The Never Ending Bob Dylan Thread

[Zeeba Neighba]

Bob Dylan - Good As I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993)

Last week was not a big music-listening week for me sadly, but this week should be better AND plan to finish my Dylan series this week

After a so-so 1990 album Under the Red Sky, Dylan decided to put out a pair of acoustic folk albums - just him and his guitar with all traditional songs (many arranged by him though). Critics liked this - no original songwriting here but a nice stripped down return to his folkie days. These albums are good, mellow though not terribly exciting. Still the format fits Dylan's voice which (never his strongest feature) over the 80s has definitely slipped in quality.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Bob Dylan - MTV Unplugged (1995)

One interesting reason to do such listening series is to listen to albums that I would otherwise not think of breaking out otherwise - and probably won't again. Aside from Nirvana, Alice in Chains, perhaps Clapton, anyone breaking out their old MTV Unplugged CDs anymore? I hardly ever even break out Bruce Springsteen's. Adequate live set but if one wants live Dylan (and most cases one does not) not gonna choose this one even though he's done a LOT worse live.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Zeeba's Bob Dylan series is so informative that it deserves its own thread, named after Zimmy's Never Ending Tour. Who knows, there might even be a Spotify playlist some day .

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Bob Dylan - Time out of Mind (1997)

Does that mean I post this here now?

Thanks, Sam, I guess there's enough posts, a thread makes sense.

Maybe artists should have their own threads.
I'd certainly love to hear our members expound on folks like Bowie, Neil Young, or even T.Rex

Though released way back in 1997 which is (gack!) 22 years ago, this too me has always seemed like Bob's first "modern" album - I guess I should recalibrate my ideas of this, huh? After a 7 year spate of original music (no albums since 1993 aside from MTV Unplugged and the prior two studio albums were acoustic traditional folk songs), Dylan released this one with producer Daniel Lanois with the hopes of giving it an old bluesy feel. Definitely has a nice vibe. Some great material too including"Make You Feel My Love" (famously covered by Adele, Billy Joel and Garth Brooks. Really all the songs are pretty strong. Won three Grammys including Album of the Year. This would usher in over the next 12 years a group of four top notch albums before Bob would focus on rearranging, covering Sinatra songs.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Does that mean I post this here now?

Thanks, Sam, I guess there's enough posts, a thread makes sense.

Maybe artists should have their own threads.
I'd certainly love to hear our members expound on folks like Bowie, Neil Young, or even T.Rex

Zeeb, we don't want to make ourselves crazy with threads but you've put so much effort into this series I wanted to keep it where we could find it easily. I'm always ready for an artist thread and have a few candidates myself when, you guessed it, I get...

 

[Ojai Sam]

Bob Dylan - At Budokan (1979)

Well, after some spirited St. Patrick's listening then some Bruce and Dick Dale today, back to some Dylan. Though I wanted to listen to some other things, it's no coincidence my musical diversions coincided with Dylan's late 70s/early 80s period. While Bob had a rejuvenation of sorts in the mid 70s, he would soon release three very different albums coinciding with his status as a born again Christian. Very different and very polarizing - though the period has its fans, very few would rank this period/album cycle as tremendous

At least, those albums were something different and original. Bob could always be counted on to do something interesting...then again, there's At Budokon, his third live album in five years. It's amazing that up to now 21 official albums released, Dylan's track record on very good to great albums is INCREDIBLE (I'd say 14-15 albums). It's also not surprising that among most ranking of Dylan albums, his live albums are low down on the list - Dylan tries different arrangements in concerts and sometimes they just don't still. But At Budokan is Dylan's first really boring release - while Street Legal's more soulful polished presentation with saxes and soul singers seem (to me at least) like an original direction, his use of these elements here didn't work - they should work, but damn some of these arrangements are so bland (take the first track "Mr. Tamborine Man" or the slow "I Want You") or odd (reggae beat in "Don't Think Twice It's All Right", sing-songy "All I Really Want to Do"). Compared to the aggressive Rolling Thunder arrangement, "Ballad of A Thin Man" is tepid.
Not all is horrible - "Oh, Sister" and a violin-accompanied "Watchtower" are interesting
Still, this is a double album, and it's tough wading through the bulk of it to get to these better pieces. At Budokan has gone down for many as Dylan's worst album - definitely a contender especially as we know Bob can do better

Call me quirky, but I've decided to attack The Bobster's massive stack o'wax not with his first or his best, but with one of his oddest releases. I've been fascinated by this album ever since I read Dave Marsh's scathing review in the 1983 second edition of the Rolling Stone Record Guide:

"The versions of Dylan's songs on Budokan sabotage meaning, reduce it to rubble, and walk blithely away, snapping their fingers like so many little hipster hitmen. It was as though Dylan were daring his audience to continue to pay attention -- or even to respect him. This is his worst record by such a wide margin it's hard to fathom it."

Wow! Is it really that bad? Let's take a closer look.

Bob's 1978 tour was bound to suffer by comparison with his previous outing, the acclaimed Rolling Thunder Revue. Wiki sez:

In 1978, Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour, performing 114 shows in Asia, Oceania, North America and Europe, to a total audience of two million people. For the tour, Dylan assembled an eight piece band, and was also accompanied by three backing singers. When Dylan brought the tour to the United States in September 1978, he was dismayed the press described the look and sound of the show as a "Las Vegas Tour". The 1978 tour grossed more than $20 million, and Dylan acknowledged to the Los Angeles Times that he had some debts to pay off because "I had a couple of bad years. I put a lot of money into the movie, built a big house ... and it costs a lot to get divorced in California."

Ah, money. Of course.

What else could have motivated such a big change for Dylan, competition perhaps? Let's see, who else was achieving great success on the road by rearranging and expanding on his material around this time? Why it was Zeeba's favorite, The Boss! Bob never wanted to stand still, just ask the folks who were outraged when he plugged in. If the flute on "Mr. Tambourine Man", the reggae spin on "Don't Think Twice" and the singalong on "All I Really Want To Do" seemed jarring at the time, hey, they're Bob's songs. By now we're accustomed to him deconstructing them. The overall instrumental feel of Budokan is not all that far from the Phil Spector sound of Born To Run.

As a final note, Bob Dylan At Budokan was never intended for domestic release. It was rushed out in Japan in August 1978 as a tour souvenir, before the North American leg had even begun. Columbia finally put it out here the following April (after the tour was safely over) under pressure from gray market imports and bootlegs.

So what's the verdict? Budokan may not hold the definitive readings of Dylan's masterpieces, but it does stand as a reflection of his ongoing quest to remain relevant by reinventing himself. Some experiments work better than others.

on the Sam-O-Meter. Terrible? Hardly.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs - Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006

Where's Zeeba been you've probably asked yourselves - has he fallen in a ditch and been unable to finish his Dylan series? Has he given up?
Alright, you probably haven't noticed my lack of posts - gack! The past two days! The less said the better

But I HAVE been able to listen to a lot of Dylan - in fact wrapping the series up today so some catchup

My last post was Time Out of Mind and followed that one, naturally, with Love and Theft and Modern Times then this comp with unreleased songs, alternate versions and live tracks from this fruitful era. After a hiatus from original music, Dylan produced three killer albums, nicely produced from 1997-2006. This compilation too is excellent and really highlights the questions: Why don't I break these albums out more? Sure 60s-70s Dylan is classic and always worth revisiting but this trio of albums is so strong. Dylan was back!

Even his next album 2009 Together Through Life, cowritten with Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, while not as strong, is pretty good - traditional sound fitting in with the Americana revival and probably influenced by Dylan's show "Theme Time Radio" on Sirius XM where he was revisiting old traditional blues, roots music along with standards.

 

[Nickyboy]

In 1978, Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour, performing 114 shows in Asia, Oceania, North America and Europe, to a total audience of two million people.

I think that's the tour I saw. My buddy and I were straining at each song to figure out what it was, as the arrangements were so......different. We would catch a snippet of a line and say "hey! that's (fill in the blank)!", then listen some more for some further lyrics to confirm. That was one of the musically oddest rock concerts I have been to.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Bob Dylan - Christmas in the Heart (2009)

Hey! A complete overview has to include in all even a Christmas album in April
As a Christmas music fan, picked this up when it first came out and thought the same thing as everyone else - what is this? A joke? I don't think so even despite the mispronounced Latin of "Adeste Fideles" and the altered lyrics of "Must Be Santa" (in itself a goofy song). A money grab? Possibly
I honestly believe, as I mentioned before, Dylan has become even more interested in the history and traditions of American music as seen on some of his bluesier, rootsier albums prior to this and the stories he weaved on his Theme Time Radio satellite radio show. And, as allmusic comments Christmas music is "part of the American fabric" something an old folk singer certainly can embrace
Whether it makes sense of not is different from whether it's a good idea or not. Dylan's voice is notably strained and this seems amplified as the album progresses almost as if he recorded the album in one stretch. His choice of small male and female chorus backup gives it an old-time Ray Conniff feel (hey I enjoy Ray sometimes but it gives a cheesy feel). Dylan's voice also doesn't fit with several of the hymns he chooses. Interesting career move at this juncture (I don't suppose he could've done it earlier) - surprisingly it won't be his last

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Bob Dylan - Shadows in the Night (2015)

After Tempest (which, listening again, I still don't enjoy as much as many of the critics who raved over it), Dylan decided to go the route of Sinatra-cover artist covering songs of the Great American Songbook (and one's Frankie have done specifically). Again, after the initial shock, it makes sense - such tracks as "Autumn Leaves", "Where Are You?" and "I'm a Fool to Want You", have stood the test of time and have been well covered for now 70 years. These songs were first released in Dylan's youth. And, unlike his Christmas experiment, this one isn't executed poorly - his strained growl fit nicely in world-weary covers of many of these, like an old piano bar player who's been covering the same songs through his weary life. Dylan fits these songs more than, say, Rod Stewart, who chose the same late-career path. Ah, if only he stopped with this one.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Bob Dylan - Triplicate (2017)

I found Dylan's venture into crooner interesting, and thought Shadows in the Night an intriguing direction (while not an album of Bob's I'm gonna break out too often). When he then repeated the effort with 2016's Fallen Angels, I wondered why but said OK (even though when I saw him on that tour, these were not songs that people appreciated). So, I guess one just has to accept with Bob's most recent release Triplicate (if one hasn't already) that Dylan's gonna do whatever the hell he wants to do with no concern for what might be interesting to the public or what might, y'know, actually be easy on the ears (people buying these albums anyway, right?).
Dylan's most recent album is a "TRIPLE album" (granted short for this at 96 minutes) of, again, standards ripped from the Great American Songbook. He really doesn't use original arrangements often utilizing ones used by far greater standards-singer in the past. And while Bob's strained, weary voice seemed right for the torch songs of the last two albums, songs like "The Best Is Yet to Come" or "Imagination" just don't jibe with Bob's tone. Many of the songs on earlier collections were less familiar but here are songs like "Stormy Weather", "Stardust", and "These Foolish Things" which are so well known that one can't HELP to recall the many, many better versions of these songs done prior. Nothing new brought to the table here sadly.
Hopefully Bob has had his fill of the Great American Songbook and has had time (despite his Never Ending Tour) to craft some original songs - clearly from the music of Tempest and before, he's still got it in him

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Whew! Well there we have it - 1007 Dylan songs in, what, 6 weeks. A wonderful overview of his career. Incredible track record - Bob's had some weaker albums but such a high percentage of very good all the way to transcendent albums over almost 50 years. What's great is that there's almost always something interesting on each album. For those who enjoy Dylan, I'd encourage to delve into his 14 edition "Bootleg Series" - I own several (and his best live stuff is part of this series) but the unfamiliar releases were fascinating and give new light to, for example, his Self Portrait album and his Born Again period among other parts of his career. Now what's next...

 

[Nickyboy]

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Bob Dylan's 'Nashville Skyline': 10 Things You Didn't Know

Bob Dylan's 'Nashville Skyline' is 50 years old. Find out Dylan's original album title, his surprise guest on "Lay Lady Lay" and more

www.rollingstone.com

 

[Ojai Sam]

The New Basement Tapes - Lost On The River (2014)

For a while, all star concept albums were all the rage. The idea seemed to be "let's get a bunch of artists with little or nothing in common to record songs made famous by another artist". Thankfully, this phenomenon seems to have passed, perhaps in favor of projects like this one.

In 2013, Bob Dylan found a stash of lyrics sans music from his 1967 Basement Tapes period. He turned them over to rootsmeister T-Bone Burnett who lined up the following supergroup to flesh out and perform these lost treasures:

Elvis Costello
Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons)
Jim James (My Morning Jacket)
Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes)
Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops)

The results, culled from dozens of recordings by the group, are spectacular. The lyrics bear the unmistakably quirky style of Dylan back in the day yet the artists each stamp them with their own individual styles. Giddins' chilling vocals deserve special note, with "Lost On The River #20" a highlight. Somehow they also manage to sound like a real band, in the same sense as The Traveling Wilburys.

on the Sam-O-Meter. Go for the Deluxe Edition.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Bob Dylan - The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol. I (2012)

Copyright law now has a "use it or lose it" requirement for renewals which provoked a bunch of archival releases from The Beatles, Motown Records and others. This is Dylan's first entry in the vault-o-rama sweepstakes. NPR tells the story here:

Why There Are Only 100 Copies Of The New Bob Dylan Record

Only available in Europe, Dylan's new, limited-edition compilation aims to extend the copyright on unreleased material from the beginning of his career.

www.npr.org

I may be a sucker for this sort of thing, but I find The Copyright Extension Collection - Vol. I surprisingly enjoyable. Right now I'm on the second disc of alternate versions from the first 7 of 8 sessions that went into The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. It's very enlightening to hear The Bobster's treatment of "Mixed Up Confusion" evolve from tentative to frenetic over the seven takes presented sequentially here. Gonna have to dig the final album out soon for comparison.