin never come to a full stop or slow, portraying Carter's continued sentence.

Isis follows this track, cymbals trembling to start the tale. An essence lingers of Dylan on horseback, the movement of the horses' back legs and hips shifting weight slow and laborious, piano keys constantly rumbling. It is the first of two tracks on the album about Sara Lownds, with Dylan comparing Lownds to the Egyptian goddess Isis, who in Egyptian mythology, is the ideal wife, mother, and healer along with her magical skills. Decadent visuals of pyramids embedded in ice and blankets of snow rolled out by a storm fill the track. Just before Isis meets its end, a brief questionnaire concludes between Dylan and Isis:

She said, “where ya been?”

I said, “no place special”

She said, “you look different”,

I said, “well, I guess”

She said, “you been gone,”

I said, “that's only natural”

She said, “you gonna stay?”

I said, “if you want me to, yes”

It’s an important note that Emmylou Harris does not feature on Isis, nor on the last track Sara. Dylan presents himself alone and intimately unarmed and pleading for his marriage.

Mozambique welcomes Harris’ return, a simple four verses of romance. Dylan paints a coastal location with skies of aqua blue, while shifting cultural themes on certain tracks like Mozambique, Joey, and Romance in Durango.

The 6th track and longest on the album is Joey. Based on a real-life mobster named ‘Crazy Joe’, the story is Dylan’s reimagined version of a misunderstood man. Joey takes place in the streets of Little Italy, and Dylan makes sufficient use of the accordion. The track is simple and paced, as Harris and Dylan cry out in question of Joey's actions while events unfold as Joey inevitably meets his demise.

The third culturally significant and 7th song on the album, Romance in Durango, is equipped with mariachi-style accordion and trumpet calls, gives audible confirmation of Mexican terrain. Chiming castanets fall like rain, as the track’s chorus is sung in Spanish as well as common words. The crooned intimate troubles of lovers to be wed in Durango, Mexico.

Following Romance in Durango, the heat of

Mexico slowly fades into a darker, more intimate landscape in One More Cup of Coffee. The accordion and violin creates a restless, almost gypsy-like atmosphere as Dylan paints a mysterious woman surrounded by an equally mysterious family. Her father sits as a powerful figure, while her mother drifts into her own world. Her eyes and beauty become almost supernatural, as Dylan remains fascinated but uneasy. Harris’ harmonies float behind Dylan like a distant echo, while Dylan asks for only one more cup of coffee before leaving. The track feels intimate yet threatening, as though Dylan knows he cannot remain in this strange world for much longer.

Gospel tones slip through the cracks of Oh Sister, the 5th song on the album. The track is a hypothetical a passive-aggressive interrogation aimed towards Joan Baez during a vulnerable time for Dylan. In search of praise and the same feeling of power from Baez, a woman who once made Dylan feel powerful, now married and divorced. Dylan asks for forgiveness through religious questioning.

Black Diamond Bay follows Oh Sister, shifting the album into a cinematic disaster. Dylan tells tales of a volcanic island where strangers become caught in an eruption, each carrying their own troubles as the world around them collapses. Accordion and violin give the track a drunken and almost humorous feeling, making the disaster strangely entertaining. Dylan turns tragedy into absurdity, with the characters concerned with love, money and escape as the island disappears beneath them. The song becomes a reminder of how easily someone else’s catastrophe can become entertainment, as Dylan watches Black Diamond Bay sink without offering any real resolution.

Pleadingly reminiscent of raising children and his marriage, the final song on the album is Sara, the most intimate of Dylan’s songs. It’s dedicated to his muse, and this time around there would be no riddles or symbolism, but rather, a direct statement and call to Lownds herself. This time Lownds wasn’t the Sad-eyed Lady Of The Lowlands or Isis nor, was she Tangled Up In Blue. Again, Dylan would be unarmed and standing alone without Harris’ backing vocals. The track is done simply and folksy, as Dylan reiterates their marriage back to her, even adding glimpses into Lownds' sensuality, as Dylan’s temptress. The last song, and the last musical attempt Dylan could make to salvage his marriage.

Desire ends as a restless collection of injustice, mythology, romance, disaster and memory. Dylan moves from country to country and character to character, creating a world that feels both enormous yet intimate. Behind the violin, accordion and harmonica, there is always Dylan searching for something, whether it be forgiveness, escape, love or simply One More Cup of Coffee. By the time Sara closes the album, the thunder has faded, but the desire remains.