For reasons unknown, and while I was almost all alone this New Year's Eve, I found myself listening, between doses of Handel and Beethoven countdowns on the radio, to my vinyl copy of Planet Waves.

In the back of my mind, I had categorized this under-appreciated recording with Under the Red Sky.

But the 1970s – even the 1990s – were a long time ago. Time has a way of repairing and giving new understanding. This goes for anything, music included. Planet Waves and the entire period was a weird one. Glitter, Punk, New Wave were "where it were happening." Bands like Air Supply were all over the place. "The Night Chicago Died." Good grief. It was horrible. John Travolta hadn't yet hit the silver screen to give disco some real-life respectability.

Bob Dylan was suddenly touring. The popularity of The Band had crested. It seemed a good idea, on the new label Asylum, to recapture "The Basement Tapes." Except there was no "Quinn the Eskimo" in this igloo anymore; no more "I'm Not There" either. Unfortunately, The Band was there.

Knowing "Nobody 'cept You" was left off PW, for reasons unknown, maybe since it does not have a very good ending, who knows? I listened afresh, I read the garter-belted-furious-girls liner notes, I did it all. So much mediocrity inside here, stuff I once ate up: "Tough Mama," "Hazel," "Something There Is about You," "You Angel You." Blecch. The musicianship is terrific. But there is no soul. There is just this tribal thing among the members of The Band. Way too many special thanks to Robbie Robertson, also.

For no reason, I wondered what this album would sound like: "Forever Young" (the original, Guthriesque version only), "Dirge" (even with a few bad lines – this must be Richard Manuel on piano as he must be on "This Wheel's on Fire," it's exactly the same style),"Going, Going, Gone," "Nobody 'cept You," "Never Say Goodbye," "Wedding Song."

Do you ever play this game? It's easy with the passage of time, for those of us, well in the majority though thank God we don't rule the spiritual world, who function as commentators/fans and not artists. Such is the difference between writing about sports and playing as a professional athlete, taking the blows as the record shows.

With these nonqualifications, I make my case. "Wedding Song" is so far above the lyric-writing capabilities of The Band, such a seemingly effortless song, with allusions to "our time on this earth" and a half-dozen others, but who knows it? No one was a bigger fan of "Stage Fright." But such is kindergarten by comparison.

"Forever Young" is another song in the "WS" category. It is simplicity itself. A lot of the album is about nostalgia, that misunderstood emotion that mingles regret with self-indulgence, the stock in trade of Nobel Prize winner Juan Ramon Jimenez (pardon the missing accent[s]), time gone, paradise lost, some of the same themes as in "Time Passes Slowly."

"Dirge" is a song of such self-laceration that the bad line about "a slave in orbit" almost works. Suicide Road. Hating Myself For Loving You. The Weakness That It Showed. Dylan is rarely confessional. Here he is, even if the direction of the song is ultimately aimless.

I wonder if anyone wonders about these things? It's good to look back every now and then; 35 years is a lifetime if you are 34. Or is it? It just seems to be that time of year.