Dylan's shit albums

[krabapple]

I think that just about everything Dylan has done since Desire is awful. I just can't stomach his singing post Desire at all. I can't reconcile the Dylan that is in Don't Look Back and Eat the Document with the guy that wrote Slow Train Comin', Saved and Shot of Love. I mean what the fuck happened to that guy?? I'll concede that Time Out of Mind has it's moments..

Time Out of Mind is the only Dylan album I really like. And yes, I have most of the classics up through 'Blood on the Tracks'.

[CitizenDan]

I first really started appreciating Dylan around 1977, and eagerly gobbled up everything he'd done up until then. His great stuff was so completely fucking great that it pushed me to root out the highlights in 'Planet Waves,' 'New Morning,' and yes, even 'Self Portrait' (though I now clearly see them for the shambles they are). I was hooked.

When word of a new Dylan album emerged in the spring of '78, I was very excited. But 'Street-Legal' was a load of half-baked, monotonous, badly recorded junk. Ah well; he's been on a roll lately, he's entitled to the occasional turkey.

A few months later, hey, a new double live set with all those great old tunes! That one went to the used record store after one spin. Others have covered how despicable 'Budokan' is, so I won't bother.

Not long after that, what's this? An R&B/gospel-flavored album produced by Jerry Wexler? Sounds promising! Uhh...slick, humorless, tuneless preaching. Ugh.

I haven't bought a new Dylan album since. Fuck him.

[lukpac]

I just listened to clips from Budokan. I think it would be a lot better without the flute and (in some cases anyway) backing singers. Not as horrible as I was expecting, but certainly annoying in spots.

[MK]

Yeah, I thought that too when I first heard the clips on Amazon.

In little doses, it's tolerable, but you have to hear these songs in their entirety. The editorial review on Amazon nailed it, it's like one of those clueless covers where the interpreter has NO connection to song, possibly no idea on what the words mean, they're just spilling the words out, and grafted to an inappropriate arrangement and allowing that to define the tone, the phrasing, the problems become painfully apparent. If these arrangements were grafted on to novelty tunes, it would be lame and not much else. Arranged around great, personal songs and sharp political songs, and then having it come from the author himself, it really sinks in as being horrendous.

Planet Waves has grown on me, but it's definitely a lesser work. I would've ditched "Wedding Song" and stuck with "Nobody 'Cept You." He played that during the tour; I think he dropped it from the album because it never clicked with the Band (musically speaking).

New Morning has grown on me, but there's some bad shit on that album, which I tend to block out. At least half of it is a nice, low-key effort, nothing great, but good in its modest ambitions. I would've kept "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue" (B-side version, not the crappy Dylan version), possibly as the opener.

[RDK]

Call me crazy, but I really dig Street Legal and I have a very soft spot for Budokan as well. Believe it or not, but Budokan and GH2 were the first two Dylan albums I ever bought, back in the late 70s, chosen simply because they had the greatest number of songs that i recognized. Hey, one's got to get into Dylan somehow...

Anyway, while some of it is now fairly painful to hear, i love the Budokan version of "Love Minus Zero." I'd take those two albums - Budokan and Street Legal - over Saved, New Morning, Shot of Love, and a few others mentioned above anyday. Shot of Love would be absolute shit if not for "Every Grain of Sand," which may be Dylan's best song of the decade. There's actually not much Dylan between Slow Train and Oh Mercy that I like. At the time, critics were raving about Infidels as a "return" of some kind, but i hated it at the time; it's since grown on me, but still far from a favorite.

[MK]

Hard Rain and Real Live get pounded a lot. They're not his worst but I don't like them or own them anymore. Until the May 17, 1966 concert was finally released in 1998, Dylan & his management were completely out of synch with what shows to release.

First, the '66 tour was left on the shelf for 30+ years. (give or take a few released tracks)

Then, the '74 tour was covered in Before The Flood. Not bad, a well-done compilation, but the set relies on the later shows, when the setlists were less interesting and Dylan's singing was more like shouting (something he later admitted).

It gets a lot worse with the Rolling Thunder Revue. There were two legs, one in the fall of 1975, another the following spring. The first leg was a favorite among fans, but the second was a disappointment. Not terrible, but a major letdown from the previous leg. Guess which one was featured on Hard Rain?

I don't like it, but Budokan has its fans and even they will tell you that subsequent shows from Dylan's "Vegas" period were much better.

In 1980, he films and records two April shows that are better than Saved and Slow Train Coming, but leaves those in the can.

In 1984, he makes a great appearance on Letterman, backed by one of his best bands, a trio of post-punk rockers. It's their only public performance because after the show's over, Dylan plans his upcoming tour around a new band of bigger names but less chemistry. This is what's documented on Real Live but I would've preferred an EP of that Letterman performance.

Dylan tours with the Grateful Dead. Nobody likes it, or the live album culled from it (released 2 or 3 years later). Just around the corner is a good tour with Tom Petty's Heartbreakers (much better than their 1986 tour) and an excellent beginning to the Never Ending Tour, but both remain on the shelf.

In 1993, Dylan records and films some excellent shows at the Supper Club. He shelves them and later records and releases a lesser MTV Unplugged album.

[CitizenDan]

In 1984, he makes a great appearance on Letterman, backed by one of his best bands, a trio of post-punk rockers. It's their only public performance because after the show's over, Dylan plans his upcoming tour around a new band of bigger names but less chemistry. This is what's documented on Real Live but I would've preferred an EP of that Letterman performance.

I believe that was The Cruzados. They and Dylan played the shit out of "Jokerman" that night, as well as delivering a blistering cover of "Don't Start Me Talkin'."

[Crummy Old Label Avatar]

Yeah, well I once had to endure the entirety of Renaldo and Clara (that's what can happen when hippie burnouts are allowed to teach film to hapless undergrads), which is, I imagine, akin to suffering Chinese water torture and full frontal lobotomy. Renaldo and Clara makes Ed Wood seem like Orson Welles. And Joan Baez really is the spawn of Satan.

[Rspaight]

My Dylan horror story: I actually saw him live in 1990. He was drunk. He played "Wiggle Wiggle" AND "TV Talkin' Song." Back to back. And "Joey."

Evening's highlight: introducing "Blowin' In The Wind," he said, "Joan Baez liked this song. She was wrong about a lot of other things, too."

Ryan

[Xenu]

Not that I'm too familiar with Dylan setlists, but I occasionally get the feeling from threads like this that his performances can be the bizarro-land version of the hardcore fan's worst nightmare.

I.e. a McCartney setlist where he plays all of "McCartney II," including an extended "Temporary Secretary," before seguing into an airing of rarely played cuts from "Press to Play."

And Ryan? That Joan Baez quote is heeelarious.

[MK]

There's stuff he should retire. "All Along The Watchtower," "Like A Rolling Stone," and "Blowin' In The Wind" would be at the top of my list. At least give them a break. They're three of his greatest songs, but to hear them with little conviction (probably 'cause he's sung them a BILLION times) does NOBODY any favors, not unless you're a nostalgia freak. In which case, go to a Mike Love show.

[czeskleba]

Dylan was clearly affected and surprised by the harsh reviews, so much it made him indecisive when finishing "New Morning."

For the record, the recording of New Morning was completed prior to the release of Self Portrait, so the reviews couldn't have influenced it. Except I guess for the song selection... I imagine the reviews of Self Portrait were a part of why he used all originals on New Morning, even though he had a pile of covers in the can from the same sessions. I have to admit I've never heard Self Portrait. I've played the good Dylan albums to death, but I've never been moved to get most of the bad ones.

An exception being Shot of Love. I like that thing, though I guess in some ways I like much of it in a campy, so bad it's good way. I had a college roommate who was heavily into Amy Grant, so playing the Dylan album was kind of an antidote. Dylan's God is not full of joy, love or mercy. He's a spiteful dick who is pissed off and threatening toward unbelievers, and it is fascinating to hear Christian songs with the same basic attitude as Positively 4th Street.

[MK]

Yeah, that's basically what I meant about New Morning. Check out the wikipedia entry, it tells you all about Self Portrait's impact.

Briefly, it was a modest set of songs, and Dylan's original plan was to bookend his originals with covers - a nice concept, IMO, but thank God it didn't happen because Dylan would've chosen two crappy covers that were later issued on Dylan. Al Kooper was pushing for "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue," but that was banished to B-side purgatory (again, a crappy alternate was issued on Dylan).

The album was virtually finished when Self Portrait came out, and as Kooper tells it, Dylan became indecisive, switching out takes, changing the track order, wanting to remix and/or re-record, etc., it really irritated Kooper.

Personally, I would've dropped the last two tracks and bookended the album with "Spanish..." and an amusing, ambling rendition of "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" (the 1963 live recording on Greatest Hits Vol. II is easily the best and most affecting...this one is done for fun, but I think it's actually enjoyable).

[Chris M]

Anyone know why Dylan started singing in that nasally, mush mouth voice in the late 70's/early 80's? He sounds worse than some of the late period Brian Wilson live performances..

I'll admit that I really love All the Tired Horses. I'm not sure why but I do. That live version of Like a Rolling Stone on Self Portrait is awful. I mean he sings the same line 3 times in a row. You can sort of hear the beginnings of his "guess what famous song I'm singing" voice at that 1969 Isle of Wight show..

[lukpac]

Personally, I would've dropped the last two tracks and bookended the album with "Spanish..." and an amusing, ambling rendition of "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" (the 1963 live recording on Greatest Hits Vol. II is easily the best and most affecting...this one is done for fun, but I think it's actually enjoyable).

Funny...Father of Night is actually one of my favorites on there.