Just as I read that Bob Dylan had released a new CD, “Modern Times,” I happened to catch the last 40 minutes on cable of Martin Scorcese’s “The Last Waltz,” a 1978 documentary about The Band’s final performance, with guest appearances by (among others) Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison and of course Dylan himself. Though I’ll probably end up buying it, Martin Edlund’s review of “Modern Times” in the New York Sun didn’t exactly propel me out of my chair and down to the nearest music store. I read some of the lines quoted, such as (to take the lamest example) “blues is falling down like hail,” and thought, “You mean, ‘cliches is falling down like hail,’ surely.”
