Album #25: Down in the Groove

 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



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