Bob Dylan's least regarded albums

I went to see Dylan on the tour for Under the Red Sky and I listened to it a bunch of times so I'd know the songs. He didn't play a single song from that record.

Self-Portrait is a legit good album, just not what people wanted from Dylan at the time

the xtian ones are also good

hard rain is fire wtf

hard rain was the one i am most curious about, almost cut it from the poll but its rep seemed to be "not good"...maybe i'm wrong.

feel like another self-portrait bootleg series release has rehabilitated self-portrait's rep

I love everything on Another Self Portrait except for Self Portrait. I dunno how he did it, but in a way, I kind of admire the skill involved in making a dull album out of decidedly non-dull elements.

didn't know Infidels was regarded, was gonna vote that based on Jokerman alone

I kind of admire the skill involved in making a dull album out of decidedly non-dull elements
ha yeah, this is otm ... hard to say just how intentional it was, but it's interesting

Infidels is a jam imo

Saved is great

Street Legal, now that's a real turd

they're all great, let's be real
ok, maybe dylan and the dead is pretty bad

Self Portrait bangs

People always say there was a lot better stuff recorded by the Dylan/Dead collaboration than was released.
Haven't heard teh actual lp in years but don't remember much of it taking off. Think I may have bunged like half a track on a tape compilation I was making at the time, & I used to do a couple fo those every couple of weeks so taht I had things to listen to while hitching.
So if I did take something off taht it was from an instrumental break onwards or something. Know I did taht with teh Hard to Handle from Bear's Choice but think I did it on something on there anyway.

Did seem like it would be a collaboration taht should have worked at one time. Not sure if that was the era though.

UTRS is the Dr. Seuss album he shoulda recorded in 1966.

Froggy Went a Courtin def more relevant back then

(xpost)

I'm guessing you know about this already, which is what prompted your post. I've got it on my computer but never bothered listening. (Large image, so I won't embed.)

cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/DylanHearsAWho.jpeg

dylan hears a who is surprisingly good -- worth at least one listen, anyway.

Saved is great

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, February 1, 2017 3:35 PM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

def

self-portrait is great, too, ive always liked it, and it's nice to see that it's been reclaimed as a good dylan album.

Self Portrait was already the subject of a Bootleg series revisitation to recontextualise it. Wondered fi teh Dylan & The Dead thing might get some of the better stuff used for a future volume.
Or released by the Dead themselves since they seem to be pretty comprehensive in their releases. Maybe the better stuff wasn't recorded as well as they'd hoped?

i've never heard dylan tbh

knocked out loaded is essential just for "brownsville girl", a top 5 dylan tune for me

down in the groove is trash. i can't tell you a thing about under the red sky even though i've listened to it a few times

if only someone had thought to record the Dead shows

utrs sorta suffers from dull production and uninspired performances, but it really isn't that far off from song-wise from his 21st century output

UTRS seemed like a regression at the time, after the Oh Mercy comeback narrative

here's the best dylan and the dead show i've heard: https://archive.org/details/gd87-07-19.sbd.fishman.13023.sbeok.shnf
the rehearsals are fun too ...

My gut says Down in the Groove and Dylan and the Dead are the two worst things here. Though At Budokan is his worst live record not to involve the Grateful Dead.

As far as best, I gotta go Self Portrait.

I found "Dylan and the Dead" was disappointing as it was nothing like as awful as I was given to understand.

Knocked Out Loaded has "Brownsville Girl", and some other good things too.

I has that Budokan live album, I did not like it, no.

Street Legal, now that's a real turd

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, February 1, 2017 2:36 PM (forty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

woah woah woah senor #TeamStreetLegal gonna yankee power ya ass!

seriously though it's such a great album, he follows a 10 minute epic "changing of the guard" with a song about fucking a horse

also great album cover the truest expression of bob in photograph form

Had. I do not has it now. Xposts.

Am voting "Dylan", someone has to.

Dylan is great.

MY GOD THEY KILLED HIM

If you ignore the horrifying track witht he children's choir whose title I won't mention for fear of opening a crack in the earth, Knocked Out Loaded is fun: "Under Your Spell," "Maybe Someday," "Driftin' Too Far From Shore," the Petty collab, and of course "Brownsville Girl."

yeah street legal seems like it shouldn't be good but it's actually kinda awesome

otm about the cover photo, too

I'm not a fan -- it has more sexist drivel than usual ("Is Your Love in Vain") and two songs that count as history-as-farce ("Changing of the Guard," "Where Are You Tonight?"). I've liked "Senor" the last couple times he's played it.

Where the FUCK is Empire Burlesque???

It'd well regarded.

Not by me!!

I stand by this re: Street Legal, my opinion hasn't changed

Bob Dylan's "Street Legal" - Classic or Dud?

Self Portrait is mostly great, imo, but I'm a casual music listener

I stand by this re: Street Legal, my opinion hasn't changed

Bob Dylan's "Street Legal" - Classic or Dud?

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, February 1, 2017 7:33 PM

can you understand my paaain?

No

your love is in vain

Self Portrait
on first listen I was surprised at how not terrible this was - has some good songs, but it's not one I return to often. Overlong. Also, the bootleg series compilation is great, so not much need for this one after all.

Dylan
as received wisdom has it, this is indeed a lesser 'Self Portrait'. 'Mr. Bojangles' is... fun. And I like 'Lily of the West'

Hard Rain
I don't like Dylan's shouting on this and other 70s live records

At Budokan
Well this one has a p good band, some enjoyable interpretations. From what I've read, the band became kicking on the North American leg of the tour, and Budokan are some of the least good concerts with this setup. Too bad.

Saved
Has good songs but ultimately boring and a lesser 'Slow Train Coming'

Shot of Love
Now here's a good album! Great energy, great phrasing, wit, fun. 'Heart of Stone' and ofc 'Every Grain of Sand' are standouts.

Knocked Out Loaded
Crap record which for some reason has 'Brownsville Girl' which is all time

Down In the Groove
So bad

Dylan and the Dead
Embarrassing

Under the Red Sky
Haven't listened too much to this one but I do like the sticker on my copy

http://i.imgur.com/c1cUc3X.png

MTV Unplugged
First time I heard this I thought it was awful, last time I checked it sounded a lot better. He plays Dignity. Probably one of the best in this lot.

Dishonorable mentions: Empire Burlesque, Real Live

In other news: Bootlegs 1-3 have been reissued on vinyl, get 'em while you can!

After reading Dave Marsh on Budokan (RS Record Guide, blue/1983 edition) I thought, jeez, it can't be THAT bad. But it is.

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.

The version of Shelter From The Storm on Hard Rain is excellent.

Shot of Love is probably the best of these records overall, but there are good songs on all of them. Seek out Born In Time from Under The Red Sky, that is super duper good.

I like Hard Rain fine, it's just not near as good as Before the Flood.

xp that's a bit much imo, give Budokan Ballad of a Thin Man a listen - it's not sabotaged, just an attempt you may or may not enjoy

the James Bond version of It's Alright, Ma is more controversial but... it rocks!

despite a false start Simple Twist of Fate is quite nice too

not an album I revisit often but when I do it's better than I remembered

I'm not a big fan of Before the Flood either but if you don't mind shouty lyrics the band, songs, energy are all great

I will echo the orthodoxy that Self Portrait, Saved, Shot of Love, Knocked Out Loaded, Down In the Groove, and Under the Red Sky are all terrible, minus the (maybe) two good songs that can be found among the whole lot of them. I've never heard Dyaln, and am not even sure what it is.

I'm not typically a fan of live albums, but I'm intrigued enough by this poll to check these out. At the very least, I'm curious to hear why Dylan and the Dead has been a punchline for the last 30 years.

Born in Time off the Tell Tale Signs set > album version

you might even say...

>>>>>>>>>>

otm, Tell Tale Signs is so good (esp with the 3rd disk)

voted Saved here, whatta band

Another Saved vote here. Great album. "Covenant Woman" is one of his all-time most heartfelt love songs.

i only heard budokhan once but i liked it.
can't really get a handle on a lot of dylan criticism

Remember that TV concert accompanying Hard Rain, broadcast on NBC 1976? I watched it in my college dorm, beginning of freshman year, basically by myself guess everybody else was in their rooms listening to Peter Frampton & Bob Seger while getting stoned. I bought Hard Rain LP the next day, remember being disappointed. Out of this list, I'd say Shot of Love is by far the non-worst.

I saw it, and remember liking it, wish I could rewatch it. I was working night shift at a radio station, and pulled a portable b/w tv into the studio so I could keep an eye on it. Something about the shoutiness of his vocals and Scarlet Rivera's violin reminded me of Steve Harley/Cockney Rebel a bit.

my friend just posted the tracks for this old mixtape he made, which seems relevant

https://scontent.fapa1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16427697_10202642525381359_3858602989773901038_n.jpg?oh=1c3fce1279fb892630bc452dfd58508b&oe=590AB2DC

Came around to digging "Watered Down Love" on Shot of Love.

If your friend gave me a mix leading with "Is Your Love in Vain" I'd take the title literally and send in the hounds.

I saw it, and remember liking it, wish I could rewatch it.

you can watch it without sound? : /

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uNSaKiThSs

xp haha, i think it was meant to be a provocative opener

man those are some ugly 70s teeth

that's a cool mixtape

but Lenny Bruce, Dark Eyes and Congratulations are filler imo

Tweeter and the Monkey Man, now there's a tune!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEJOekbg2lE

i agree w/ you on "lenny bruce" -- love "congratulations" and "dark eyes" though. wouldn't have included "disease of conceit" either, but i can dig the rest of it. needs "angelina" and "foot of pride," probably.

yeah those would be strong additions

it's been a while since I checked out Dark Eyes, will listen again

disease of conceit is really really bad

lyrics p dud, but at least it sounds kinda impressive

Conceit is the disease that the doctors got no cure
They've done a lot of research on it but what it is they're still not sure

lol yeah, lyrics almost drift into so bad they're good territory, but it's just bad

dunno abt "congratulations", feels like there's a strong song buried beneath a weird call/response chorus - I also feel like Dylan could've delivered more... maybe there's an acoustic bootleg somewhere?

he did it live once, but i think that's the only alternate version.
i listened to wilburies vol. 3 last week. weird record! made me wonder what a lynne-produced Under the Red Sky would've been like. Probably kinda lame, but who knows.

I'll go out on a limb and say that a Lynne-produced UTRS would have really loud, gated drums. Just a hunch, though.

pretty good odds

Conceit is the disease that the doctors got no cure
They've done a lot of research on it but what it is they're still not sure
Conceit is a sin and certainly a fright
What a sad and sickening sight

conceit seems pretty lame, that's what i'm tryin to say
oh my my, oh hey hey

man i forgot how direct the springsteen dis "tweet & the monkey man" is, "mansion on the hill", "out on thunder road", "state trooper" lol

haha wow that never occurred to me

mostly because I pay no attention to Springsteen. fun song though.

When I compiled a list of Dylan's worst a couple of these doozies made it.

The little guitar flourish at the end of "Disease of Conceit" is ace, though.

The lyric he probably wrote in the time it takes to sing them.

the singing is worse

Somebody please make a list of Dylan's all-time worst.

Alfred already did, pay attention

Here they are: https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/can-you-understand-my-pain-dylans-worst-songs-2/

I could have added "Chimes of Freedom,”"

Huh. Interesting choice. What's wrong with that one?

Why u haet fun?

Alfred's list p otm except for #6, which is about where it would place on my list of Dylan's best

lol I heard fuckin "To Make You Feel My Love" at Starbucks today

Nah, "Gotta Serve Somebody" sucks. It isn't even the subject matter. The whole song, from the singing to the playing, sounds totally comatose.

Strongly disagree, I find it menacing as fuck.

That someone singing this way should be allowed near women and children?

I've always loved "gotta serve somebody" but the version that's always in my head is from the SNL appearance that year which I will still contend is fucking smokin'

https://vimeo.com/187895396

like seriously when he gets to "you may be living in another country / under another name" I practically leap from my seat it's so goddamn good

Ha was gonna bring up that SNL clip

Bass player is so great

Self Portait was the first Dylan album i ever heard and i've loved it for 45 years.

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

^^^ yes

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!

"Dark Eyes" and "Never Gonna Be the Same Again" are the duds.

When I saw Dylan in '05 (opener: Willie Nelson), he played "I'll Remember You."

i love "i'll remember you"

he's so good at writing that specific sort of song

"Dark Eyes" and "Never Gonna Be the Same Again" are the duds very good.

"Emotionally Yours" is blank like "To Make You Feel My Love" would be a decade later. It's as if he wrote them to prove he could write faceless ballads like the rest.

"Emotionally Yours" is such a terrible, meaningless phrase.

FWIW, here's Christgau's review. (B+'s are kind of a mixed grade coming from him.) And the Vietnam song he mentions is "Clean Cut Kid" - I'm pretty sure he's alone in his assessment on that one.

The absurd contention that by utilizing electronic horns and soul girls and big bam boom he's finally mastered pop fashion and state-of-the-craft production--I've actually heard this referred to as "Disco Dylan"--proves only that his diehard fans are even more alienated from current music than he is. At best he's achieved the professionalism he's always claimed as his goal. No longer "relevant" enough to make "statements" that mean shit to any discernible audience--vide Infidels or, on this record, "Trust Yourself" (only if you say so, Bob)--he's certainly talented enough to come up with a good bunch of songs. Hence, his best album since Blood on the Tracks. I wish that was a bigger compliment, but debunking comparisons to Street-Legal are also way off--the arrangements and especially the singing are, yes, tasteful enough to support material that puts Elton John to shame. I mean how did he get that ominous calm, that soupcon of prophecy? And how did he come up with the toughest Vietnam-vet song yet? B+

Song's tight.

Yeah I like that one. “He ate Burger Kings, he was well fed.”

that feels like a line from the new album

I've never listened to all of Empire

Tight Connection is good, production reminds me of "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits

The way he enunciates:

Never could learn to drink that blood
And call it wine,
Never could learn to hold you, love,
And call you mine.

is the essence of Dylan

Tight Connection is good, production reminds me of "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits

Ugh.

I mean you know that digital keyboard/gated snare heartland roots rock 80s vibe

As I said, ugh.

Far better song than "Walk of Life"

One would hope so!

I think "Emotionally Yours" is a good phrase, esp for him: alll the emotions babe...
On their album Emotionally Yours, O'Jays did two versions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx5L2mWFwOk&list=OLAK5uy_kLEZ4qMNT6HjZw9foHuDcalVocA6sTB94
(R&B version)

I......
.....
...
....
....
......
......
like Walk of Life

xpost Weird. Oh well, it's on youtube, with the gospel version. Not as good as The Persuasions' "The Man In Me," but Persuasions' voices were younger than EY-era O'Jays', and "The Man" is a better song, of course. Not bad for a faceless ballad tho (more vigorous than "To Feel My Love," although I certainly haven't heard every cover of that).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsx9YBV9EnM

From 1972----much later, they did a whole album of Dylan.

Their 1972 LP Street Corner Symphony (Lenny Kaye wrote a beautiful little piece somewhere about the brief-lived a capella persuasion, from late-50s to early 60s)

Bettye LaVette did "EY" on her incredible BD collection, Things Have Changed---here she is live, atypically ravaged, but driving through it, as always---"It's like...my whole life never happened...shake me, hold me..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJujOOFQV-c

Not so faceless there!

Wild to realize I’m the same age as Empire-era Dylan... I should get a suit like his.

Tight Connection has the tightest seven-inch art
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/Bob_Dylan_Tight_Connection_to_My_Heart_Single.jpg

think i prefer the infidels version though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbhoo_gGkK8

Lou Reed gushed about Empire B in an interview

Wasn't it Down in the Groove? He liked "Rank Strangers to Me."

XP!...and Down In The Groove when talked to Rolling Stone in '89.

He oddly singled out two covers for praise, as if he thought Dylan wrote them.

It's the RS interview promoting New York, collected in a late nineties book of Reed interviews and essays.

Maybe. Reed talked about Dylan a lot in the 80s. It was something like "If a new artist had made (new Dylan album) it would be hailed as a masterpiece."

i think Dylan told Lou he loved "doin the things we want to" and suddenly Lou was a huge Dylan booster.

that's about right

Lou Reed said a lot over the years.

But he never said he was ept!

while they're beatin' the devil out of a guy
who's wearing a powder-blue weeeeeeeeeeeeeg

Best I recall, Reed did a good "Foot of Pride" on the Dylan trib 30th Anniversary Concert.

agree

Musically speaking, the 30th Anniversary Concert was a very uneven affair, but Reed's "Foot of Pride" was possibly the highlight of the whole thing. I think he was the only one to pick a song that was a 'bootleg' track. He's clearly reading off a teleprompter or something, so it could be better, but otherwise, he delivers it with a lot of authority. It has the makings of a great cover, it's just too bad he never tried it again in a recording studio.

Neil doing "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" absolutely destroyed

Neil Tennant?

Sedaka

Diamond

Hannon

Fred

Schon

Hamburger

Hagerty

https://66.media.tumblr.com/0c3ec4e792525b9a21c8a0dfcb679367/tumblr_n43u97VcvU1shl3p1o1_1280.jpg

I agree, Vince Neil really brought the heat

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)

"Covenant Woman" and "Solid Rock" are better on "Saved" IMO (and are both great).

Hard rep for the Take 1 “Pressing On” on disc 3.

I'm actually not a fan of "Covenant Woman," but I prefer "Solid Rock" when it was performed early on in late 1979 - the groove was funkier. By the time they tried it in the studio, they were already streamlining the rhythm and speeding up the tempo, but the result sounds more generic and less interesting to me.

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!