Entertainment For Lively Minds
nominate your , not obvious , best dylan album
Posted by Junior Wells on 27 April 2009 - 2:21am.
To participate you cannot any of the following albums
Blood on the Tracks
Blonde on Blonde
Highway 61 revisited
I have three candidates Street Legal - dense ,wordy,darl
Pat Garrett and BillyThe Kid - multiople successful versions of the same song, Bill, and an all time standard.. Heaven's door
But I will opt for Planet Waves his only studio release on asylum. Backed by the Band , a sparse sound , sublime spare guitar from Robbie Robertson, another all time classic with Forever Young - 2 versions again and wonderful wonderful songs like Dirge, Wedding Song and Never Say Goodbye.
And a really crap cover to boot.
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I'm with Dr. Lewry..
..I really like "Desire"
I mean, come on... "Isis" "One More Cup Of Coffee" "Romance In Durango" "Sara"?
We'll just ignore "Hurricane" though.
... and Joey
It's as though Bob Dylan rewrote the Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll from the killer's point of view ... sympathetically.
yes a nomination with considerable merit
for mine, coming on the back of blood on the tracks it was less of a surprise.
I recall it being remarkable for its length - must have really crammed everything into those vinyl grooves - possibly a reason for the sound being a bit muddy.
hot chilli peppers in the blistering sun- a great line to open a song
Saved
I have lost track of how Bob Dylan's overtly religious period is rated by the taste makers, but I think Saved is one of his best albums, where he has something to say and says it, clearly, directly and passionately.
It would be great if the proposed live album at the time, which was apparently shelved because the record company didn't think it would sell, were now officially released; even better would be for a full show from the time, support set and all, to be next in the Bootleg Series, with Ain't Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody and Cover Down Breakthrough included.
Now that was a time when he really *could* sing.
Time Out of Mind
is the only album of his I've heard and liked enough to buy it as opposed to bought cos I felt I ought to like it - if you s what I m.
I like that one too.
I bought Time Out of Mind principally because of Dan Lanois' involvement, and it's got a really good vibe. I jumped off from that to the first Greatest Hits compilation and "Blonde On Blonde."
"Oh Mercy" and "Blood on the Tracks" are on my CD shopping list.
Surely it's
Bringing It All Back Home
Tambourine Man
It's All Right Ma
It's All Over Now Baby Blue
Gates of Eden
That's just Side 2!
Seconded and Thirded
It's actually my favourite regardless. I think side 1 is perfection.
Fourthded
Side 1 for me too, especially Subterranian Homesick Blues, On the Road Again and Bob Dylan's 115th Dream. Simply wonderful.
A vital consideration
And it's got a great album cover
One of the great Dylan albums
If I was suggesting albums you couldn't vote for, this would be one of them.
Unloved
I quite liked "Infidels". Union Sundown, Jokerman,Sweetheart Like You.
BIABH was almost on the veto list too
the start of the " thin wild mercury sound" of that wonderful trio of albums
My two favourite Dylan albums...
Desire
Street-Legal
Anybody for...
The Freewheelin'?
Planet Waves
is the correct answer. I think you shouldn't be allowed Desire or Nashville Skyline, as even people who don't like Dylan often like those. But, Planet Waves, for me, is almost the perfect Dylan album and a rare occasion when he seems completely in control of the recording process: get in the studio with some musicians that you can trust, you've got 2-3 days, don't learn the songs, just play them. Blood On The Tracks, for me, could have done with this singularity of vision. Which, in its original version, of course it did.
Street Legal
is, for me, the great 'lost' Dylan album. It gets overlooked in the shuffle between Desire and the religious albums. With hindsight, you can listen to Street Legal and hear the conversion coming down the track. I always loved it but the remix/remastered version from a few years ago just elevates its further.
And yes, let's pray that the next Bootleg series gets the gospel live recordings out in the open.
re desire
well yes,
they - heard hurricane on the radio and sara is a love song that captured many a heart but overall the album is dense, wordy and sufficiently nasal to deter the complete dilettante .
so I think it should remain eligible - if a bit obvious
For me, it has to be 'Desire'...
I've plenty of reasons for choosing it, but I will mention just one - the song 'Sara'. It's a beautiful piece of music, a patchwork of memories creating a song bursting with emotion.
I'm with Tony Hunter
Pat Garrett proves what is often forgotten - Dylan at his best has gorgeous tunes: it's not just the words.
Street Legal: tunes again. Changing of the Guards and Is your love in vain? What's not to like?
Planet Waves: what he said at the top.
Desire on the other hand is surely the worst of the 'major' albums. All that fiddling is frankly unbearable. And the bootleg live album of that tour is even worse.
I'll pick three...
Desire
Freewheelin
Time Out Of Mind
John Wesley Harding
As 'the Big Three', have been taken out of the equation, that leaves this masterpiece. Following on from Blonde on Blonde, with the whole world going psychedelic, how does Bob respond to Sgt Pepper et al? By returning to his quiet folk roots, but with lyrics of burning ferocity, full of Old Testament allusions and prophecies of doom.
'I Dreamed I saw St Augustine'
'I Pity the Poor Immigrant'
'Dear Landlord'
'The Wicked Messenger'
'The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest'
I loved the comment I once read that after describing the coming apocalypse in wild vivid detail in all those verses and images in 'Desolation Row', here in three short verses, he does the same and more in 'All Along the Watchtower'. The ending even more bleak:
"Outside in the distance, a wildcat did growl;
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl."
As Tony Hunter said about BIABH, JWH would definitely be on my veto list.
JWH and the 4' 30" theory
Brevity.
It's a quality to be valued. The Great Gatsby is arguably the greatest novel ever written. It is not long. For me, old Bob just goes on a bit. On and on - a bit too long. Bob is at his best when at his briefest. IMHO.
For example: She Belongs to Me. Short. Simple. A love song - wonderful and perfect - rich with metaphor, a complex cadence and charm. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands has the first two attributes - but lacks the third. Too long.
JWH is my favourite of his albums because he says what he has to say - and then leaves. Not hanging around until you have to ask him to leave which, obviously, one feels awkward about doing to a (fanfare) - *Great Artist*.
It seems to me the album where he is most absolutely himself and aks us to judge him as a singer and writer - not as a poet, priest or prophet. Paradoxically, he is all the more poetic, priestly and prophetic as a result.
My least favoutrite track on JWH is "Frankie Lee". Yup - too long. If only Dylan had condensed all of his work to 4'30" or under - it would have all the denseness, vitality and impact associated with his work - but be all the more powerful.
Concentrated - not diluted.
Thirded
JWH has a lovely gentle lilting band sound that makes me happy (despite the doom-laden lyrics)
By the way...
did you know that if you get the LP of JWH and turn it upside down you can see a little picture of "Beatles for sale" (the B&W half images) at the top of the tree...honest...try it!
I only have 6....
.....the 3 mentioned in the original post, one of the bootleg series(I can't remember which one), Love and Theft and Modern Times.
I lke when Bob does the blues so I like both Love and Theft and Modern Times just fine.
Street Legal
Fabulous songs (crap production though) and then he toured it, including the "picnic" at Blackbushe, which was ace.
Also, for me anyhow, "New Morning" has a special resonance. I played it to death over a sunny summer fortnight spent in a chalet in the Swiss Alps, and for that reason alone it's one I reach for again and again.
Cleaned up
The 1999 remix (reissued in 2003) cleans up the sound of Street Legal, so now it can be heard in all its raging glory!
I would suggest Oh Mercy
Coming right at the end of a mainly barren decade, this really was the definitive return to form - wonderful, evocative songs given space and atmosphere by a fabulously sympathetic producer (thanks, Monsieur Lanois).
Taking advantage..
...of the fact there was no rule that I couldn't nominate a live , non-studio, album it just HAS to be the "Royal Albert Hall" 1966 bootleg...
If you disagree then I don't believe you. You're a LIAR.
John Wesley Harding
It could be argued the sound on this album is quite thin, but Dylan's phrasing on this album is almost like an extra instrument. Harmonica is far too high in the mix though.
No one for Empire Burlesque then? Nah, me neither.
Street Legal
Love it. Is the remastered version much better? I only have the first CD issue, and the sound, particularly on Changing of the Guard and New Pony is horrendous. The tunes shine through though!
The changing of the bits ...
I have the SACD and my impression is that the short answer is yes-and it rips nicely which is how I have heard it most.
I think this album, esp Changing ... and Where are you ... is as good lyrically as anything he's done, and the account of the journey to the state of mind of his "overtly" religious albums given by those 2 songs is genuine poetry. Mine's not an original view, mind, Michael Gray has put it v well in Song and Dance Man.
Thanks Nick.
I'll be making that purchase of the SACD of "Street Legal", along with "Together Through Life" tonight.
Well I hope it sounds good 2u
They did a nice job with the packaging anyway
Get the remastered remixed version
Sounds great! This is a lost classic, it's full of strong melodies, fantastic lyrics, great musicianship and some you'd- better-believe-it proper singing...
The Best of
The Byrds.
Not obvious at all
Father, forgive me but I have to confess that I like Self Portrait. I know it was supposed to be a throwaway, contactual thingamijig but there are some great covers and some pretty damn fine originals too, viz Belle Isle.
The best tune he ever wrote, and others have nodded towards the album that contains it, is Is You Love In Vain. Well I think so anyway.
Obviously in a minority
but another vote for Infidels mainly because it contains my favourite Dylan song 'Dont fall apart on me tonight'.Apart from this I would also go for Desire.
mine
Either Another Side of Bob Dylan or Time Out Of Mind. Another Side is an anomaly in his early career and Time Out of Mind just sounds like a tablet of stone containing words of damnation for all and sundry. I like Love and Theft quite a lot too because he rediscovered his sense of humour.
The new one didn't grab me at all when I Spotified it earlier today. The lyrics sound like they were written on a fag packet.
In order....
1. Modern Times
2. Hard Rain
3. Desire
4. Time out of Mind
5. Oh Mercy
Bringing It All Back Home.
Bringing It All Back Home. Simply for Love Minus Zero/No Limit.
New Morning
Is a lost minor gem, just after Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait. Loose, melodic, it sounds like he's just having a good time with friends (and he was: George Harrison was at the warm-up sessions, playing oldies). The most well-known song is 'If Not For You'. It's the "up" side to the glorious melancholy of the Pat Garrett album.
Speaking of spontaneous singalongs with friends, no one has mentioned 'The Basement Tapes,' which repays a lifetime of listening and you still don't get on top of all the characters.
But ... Desire? The moment that Scarlett woman's fiddle comes on, I'm heading for the hills.
Hoorah!
Someone else waving a flag for New Morning. Well done that man.
Howls of derision
Another vote for John Wesley Harding, a long-time favourite of mine.
And also for Time out of Mind
But at the risk of howls of derision, and being booted into touch, I want to choose The Basement Tapes - I first heard it at a very early age, borrowed from the LP section of the local lending library (choice based primarily on the look of the cover.) It still evokes a strange feeling for me, related to first hearing music which you don't really understand, getting to know it and eventually loving it....(reaches into pocket and produces flashing sign reading "PRETENTIOUS")
Ahh, remember the NME in the 80's, when pretentious was the worst insult which you could hurl at a band? I digress...
"Before The Flood"
the live album with The Band. Rip roaring performances of some great songs, an acoustic section, a side for The Band to do a few of their biggest songs and altogether an unfairly overlooked album. I do expect to attract a smidgen of derision for my choice but it is my most played Dylan album.
A memorable review
... though, sadly, I don't remember who wrote it: Bob Dylan shouts his way through his greatest hits.
Slow Train Coming
For the singing, for the sly humour in You Gotta Serve Somebody, for the grooves.
Under The Red Sky
As some of you may have spotted by my "nom-de-Word", I am a bit of a Bobcat, but my favourite Dylan LP (and it has been for some years) is "Under The Red Sky". I hated it when it first came out (sorely disappointed it was not another "Oh Mercy"), but after repeated listens, I eventually "got" it. It's great fun, a precursor for the bluesy humour which is in such evidence on Love and Theft and Modern Times.
Dylan has such a vast catalogue, but for those wishing to bathe in the stream of pure heat, a suggestion for how to approach it is:
Awesome classics
Freewheelin
Bringing It All Back Home
Blonde on Blonde
John Wesley
Blood on the tracks
Desire
Oh Mercy
Love and Theft
Hidden gems
Self Portrait
New Morning
Planet Waves
Street legal
Empire Burleque
Under the Red Sky
Time Out Of Mind
Essentially live
Before the Flood
Bootleg Series vol 5 - Rolling Thunder
Hard Rain
Budokan
Best compilations
Greatest Hits vol 2(songs on here that are not available elsewhere)
Biograph
Cover versions
Bob Dylan (the first album, great stuff)
Good As I Been To You
World Gone Wrong
Avoid
Nashville Skyline
Dylan
What's wrong with Nashville Skyline?
Hardly any support for Nashville Skyline? Is that because it is too short? Or because it has Johnny Cash on it? I've always loved this one - probably because it was the first Bob I ever heard when my older sister brought it home in '69. Err...that's the year folks!
Quite simply because
It's not very good. The duet with Cash is really for completists only (some might say, and I might agree with them, that it's awful) and only "Lay Lady Lay" and "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with you" really cut the mustard.
Nashville Morning.....
I've always been a fan of both Nashville Skyline and New Morning. I agree they are not essential Dylan by any stretch of the imagination, and ...well this is just a theory of mine, but both albums stem from the same period ('69-'70?) and they are notable for one reason...Dylan was probably quite happy when he cut them. Having spent several years in Woodstock, relaxing and makin' children, he returned to New York. Lyrically bob has nothing to say, but says it anyway...He tries a 'new' vocal sound, and he gets to play with his friends Johnny Cash & George Harrison, (although sadly George didn't make the final cut of NM). Next to the brilliance of Blood On The Tracks which came soon after,along with the heartache of divorce they don't have a chance. But a happy Bob? a rare thing...
Seriously?
I Threw It All Away is a solid gold classic! First Dylan album I ever bought. Wonderful stuff.
I love the version
on Hard Rain - smoking..!!
Anyone? Anyone?
Ain't nobody gonna nominate Empire Burlesque? No, perhaps not. Deserves acclaim as worst album title of all time though.
80s rubbish has nuggets
I am beginning to like quite a lot of the mid 1980s supposed dreck.
If you sift through them there is much to enjoy:
Infidels: it could have been incredible with Blind Willie and Foot of Pride but still has Sweetheart Like You, License to Kill, Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight and Jokerman
The much maligned Empire Burlesque: Emotionally Yours and I'll Remember You are very serviceable and Dark Eyes is wonderful song (stripped of the 80s plink plink drums)
Knocked Out Loaded: ermm..I'll stop now
80's nugget - Groom's still waiting at the altar
A song I knew nothing about until David Hepworth played it on his sadly missed GLR programme. It was a B-side recorded at the Shot Of Love sessons and can noe be found on Biograph.
See above
It's a hidden gem. I'm quite fond of the LP as it does include some strong songs with proper melodies. Shame about the 80s production values - a cleaned up version with disco drums removed would allow this album to reappraised. Who else but Dylan would put a photo of himself of in the cover with his eyes shut!
When the Night...
Comes Falling from the Sky is also very good if you substitute in the cracking version from The Bootleg Series. He did make some teeth clenchingly crap track choices in the 80s though.
http://open.spotify.com/track/29H4ZjUdkyuQ9ky2AdVClJ
Agreed about the track choices...
Infidels could have been fantastic. Aside from the obvious, there's a version of Sweetheart Like You on the Genuine Bootleg Series that has a vocal performance that I much prefer to the one on Infidels.
Even the average (at best) Knocked Out Loaded gives you Brownsville Girl and it's much bootlegged but never released cousin New Danville Girl.
See here for an interesting insight into how a song can evolve lyrically:
http://dylanchords.info/29_knocked/new_danville_girl.htm
Blind Willie McTell
...would have pushed up Infidels a notch, had it been included as perhaps first intended. Bringing it all Back Home gets my vote though.
Dylan.
I always liked the one just called Dylan. Full of out takes from Self Portrait. Considered to be so awful that it's never been on CD. But I like it.
You can get it here http://rapidshare.com/files/160785758/Dylan.rar
It ain't why, it just is.
I have this on CD
Can I retire rich? (Please, please say yes ....)
Yes...
...so long as you, uh, run me a copy off.
Well, it's not as if I can buy it anywhere. (iTunes doesn't count. I hate iTunes. So they don't count.)
So...
iTunes bad, Rapidshare ok?
A postal address
is all that I would require.
"full of out-takes from Self Portrait" ?
now that's not a phrase you think you'd ever hear
Actually
It's mostly outtakes from New Morning, with a couple from the Self Portrait sessions thrown in. And it is legally available on iTunes, as part of the £170 collection. Not necessary to buy the whole thing though.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=176996898&...
Greatest hits volume 2
where I first really found Bob. I still prefer it to Blonde on Blonde. In fact all my favourites are from the period in the 70's when I first heard him - Desire, Street Legal, Before the Flood. If I could only have one it would be Greatest hits (in the car as I write).
A wonderful album
Was it the first Greatest Hits album to include otherwise-unavailable material?
I remember buying it second hand in Hull decades ago and being astonished by the range and quality of the songs on it, not least the breathtaking, breath-holding performance of Tomorrow is a Long Time.
It's a Knock out
What? No votes for "Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid"? Worth the price of admission for "Billy" and "Knocking on Heaven's Door".
Oh and speaking of Westerns how about "Knocked Out Loaded for the best ear movie ever written "Brownsville Girl". Yes I know he collaborated with Sam Shepherd but it's the best road movie set to music you'll ever hear
"How far are y'all going?" Ruby asked us with a sigh.
"We're going all the way 'til the wheels fall off and burn,
'Til the sun peels the paint and the seat covers fade and the water moccasin dies."
Ruby just smiled and said, "Ah, you know some babies never learn."
Fecking genius
Knocked Out Loaded
Just regard Knocked Out Loaded as a great single, i.e. "Brownsville Girl", with a lot of weak B sides
Not including the not obvious classics,
I've always enjoyed Another Side of... It was one of my first half dozen or so Dylan albums and I like it more than any of the 3 he released before it. And I consider Desire to be obvious but it wasn't on someones list above so I'll throw my hat behind that. I'd had this album for a good 9 years or so before I realised how good Black Diamond Bay was. That one track is better than anything a lot of bands will ever come up with and it's just another album track on a Dylan album not considered to be in his top 5 or 10 by some.
Black Diamond Bay
I've not been paying attention to setlists for a while, but I doubt he's started playing this live yet. Has he?
Not on this tour...
as far as anyone can tell.
One More Cup Of Coffee
Has been played on the current European tour...
Also "Tough Mama" off Planet Waves, and "Billy" off Pat Garrett....
Basement Tapes
A hoot from start to finish and quite possibly the single biggest source of hits for other people (no doubt someone will be along with the stats but just a hunch). The 5 cd bootleg version is even better!
And Bringing it All Back Home, of course.
Nashville Skyline
Looking through this thread, Nashville Skyline gets a bit of a kicking, but it's one of my favourites: some seriously great songs and my favourite sleeve, apart from Bring It All Back Home...
And to add to it's place in my collection...
...it was recorded the week I was born, with Lay Lady Lay recorded the day I was born!
JWH
John Wesley was the first Dylan album I bought when it came out having been lately exposed to Mr. Zs earlier albums.
Knew it inside out and back to front.
Eventually moved on.
Went back to it recently and was once again impressed by it's directness and clarity.
Perfect songs with sound and feel a monochrome reflection of times past.
best, not obvious, dylan album
John Wesley Harding - all except, Frankie Lee
Desire especially Isis, One More Cup of Coffee, Romance in Durango - and Joey who "Opened up his eyes to the sound of an accordian"
New Morning - 'The Man in Me' - The big Lebowski!
Tough one...
It could be anything from The Freewheelin'..., John Welsey Harding, Desire, Street Legal, Slow Train Coming, Saved, Infidels, Oh Mercy! and "Love & Theft" but...
I'll go for:
BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME.
Stunning collection of tunes/lyrics/performances/singing/ etc. etc.
bob dylan
at budokan ?
Budokan
See my earlier post - one of the essential live albums with (gasp!) proper singing! Funny to think that these relatively straight live versions caused fury in some quarters ("Dylan's gone Vegas"!) but the reggae Shelter from the storm, and brooding Oh Sister are interesting sonic experiences. The big band It's Alright Ma is also something to behold. Fantastic!
Street Legal
I would say John Wesley Harding if I didn't think it actually is one of the obvious ones alongside the three cited at the top of the thread. So I will go for Street Legal which always seems to split the jury. Time Out Of Mind is great too. And without wishing to be fashionably obscure about it, I love World Gone Wrong, especially Delia which is just a gorgeously sad but restrained track.
Always thought New Morning was great but listened to it for the first time in a while the other day and really thought it sounded pretty thin.
What about most over-rated Dylan album? Got to be Bringing It All Back Home. Yes it has 4 or 5 great tracks, but Gates of Eden is a meaningless shocker, and the production on side one is horrible.
I Can't Believe
There isn't any love for his eponymous debut. It's a fine collection! Baby Let Me Follow You Down, Gospel Plow, House Of The Risin' Sun (nearly identical to the bootlegs version), Song To Woody... the whole album just bleeds soul through his voice. It shows Dylan in his most primitive form, before he went religious, before he went rock n' roll, hell, before he even went folk. Sure, he didn't write most of the stuff on the album, but he may as well have done so, judging by the way he delivers it. You're No Good predates all misogynistic Dylan, and as the first track of his career, forecasts his tone in a powerful way.
If despite all other reasoning you still cannot see credibility in this album, I'll just say that it's the only album that proves the man can in fact sing.
agreed
did contemplate advocacy of the debut for petty much the same reasons you outline.
And his voice has never sounded better - and what was he 20/21?
the alimony tour
Budokan is , I think , the start of the unrecognisable variation - songs remained recognisable but the intros certainly had me stumped
Careful with that Ochs, Jean Genie...
I'd suggest it's a toss-up between two albums, viz. 'Pleasures Of The Harbor' and 'Rehearsals For Retirement'.
'Pleasures' was 1967's boldest album by a singer-songwriter at the top of his game, while 1969's 'Rehearsals' showed the way for the classic 'Blood On The Tracks'. Only 'Rehearsals' - warts and all - went so much deeper than 'Tracks' did. And it was imbued with that much more humanity and courage - and indeed killer tunes. If there are any doubters out there, please consider spending a few minutes with the utterly overwhelming 'My Life'.
So it would seem I've talked myself into nominating 'Rehearsals For Retirement' as my best "non obvious" title in the context of Dylan albums.