Dylan's Christian period

Xgau liking it only confirms my belief that it's a steaming turd of a record.

Not sure it's a full endorsement.

yeah the 80s cliches come thick and heavy there but damn if the production (and/or mastering) on those 80s dylan records doesn't sound like shit.

steve hyden is easily the worst writer at grantland and was one of the worst at avclub, a more anodyne moody but just as clueless a defender of garbled unexamined cw.

the Miami Vice drums, the overbearing backup singers, and the sluggishly steady metronomic synth gurgle

Cliche or not, this is a pretty accurate description.

plus the jack frost "sonics" are prob better + "aliver" than anyone's dylan sonics since tom wilson's

I wouldn't go quite that far, but I do like the relatively clean, live sound of Jack Frost-era Dylan a lot better than Lanois's highly-produced sound. I don't think he's talking about the recording sound though, he's more talking about the style. I think that Love and Theft was a major creative rebirth for Dylan, but he achieved it by forgetting about sounding modern and going back to his roots.

Cliche or not, this is a pretty accurate description.

right but it's become accepted discourse that "eighties production" means "lots of cocaine produced it." "Miami Vice" is another cliche. "In the Air Tonight" drums don't sound like the Jan Hammer's theme.

I think the point is that those records have a generic bad-'80s sound. "In the Air Tonight" still sounds awesome, IMO.

The singing on the worst eighties recordings is worse than the production imo

http://24.media.tumblr.com/ae88a8e243c2ea0784bbeffdb5c79956/tumblr_n3tutvLNre1qzy30io1_1280.png

woah is that official?

nah, looks like it's a jews for jesus thing that they must've been handing out in front of dylan shows in 1980
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_V4PPJ2v6h8Q/Rt4J9sPtUuI/AAAAAAAABKo/c6GoYxF1px0/s1600/All+Inside.jpg

jews for jesus are the first, they always manage to pick me out of groups of people when i'm walking down the street. i usually scare them away with a preemptive "fuck you."

are the WORST

yes, they suck. must've been a big deal for them when dylan converted.

jews for jesus are the first,

they were that too if you think about it

ha, that is correct! :)

I finally listened to Changing of the Guard: good singing (the choral group is used effectively, for the most part), good music (except for the drums); but lyrics incl brain of homeless prophetic imagery and serenades which start suavely but quickly go so wrong ("Can ya cook and sew, make the flowers grow," he sounds like even he knows this is hopeless as soon as he hears it--and/or he already knew it, but it's still like,) "No? Course not, but come 'ere and show me what you can do, then.") Performance-wise, the most successful (and stylistically, the most unusual here) is "New Pony," which morphs into bizarre bluesoid porn, though not in a good way (to my taste). Overall, sounds like he's really moving toward some desperate change.
(Before this album came out, Renaldo and Clara incl Dyl paying much attention as Ginsberg tells him about Jesus and the ladies---think some of this was from the Apocrypha, but some from the Protestant-approved Gospels).

brain *stew* of homeless, Ah meant to say.

Not that all the lyrics are bad, but this set incl. recurring, off-putting syndromes.

sheiks walkin around like kings

god every line of this song is so bonkers amazing

yes!

i was just listening to that album the other night, it is so great

she was a backwoods girl but she sure was realistic

sons becomin husbands to their mothers

'change my way' a close second, i roffle every time

His eyes were two slits that would make a snake proud
With a face that any painter would paint as he walked through the crowd
Worshipping a god with the body of a woman well endowed
And the head of a hyena

'precious angel' has one of the best

you either got faith or you got unbelief and there ain’t noooooooooooooo neutral ground

I've yet to find a copy of Shot of Love but Saved shouldn't be slept on either - "Pressing On" is great

so is "covenant woman" imo

Yeah, "Covenant Woman" is one of my favorite Dylan love songs.

Dylan to perform on Letterman apparently

maybe he will do Gotta Serve Somebody lol

i can remember staying up to see him play on letterman in the early 90s. he was terrible!
the 80s performance is one of my favorite dylan clips though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkfxa8UYeGo

yeah that's a good one

was that 90s one where he had like Michelle Shocked and K.D. Laing and I forget who else as backup singers, and he mumbled his way through Like a Rolling Stone? (I have clear memories of this performance but forget what it was for)

haha yeah just watched it. the backup choir is wild - michelle shocked, emmylou harris, nanci griffith, mavis staples, rosanne cash.

ah right KD wasn't there, I remember it was just this insane list of great female singers

feel like Dylan's was thinking to himself "words... what are words anyway?" during the whole thing

"People like to talk about the new image of America but to me it's still the old one -- Marlon Brando, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, it's not computers, cocaine and David Letterman, we gotta get off of that."
- Bob Dylan, Biograph liner notes
boy dylan was wrong about that one... America is computers, cocaine and David Letterman!

Dave interviewed Paul the other night, who mentioned when Dylan appeared in the 80s, the first thing he said to him backstage was "Can you introduce me to Larry 'Bud' Melman?"

yeither got faith or unbelief
thereain't NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO neutral graaaauuuuuuuuooond

Just came across this---haven't listened yet, but looks promising/Promising, and be sure to read the transcribed Bobtalk:
http://www.themidnightcafe.org/?p=4908

xp j that is like the best line and there are so many great lines from this era, I love it

he almost makes me want to become a christian so i can go around judging ppl

all the stuff on 'slow train' about the law is about alimony and taxes, y/n

MIGHT BE WORKING IN A BARBER SHOP YOU MIGHT KNOW HOWTA CUT HAIR.

PEOPLE STARVING AND THIRSTING
GRAIN ELEVATORS ARE BURSTING

GOD DON'T MAKE PROMISES HE DON'T KEEP
YOU GOT SOME BIG DREAMS BABY BUT YOU KNOW THAT TO DREAM YOU GOTTA STILL BE ASLEEP

always think "karl marx has got you by the throat and henry kissinger's got you tied up in knots" is going to be "and henry kissinger's got you by the rocks"

Someone school me on Mr. Dylan, is Knock Out Loaded during or after his Christian period? As a new generation listener, Brownsville Girl, to me, is the best thing he's ever done as it feels the most honest examination of Dylan the myth and Dylan the man he ever recored. From a habitual liar, it strikes the most true. Though much later, Not Dark Yet, is a close second.

Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot of Love (to a lesser extent) form the christian trilogy (even though a lot of Dylan's other material is ofc also christian in imagery, topics etc.) so the first post-christian period album is, fittingly, Infidels (1983)

Knocked out Loaded (1986) is a terrible post-christian album but Brownsville Girl is a fantastic standout track, believe there are also some cool demos available somewhere - no live versions though afaik

Christian albums are pretty recognizable since they deal in unambiguous terms with christianity, words like satan jesus etc. pop up a lot