Bob Dylan's "Street Legal" - Classic or Dud?

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One of the few Dylan albums I didn't own until yesterday; I got the remastered edition on sale.

I understand why lots of critics defend this one: Dylan sings clearly and emphatically on several tracks, the cluttered (less so on this remaster) big-band arrangements are a nice try, and the lyrics EVOKE Dylan; but there's the problem. Most of the album sounds like Neil Diamond imitating Bob Dylan. The backup singers enforce a randiness which the lyrics can't support; there's nothing you can do but lamely echo lines like "The palace of mirrors where dog soldiers are reflected."

Worse is the unmitigated sexism. The sentiments in "Is Your Love in Vain?" ("Can you cook and sew, make flowers grow/can you understand my pain") would be acceptable (as they are on 1983's "Sweetheart Like You") if he didn't sing like a sleazo in a rhinestone-studded jacket. If "New Pony" isn't using the equine creature as a metaphor for women, then maybe he should have been more explicit.

Street-Legal most reminds me of Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man, recorded a year earlier by another middle-aged perv with wimmin problems. Cohen made the better record, though; the bombastic arrangements mock him instead of smother him, and he seems moderately aware of his predicatment.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 26 August 2006 18:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Why'd you buy it, Alfred?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 26 August 2006 18:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Completism.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 26 August 2006 20:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Do you have these yet?

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-150-422866-1111337042.jpg http://www.discogs.com/image/R-709497-1151810668.jpeg

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 26 August 2006 20:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Try that again.

Do you have these yet?

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc000/c011/c01153113xe.jpg http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd800/d810/d81005d02kr.jpg

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 26 August 2006 20:59 (seventeen years ago) link

No. I've heard bits of Dylan though.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 26 August 2006 20:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Haven't heard them either, but I am more interested in them. And, of course, the cover of Shot of Love is incredible:

http://www.bobdylan.com/albumpic/shot.jpg

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:04 (seventeen years ago) link

i wonder if the eventuall remaster of "saved" will include the original lp cover

http://www.debaser.it/resize.aspx?path=/files/2005/debaser_bob_dylan_saved.jpg&width=250

the album is pretty bad either way.

that "dylan" thing isn't in print, is it? i thought it was taken out of print when dylan resigned with columbia in the mid-1970s. not that it's difficult to find on vinyl.

incidentally why hasn't "times they are a-changin'" been remastered?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:05 (seventeen years ago) link

I am apparently perverse, according to Stephen Thomas Erlewine:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:c95g8qztbtv4

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:09 (seventeen years ago) link

s.t.e. is an idiot (i say this on general principles). since when is "the ballad of ira hayes" "traditional" (or "spanish is a loving tongue" for that matter)?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Ha, now I actually want to hear his versions of "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Mr. Bojangles".

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:12 (seventeen years ago) link

"Times" was remastered last year. It's great!

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Ha, now I actually want to hear his versions of "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Mr. Bojangles".

trust me, it will be a disappointment

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Amateurist, you don't like "Saved"?! Wuzzup?

Anyway, "Street Legal" - it's also one of my favorites... I don't know much about Neil Diamond or Leonard Cohen, so I can't speak to Alfred's interesting points about middle-aged singer/songwriters. I will say that I think that the lyrics are fascinating - the album as a whole presents this image of Dylan at the end of the '70s, looking back at all the heavy trips and changes he's been through - fame, relationships, etc. - which are worked up into this quasi-mystical lather - "There's a white diamond gloom on the dark side of this room, and a pathway that leads up to the stars / If you don't believe there's a price for this sweet paradise, remind me to show you the scars" (I love that line!).

Ultimately, he seems to keep concluding that love is his way forward (though he doesn't seem to fully believe this). The album climaxes (and sums itself up) terrifically in the final verse - "I can't believe it, I can't believe I'm alive! But without you, it just doesn't seem right..."

(Of course, knowing what comes soon afterward in Dylan's real life makes it even more juicy - as if Christianity is what he actually ends up seizing on to cut through all the mumbo jumbo. But that's just having fun and fooling around with his image and history - not something I usually do or care about, though the way this album itself engages with his personal mythology seems to make it OK to keep playing along.)

I also think the songs are just so pleasurable to listen to; they're really neat structurally, the way they keep repeating - most of them are just long series of verses, punctuated by those horn figures - and the way his voice and the portentous lyrics interact with the swelling of the music (I guess it is pretty Neil Diamond-y).

Some of the lines are corny ("A full-blooded Cherokee, he predicted it to me, the time and the place that the trouble would start"), but in a way that "works" - the whole thing is kind of a swaggering, chutzpah-y concept album about one dude and his ego at some kind of self-inflated mythic crossroads.

(I do think "Is Your Love in Vain" is a big dud, musically and lyrically - it's a too straightforward and silly iteration of the album's themes).

"Street Legal" also has a great title and cover photo!

One more thing - I was disappointed with the florid remixed CD that come out five or so years ago (this was before those remastered CDs came out; I assume the new "SL" also uses the new mix). I like the orig. mix a lot more - it's minimal and tense, and fits the album better.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Saturday, 26 August 2006 23:40 (seventeen years ago) link

i like "changing of the guards" a lot, it's a cool '70s-style update of the blonde on blonde sound. the rest i'm not that crazy about, especially "new pony," which is about as creepy-old-man-ish as a singer in his mid-30s can get.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 26 August 2006 23:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Great title; great cover shot (is he leaving a whorehouse, or what?); great opening track. The rest? Ehh.

I'm nobody's audiophile, but this is one of the few albums I've dismissed partly because of the shite recording quality. Maybe the remaster addresses that, but wow, the original vinyl sounded like it was recorded in Dylan's ass.

― Dan Heilman (The Deacon), Sunday, 27 August 2006 00:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I defy anybody to find a catchier instrumental hook in all of Dylan than the horn riff in "Changing of the Guard." I swear that gets stuck in my head more than anything else the man's done - although the guitar hook in "New Pony" is up there too. Geoff Reacher samples the latter to wonderful effect on his "Paranoia Is Fame." And the rest of the album ...hasn't made much of an impression on me yet, but I'm still giving it time.

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 27 August 2006 02:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Look, this is really weird that folks are talking about Bob Dylan. I've been thinking about him sporadically but more and more over the past month. I don't know what to say about that, really, since I'm not known to be a big fan of his, but I do have three of his albums. Anyway there is one I really want to get and I won't tell the name of it because that would embarass me.

Also I am terrified that my good friend grimly fiendish will see me talking about Bob Dylan because he hates Dylan with a passion.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Sunday, 27 August 2006 02:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Specifically I was thinking recently about that live 1966 thing he did when he went electric and upset people. That was the most I ever loved Bob Dylan was that thing.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Sunday, 27 August 2006 02:41 (seventeen years ago) link

classic. "senor" is one of my favorite dylan tracks (at the moment, at least). the copy i have sounds great, as far i can tell, though i'm no audiophile either (a burned cd listened to on a honda factory-stereo. i guess i don't know what i'm missing, which is fine). i'd take this album over a lot of the ones generally considered to be his best. actually, if i had to pick one album of his from the 70's it would probably be this (i get to keep the basement tapes too, obviously).

― A Giant Mechanical Ant (The Giant Mechanical Ant), Sunday, 27 August 2006 03:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Okay, so this is what happened:

1. I realize I'm too drunk to drive to the CD shop to get the two Dylan CD's my heart desires.

2. I realize that the only way is to actually walk there, despite it possibly being as much as an hour away on foot and they close in 45 minutes.

3. I run part of the way, hoping to catch them before they close.

4. When I get there, they are playing Bob Dylan in the shop.

5. But I filter that out as insanity and assume I am only imagining that they are playing Bob Dylan.

6. When I get to the register with my CD's the guy asks me "so what do you think of THIS Bob Dylan?". I say it's weird that he's playing, that I'd been thinking of him more and more over the last month and the guy tells me that what is playing is a new Dylan album that is out on Tuesday. I say I didn't know he was having anything new out.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Sunday, 27 August 2006 04:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyway so the guy said that the new album didn't turn out as bad as he thought it would, I just said I liked what I was hearing.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Sunday, 27 August 2006 05:06 (seventeen years ago) link

My neighbors are playing Mexican music.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Sunday, 27 August 2006 05:09 (seventeen years ago) link

That is so rad that you ran to the record store.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 27 August 2006 05:23 (seventeen years ago) link

So you bought 2 Dylan albums? What's the other one? Or by "two Dylan CDs" you just mean "Live 1966"? (PS: Live 1966 was the last one I bought)

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Sunday, 27 August 2006 05:41 (seventeen years ago) link

and what are "the 3" that you own, for that matter?

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Sunday, 27 August 2006 05:44 (seventeen years ago) link

We have ways of making you talk.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Sunday, 27 August 2006 05:46 (seventeen years ago) link

haev you ever seen The Evil That Men Do?

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Sunday, 27 August 2006 05:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Street-Legal is my favourite Dylan album. With the exception of New Pony, which is a bit throwaway, it's a fantastic collection of songs. Changing Of The guard is my favourite Dylan song ever. Best thing about the remaster is the extra 45 seconds at the end of Guards. Also, does anyone else think "We better talk this over" is the best song he wrote about his ex-wife?

― musicjohn73 (musicjohn73), Sunday, 27 August 2006 11:57 (seventeen years ago) link

New Pony is the best freakin' thing on the album!

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Sunday, 27 August 2006 23:04 (seventeen years ago) link

The grungy blues riff is great; and it's the only time the backup singers offer interesting counterpoint.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 27 August 2006 23:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Okay I'll confess. Even though it's embarassing. The other CD I bought besides Live 1966 was Blonde on Blonde. And I listened to that in headphones and even as an anglophile who much prefers British music to anything else in the world, I knew I was hearing something great. I don't know what to say. This is insane. I've never appreciated Bob Dylan this much in my life.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh also the "3 that I owned" were, aside from the live '66 on a cassette tape until yesterday, the other two I owned were on cassette as well. They were Blood On The Tracks and Highway 61 Revisited. But I really can't talk authoritatively about them at all because it's been many years since I gave Bob Dylan a go. I think the last time was...1997 or '98, something like that. It was before the '66 live thing came out on CD I know that.

I remember a live video for Tangled Up In Blue, though - does anyone remember that? He had sweat on his forehead, and a great big hat. It was on MTV. That was actually the first time I liked him ever, was that song/video. But I'm telling you he's really not been a big part of my life at all until now. Even when I saw the ads on the busses here in town advertising a Dylan exhibition at the local Art Museum, that was about 6 months ago, and I didn't blink an eye. "oh Dylan" I thought "how boring". !!!

Maybe he's not as good as The Stooges or Velvet Underground, but

there's no reason not to rejoice in Bob Dylan.

Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat, etc.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Also I have not seen the Evil That Men Do.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:15 (seventeen years ago) link

But fuck there's a film with him in it, isn't there? I can't fucking remember the name of it but there's a film I read about with him in it. Oh god. What was it called? Must look that up. What was it? Were they talking about it on a Nick Drake thread? What thread was that where they said there was some movie with Bob Dylan in it?

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh damnit just shut up and get to imdb. If we all look everything up on google, then there would be no discussion, and no ILM.

What was the name of that goddamn movie?

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Fuck I can't find it. I can't even find it on imdb. It was called "Don't..." something. Please help me.

Don't Look Back! I FOUND IT! OH MY GOD I FOUND IT!

So is it any good??! What say you ILXORS?

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:23 (seventeen years ago) link

I KNEW it was gonna be Blonde on Blonde, somehow. Isn't there a part in High Fidelity where they make fun of some guy for not owning it already? I guess that's what I was thinking of.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Also I gotta tell you something honestly, when he does "Ballad of a Thin Man" that was a huge moment in my life when I first heard that song. That was the second time after Tangled Up In Blue when I really found a love of Bob Dylan. I remember taping it off the radio. Yes, that was the second time.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Isn't there a part in High Fidelity where they make fun of some guy for not owning it already? I guess that's what I was thinking of.

That's weird, I don't really know, though I've seen the movie and read the book. Can anyone confirm this??

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I think it was just in the book.
Don't Look Back is the Bob on tour in '65 doc and it's completely awesome, buy it now, etc.
Beyond classic scenes including "Bob humiliates Donovan", "Bob humiliates Science Student" "Bob humiliates Time journalist" etc. etc.
Though it never seemed to me he really humiliated Donovan, but that's how the scene is commonly interpreted.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:32 (seventeen years ago) link

he's also in pat garrett and billy the kid. and scorcese did a doc that i'm about to watch for the first time.

If it was anyone but dylan, Joker! Hysterical! Face!, i'd be worried that you were building this up a bit too much. but if you like him, the catalogue goes on forever. your next two purchases should be the freewheelin' bob dylan, and bringin it all back home, imo.

― A Giant Mechanical Ant (The Giant Mechanical Ant), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:42 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost
isn't there a "bob humiliates joan baez" scene?

― A Giant Mechanical Ant (The Giant Mechanical Ant), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:44 (seventeen years ago) link

FUCK YES! DONOVAN WAS INVOLVED! I REMEMBER THAT NOW! OH MY GOD@!!! I FUCKING LOVE DONOVAN, except for the fact that he...well when he first started out, he sounded like a Dylan copy, that's why I don't like early Donovan, it sounds like a Dylan copy. But god if he didn't get better later, I'd recommend Donovan's album "Open Road" to anyone who appreciates rock and roll.

anyway I'm playing Kate Bush now so things have got very complicated, I'm afraid. But I will rent the Bob Dylan video of Don't Look Back. Is there any Donovan in the video????!

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Bimble's Dylanaivite is kind of cute!

BTW, guess it was in the High Fidelity movie, too:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146882/quotes
Barry: Don't tell anyone you don't own "Blonde on Blonde". It's gonna be okay.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Barry Adamson was an amazing bassist wasn't he? He was in Magazine if I remember correctly. And wasn't he in Shriekback or am I wrong? Also wasn't he one of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds or am I wrong? Was he ever in XTC? No, that's the other guy I get him mixed up with sometimes. Sorry.

sorry, anyway, High Fidelity, yeah. I should probably own that on DVD. They talk about Stereolab in that don't they? And Beta Band too.

It's all good.

Remember Joy Division loves your mother.

Sorry this is a Bob Dylan thread. I understand that. Sorry.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Er, Dylanaïveté. Gotta spell this word I just made up properly.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:53 (seventeen years ago) link

It's fabulous, man. Made-up French, I am so there.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:57 (seventeen years ago) link

At work this past week I came across someone who had the last name "Digitale" and I was like "wow, French high-tech, I want to have that last name!" The young Libran receptionist whom I like a great deal agreed.

― Joker! Hysterical! Face! (Bimble...), Monday, 28 August 2006 01:59 (seventeen years ago) link

isn't there a "bob humiliates joan baez" scene?

Not sure! Nothing blatant, I don't think. She's in the film an awful lot, though. I think there's a scene where she's singing Love is Just a Four-Letter Word and he's ignoring her, typing away. That could be interpreted as something. I need to watch my DVD again ASAP.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Monday, 28 August 2006 02:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 104 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

haha yeah, that is great. i bet nick cave likes street legal.

― tylerw, Monday, 11 May 2015 20:05 (eight years ago) link

& i probably had a pretty similar reaction to street legal as shakey did when i first heard it. but i guess i keep coming back to it as an interesting/bizarre failure.

― tylerw, Monday, 11 May 2015 20:06 (eight years ago) link

that's a terrible clip! The horns, Dylan's stepping on the backup singers' lines, the hair.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, May 7, 2015 2:17 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's a tremendous clip! The horns, Dylan's stepping on the backup singers' lines, the hair.

― tylerw, Thursday, May 7, 2015 2:25 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha both of you OTM i'm loving this

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 11 May 2015 20:07 (eight years ago) link

who plays lead on that clip? all i see is a blonde blur

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 11 May 2015 20:07 (eight years ago) link

billy cross is his name... i think that's all i know about him. Billy Cross!

― tylerw, Monday, 11 May 2015 20:15 (eight years ago) link

he sounds like an interesting guy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Cross

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 11 May 2015 20:27 (eight years ago) link

In 2010 published a book of his memoirs "Så langt så godt – et liv med rock"

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 11 May 2015 20:27 (eight years ago) link

as songs about Legionaire's disease go, "Legionaire's Disease" by the Delta Cross Band is pretty good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdmQD_fNPUM

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 11 May 2015 20:28 (eight years ago) link

If you think "New Pony" is bad, the bit in "Is Your Love in Vain is worse:

can you cook
can you sew
can understand mah PAAAIIIIINNNN

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 11 May 2015 20:55 (eight years ago) link

great sentence
In 1979 he recorded the album No Overdubs with the Danish Blues/rock band Delta Blues Band

― tylerw, Monday, 11 May 2015 21:10 (eight years ago) link

"New Pony" is half the reason I pull this record out, y'all are crazy. Not for any of the same reasons I pull out Highway 61 or Blood on the Tracks but it's cool.

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 01:24 (eight years ago) link

why do dylan records from mid-late 70s through 90s /sound/ so awful? like, who was producing/mastering his records? some of the worst-sounding major-label records of all time, IMO.

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Tuesday, 12 May 2015 04:19 (eight years ago) link

haha yeah, that is great. i bet nick cave likes street legal.
― tylerw, Monday, May 11, 2015 3:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"New Pony" (which is awesome btw) feels very proto-Grinderman to me, even some of Dylan's phrasing I think Nick lifted.

Great record! LEGAL HASSLE!!

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 12:46 (eight years ago) link

And speaking of the back-up singers on ""No Time to Think" every time they get to the "huuuu-mility!!" line I want them to sing "Hu-midity!!!"

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 12:54 (eight years ago) link

Not sure of the exact source on this but from a Will Oldham fan site:

Nick Cave and Will Oldham met at Lollapalooza 1994 and talked about music. Will recalls: "We then regularly played "New Pony" from Bob Dylan's Street-Legal album. The pattern of Jack The Ripper from Cave's Henry's Dream is based on that of "New Pony", and he has some other songs which borrow extensively from "Street-Legal". Cave apparently saw one of our shows, came to me later on and said "Street-Legal" was his favorite Dylan album. To which I said: `I Know` [Will grins]"

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 13:35 (eight years ago) link

why do dylan records from mid-late 70s through 90s /sound/ so awful? like, who was producing/mastering his records? some of the worst-sounding major-label records of all time, IMO.

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Tuesday, May 12, 2015 12:19 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree w/ this except for 'slow train coming' i think that album sounds amazing

― marcos, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 13:45 (eight years ago) link

Great record! LEGAL HASSLE!!

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 7:46 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha Legal Hassle: The Tribute Band That Only Plays Songs off Street Legal and Street Hassle needs to happen. Tyler, all you need to do is relocate your family and life Minneapolis, let us know the timeframe on that.

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 12 May 2015 13:54 (eight years ago) link

We can also do a mash-up of "Junior Dad" & "Tempest" for the encore

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 14:08 (eight years ago) link

LULU & the Legal Hassles: A Tribue To Street Legal, Street Hassle, and LULU

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 12 May 2015 14:09 (eight years ago) link

"a tribute band so specific only the people actually in the band would want to see it - 4 1/2 stars" - Rolling Stone Magazine

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 12 May 2015 14:10 (eight years ago) link

"The greatest disappointment. 10.0" - The ghost of Lou Reed.

― tylerw, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 14:16 (eight years ago) link

can my yoko ono tribute band (Three Virgins) open

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 17:09 (eight years ago) link

As long as you have a draw of 6 people or less, then yes

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 17:21 (eight years ago) link

why do dylan records from mid-late 70s through 90s /sound/ so awful? like, who was producing/mastering his records? some of the worst-sounding major-label records of all time, IMO.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Tuesday, May 12, 2015 12:19 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
agree w/ this except for 'slow train coming' i think that album sounds amazing
― marcos, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 8:45 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, jerry wexler produced that one, and yeah, it sounds pretty good. but the rest of 'em from the late 70s/80s... ugh.

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Tuesday, 12 May 2015 23:23 (eight years ago) link

Infidels sounds great! No complaints about its sound, which is crisp, shaped, and considered. It's the songs that suck.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 May 2015 23:36 (eight years ago) link

Yeah. I certainly don't have an audiophile record player (even when it's working), but the last time I heard Empire Burlesque, most of it sounded still sounded good fine (Arthur Bell produced; "Disco Dylan," some snarked---ha, if only). Also Under A Red Sky, the two solo covers albums, and most everything since (though I haven't heard Oh Mercy or the Sinatra album).

― dow, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 23:47 (eight years ago) link

"most of it still sounded good," that is.

― dow, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 23:48 (eight years ago) link

I'm a fan of Empire Burlesque -- it's his best eighties album -- but the combo of synth chimes and gospel overtones on stuff like "Never Gonna Be the Same Again" makes my skin crawl.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:01 (eight years ago) link

maybe i've only heard shitty CD masters of some of the albums, but they always sounded muddy to me, like the various instruments are unhelpfully invading one another's timbres.

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:07 (eight years ago) link

Dylan's voice unhelpfully invades its own timbres.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:09 (eight years ago) link

yeah he does a lot of /yelling/ on those albums. ugh, just count me as someone who thinks his discography after "new morning" is mostly disposable.

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:14 (eight years ago) link

/mostly/

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:15 (eight years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B436avtEXzs

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:16 (eight years ago) link

two years pass...

Renegade priests
RENEGADE PRIESTS

― or at night (Jon not Jon), Monday, 10 July 2017 22:44 (six years ago) link

^^The backing vox on "Changing of The Guard" are hi-larious.

― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 10 July 2017 23:20 (six years ago) link

woah funny I was listening to this just a few hours ago. the clunkiest lyrics are really some of dylan's worst but I still love the vibe/sound of the thing. it's not draggy, except maybe "señor."

― ﴿→ ☺ (Doctor Casino), Monday, 10 July 2017 23:45 (six years ago) link

I just became acquainted with the whole record finally, after many years of changing of the guard being in my top 10 dylans and knowing senor from biograph.

I dig its vibe a whole lot. The nick cave reveal upthread is perfect. Similarly to desire, a lot of the details do not repay closer scrutiny but it has this great addled rambler feeling. I do wish changing of the guard could have been a whole side long though, fucking love it unreasonably

― or at night (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 13:49 (six years ago) link

HOW MUCH
HOW MUCH LONGAH

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 13:53 (six years ago) link

without "new pony" and "changing of the guard" I would never have gotten into this record at all. still prefer to hear it as "I had a pony; her name was Lucy-Poo" tho.

― ﴿→ ☺ (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 14:00 (six years ago) link

i'm ready when you are.......

....senor

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 14:06 (six years ago) link

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCe6JyBUAAAHWF8.jpg

― tylerw, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 14:19 (six years ago) link

six months pass...

Doctor Casino otm, "New Pony" and "Changing of the Guard" are aces

I even love "Señor" now.

― droit au butt (Euler), Wednesday, 7 February 2018 17:39 (six years ago) link

GENTLEMEN, he said, I DON'T NEED YOUR ORGANIZATION!!

― tylerw, Wednesday, 7 February 2018 17:47 (six years ago) link

THEY SHAVED HER HEAD (shaved her head!!!)

― difficult listening hour, Wednesday, 7 February 2018 18:04 (six years ago) link

http://images.entertainment.ie/images_content/rectangle/620x372/LeaveBritneyAlone.jpg

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 7 February 2018 18:05 (six years ago) link

one year passes...

I see Robbie Fulks is touring his cover of this album (& putting it out as a 2lp). Only know him vaguely through Bloodshot, has anyone seen this? Love Street Legal and like Fulks cover of Is Your Love in Vain that's up on youtube.

― by the light of the burning Citroën, Thursday, 17 October 2019 15:14 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

I love the way he channels bo diddley on “new pony”

― Heez, Wednesday, 26 May 2021 00:37 (two years ago) link

one year passes...

she could feel my despair
as i climbed up her hair

― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 24 December 2022 20:22 (one year ago) link

It's amazing how "Baby Stop Cryin'" was the hit...in Europe.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 24 December 2022 20:45 (one year ago) link

Renegade priests
RENEGADE PRIESTS
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Monday, July 10, 2017 5:44 PM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 24 December 2022 21:59 (one year ago) link

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