Bob Dylan At Budokan: Opinions?

Love Bob's delivery on "Don't Think Twice" on this album. Full of gutsy attitude.

 

Here's what we have learned about Bob. If you have an LP or two of music from the old days that you don't like, the problem is actually that you just don't have enough of that music. A 12 CD box will open your ears to genius of Dylan at Budokan in a way you can't can't hear on a mere 2 LPs.

 

Bob Dylan is the one artist that I have the most records of in my collection, by far. However, when I sold off a number of my records a few years back to make room for new ones, I sold only one Dylan record, At Budokan. Funny, I kinda miss it. Even though I hardly listened to it, I still expect to see that cover when flipping through my collection.

 

how is this a bland album? the rearrangements are all interesting, if not always successful (most work well however) and the performances are really good. yeah, they got even better later on, but they're pretty tight and energetic here too.

 

I don't really like Budokan, I like the later shows from Europe more but especially the last part of the US tour which was awesome!

 

I bought the vinyl as an import when it came out way back
when, and that release itself wasn't that great. I believe
that Live at Budokan was taken from a show in March,
the beginning of the tour. If you listen to the tapes of
the shows during the summer of that tour, they are
remarkably better, in arrangements and performances,
with slightly different setlists that were more appealing
for me.

It's been awhile but I did a side by side comparison and that
is what I remember, after someone mentioned that as the
tour progressed it got much better.

 

I like it, but mostly for sentimental reasons since it has the distinction of being my introduction to Bob Dylan. The 8-track was in heavy rotation in my parents' Cutlass Supreme when I was four years old.

 

I just finished listening to most of the first set of the Pavillion de Paris show
in July of that tour, and it is remarkably better in performance than Budokan.
The arrangement of Maggies Farm and a few others are strange and wicked
in some cases, but I enjoyed those immensely. A friend at the time, quite the audiophile/concert-goer, saw him during the summer and never could stop
talking about how great the 'Dylan show' was.

 

I owned it many years ago on double cassette and upon first hearing, the style and arrangements brought from the musicians to the music were interesting versions, but I've had no occasion to revisit that album. Supposedly, this album was recorded before Dylan used the same musicians for Street Legal and I remember a quote from bassist Rob Stoner where he said that it was a shame that they couldn't have released a live record after the recording of Street Legal because by that time, the band was tighter and the music evolved in a different space than what was released from the Budokan performance earlier in the year. Nevertheless, this proved to be the stepping stone towards the born-again era.

 

Loved it when I got it and enjoyed the experimental new arrangements, but I don't think I've played it since I discovered what's out there unofficially from '78. (Though now I'm thinking about it again, I want to hear it.) I skip the Japan leg entirely. The European shows are really tight and there's a ferocity to many North American performances.

There should be a great Bootleg Series issue someday to represeent the 1978 tour.

 

I had no idea there was such a divided opinion on this one. It's always sounded terrific to me. Sure some liberties are taken with arrangements - some downright rewrites - but why not? It's Dylan's music, and not once listening to this am I ever less than enthralled.

I'm playing right now - Oh Sister, wow what an arrangement it is, sort of a sister (sic) to Man in a Long Black Coat.

In another thread (now closed) some had commented that the performances sound "dialed in". I couldn't disagree more. That said, the one vocal performance that sounds a little tired is the opening track, Mr. Tambourine Man. Maybe he was just warming up? Never mind, the rest is beautiful.

This was definitely an album I'd of thought every Dylan fan would love - serves me right for making assumptions.

Oh,. and special mention to the backing singers, love it!

 

There seems to be aa 'continental divide' in reaction to Dylan's 1978 output. Europeans love it, Americans/Canadians don't go for it.

Michael Gray absolutely raves about At Budokan. His are the only positive critical comments I'v read about the album and I was glad to read them, because I felt I was on my own.

To my mind, Dylan 'phones it in' on the BTF '74 album. Loads of energy, but unvaried, 'rolling over his old songs like a truck' as Christgau put it in his (very positive) review. Budokan is much more subtle and I love most of the new arrangements. Even the things that don't come off deserve props for trying.

 

Just heard All Along the Watchtower (a killer version), and as I type Knocking on Heaven's Door is playing.... wow. Infectious.

 

Japanese recording and mix. They do things differently and often for the better.

You can hear everything that is going on on stage which is not always the case especially with live Dylan albums.

 

I promise I'm not going to post as every track plays - but people think this version of It's Alright Ma is phoned in?!

 

This was one of the records that taught me Bob's back catalogue. I was in England at the time and a friend bought it as a Japanese import (which was how it was originally released). I did not mind it at all but over time (and as I returned to Canada), the continental divide kicked in. I still do not listen to the 1978 tour much. I have probably only listened to a few shows from the tour (rare for me). I think the tour gelled later; my brother went to one of the Earl's Court shows and said it was amazing. I really like the version of "It's Alright, Ma" but would find it hard to find an arrangement from this tour that was preferable to other tours.

 

I kind of disagree. I heard a lot of this on John Peel's radio show and it took a while to track a copy down as it was originally a Japanese import. I found the radical reworkings interesting and in reality he has done this throughout his career and it is what makes him a fascinating performer. I saw him at Blackbushe around this time too so it was nice to have a contemporary live album. Be nice to have some live releases from later in the tour and if they could put out Blackbushe that would make my day!

 

I like this album. Classics done in Street Legal style. It was a bit of a shock when I first heard it but once you get used to the arrangements they are really good. I also like a Street Legal so maybe that’s why I like it.

 

I remember I did not think twice about buying the album (after all Dylan's albums are good).
I didn't believe my ears when I put it to spin at home: impossible listening !

 

It was known as Bob’s Vegas band arrangements.

But time had been good to this double live album.

 

I'm a casual Dylan fan. I just have a few compilations and a few of the "Bootleg Series" releases, and the "Real Royal Albert Hall" release.

Then, I heard "Budokan" and my expression was...



These arrangements and the lackluster performance by Dylan are the exact opposite of what I want in a live Bob Dylan recording.

This is one of the worst live albums I've ever heard. Thank goodness there are so many good live Bob Dylan recordings out there to wash the bad taste of this one out of my mouth.

 

Have you ever seen Neil Diamond in concert? If so, provide the concert background that gives you such a distaste. Thanks.

 

No. Actually, I like Neil Diamond too lol. But, I don’t like Bob Dylan sounding like Neil Diamond playing a casino circuit. Meh...just not my bag, baby

 

'78 is my favourite tour (LOL, I'm European!). Looking forward to a proper representation of the tour in a future bootleg series/archive collection a la Rolling Thunder. Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte is probably my most listened concert from the tour--would love to find out that this was officially recorded.

 

I sometimes walk past the Budokan after work. And, as I walk past, I ask, "Bob, what were you thinking...??"

What's weird about the '78 tour was that it was hyped / praised to the skies in the UK, and then was pissed on by everyone in the US. You wonder why Bob didn't move to England.

Album might have been better if recorded later in the tour after they'd kind of worked out the kinks. I think it was one of those ones that was supposed to be released only in Japan, but then it came out everywhere...