Is Bob Dylan overrated?

Shakey, Alfred - I can't believe you don't love this album! Aside from "Is Your Love in Vain?" (one weak track, smack in the middle), this is such a hott LP.

― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp),

The writing is windy self-parody in a lot of places even on songs I like ("Senor"). "Where Are You Tonight (Journey Through Dark Heat)" is "Like a Rolling Stone" extended to crackpot length.

Well the last thing I remember before I stripped & kneeled
Was a trainload of fools bogged down in a magnetic field

This is what I meant by a Dylan imitator.

"I fought with my twin/My enemy within," undergirded by bongos, is my idea of Dylan hell.

Damn, this is prime-era Dylan for me.

"If you don't believe there's a price for this sweet paradise / Remind me to show you the scars"

!!!???

that's good

get ready for my hot take

Bob Dylen suxxxxxxx

unless you can cook up a hot take on Froggy Goes a Courtin

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, October 16, 2018 8:30 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbh my memory is that i kinda like his version of froggy goes a courtin!

RENEGADE PRIESTS

+1000

I have a memory of a conversation with difficult listening hour in which we treated every sentence as a line from "Changing of the Guards."

"I need a beer"

I NEED. A. BEER.

"I think we need to take this right."

TAKE. THIS. RIGHT.

anyway

Like regardless of whether this song is "imitation Dylan" or not, the whole lyric is so excellent to me - https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/where-are-you-tonight-journey-through-dark-heat/

I can’t believe it, I can’t believe I’m alive!!

...But without you, it doesn't seem right

Now I've moved on to Saved; pounding air piano at my desk

now *that's* a good record

PRESSIN ON

Ok there’s definitely more than one weak track on Street Legal. I really like “Where Are You Tonight” though (and I’m pretty sure it’s shorter than “Like a Rolling Stone”).

Christ, “No Time to Think” is interminable before the first verse ends.

"Is Your Love in Vain" is a classic example of interminable misogynist groaning.

DO YOU UUUNDERSTAAAHHND MAH PAAAAIIINN

All too well, you self-pitying bimbo

I have dined with kings, I’ve been offered wings
And I’ve never been too impressed

has always reminded me of:

I've been undressed by kings
And I've seen some things that a woman ain't supposed to see

(I agree this one track is dudsville)

I have dined with kings, I’ve been offered wings

from Hooters?

😂

Street Legal owns the zone

We have a pre-emptive Bob Dylan RIP thread

When Bob Dylan dies

Is that like "If Madonna Calls"?

My microwave macaroni take from the Dylan's Christian Periond thread (where I later noticed that Euler had made the same point about "Changing of the Guard" as symptom of desperation, brain train comin' to Jesus etc)
I finally listened to Street Legal: good singing (the choral group is used effectively, for the most part), good music (except for the drums); but lyrics incl. bubblin' toxic rainbow brain stew 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. Beech.") 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).
Not that all the lyrics are bad, but this set incl. off-putting syndromes.(?)

A follow-up notebook note re S L:
Music has he been listening to early-mid 70s Van Morrison’s Caledonia Soul Orch, pre-disco Boz, Robertson’s production of (or other) Neil Diamond? But the scuzziest, deadest, mildewed bottom of the barrel drums--ever. Dunno which mix I heard, came across it on YouTube, soon taken down by Web Sheriff.

Eleanor Friedberger recorded a cool cover of “True Love Tends to Forget.” And Will Oldham covered “Señor.” If you’re into those artists.

This weekend in Hell is making me sweat, y’all

MAKING. ME. SWEAT.

Street Legal is probably a bit overrated at this point, but New Pony rules

supposedly there's a screenplay some guy in the 70s wrote for Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.

haha this sounds so bad

Real Dylan Hot Take Heads Know Under The Red Sky Is Where It's At!

rarely has such an all star cast produced such an unmemorable record (thread idea?)

the Bootleg vol 8 version of Born in Time is great

Oldham covered New Pony live too
He's part of #TeamStreetLegal

UTRS >>>>>> Street-Legal

I saw Dylan live a few weeks after UTRS came out and he played NOTHING from that album

Street Legal is probably a bit overrated at this point, but New Pony rules

Overrated by whom? Most ppl on this thread don’t even seem to like it!

If any Dylan album is “overrated,” it’s Desire, IMO

at least this revive led me to make a playlist of 80s Dylan albums, most of which I haven't heard for 25 years

I saw Dylan live a few weeks after UTRS came out and he played NOTHING from that album

lol, I seem to recall a lot of press flown in for a UK concert shortly after the release of Together Through Life, no songs from that album on the setlist

There’s a good Willie Nelson cover of Senor on the I’m Not There soundtrack.

UTRS >>>>>> Street-Legal

Florida Man Arrested for Aggressive Online Trolling

"Wiggle Wiggle," like The Police's "De Doo Doo Doo...," mocks the singer's own obsession with fussy lyrics.

Dierks Bentley did a good "Senor" cover too

"Wiggle Wiggle," like The Police's "De Doo Doo Doo...," mocks the singer's own obsession with fussy lyrics.

― You like queer? I like queer. Still like queer. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, October 17, 2018 9:31 AM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

goop on ya grinch level analysis

if dylan had recorded utrs 10 years later with his love & theft-era touring band, it probably would be thought of as a minor late-period classic. the weak production / half-hearted performances don't do it any favors.

Christgau on UTRS:

To my astonishment, I think Under the Red Sky is Dylan's best album in 15 years, a record that may even signal a ridiculously belated if not totally meaningless return to form … It's fabulistic, biblical … the tempos are postpunk like it oughta be, with Aronoff's sprints and shuffles grooving ahead like '60s folk-rock never did.

"The tempos are postpunk"?

isn't UTRS the album Dylan was talking about in Chronicles where he claimed he'd discovered some new way of playing guitar?