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

haha, would've loved to see one of those shows... those semi-scripted monologues he'd do were great.
I was riding on a train one time from Durango, Mexico to San Diego. I fell asleep once and I woke up and the train was parked outside Monterey. I was a little bit groggy, so I stared into the window which was a like a long mirror. An I saw about one family get off the train. About 17 or 18 kids, I saw them get off the train, and I saw this old man step up to the train. Anyway, in the mirror he looked, all he was wearing was a blanket. Must have been about 150 years old at least. Anyway, he came up the aisle and he sat down next to me on the other side of the aisle. And finally I just couldn't stand it anymore, I just had to turn and look at him. I looked at him, I could see that both his eyes were on fire, were burning, and his nostrils had smoke coming out. I figured this was the man I wanted to talk to.

^^^into "Senor"

ok I spent some time with this and this is ... not good. Senor is hardly the only parody-of-his-former-self type song on here, so much of it feels disconnected and aimless, especially lyrically. I wonder if he was trying to return to his mid-60s stream-of-consciousness style and just couldn't do it, there are so many non-sequiturs here, lines and images that seems strung together for no particular reason, and with plenty of groaners in among the decent ideas (ugh New Pony). The big 70s rock band is stiff as hell and there's saxophone and r&b backing vocals all over the place where they shouldn't be - it's hard not to hear this as a response to Springsteen now that he's been mentioned. There are hints that seem to presage Slow Train Coming, which is a far superior record, but not much to grab onto here imo.

it's too bad New Pony's lyrics are so godawful I kinda like the skeevy groove of the music

i kind of love that the backup singers have to sing bizarro/awkward things in changing of the guards -- "RENEGADE PRIESTS!"

― tylerw, Thursday, May 7, 2015 2:26 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

without collapsing into laughter

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, May 7, 2015 2:28 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

one of my <3 Nick Cave moments is when he cracks up his backup singers on "Hiding All Away" when they try to follow his ridic phrasing of some line and they leave it on the track

haha yeah, that is great. i bet nick cave likes street legal.

& i probably had a pretty similar reaction to street legal as shakey did when i first heard it. but i guess i keep coming back to it as an interesting/bizarre failure.

that's a terrible clip! The horns, Dylan's stepping on the backup singers' lines, the hair.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, May 7, 2015 2:17 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's a tremendous clip! The horns, Dylan's stepping on the backup singers' lines, the hair.

― tylerw, Thursday, May 7, 2015 2:25 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha both of you OTM i'm loving this

who plays lead on that clip? all i see is a blonde blur

billy cross is his name... i think that's all i know about him. Billy Cross!

he sounds like an interesting guy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Cross

In 2010 published a book of his memoirs "Så langt så godt – et liv med rock"

as songs about Legionaire's disease go, "Legionaire's Disease" by the Delta Cross Band is pretty good

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

If you think "New Pony" is bad, the bit in "Is Your Love in Vain is worse:

can you cook
can you sew
can understand mah PAAAIIIIINNNN

great sentence
In 1979 he recorded the album No Overdubs with the Danish Blues/rock band Delta Blues Band

"New Pony" is half the reason I pull this record out, y'all are crazy. Not for any of the same reasons I pull out Highway 61 or Blood on the Tracks but it's cool.

why do dylan records from mid-late 70s through 90s /sound/ so awful? like, who was producing/mastering his records? some of the worst-sounding major-label records of all time, IMO.

haha yeah, that is great. i bet nick cave likes street legal.

― tylerw, Monday, May 11, 2015 3:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"New Pony" (which is awesome btw) feels very proto-Grinderman to me, even some of Dylan's phrasing I think Nick lifted.

Great record! LEGAL HASSLE!!

And speaking of the back-up singers on ""No Time to Think" every time they get to the "huuuu-mility!!" line I want them to sing "Hu-midity!!!"

Not sure of the exact source on this but from a Will Oldham fan site:

Nick Cave and Will Oldham met at Lollapalooza 1994 and talked about music. Will recalls: "We then regularly played "New Pony" from Bob Dylan's Street-Legal album. The pattern of Jack The Ripper from Cave's Henry's Dream is based on that of "New Pony", and he has some other songs which borrow extensively from "Street-Legal". Cave apparently saw one of our shows, came to me later on and said "Street-Legal" was his favorite Dylan album. To which I said: `I Know` [Will grins]"

why do dylan records from mid-late 70s through 90s /sound/ so awful? like, who was producing/mastering his records? some of the worst-sounding major-label records of all time, IMO.

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Tuesday, May 12, 2015 12:19 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree w/ this except for 'slow train coming' i think that album sounds amazing

Great record! LEGAL HASSLE!!

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 7:46 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha Legal Hassle: The Tribute Band That Only Plays Songs off Street Legal and Street Hassle needs to happen. Tyler, all you need to do is relocate your family and life Minneapolis, let us know the timeframe on that.

We can also do a mash-up of "Junior Dad" & "Tempest" for the encore

LULU & the Legal Hassles: A Tribue To Street Legal, Street Hassle, and LULU

"a tribute band so specific only the people actually in the band would want to see it - 4 1/2 stars" - Rolling Stone Magazine

"The greatest disappointment. 10.0" - The ghost of Lou Reed.

can my yoko ono tribute band (Three Virgins) open

As long as you have a draw of 6 people or less, then yes

why do dylan records from mid-late 70s through 90s /sound/ so awful? like, who was producing/mastering his records? some of the worst-sounding major-label records of all time, IMO.

― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Tuesday, May 12, 2015 12:19 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree w/ this except for 'slow train coming' i think that album sounds amazing

― marcos, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 8:45 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, jerry wexler produced that one, and yeah, it sounds pretty good. but the rest of 'em from the late 70s/80s... ugh.

Infidels sounds great! No complaints about its sound, which is crisp, shaped, and considered. It's the songs that suck.

Yeah. I certainly don't have an audiophile record player (even when it's working), but the last time I heard Empire Burlesque, most of it sounded still sounded good fine (Arthur Bell produced; "Disco Dylan," some snarked---ha, if only). Also Under A Red Sky, the two solo covers albums, and most everything since (though I haven't heard Oh Mercy or the Sinatra album).

"most of it still sounded good," that is.

I'm a fan of Empire Burlesque -- it's his best eighties album -- but the combo of synth chimes and gospel overtones on stuff like "Never Gonna Be the Same Again" makes my skin crawl.

maybe i've only heard shitty CD masters of some of the albums, but they always sounded muddy to me, like the various instruments are unhelpfully invading one another's timbres.

Dylan's voice unhelpfully invades its own timbres.

yeah he does a lot of /yelling/ on those albums. ugh, just count me as someone who thinks his discography after "new morning" is mostly disposable.

/mostly/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B436avtEXzs

Renegade priests
RENEGADE PRIESTS

^^The backing vox on "Changing of The Guard" are hi-larious.

woah funny I was listening to this just a few hours ago. the clunkiest lyrics are really some of dylan's worst but I still love the vibe/sound of the thing. it's not draggy, except maybe "señor."

I just became acquainted with the whole record finally, after many years of changing of the guard being in my top 10 dylans and knowing senor from biograph.

I dig its vibe a whole lot. The nick cave reveal upthread is perfect. Similarly to desire, a lot of the details do not repay closer scrutiny but it has this great addled rambler feeling. I do wish changing of the guard could have been a whole side long though, fucking love it unreasonably

HOW MUCH
HOW MUCH LONGAH

without "new pony" and "changing of the guard" I would never have gotten into this record at all. still prefer to hear it as "I had a pony; her name was Lucy-Poo" tho.

i'm ready when you are.......

....senor

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCe6JyBUAAAHWF8.jpg

Doctor Casino otm, "New Pony" and "Changing of the Guard" are aces

I even love "Señor" now.

GENTLEMEN, he said, I DON'T NEED YOUR ORGANIZATION!!

THEY SHAVED HER HEAD (shaved her head!!!)

http://images.entertainment.ie/images_content/rectangle/620x372/LeaveBritneyAlone.jpg