Dylan’s “bad” albums: worth getting?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by beatlesfan9091, Jun 14, 2019.

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  1. Echoes Myron

    Echoes Myron Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    "Bounce wiggle, bounce wiggle / shaking all them bangs out"
     
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  2. Guy E

    Guy E Senior Member

    Location:
    Antalya, Turkey
    I love Self Portrait, but Dylan only has a couple of keepers to my ears. It doesn't have a similar flavor, even if the songs were [recorded semi-acoustic and then] overdubbed during the same Bob Johnston sessions.

    I agree. I prefer World Gone Wrong by some distance. Dylan's guitar work has a wonderful feel. It's a darker, more serious album. It has a great cover too.
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2019
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  3. IbMePdErRoIoAmL

    IbMePdErRoIoAmL lazy drunken hillbilly with a heart full of hate

    Location:
    Miami Valley
    I cannot conceive of a universe where World Gone Wrong is considered a "bad" album.
     
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  4. willwin

    willwin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    The Mad Hatter :)
     
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  5. Etherpitch65

    Etherpitch65 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manalapan NJ
    Of these listed,I think Shot of Love and Under the Red Sky are clearly the best
     
  6. bodine

    bodine Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington DC
    Most of them I bought and discarded.

    World Gone Wrong is sublime, Bob digging into the obscure blues and folk diamonds that sustained and revived his own compositions starting in the late 90s.

    Under the Red Sky, on the other hand, is my guilty pleasure. Yes, it’s got Wiggle Wiggle, but I return to it every so often because there are tiny pleasures throughout.
     
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  7. ssmith3046

    ssmith3046 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona desert
    If you come across the soundtrack for the movie Wonder Boys pick it up.
     
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  8. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    You and me, pal. Very enjoyable album.
     
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  9. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    • Saved
    • Shot of Love
    • Empire Burlesque
    • Down in the Groove
    • Under the Red Sky
    • World Gone Wrong
    These are not simply the ones to get out of his "bad" albums, they're actually GOOD albums, imo.

    Saved, of course, is part of the more overtly religious albums Dylan has recorded, but putting that aside for the moment, it's just a wonderfully recorded album. Everyone is in top form. There's an argument that's made that the live performances were better, which I won't go into. Even if the live performances are "better", that doesn't take anything away from this studio effort, imo.

    Shot of Love is just magnificent. It contains some brilliantly aggressive Dylan (Trouble), but also some good heartfelt ballads (Every Grain of Sand). I really enjoy the journey of this album from start to finish. It sounds rather raw, and suffers none for that.

    Empire Burlesque - well what can one say? It suffers for it's production, which timestamps it. That said, every single track is simple brilliant. The ballads are the highlight here for me, but you also get some epics numbers, an acoustic classic, and a rocker or two. Forget the production, allow the songs in. Some of the ballads on here are up there with Blood on the Tracks for me.

    Down in the Groove is justly castigated. The issue here is the opposite of Shot of Love. The journey of this album from start to finish is a bumpy road. As soon as you settle into something it veers off in a whole other direction. It totally feels like someone found a load of disparate tracks and glued them together for an album. It's short, and it over before it's started (almost). But I can't help love the poor thing. While the songs don't tell a story as such, they're still mostly good. I think I love this because it's so damn odd. I play it quite regularly, and you never get used to it's odd presence.

    Under a Red Sky just plain sounds fantastic. Man, I know Dylan wasn't thrilled with the "all-star" nature of the recording sessions, but this sounds scintillating, energetic, and exciting from start to end. I just love how this thing plays out, it's a lot of fun.

    World Gone Wrong? Yeah. I don't see how anyone can love early Dylan, and not love this. So enough said.
     
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  10. [QUOTE="Vaughan")

    World Gone Wrong? Yeah. I don't see how anyone can love early Dylan, and not love this. So enough said.[/QUOTE]

    I can. His vocals ruin it for me. His voice was totally shot by this point.
     
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  11. WayneC

    WayneC Hopelessly addicted to vinyl

    Location:
    England

    I'm sorery but I have to disagreee with the "worst of his career" - I LOVE World Gone Wrong!!
     
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  12. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    I can. His vocals ruin it for me. His voice was totally shot by this point.[/QUOTE]

    Hm, sounds just like Dylan to me. :D
     
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  13. John Rhett Thomas

    John Rhett Thomas Forum Resident

    Location:
    Macon, GA, USA
    My heart sank when I saw it listed. I've never heard a single human being describe it as "bad" until now. It's one of his absolute best.
     
  14. arthurprecarious

    arthurprecarious Forum Resident

    Location:
    North East England
    So - are you saying “This album is rubbish but I like it”? (FWIW I think it is rubbish - haven’t listened to it all the way through for years)
     
  15. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    Ack! WORLD GONE WRONG does not to deserve to be on that list -- at all. That and its companion, GOOD AS I BEEN TO YOU, marked some sort of rebirth that led to a late career renaissance.
     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2019
  16. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Hm, sounds just like Dylan to me. :D[/QUOTE]
    The quality of the vocals is a valid argument. For anyone who can't take Dylan's shot voice, which seemed to appear in 1989 or so.
     
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  17. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    Yeah, let me clarify - sort of. Subjectively, I can see all the faults, warts, and all. It's bad from the cover image to the way the tracks and sequenced to it's B-Grade, languid, performances. I know all this, I truly do.

    But then when I play it, and as I say, I play it reasonably often, I enjoy it. It's so ad-hoc I can't really get to hate it, it's just slightly bonkers. A so-so track will play out, and then the next track will rock you back on your heels. I guess my brain is saying: Something's not right here. But my heart is saying, "Hey, this sounds pretty cool!"

    It also works better on CD due to its short running time, imo.

    So yeah, it's not great. But I love it. In England we call this The Marmite Effect. :D
     
  18. musicaner

    musicaner Forum Resident

    this thread is way wrong all those albums are great.
     
  19. Siegmund

    Siegmund Vinyl Sceptic

    Location:
    Britain, Europe

    The albums I have underlined are by no means bad.

    In fact, of your list I would say there are only two - Knocked Out Loaded and Down In The Groove - that should probably be avoided, and even those have their defenders. Silvio on DITG is a good tex-mex style rocker and a lot of people like Brownsville Girl on KOL (though I, personally, don't).

    Empire Burlesque features some strong songs matched to truly horrible 80s production.

    Saved is Slow Train Coming part 2 - less engaging than the first album of the trilogy but not bad at all.

    Shot Of Love is Dylan's best album of the 80s from a purely songwriting point of view, and it contains arguably his finest ever song. For that reason alone, it is essential listening.

    It's a long time since I last heard UTRS and I can't remember much about it and I'm not sure I've evert heard Dylan (aka, 'Columbia's Revenge') at all.

    World Gone Wrong is an OK folk covers album. If you like his debut album, you'll probably like WGW.

    Pat Garrett....is an excellent largely instrumental album. Dylan is not always 'about the words.'
     
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  20. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    There's some great song-by-song threads on these lesser appreciated albums. I'd highly recommend using the search function to take a look as there was a lot of interesting commentary.
     
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  21. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Of the ones I've seen listed here:

    Saved. I've always loved this album. It's my favorite of the trilogy. Gospel at its rawest.

    Shot of Love. I've never liked the title track until participating in the song by song thread. That exercise helped boost the album for me (and the song).

    Dylan. It's okay. Compared to Self Portrait, it's a masterpiece. :D

    Self Portrait. Horrible.

    Knocked Out Loaded. I like five out of the eight songs: You Wanna Ramble, Precious Memories, Brownsville Girl, Got My Mind Made Up, Under Your Spell. I don't like the other three tracks.

    The Sinatra Stuff. One listen was enough. Am indifferent.
     
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  22. onlyconnect

    onlyconnect The prose and the passion

    Location:
    Winchester, UK
    Glad to find another Triplicate fan :)

    Tim
     
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  23. tages

    tages Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    SAVED is a beautiful, powerful statement of humble bliss featuring passionate vocals and great chord changes. It knocked me sideways and had a hand in changing my life for the better. I can’t listen to it and not be moved.

    Only thing I would change is to end the album with “Blessed Is The Name” and leave “Are You Ready” off for a B-side.

    He was more “poetic” in SLOW TRAIN COMING and more unsure in SHOT OF LOVE which are probably more interesting to people from an artistic point but the sheer joy of SAVED is where I like to visit most often.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  24. Jimmy B.

    Jimmy B. .

    Location:
    .
    Well of these..
    World Gone Wrong is a GREAT album.
    Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid is nice.
    Shot of Love has its moments.
    Empire Burlesque suffers from production, unfortunately.
    Knocked Down Loaded and Down In The Groove are overly trashed but they do have their moments also.
    Under The Red Sky is a lot better than most people will give it credit for, IMO.
    Shadows In The Night is one of the two good Sinatra albums by him for me, along with Triplicate - and it's probably the best one to start with of those.

    But by all means,
    World Gone Wrong.
     
  25. Pussycat

    Pussycat (=^•.•^=)~*

    Location:
    Tucson, Arizona
    I can. His vocals ruin it for me. His voice was totally shot by this point.[/QUOTE]

    That's like saying you don't really like creamed filling when you're almost done with the bag of Oreos.
     
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