Bob Dylan's least regarded albums

You know, listening to Budokan for the first time and this is kinda awesome! It makes more sense now than it probably did at the time, almost reminds me of him trying to do Van Morrison style versions of his songs. Simple Twist of Fate is pretty great

I love At Budokan.

I will always love Hurricane because I picture that scene in Dazed & Confused

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown),

I'd love to know if "Hurricane" got airplay incommensurate with its middling chart position or it's become more famous in the last 20 years.

I assembled my best-of list here: https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/without-ideas-or-violence-best-bob-dylan-tracks-and-albums/

Thanks. Well done as usual, but is there a typo here, did you mean to say "songs" where you you first said "albums"?

He’s a man who wrote wonderful songs and quite a few terrible albums and stuck them on albums which rejected wonderful and terrible songs like a heart might the wrong blood type.

I guess they were engaging in the usual Rolling Stone Monday morning quarterbacking when they ran that Dave Marsh review in the Rolling Stone record guide. The original Janet Maslin review is a more sympathetic and interesting read, and attempts to contextualize it with his other period live albums. Also Dave Marsh is a nerd and authenticity mongering square as far as I could ever tell.

However much they may offend purists, these latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals. And the originals — however lasting, however beautiful — constitute a terrible burden. The effect of Dylan's revisionist efforts, beginning at the time of the 1974 "comeback" tour with the Band commemorated on Before the Flood and now reaching a giddy crescendo, has been to make one realize how extraordinarily lucky Bob Dylan was as a young man.

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Bob Dylan: At Budokan

By Janet Maslin
July 12, 1979
However much they may offend purists, these latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals. And the originals — however lasting, however beautiful — constitute a terrible burden. The effect of Dylan's revisionist efforts, beginning at the time of the 1974 "comeback" tour with the Band commemorated on Before the Flood and now reaching a giddy crescendo, has been to make one realize how extraordinarily lucky Bob Dylan was as a young man.
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It doesn't denigrate his brilliance to say that he happened to be in the right place, of the right age, at the right time. Nor does it bode badly for his future to suppose that circumstances may never again conspire to make his voice so perfectly representative, so widely heard. His talent has changed, evolving into something more supple, less stubborn, more musical, finally leading toward an odd and private synthesis of the visionary and the mundane. Considered fairly, removed from the shadow of his past achievements, Dylan's new songs are often as lovely as the old ones. Bob Dylan at Budokan comes as a shock, a sacrilege and an unexpectedly playful bonanza. The illumination it offers is long overdue.

Bob Dylan at Budokan is also a marked departure from the live LPs that have preceded it (and the very volume of this material — three albums, five records in all, in as many years — betrays a regrettable nervousness about breaking new ground). Before the Flood was caught up in keeping the legend intact, in proving that the old lion was alive and ready to roar. Virtually every arrangement there strained to sound fierce, to beef up the old songs without really changing anything. The mood was emphatic at all costs, and sometimes — with Dylan and the Band chanting "How does it feel?" over and over in "Like a Rolling Stone" — genuinely triumphant. Later, after Before the Flood's corrective surgery removed that great big chip from his shoulder, Dylan's approach to his old songs began to sound more random, almost petulantly so. Hard Rain, the soundtrack LP from his TV special, seemed to come at a time when the Rolling Thunder Revue, so joyful and electrifying in its first performances, had just plain run out of steam.
But this time the old songs have been recast sweetly, without that self-defeating aggression, in what sounds suspiciously like a spirit of fun. The sanctimonious, Las Vegas-style bastardization of "Blowin' in the Wind" and the wise-guy tenor of the liner notes (he thanks "that sweet girl in the geisha house — I wonder does she remember me?") echo Dylan's old evasiveness, even though what used to pass for mystery in him has the look of cowardice now. But most of this two-album set is forthright, astonishingly so. Can it really be that Bob Dylan had to go all the way to Budokan, to Japan, to find an audience with a short memory, a crowd that didn't think he had anything to prove? In any case, the jig is up: he's given up trying to outdo himself and begun something new.
A lot of the older songs sound changed just for the sake of tinkering. Many of the more recent ones, like "Oh, Sister" and "One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)" and "Shelter from the Storm," are vastly improved, as if, when they were first recorded, they hadn't been fully thought through. "Is Your Love in Vain?", by no means the prettiest song on Dylan's much-underrated Street-Legal, is prettier still.
The method here is hit-or-miss, and the results are correspondingly spotty. "Going, Going, Gone" didn't need to be speeded up, and "I Want You" didn't need slowing down. This version of "Like a Rolling Stone" is too readily comparable to the Before the Flood track, to which it can't hold a candle. The low point of the set is "The Times They Are A-Changin'," which Dylan introduces by saying: "Thank you, you're so very kind, you really are. We'll play you this song — I wrote this, also, about fifteen years ago. It still means a lot to me. I know it means a lot to you, too."
A lot, yes. But not so much that it need be crippling. The fire and brimstone are behind Dylan, if only because his adolescence, and that of his principal audience, are things of the past. This hardly means the fight has gone out of him: Bob Dylan at Budokan is a very contentious effort — and, for the most part, a victorious one. On the evidence of the renewed energy of his new material since Blood on the Tracks, Dylan sees a world in which nothing is simple anymore, however hard (as in songs like "Hurricane" or "Joey") he tries to populate it with heroes and villains of the old school. He also has at his disposal, as demonstrated by the best songs he's written since then, the strength and artistry to grapple with his visions. And if the premature embalming properties of his fame have been an obstacle to his progress, he's done battle with those, too. Bob Dylan at Budokan clears the way.

I'd love to know if "Hurricane" got airplay incommensurate with its middling chart position or it's become more famous in the last 20 years.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, February 5, 2017 12:40 PM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I remember it getting a fair bit of airplay, possibly Capital Radio..

i started being a lot more sympathetic to dave marsh when i realized his favorite year for rock music was _1962_.

Also Dave Marsh is a nerd and authenticity mongering square as far as I could ever tell.

That explains why he loves PiL's Metal Box and Sun Ra.

It's, like, squaresville, daddy-o.

I WOULD LIKE TO RESCIND MY COMMENTS AND ISSUE A FORMAL APOLOGY TO MR. DAVID MARSH

Regarding a possible Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction for Kiss, Marsh said: "Kiss is not a great band, Kiss was never a great band, Kiss never will be a great band, and I have done my share to keep them off the ballot."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Guessed.

What a bunch of bullshit. I will NEVER understand the critical hate for Self Portrait.

Oh wait, the poll was which is the BEST. Now I got it. I retract my statement.

I have been listening to my 27-year-old vinyl copy of UNDER THE RED SKY.

Does anyone else like this LP?

'Cat's in the Well' might possibly be the best track - based on a kind of retro rockabilly groove.

'Handy Dandy' a 'Rolling Stone' remake that they play pretty well.

'Unbelievable' - I like the blues riffing and the whole rhythm.

'TV Talking Song' - a highlight with its daft long narrative about Speaker's Corner.

ps / this thread does not show up on New Answers for me so if you answer I am afraid I will not see it. :/

I love that the only single released from Self Portrait was Wigwam.

Didn’t Dylan himself said he made Self Portrait with the intention of press and fans to lose interest in him and leave him the fuck alone?

yeah but I dunno he says a lot of things

I paid $1 for a cassette copy of Under the Red Sky back in '95 or so and listened to it once.

Born In Time on Under the Red Sky is classic

^^

With special appearances by David Crosby, George Harrison, Bruce Hornsby, Elton John, Al Cooper, Slash, Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Don Was and more.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0806/6897/products/13697_FRONT_1_1024x1024.jpeg

This is a curious LP. One thing about that guest list (combined with the sound) is, it suggests something like: 'LA Rock Establishment, 1990'.

The LP was released a year after Dylan had released the atmospheric and organic OH MERCY - so it's like he deliberately went from that New Orleans sound to this LA one.

Then there's the nursery rhyme quality of the writing. But then again, some of the songs are different - 'born in time' as said, and 'TV talking song'.

i like this record — though there is something a bot off about the production / performances. listening to later neverending tour versions of these songs suggests it's kinda the precursor to his 21st century stuff, at least in songwriting approach.

favorite story from don was (which probably should be taken w/ a grain of salt) is that Handy Dandy was chopped down from a 33-minute take.

Handy Dandy, Cat's in the Well, and wiggle Wiggle are among his best songs

hmm

haha, yeah, I don't think I'd go that far ... but they're good!

And that band -- fabulous.

the reverse Stetson he wears in the live-in-the-studio Cold Irons Bound from Masked and Anonymous is probably my favorite Dylan hat, but this cap from the Tight Connection to My Heart vid is p good too:

https://i.imgur.com/0W5Omp8.png

A song I always enjoyed from an album I never liked, Dylan's delivery is actually pretty good, that casual rambling style he does so well. Revisited today because this vid was recommended to me on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0grZUoUhn_k

Not sure how I feel about it, it's quite a performance, most of all I'm impressed they took the source material so seriously

it is not on this list since it is not poorly regarded, but i have been enjoying "planet waves" very much lately

i still think of it as "minor dylan" tho i guess

Planet Waves is my favorite Dylan album!

As for those rankings above, they came out pretty good, I guess. "Knocked Out Loaded" has a few moments (heck, so does "Red Sky"). I think I've never actually listened to "Down in the Groove" all the way thru. (Also, "Hard Rain" is a kickass live album; seems sort of unfair to rank it alongside studio albums...)

Yes. Real Live should be on there instead of Hard Rain.

Yes. I do like the License To Kill on Real Live though.

Hard Rain is great.

My favorite version of License To Kill is Tom Petty's at the Bob tribute concert in the 90s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CEfNY02n5E

empire burlesque is good as hell

hi, Brad

"MTV Unplugged" is probably the only one I'd sit through again. The four Supper Club shows from Nov. 1993 are much better performances and will supposedly get released eventually, but I can literally see why Dylan would choose to scrap them in favor of "MTV Unplugged" - if he wanted to put out a good TV broadcast of a live performance, "MTV Unplugged" is clearly a much better TV production, with sets and lighting suitable for an ongoing high-profile TV show already in place. Also, "MTV Unplugged" does have a lot of originals that didn't get played at the Supper Club shows, the highlight being "Dignity." Not a great show, it's just an okay, middle-of-the-pack performance from this era.

I tried, numerous times, but I'm not a fan of "Self Portrait," and it's now completely useless thanks to "The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971)." The few tracks worth revisiting can be found on "Another Self Portrait" without their choral and orchestral overdubs, and they sound much better for it.

That's pretty much the same story with a few others. "Hard Rain" is nothing compared to either "The Bootleg Series. Vol. 5" or the Rolling Thunder box set (which was overkill but has one or two shows that would be worth owning separately). The few worthy songs on "Saved" are best heard in the live versions found on "The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More (1979–1981)." That's almost true with "Shot of Love," but 'Every Grain of Sand' remains definitive on the original album. ('In the Summertime' is pretty good too, but the bootlegged rough mix without the fadeout is preferable - the closing harmonica solo is beautiful.)

"Knocked Out Loaded" has 'Brownsville Girl,' but 'Danville Girl,' the bootlegged original that isn't as overproduced, is better. "Under the Red Sky" has 'Born in Time' and a good children's song in 'Handy Dandy': the former was far better when it was recorded for "Oh Mercy" (the best version's on the first disc of 'The Bootleg Series Vol. 8') and the latter was much better with Stevie Ray Vaughan playing bottleneck all over it (widely bootlegged in great sound quality). "Dylan" has 'Spanish Is the Loving Tongue' which sounds horrible there but a different and beautiful recording was used as the B-side for 'Watching the River Flow.' "Empire Burlesque" has one keeper, 'Dark Eyes.' Some argue for 'Tight Connection to My Heart,' but the original version recorded for 'Infidels' ("Someone's Got a Hold of My Heart") is much better - not the limp arrangement released on 'The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3' but the widely bootlegged version where Mick Taylor's lead guitar is all over it. Also, 'When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky' is terrible, but a radically different one was released on 'The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3': it has Steve Van Zandt and Roy Bittan so not surprisingly it sounds like a great, lost Springsteen outtake. (Dylan immediately complained that it sounded like a Springsteen rip-off, to which an engineer or producer replied "Then why did you hire the E Street Band???") "At Budokan," "Down In the Groove," and "Dylan and the Dead" are completely worthless, with the first two being utterly horrible - I would never sit through them again.

"(Dylan immediately complained that it sounded like a Springsteen rip-off, to which an engineer or producer replied "Then why did you hire the E Street Band???")"

Lol.

I didn't know Empire Burlesque was so poorly regarded!

Well, Kurt Loder gushed all over it when he wrote the original review for Rolling Stone. He's not really a good critic.

It isn't really. A few die-hards at the time. Christgau liked it, Holy Greil didn't, Rolling Stone was wishy-washy as usual. But I'm not the only person to defend it in the last 25 years.

and I've heard the alternate versions that birdistheword prefers, but I still wouldn't replace the originals.

Yeah, I was a kid when it came out, so Empire has a special association for me -- but I love the album version of "Tight Connection," and I think it's a solid LP all around.

if it helps, it wasn't included in this poll at all

but i agree, it's solid!