Booze & Bands II

The Drink: Booker's Bourbon

The Music: Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home

Present: John (host), Patrick, Aaron, Ian, Jase

The Drink

      

Booker's Bourbon is named after Booker Noe, grandson of Colonel Jim Beam. Beam was one of the first distillers to rebuild after prohibition ended in 1933, but the Beam line of distillers goes much further back. German immigrants settled in Kentucky in the late 18th century and began distilling whiskey from the grains they produced. Made with the clear limestone spring water of the Appalachians, the whiskey had a distinct characteristic and became known as Bourbon. 

In the 1980s, master distiller Booker Noe hand-selected single-barrel bourbons, bottled them in old wine bottles straight from the charred oak casks, and gave it to his friends as gifts for Christmas. It was so popular among his friends, he decided he should share bourbon the way it was meant to be, straight from the cask, with the world. He continued to hand pick the casks for Booker's until his death, when his son took over the responsibility. 

Booker's comes from a long tradition, but is a bit edgier than the average bourbon. Coming from a single cask, it varies in its potency from 121 to 127 proof and is not smoothed out by blending with other barrels. Booker's has a serious kick and is "the world's first uncut, straight-from-the-barrel bourbon." With the bottling of Booker's, the bourbon market changed. More and more consumers wanted the unique flavors of a master distiller's single cask. In the last decades, there has been a move in the whiskey industry towards unique bottlings and small batch or single barrel whiskeys. It could be argued that Booker's is responsible for the change by bringing bourbon back to its roots, its home, in the single barrel. 

The Music

Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home, released in the spring of 1965, changed everything. Dylan had become synonymous with the folk and protest music of the early 60s, even called by many the "voice of his generation." His songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Only a Pawn in their Game," had made him famous, but transition was coming. Dylan had grown tired of being the voice and being leaned on. He began to feel that he himself had become the pawn in the game of political folk music. In the poetry that he included in his liner notes, he wrote that the district attorney was screaming "You're the one that's been causing all them riots..." followed by his sound engineer picking him up and asking for his latest works of art. Clearly, Dylan is finished being the voice, the pawn. He is moving away from the politics and into the personal. He is accepting the chaos, recognizing that he cannot lead the revolution, and maybe there doesn't need to be one at all. He is changing. 

Recorded over a series of three days in January 1965, BIABH would become the album that transitioned Dylan from acoustic folk singer to electric rock legend. Opening with "Subterranean Homesick Blues," the album kicks off loud and heavy, without direction, without politics, without his solo acoustic guitar. The A-side is entirely electric, one raucous blues tune after the next, still with Dylan's keen eye, quick, wit, and smart words, but with a little more psychedelia and a lot less politics. The B-side returns to his acoustic roots, but lacks the imperative for social change as had been seen in his earlier works. As he says, "its alright, ma- it's life and life only." Even though the album had both electric and acoustic, it was clearly a departure from his folk past and a sign of things to come for Dylan.

Dylan's move to electric shocked his folkie fan base and created mixed reviews. Many other artists, inspired by his fusion of folk and rock, took it as a sign of the future. (The Byrd's released a folk-rock version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" very soon after Dylan) Many of his fans felt he had lost his way, had sold-out, or had forgotten what he was fighting for. Dylan would take the next step later in the same year with the release of Highway 61 Revisited, opening with "Like a Rolling Stone" which he played with a full band in his first electric concert at the Newport Folk Festival in the summer of 1965.
Dylan going electric changed everything. It could be cited as one of the most important events in music history, up there with Elvis on Ed Sullivan and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. Dylan refused to be pigeon-holed by his fans, stood up for artistic expression, and, though called a traitor and a "Judas," continued to play his music the way he wanted to. It all started with Bringing It All Back Home.

Tasting/Listening Notes
The album, like the whiskey, starts off brash, but mellows by the time you get to the B-side.

Color: Dark amber, tawny, caramel. Hints of scarlet.

Nose: Leather and dried fruits.

Body: Dry and fire-y. Full.

Palate:  Intense burst of complex flavors, followed by the tannin and burn.

Finish: Long finish with sweet notes of smoke and caramel.