My Dylan Project

 Released September 30, 1997 This album marks another “comeback” for Dylan; it’s the first album with original material since Under the Red Sky in 1990. It won three Grammys, including Album of the Year, in 1998. Daniel Lanois, producer of Oh Mercy, produced this one as well. It has his distinctive touch - atmospheric, layered sound. The overall themes are lost love and the approach of old age, so not exactly upbeat, but the musicianship and vocals are excellent. The album spawned a big hit for Adele in “Make You Feel My Love,” a lovely song.  My favorites from this album are “Not Dark Yet” , “Love Sick” (which inexplicably featured in a Victoria’s Secret commercial) and “‘Til I Fell In Love With You”. “Highlands”, the last song, is over 16 minutes long and I’ll need to listen to it a lot more before I can form an opinion.  Not Dark Yet: https://youtu.be/RZgBhyU4IvQ?si=acK9QQ9A0vwAjyr2 Love Sick ad: https://youtu.be/ZUSG9vRWl60?si=qJhFvwIXEAIhoRnx

 Released October 26, 1993 Back from vacation & resuming my project with the next studio album, World Gone Wrong. This is the second of Bob’s two albums of traditional folk and blues songs and is another success. The album is just Bob, his guitar and sometimes his harmonica, and the feeling is very intimate. His arrangement and interpretation of these old songs is great. The guitar playing is excellent. I will definitely listen to this album again.  I loved the title track: https://youtu.be/ZYobZAYZZiM?si=kvL0re46rzwFizFO I also like “Blood in My Eyes,” which has a rather fun video in which Dylan wanders around London in a top hat, signing autographs, walking a dog and juggling: https://youtu.be/nz542iQchN4?si=9mY_ivrOzAGjmoUz

 Released November 3, 1992 This album is made up entirely of traditional blues and folk songs, with Bob on vocals, guitar and harmonica. Quite a change from the heavily produced, overpopulated albums that came before.  The criticism for this album essentially boiled down to the fact that there were no original compositions. But these genres and songs were very important to Dylan, and he sings and plays them well. Some of them are kind of long and tedious, but fortunately, only a few.  My favorites are “Hard Times,” “Step It Up And Go,” “Tomorrow Night,” and “Diamond Joe”.  Diamond Joe: https://youtu.be/-0A6Yxpged0?si=bFleNLRC5LVTANtU

 Released September 10, 1990 This album was generally deemed to be “disappointing,” after the artistic success of Oh Mercy. Dylan switched producers, from Daniel Lanois to the Was brothers, and he had some trouble working with them. He also used a huge number of guest musicians, including George Harrison, Bruce Hornsby, Elton John, Slash, David Crosby,  and the Vaughn brothers. This resulted in a pretty chaotic recording experience. While there’s nothing really earth-shattering here, and the songwriting is definitely uneven, I was perfectly OK with this album. The only really unsuccessful song (“unsuccessful” sounds better than “bad”) is “Wiggle Wiggle”. It sounds like it should be a children’s song, but it definitely isn’t.  “TV Talkin’ Song” is funny. “Unbelievable” and “2x2” are good.  “Handy Dandy” is probably my favorite.  “Handy Dandy” outtake: https://youtu.be/xrrsAuzI0hU?si=F67cwaSKIRKbAUgY

 Released September 12, 1989 Dylan saw this painting on the side of a building in NYC and got permission from the artist to use it for the album cover.  This was widely regarded as Dylan’s “comeback” album after the string of critically-derided albums in the earlier 80s. It is excellent. Daniel Lanois, the producer, was able to work well with Dylan, and created a unique sound that unifies the album. Dylan writes extensively about recording Oh Mercy in his book, Chronicles Volume 1. My favorite songs are Ring Them Bells, What Was It You Wanted, and Shooting Star. The song “Dignity” was inexplicably left off the album, but Dylan performed a great version of it on MTV Unplugged: https://youtu.be/atseImSMIWs?si=jpk8EVWijteHSWKH Dylan worked with Lanois one more time, on the album Time Out Of Mind, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1997. Only three albums away! 

 Released May 30, 1988 It’s wise to ignore critics sometimes, because almost all of them hated this album, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why. It’s much better than Knocked Out Loaded. Were they mad that Dylan only put two original songs on it? Who knows. As far as I can see, there is only one pretty bad song here, “Ugliest Girl in the World”, and in Dylan’s defense, he only wrote the music- Robert Hunter did the lyrics.  There are some good blues songs and some good covers. I particularly liked “Let’s Stick Together” and “Shenandoah”. But the standout song is obviously “Silvio”, again co-written with Robert Hunter. Three members of the Grateful Dead sing backing vocals, and the female backing singers sound great, too.  Silvio: https://youtu.be/rnqSVQU8DPA?si=lJzftL7Quk3VyxHJ

 Released July 14, 1986 This is one of the most-derided Dylan albums; I think possibly because it feels disjointed, with several collaborations, and traditional songs arranged by Dylan, but not much new material. The production is mostly the same 80s excess. But there are still a few good songs, including “Maybe Someday,” “Got My Mind Made Up” (written with Tom Petty) and “Under Your Spell.”  The best song, though, now rightly considered one of Dylan’s masterpieces, is “Brownsville Girl”. I don’t even really like Westerns, and it made me want to see “The Gunslinger”. (This song is the reason Gregory Peck introduced Bob at the Kennedy Center Honors): https://youtu.be/V8p1c3SQBqE?si=lKlfPLE0BMaNQXW0 Brownsville Girl: https://youtu.be/9FaUx-Re8i0?si=fHGAQ4VNzUtag5_9 There was a movie I seen one time, I think I sat through it twice I don’t remember who I was or where I was bound All I remember about it was it starred Gregory Peck, he wore a gun     and he was s...

 Released June 10, 1985 This album has some good songs on it, but unfortunately Dylan handed them over to a producer for a distinctive 80s sound that is very dated now. For example, “When the Night Comes Falling From The Sky” - there’s an early version on one of the bootleg albums that’s really good, then there’s the version on the album, which is ‘way overproduced. “Tight Connection To My Heart” is similar. In fact, there’s a beautiful version of this in the musical “Girl from the North Country” that sounds like a different song.  Of course, as with anything Dylan, there are people out there who LOVE this album.  On thing that is fun about this album is all of the references from movies like “The Maltese Falcon”.  I don’t have a strong favorite on this album - probably “Trust Yourself”and “Clean Cut Kid” are the ones I like most. The bootleg version of “When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky” is really my favorite.  When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky:...

 Released October 27, 1983 Secular music (but still a lot of Biblical imagery) and a return to protest songs! This album features fantastic musicians (Mark Knopfler, Mick Taylor, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Ron Wood) and some great songwriting from Dylan. It’s also famous for what’s not on it - “Blind Willie McTell,” which many consider one of Dylan’s best songs. Why he left it off the album is a mystery. It’s available on one of his bootleg albums.  I have a lot of favorites on this album, including “Man of Peace,” “Union Sundown” and “I and I,” but my absolute favorite is “Jokerman”. I’ve listened to it countless times. I still don’t really understand it, but I find it both mesmerizing and strangely relaxing.  Blind Willie McTell: Bob on piano, Knopfler on 12-string acoustic guitar: https://youtu.be/_AIRdU6CPf0?si=4N2F_FqCkzl_Lsna Jokerman: https://youtu.be/-QlEFqVTjPk?si=B8PrNg_P3_SdV8Z2