Bob Dylan Unveils "Together Through Life" Opener "Beyond Here Lies Nothin' "

With his new album Together Through Life due out in less than a month, Bob Dylan is giving fans a first listen with a free download of "Beyond Here Lies Nothin' " on his official Website now. "Nothin' " is Together Through Life's opener and sets the tone for an album full of tracks that Rolling Stone described in our album preview as having "a seductive border-café feel," thanks to the contributions of Los Lobos' accordion player, David Hidalgo. The album, which is available for pre-order now through Dylan's Website, is out April 28th.

In an interview posted on his Website earlier in March, Dylan explained why "Nothin' " doesn't have traditional guitar solos: "Soloing is not a big part of my records anyway. Nobody buys them to hear solos. What I try to do is to make sure that the instrumental sections are dynamic and are extensions of the overall feeling of the song."

Together Through Life — stocked with Delta-blues riffs, country ballads and hard-swinging shuffles — was inspired by "Life Is Hard," a song Dylan penned for the director Oliver Dahan's My Own Love Song. "You would never expect the record after Modern Times to sound like this," a source in the Dylan camp told Rolling Stone. "Bob takes all of those disparate elements you hear and puts them into a track. But you can't put your finger on it — 'It sounds exactly like that.' That's why he's so original."

Dylan is also rumored to be joining John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson on a co-headlining tour this summer. For much more on Together Through Life, plus previews on all of the big releases due to hit shelves in the coming months, check out Rolling Stone's Spring Music Preview below:

• Spring Music Preview: Inside 45 of the Year's Biggest Albums

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• Bob Dylan's New Album "Together Through Life" Due April 28th
• Bob Dylan Breaks Out "Billy" in Sweden, Talks New Album in Website Interview
• Fans Examine Meaning of Title, Cover of Bob Dylan's "Together Through Life"

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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