Bob Dylan's least regarded albums

i haven’t been able to get into that bootleg set, for whatever reason... I love some of the songs on Saved — particularly “Covenant Woman.”

there is def not that much distance between the live and studio versions of “solid rock”

Not a huge difference, but enough to render "Saved" completely useless for me.

Listening to the "Minnesota Hotel Tape," a very popular bootleg among collectors and generally one of the first ones recommended to new fans. (It was taped soon after he recorded his very first album for Columbia.) Haven't heard it in a long time, but it still sounds pretty awesome. Even the very brief moments of tape overload/harmonica distortion are appealing - a great, raw recording. Sound quality aside, it blows the debut LP out of the water - like, THIS should have been the introduction to Bob Dylan. Great songs, great performances - the recording is over 70 minutes, and it would have been easy to make a great LP out of it, there's more than enough material: "Hard Times in New York Town," "Dink's Song," "I Was Young When I Left Home," "Baby Please Don't Go," "Stealin'," "Poor Lazarus," "Wade in the Water," etc..."Black Cross" especially but Columbia might've balked at something that bold.

This blog posted a two-disc bootleg that has the whole thing preceded by more recordings from that era:

https://100greatestbootlegs.blogspot.com/2016/09/90-bob-dylan-early-dylan-1961-flac.html

(Actually meant to post this in "Bob Dylan 1962-64: The pre-electric albums" thread but whatever.)

https://www.musicradar.com/news/slash-bob-dylan-michael-jackson

Slash on his time tracking for Bob Dylan's 1990 Under The Red Sky on the much-maligned song "Wiggle Wiggle":

Don Was hooked me up with Bob Dylan and said, 'Here's the song', it was a real basic I-IV-V blues kind of thing. Don had suggested me to play the solo for this particular song, which was like an acoustic kind of thing. So there was a section and I went down to the studio and I went in and did what I thought was a really great one-off. So I said, 'Don, make me a tape when you guys are done and let me check it out.'

So he sends me a tape the next day of the rough and the song's moving along; the lyrics and chorus go by and the solo section comes in and it's just me playing acoustic, strumming. And that's like two full progressions, whatever. And then back into the song. I said, 'What happened to the solo?' [Don said], 'Bob thought it sounds too much like Guns N' Roses.'

that's a good story. I haven't spent much time with Under the Red Sky but I reckon "Wiggle Wiggle" would have been (marginally) improved by a Slash solo. Looking at the credits on that album it's kind of insane how many big name guests he pulled in - Al Kooper and George Harrison, sure, but in addition to Slash you've got David Crosby, Jimmie AND Stevie Ray Vaughan, Elton John(!)...

Good album.

listening to it now. enjoyed the title track

I finally have all the Dylans and I can certify Budokan as the worst.

ok now that I am listening to it I am not sure I had ever heard Under the Red Sky. It IS good!