I didn't know Empire Burlesque was so poorly regarded!
― OG Honeymoon Ave (morrisp), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:02 (three years ago) link
Well, Kurt Loder gushed all over it when he wrote the original review for Rolling Stone. He's not really a good critic.
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:05 (three years ago) link
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.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:05 (three years ago) link
and I've heard the alternate versions that birdistheword prefers, but I still wouldn't replace the originals.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:06 (three years ago) link
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.
― OG Honeymoon Ave (morrisp), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:08 (three years ago) link
if it helps, it wasn't included in this poll at all
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:08 (three years ago) link
but i agree, it's solid!
"Dark Eyes" and "Never Gonna Be the Same Again" are the duds.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:21 (three years ago) link
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
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:28 (three years ago) link
"Dark Eyes" and "Never Gonna Be the Same Again" are the duds very good.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:30 (three years ago) link
"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.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 17:32 (three years ago) link
"Emotionally Yours" is such a terrible, meaningless phrase.
― Night of the Living Crustheads (PBKR), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:18 (three years ago) link
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+
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:30 (three years ago) link
Song's tight.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:31 (three years ago) link
Yeah I like that one. “He ate Burger Kings, he was well fed.”
― OG Honeymoon Ave (morrisp), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:35 (three years ago) link
that feels like a line from the new album
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:39 (three years ago) link
I've never listened to all of Empire
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:40 (three years ago) link
Tight Connection is good, production reminds me of "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:43 (three years ago) link
The way he enunciates:
Never could learn to drink that bloodAnd call it wine,Never could learn to hold you, love,And call you mine.
is the essence of Dylan
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:44 (three years ago) link
Ugh.
― Future England Captain (Tom D.), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:47 (three years ago) link
I mean you know that digital keyboard/gated snare heartland roots rock 80s vibe
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:48 (three years ago) link
As I said, ugh.
― Future England Captain (Tom D.), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:50 (three years ago) link
Far better song than "Walk of Life"
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:55 (three years ago) link
One would hope so!
― Future England Captain (Tom D.), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 18:56 (three years ago) link
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)
― dow, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:04 (three years ago) link
I.............. ....................like Walk of Life
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:08 (three years ago) link
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).
― dow, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:10 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsx9YBV9EnM
― dow, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:16 (three years ago) link
From 1972----much later, they did a whole album of Dylan.
― dow, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:18 (three years ago) link
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)
― dow, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:22 (three years ago) link
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
― dow, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:28 (three years ago) link
Not so faceless there!
Wild to realize I’m the same age as Empire-era Dylan... I should get a suit like his.
― OG Honeymoon Ave (morrisp), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:30 (three years ago) link
Tight Connection has the tightest seven-inch arthttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/Bob_Dylan_Tight_Connection_to_My_Heart_Single.jpg
― tylerw, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:34 (three years ago) link
think i prefer the infidels version though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbhoo_gGkK8
― tylerw, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 19:35 (three years ago) link
Lou Reed gushed about Empire B in an interview
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 21:14 (three years ago) link
Wasn't it Down in the Groove? He liked "Rank Strangers to Me."
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 21:24 (three years ago) link
XP!...and Down In The Groove when talked to Rolling Stone in '89.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 21:25 (three years ago) link
He oddly singled out two covers for praise, as if he thought Dylan wrote them.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 21:26 (three years ago) link
It's the RS interview promoting New York, collected in a late nineties book of Reed interviews and essays.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 21:30 (three years ago) link
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."
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 21:30 (three years ago) link
i think Dylan told Lou he loved "doin the things we want to" and suddenly Lou was a huge Dylan booster.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 21:37 (three years ago) link
that's about right
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 21:38 (three years ago) link
Lou Reed said a lot over the years.
― Future England Captain (Tom D.), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 21:40 (three years ago) link
But he never said he was ept!
― Barry "Fatha" Hines (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 23:10 (three years ago) link
while they're beatin' the devil out of a guywho's wearing a powder-blue weeeeeeeeeeeeeg
― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 23:10 (three years ago) link
Best I recall, Reed did a good "Foot of Pride" on the Dylan trib 30th Anniversary Concert.
― dow, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 23:37 (three years ago) link
agree
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 23:39 (three years ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 23 June 2020 23:59 (three years ago) link