Dylan

[Kevin Davis]

I've really been enjoying reading these reviews, liebzz, and look forward to your take on Dylan's '80's albums. I'm tempted to prematurely chime in with my take on the records that are coming your direction in the next few days, but I'll resist the urge!

Shot of Love, as I said before, is in my opinion the least realized of Dylan's Christian-era albums, but it does have stronger individual tracks, and certainly more "classic Dylan" moments. "Groom" is probably the most vintage-sounding Dylan rock song since Blonde on Blonde, though (if my memory serves me well) it was originally a standalone single, and was only shoehorned onto the record on later pressings. "Every Grain of Sand" is a beautiful song, with one of my very favorite Dylan harmonica solos -- interestingly, in addition to this being a very strong period for Dylan vocally, his harmonica playing seems to take on an extra level of emotion during this era as well, with both "Every Grain of Sand" and "What Can I Do For You?" (from Saved) being among his best performances on the instrument.

Elsewhere, "Heart of Mine" is a personal favorite, though the studio take is kind of stiff and tuneless; the live versions from 1981 (one of which appears on the Biograph box set) really lift it to another level. I also really like "Watered Down Love," which doesn't get a lot of love from Dylan fans but which I think is one of his great lost pop songs.

Also, one of Dylan's greatest outtakes ever, "Carribbean Wind," is from these sessions, though the best version of it remains unreleased. (Two good, but not as good, versions have been released on Biograph and Trouble No More, respectively.)

[Hatfield]

I feel like I am going to drive straight into his 80s output now and know I’ll probably have mixed feelings about it (see Neil Young, Springsteen’s 90s, The Rolling Stones) but I look forward to the journey going forward.

Two of my absolutely favorites coming up in the 80's!

[Kevin Davis]

I feel like I am going to drive straight into his 80s output now and know I’ll probably have mixed feelings about it (see Neil Young, Springsteen’s 90s, The Rolling Stones) but I look forward to the journey going forward.

Two of my absolutely favorites coming up in the 80's!

Infidels and Oh Mercy?

[Hatfield]

I feel like I am going to drive straight into his 80s output now and know I’ll probably have mixed feelings about it (see Neil Young, Springsteen’s 90s, The Rolling Stones) but I look forward to the journey going forward.

Two of my absolutely favorites coming up in the 80's!

Infidels and Oh Mercy?

Damn Kevin, is it that obvious?! I was trying to take your advice and not talk about future albums before Liebzz gets there, but I couldn't help myself.

[liebzz]

Ha! It’s okay. The idea is to experience it in a sense all together but if it gets the juices flowing for what’s coming, have at it. I have tried to stay true to the listen and not get caught up in what the typical reception is/was. If I did, probably would have affected my listen to At Budokan or some of the others. Infidels is next, probably tomorrow.

[Kevin Davis]

Infidels and Oh Mercy are -- not unjustifiably -- Dylan's two best-regarded '80's albums, though I know at least one fan (and not just some nutso who thinks everything Dylan does is perfect) who thinks Empire Burlesque is a 5-star album, so there's really no predicting these things.

Personally, there are things I like in all of them, not to mention some spectacular failures.

[Kalevi]

Caribbean wind might be a top 10 song. I agree that Heart of mine and watered down love are really good songs as well. I don't recall any failures on oh mercy. One of my favorites.

[LetMeSleep]

Having just trawled thru the christian trilogy I enjoyed Shot of Love the most, Saved the least. I agree with KD that he was in good command of his voice and that the live shows (that I've heard) soared. The below pod just ventured through this period which lead to my relistening.

And I agree with Carribean Wind. It's great. There's a good cover by an Australian guy Joe Camilleri/The Revelators (Black Sorrows).

Spoiler: show

I can't recommend this pod enough. https://www.bobdylanpodcast.com/

[Kevin Davis]

Caribbean wind might be a top 10 song. I agree that Heart of mine and watered down love are really good songs as well. I don't recall any failures on oh mercy. One of my favorites.

I didn't necessarily mean Oh Mercy specifically, just that '80's period in general, but I can see how my phrasing would have conveyed otherwise. That said, I'm not as high on Oh Mercy as most fans are, and I do think it has a few weak tracks. Sounds great though.

[liebzz]

Infidels - Dylan here is taking the first step in what feels like a new chapter after the last three albums. Some of the tracks here are, for me, the strongest in quite a while, particularly Neighborhood Bully, Man of Peace, and Union Sundown - sort of a three way tie for my favorites on the album. Jokerman, and I and I also hit the mark. But I do think this album could have been better with a less polished production, which lends a sheen that draws Dylan dangerously close to adult/contemporary music land. His rough but solid vocals in places save the album from that, but things like the echoing snare in Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight distract from an otherwise good song. It makes a song like Sweetheart Like You a little cloying where a tad less would have been much more. Truth is, for all the questionable production decision his contemporaries made in the 80s, and Dylan is not excepted here, the strength of the better songs on this album carry it forward. This for me won’t rise up to Dylan’s best work of the 60s and 70s, but it holds its own in his catalogue. I imagine with greater context in getting this two years after just experiencing the 3 prior albums, it would feel like a touchdown, and I can’t get that perspective just from a few days, but rather than a work of genius it comes across to me more like a step in the right direction. But those three I mentioned at the top do 100% belong in the pantheon of great Dylan tracks, which alone makes this album a success story. I know there are b-sides from these sessions even more highly regarded, and I will save those for another time.

[liebzz]

Real Live - hitting up another live album. On this one we are once again rearranging some songs. Most noticeable here is that Dylan’s voice sounds really a mess and it takes half a song or so to adjust. That being said, I don’t at all mind the revamping with this band. Sure, it’s a bit of straight rock, but it seems to mostly work. I actually think the two songs off Infidels sound better here. Highway 61 and Maggie’s Farm both take a minute to adjust but I was into it after a few. Same with Masters of War. But there are definitely gems here. Tangled Up in Blue, Ballad of a Thin Man, Girl of the North Country, and Tombstone Blues are all excellent and made this really worth it. Conversely, It Ain’t Me Babe was a epic train wreck. I barely made it through that song. In any event, I found this to be a solid live album all in all. In jumping through these albums it is nice to hear some favorites but rearranged, which I think I have said in other live releases - and I think he could have easily released shows and albums with straight versions so good on him for having the guts to switch things up.

[liebzz]

Empire Burlesque - so this is what it would sound like if Bob Dylan put together a musical version of Times Square of the Vegas Strip. It is an absolute overload of sounds going on here, like looking at 50 lit up advertisements all around once, all competing for your attention...but like any other cacophony, nothing ends up sticking out. Now that I got that out, 4 of the 10 songs on this album were pretty good. Seeing the Real You At Last, Clean Cut
Kid, and Trust Yourself has plenty of merit and overcame the wildness of this 80s collage of sound. Dark Eyes, maybe my favorite here, was a reminder of what Dylan can be when he takes the moment of putting together a sparse arrangement that holds together nicely in its simplicity. The rest seemed to alternate between dreck and Dylan’s inability to edit on this album, with the wildly bloated When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky as emblematic and an exaggerated echo of all that’s wrong with this album, and Emotionally Yours the symbol of the dreck on this album. This album would probably garner a 2.5/5.0 for me because it’s high points are pretty high, even if you forget they are there because the low points really stick out.

[LetMeSleep]

Interesting takes. Infidels is an all timer due to the memories I had growing up with it. But just imagine if Dylan had taken it in this direction... Also, you’ll have to hear Blind Willie McTell.



EB has never been a fave. There are a handful of tracks that I enjoy but not the album versions. When the Night is better on the bootleg series. Here’s Tight Connection from a run of shows in the early 90s.

[liebzz]

Knocked Out Loaded - I can’t tell if I am reacting to this with lowered expectations (kind of like “yeah it sucks, but...), or if I am just surprised there’s more to some of these releases than meets the eye. I mean this album isn’t even close to Dylan’s heyday with a full band. But there’s songs here, and they really aren’t as terrible as advertised. Many of them are pretty good. You Wanna Ramble, Precious Memories (steel pans!! Okay this song isn’t great but it’s not bad), Maybe Someday, Brownsville Girl (clearly the centerpiece of the album), and Got My Mind Made Up are all worth the listen. I am not crazy about the rest but I just name dropped 2/3 of the album! Under Your Spell is also worth listening to. Is this revelatory stuff? No. But this album is one where I think skipping it on the journey would have been a mistake. It’s still overdone but it’s much more parr’s down than the way over the top Empire Burlesque. Chalk it up to okay.

[liebzz]

Down in the Groove - this is another mixed bag for Dylan much like the last two, but the instrumentation is pared down even further, which I think helps quite a bit. The only songs here I had real trouble with here through were When Did You Leave Heaven? (This might be my least favorite Dylan song so far), and Death Is Not the End, which started promising instrumentally but just fell apart for me. The rest of the album is actually quite good. I like that Dylan seems to be having some weird great fun in Ugliest Girl in the World, and while my immediate thoughts when hearing Let’s Stick Together was Blues Brothers, I think he did a good job of it. There are many different elements of things happening - rock, gospel, blues...but it feels a bit more natural. This is another album where nothing rises to his heyday, but this is better than is given credit.

On this, I made it through Dylan’s 80s output, mostly reviled, but here I am, still alive to tell the tale and to tell you it’s much better than given credit. Is it the low point in his career thus far, 1962-1988? Yes. But the low isn’t so low. Every album has its strength, even if those strengths are not as strong as those epic albums from before. Yes, there’s still a couple of releases from the 80s to go, but as noted, Oh Mercy is highly regarded (and coming soon). I would give this a listen - yes it is mediocre but in the context of what came and what will come, it works in its context.

[liebzz]

Dylan and the Dead - hot take: I LOVED this. I enjoy both Dylan and the Grateful Dead and this I thought captured the two together nicely. There’s no real massive descent into a Dead rabbit hole that pulls Dylan out of the equation, so there’s a nice balance between what the Dead are playing and what Dylan is putting in. Watchtower was awesome. Knockin on Heaven’s Dior was really nice with the Dead’s harmonizing. Joey has a very Dead vibe to it for sure but I still really enjoyed it. Another hot take you will all disagree with: Slow Train and Gotta Serve Somebody sounds better here than on their respective albums. I Want You wasn’t as good as the album, but I thought meshes the Dead and Dylan nicely. All in all, this might be my favorite 80s release thus far. Have at me for this

[super nintendo chalmers]

Dylan and the Dead - hot take: I LOVED this. I enjoy both Dylan and the Grateful Dead and this I thought captured the two together nicely. There’s no real massive descent into a Dead rabbit hole that pulls Dylan out of the equation, so there’s a nice balance between what the Dead are playing and what Dylan is putting in. Watchtower was awesome. Knockin on Heaven’s Dior was really nice with the Dead’s harmonizing. Joey has a very Dead vibe to it for sure but I still really enjoyed it. Another hot take you will all disagree with: Slow Train and Gotta Serve Somebody sounds better here than on their respective albums. I Want You wasn’t as good as the album, but I thought meshes the Dead and Dylan nicely. All in all, this might be my favorite 80s release thus far. Have at me for this

Oh man, if you're into that record, check out this post (the download links still work).

Garcia apparently had his own favorites, which he assembled for the proposed live album – and which were rejected by Dyla. “What am I going to do, pop him one?” Garcia apparently shrugged.

http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com ... l-mix.html

Someone compiled Garcia's takes for the live record.

[Kevin Davis]

Love those takes! You've inspired me to revisit Dylan and the Dead, which despite loving both artists has always more or less lived up to its reputation for me, though most of the studio albums from this era I enjoy well enough. I'm gonna check out that link that SNC posted too

Back in the early 2000's a Dylan forum I was active on did a "Survivor"-style challenge to nominate Dylan's worst song, and "Death is Not the End" (an Infidels outtake, as luck would have it) took the gold medal. I'm not sure I'd call it his all-time worst, but I do love how hilariously self-defeating that songs lyrics are: "If you're lost and you're lonely, and you haven't got a friend/Just remember, that death is not the end" -- it's supposed to be comforting but it ends up sounding like all these sad and terrible things are going to stretch on forever into eternity.

[liebzz]

Working on getting that download to work.

Edit: got the download to work so I am going to find time to listen to this.

[LetMeSleep]

It’s been years since I’ve listened to Knocked or Down. Might hit them up.