Red Mosquito

Man, that jokerman letterman performance above is great

Really nice playlist of Bob covers for his Bday from WFMU last weekend.

https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/93481

Oh Mercy - Back after a short break and what a great way to continue the journey. It’s not that the prior albums were necessarily poor, but the shift here is remarkable. In many of the tracks, Dylan sounds energized and ready to progress with less wall of sound and a more deft hand. If this and Infidels are the guideposts of the 1980s for Dylan, then they are strong ones indeed. 4 tracks here for me stand with Dylan’s strongest period, which are Political World, Everything Is Broken, Man in the Long Black Coat (my favorite on this album), and What Was It You Wanted. These songs are probably my favorite of his going back as far as Desire. The remainder of the album was very good but did not quite reach those heights. Shooting Star was a good closer, and What Good Am I and Disease of Conceit were also strong songs. Of what I have heard so far, this falls in the upper half of his albums for me, though it won’t break that top 5.

Under the Red Sky - part of me thinks that this album needs to be renamed under the radar. I have heard about many of the albums leading into them - being famously great or bad or having at least some sort of preamble. New Morning was sort of the last album that didn’t have some sort of label pre-attached to it. In fact, if not for this journey, I would have never heard of it and assumed that after Oh Mercy was Time Out of Mind (I now know there’s more in between other than the Unplugged show).

That being said, this album picks up where Oh Mercy left off. The music a little looser and lighter, the music a bit more upbeat and tempo, but the quality to me is on par. Under the Red Sky, Unbelievable, and 10,000 Men were my favorites, but I couldn’t find a weak song on here. Even the lightly religiously tinged God Knows is solid. I will say song titles make it sound like a children’s album (Wiggle Wiggle, Handy Dandy) but I think to look away from this album would be silly. It’s to me a rock solid album that perhaps gets a bit overlooked sandwiched between the “return to form” rock music of Oh Mercy and the “return to folk” that’s to come.

"Most of the Time" from Oh Mercy is top 10 Dylan for me.

I love that you put Oh Mercy and Under the Red Sky on par with each other -- I always thought the former was a little overrated, and the latter way underrated, but that they ultimately are two sides of the same coin ("God Knows" and "Born in Time" were originally from the Oh Mercy sessions, as was "Dignity" which was released a few years later).

Sounds like I need to give UtRS another listen. It made no impression on me the one time I listened to it.

I am glad I wasn’t strung on a line for that, but I think it is a particularly strong album, music wise, and one of those albums that breezes by because the material is not so heavy. I welcome that from Dylan while I know a lot of purists reject it outright as a waste of time.

Good As I Been To You - Dylan goes acoustic...Judas! Here we have a nice collection of acoustic cover songs. Wherein this was well received critically compared to Under the Red Sky, this is the one to me where some of it just breezes off and you barely notice it is there. I mean, there’s plenty to like here. Frankie & Albert, Blackjack Davey, Sitting On Top of the World, Little Maggie, Hard Times (I prefer Bruce’s rendition but this was still good), Step It Up and Go, You’re Gonna Quit Me, and Froggie Went A Courtin’ were all real solid renditions and made for a nice listen. However, I didn’t end up feeling that this whole release taken together felt as essential as some of the other albums. I think we are still operating in a space improved from the cacophony of sound mid-80s (which my impressions were they were pretty good in all), but this wouldn’t register for me anywhere near his upper tier material. It’s a good listen though.

I like Good As I Been to You, but I think World Gone Wrong is even better -- it's a top 10 Dylan album for me.

That will be next though I doubt I will get to it today.

World Gone Wrong - ended up getting to this today. I would agree that this album exceeds Good As I Been To You. The material is indeed darker, but also Dylan is playing better even if his voice is really starting to show some hard wear. He uses it to his advantage here. World Gone Wrong, Ragged & Dirty, Broke Down Engine, Delia, Stack a Lee, and Jack-a-Roe were my favorites. I am not sure whether this falls in my top 10, but probably somewhere in the middle in this journey, but that’s still saying a lot since I haven’t actively disliked a single one of his albums yet, and I know some good stuff is coming. In the interim, I will take in a few live releases this week in the chronology (30th Anniversary show and Unplugged) before moving to the next studio albums.

Born In Time is a lovely song. From memory the UtRS version doesn't come close to the Bootleg Series versions from Oh Mercy sessions. My favourite is from the 97/98 tour which was released on a bonus disc. Pretty much anything with Bucky Baxter playing on it is improved.

ghost wrote:"Most of the Time" from Oh Mercy is top 10 Dylan for me.

Maybe not top 10 but damn essential. This version for the video clip has the great Kenny Aronoff.

The last time I saw the National they used Most of the Time as their walk-up music. It sounded incredible over the big PA speakers. Probably my favorite part of the show.

LetMeSleep wrote:Born In Time is a lovely song. From memory the UtRS version doesn't come close to the Bootleg Series versions from Oh Mercy sessions. My favourite is from the 97/98 tour which was released on a bonus disc. Pretty much anything with Bucky Baxter playing on it is improved.

Yes, neither of the studio versions come close to those live ones. Much like "Under the Red Sky" it was one of his most consistently well-performed live numbers through the 1990's.

Bucky Baxter just passed away earlier this week, btw -- sad news, his playing was always a lovely color in Dylan's songs.

Kevin Davis wrote:

LetMeSleep wrote:Born In Time is a lovely song. From memory the UtRS version doesn't come close to the Bootleg Series versions from Oh Mercy sessions. My favourite is from the 97/98 tour which was released on a bonus disc. Pretty much anything with Bucky Baxter playing on it is improved.

Yes, neither of the studio versions come close to those live ones. Much like "Under the Red Sky" it was one of his most consistently well-performed live numbers through the 1990's.

Bucky Baxter just passed away earlier this week, btw -- sad news, his playing was always a lovely color in Dylan's songs.

Oh man, that's sad. His playing with Dylan in the mid-late 90s then Ryan Adams in the early 2000s was great.

A little out of order but based on running time today here because I don’t have 2.5 hours straight at the moment...

MTV Unplugged - yet another show I have heard panned as not so great but I don’t see the complaints. Dylan’s voice is nowhere near top form but he does better here than I thought he would. For the most part the performances were on point, and slightly rearranged. Desolation Row was not one of my favorites here, but otherwise the rest of the performances were quite good. Tombstone Blues and Watchtower were my favorites with the latter’s jam feeling like a revelation of the song. It is always nice to get your occasional look back as I move forward with the catalogue. Next up is the 30th Anniversary concert though it may take a few days to get through.

Liebzz before you leave the 80s behind I want to s/o this comp (A Tribute to Dylan in the 80s):

https://open.spotify.com/album/59APAoDj ... ytw8LrQytQ

There are some real clunkers on there (Reggie Watts, ugh), but some good stuff (Langhorn Slim, Built to Spill, Glenn Hansard) as well.

Unplugged isn't bad but is a little on the wallpapery side for me -- in that 1994-95 period, Dylan's voice seems to exhibit this weird whine-purr quality that lives somewhere in the limbo between his classic caricature voice and the more weathered gravitas he'd take on beginning with Time Out of Mind, which just doesn't really hit the spot fo me. I do think Unplugged is one of the more enjoyable performances from 1994 (his regular concerts that year had a lumbering, oafish quality to them that I never cared for, and the songs all stretched on seemingly for hours), but it's still not my favorite.

I've actually never listened to the 30th anniversary album, though I love the Vedder/McCready performance.

Kevin Davis wrote:
I've actually never listened to the 30th anniversary album, though I love the Vedder/McCready performance.

Same so I figured I would give it a spin.

I always have a little bit of almost identity crisis when it comes to tributes - what if an artist I do not enjoy does a bang up version of a song. I should have an open mind and accept it, but can I? I feel like I am destined to be unfair when unpacking those.

LetMeSleep wrote: Maybe not top 10 but damn essential. This version for the video clip has the great Kenny Aronoff.

We interviewed Kenny Aronoff, great dude!