Bob Dylan - "Band of the Hand (It's Hell Time, Man!)"

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by RayS, Feb 20, 2015.

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  1. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    It has a larger diameter than the 7" version, or so I've been led to believe.
     
  2. avant-gardener

    avant-gardener Active Member

    Location:
    Maine, USA
    Yeah, what's the deal with those 12" singles, anyway? What are you supposed to do with them? Weren't the 45 rpm records working just fine?
     
  3. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    12 inch singles were created for extended remixes of singles, that wouldn't have fit comfortably on a 45 without sacrificing sound quality. Why they were releasing a Dylan single in that format is beyond me, though.
     
  4. avant-gardener

    avant-gardener Active Member

    Location:
    Maine, USA
    All that's on side b is an instrumental (not Bob's) from the movie. I guess it's just a fun thing to have.
     
  5. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I don't think "Band of the Hand" is markedly better than the average track on Knocked Out Loaded.
     
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  6. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    You can't get full credit for the question unless you support yiur answer. :)
     
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  7. dylankicks

    dylankicks Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oshkosh, WI
    I also was at the Alpine Valley show in 1986 mentioned earlier (my first Dylan show of 32) and caught this live. A great song!
     
  8. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Wouldn't it be kind of a waste of bandwidth for me to post the complete lyrics of the song again?
     
  9. Siegmund

    Siegmund Vinyl Sceptic

    Location:
    Britain, Europe

    I have a hunch that Dylan has always been somewhat to the right of his own audience, though he's far too savvy to admit it.

    Not a bad song and probably a good indication of where his head was at at the time: the mid-eighties were probably his darkest years career-wise, when he confessed to feeling overwhelmed by self-disgust. Appearing in Hearts Of FIre (surely one of the worst films ever made) was probably his single biggest career mis-step.
     
  10. Shem the Penman

    Shem the Penman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    I'm curious about the last statement - I get the sense too that Dylan was all over the place in the 80s with no real musical or moral ground, at least not the sort that we were used to. Funny that I can follow him all the way into the Gospel phase (not my personal bag at all) but the 80s stuff just seems distant and half-baked. Like "Clean Cut Kid" feels so simplistic and dashed off that it's almost an insult - it's like why bother? "Band Of The Hand" strikes me the same way, it's an okay little song but no way do I connect with it the way I do with his best stuff. I think he got his moral & musical center from folk music, you can hear him rediscovering his craft on those covers albums and then the creative rebirth that followed.
     
  11. LandHorses

    LandHorses I contain multitudes

    Location:
    New Joisey
    One of the dumbest CD things I didn't do. I remember being in a store I used to frequent in the late 80s......saw the HeartsOfFire soundtrack in the $3 used CD bin and said "maybe later." Now you can't get it below $100. :shrug::doh:
     
  12. lschwart

    lschwart Senior Member

    Location:
    Richmond, VA
    I'm a big fan of this record, too. Glad I have the original 7". I can see not liking the song's sentiment, particularly if you take it as a political/ethical statement, but I just think it rocks and that it's a potent expression of the impulse toward prophetic vengeance and vigliantism. Whatever his actual political thoughts at the time, it's not like those impulses have ever been alien to Dylan's work....

    It partakes, musically, of the force that wails through "The Groom's Still Waiting...," "Need a Woman," "Clean Cut Kid," and other forceful moments amid the confusions of the '80s Dylan.

    L.
     
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  13. TommyTunes

    TommyTunes Senior Member

    Really? I bought mine used for a couple of bucks a few years ago. This one i'm surprised about.
     
  14. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I think it epitomizes why it was embarrassing to be a Dylan fan in the mid-80s. Crass, written-to-order lyrics that are a bizarre hybrid of "Slow Train Coming" and "Smuggler's Blues," with an undistinguished musical backing that's weighted down by awful, ham-fisted 80s-style explosion drumming. I know it's the nature of hardcore fans to overexamine everything, even the minor and obscure works of their favorites. But I'm puzzled how anyone could view this track as anything exceptional.
     
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  15. bfackler

    bfackler Senior Member

    Location:
    North America
    I think it's a very nice studio track and it was great in concert. I'd like to have an official CD copy. I like it much better than Knocked Out Loaded and the Hearts of Fire soundtrack.
     
  16. lschwart

    lschwart Senior Member

    Location:
    Richmond, VA
    Puzzled right back at you. I have little affection for most of what Dylan released in 1985-89, but this is one of those tracks that feels to me like it's greater than the sum of it's parts. It's not that it's a masterpiece as a song, it's just the slamming presence of the singer and the band. I don't see how that doesn't come across for you, but OK if it doesn't. For me it's one of those glimmers of something amid the general confusions and misfires of those years.

    L.
     
  17. avant-gardener

    avant-gardener Active Member

    Location:
    Maine, USA
    "Clean Cut Kid" highlights Bob's "moral center." The song completely speaks to Bob's "moral center." "Clean Cut Kid" and "Trust Yourself" are two songs from "Empire Burlesque" having a message beyond open-interpretation poetry. "I'll Remember You" is also uncomplicated in that way. Some of his best songs are more elusively metaphysical in their approaches, but of all of them, "Clean Cut Kid" is very straight forward and all about morality. It's one of his rarer linear songs. I don't know why people are always getting on Bob about his 'morals.' That’s a presumption you’re making about Bob, the human being, removed from his art. Would you question Picasso's morals because he created "Guernica," or any of his other paintings? Bob is not the messiah. He's an artist. Btw, the songwriting is excellent on "Empire Burlesque," too bad about the production.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2015
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  18. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I was speaking specifically of "Neighborhood Bully", "Union Sundown" and "License to Kill", which many critics at the time perceived as a large step to the political right for Dylan (justifying violence, promoting protectionism and seeing unions as the victims of their own greed, suggesting that the space program was hubris on man's part). I recall Dylan's response to one reporter was something along the lines of "There is no right and left, there's just truth and untruth".

    Personally I love the Gospel period (despite being a hardcore Atheist) because I love with the conviction with which he sings. To me, that conviction is present in spades in "Band of the Hand" (while being fairly absent in say, "Clean Cut Kid").

    I wonder (not that there's an answer) how much the content of the film influenced the song he eventually wrote, and how much of it reflects his feelings about the state of the world in 1986. "Band of the Hand" seems to line up well with a number of Bob's "the world's going to Hell in a hand basket" songs, like "Groom's" and "Trouble". I don't hear any less conviction when he wishes death to drug dealers in 1986 than when he wished death to those who profit from the military industrial complex in 1963.
     
  19. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Thank you for fleshing out your response - it makes for good discussion! I'm with you on the "bizarre hybrid" part, but that's part of what draws me to the song.
     
  20. Nightswimmer

    Nightswimmer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    I agree. What also annoys me: The awful backing vocals.

    What is even worse: The song makes me uncomfortable. Musically it lacks distinction and the downright reactionary and "underwritten" lyrics make me cringe.
     
  21. markbrow

    markbrow Forum President

    Location:
    Denver
    I love this song, as well as Things Have Changed, which was also a single written for a movie, yes? I needledropped Band of the Hand a long time ago -- never knew of a CD release.
     
  22. Nightswimmer

    Nightswimmer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    "Things Have Changed" is great though. It does not pander to the musical style of its time and it delivers much more coherent lyrics that seem to offer an geniune view into Dylan's mind. My ratings:

    Things Have Changed *****
    Band Of The Hand *1/2
     
  23. mtruslow

    mtruslow Forum Resident

    Location:
    Towson, Maryland
    The "Band Of The Hand" soundtrack is available on iTunes for 4.99.
     
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  24. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I find your comments about the music interesting because I think it's a memorable and exciting musical backing, and I find it far less "80s" that most everything else Dylan recorded in this period.

    Could you expand on "underwritten"? Does that mean simplistic? It sure can't mean vague.
     
  25. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I'm not clear on what is incoherent about "Band of the Hand"s lyrics. A listener might disagree strongly with them, or even be offended by them, but they make their case in a rather clear cut fashion.
     
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