Dylan’s “bad” albums: worth getting?

Well said. For me even the "Lesser Albums", if they have just one song. They are worth the price of admission.

Not a fan of the Christian Albums, but Soild Rock and Proprty of Jesus Re pretty good.

The Dylan LP, I have a soft spot for Mr. Bojangles and it.s hard to like the sentiment of Ira HayesI

I could go on.

 

My grandkids LOVE THAT SONG. It`s their favorite Dylan song, and most likely their gateway into that Dylan catalog as they grow up.

I can picture Dylan sitting under a shade tree, noodling on his guitar, while his grandchildren are running around crazy. He starts to play the song and rush over to him and start to Wiggle Wiggle.

Do you think they can do The Wilbury Twist?


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Saved and Shot of Love...pretty important in my collection.

 

I called it quits by 2010 but in all honesty the last album I loved was Street Legal.

 

It's not so much "bad" per se, but one has to admit the ups and downs of an artists' musical journey and I find it fascinating in analyzing some of the lesser celebrated works as opposed to the vast majority of approved and/or acknowledged superior works. In my opinion, singer-songwriter icons such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young certainly have their share of masterpieces as well as lesser valued releases. Sometimes there's bursts of absolute consistent creativity and other times, there's albums released with songs put together that might not always flow together naturally. But among some of these less than inspired works, there's always a guarantee that there will be a gem or two within the bunch. That's my view and/or take on it.

 

The thing is... there's always a classis Dylan song to save those lesser albums...

Christmas in the Heart : Must be Santa
Dylan : Spanish is the Loving Tongue
Down in the Groove : Death is not the End
Under the Red Sky : Born in Time
Saved : Pressing On
Knocked Out Loaded : Brownsville Girl
Self Portrait : Alberta No.2
Empire Burlesque : Dark Eyes
Bob Dylan : Baby, Let me Follow you Down

 

Agree. I believe it is Chuck Klosterman who has advocated for the notion that an artist’s “bad” albums are often more revealing than their acknowledged classics. His theory, as I understand it, is that, even when a genius is in a bad place personally or professionally, you still see glimpses of their talent shine through, as with, say “Brownsville Girl” on Knocked Out Loaded, and that can be more interesting than an album where pretty much everything works, such as Bringing It All Back Home or Blood on the Tracks.

With somebody like Dylan, whose career cannot be divided into “good” and “bad” halves, i.e., there’s no moment where it all went wrong and nothing after that was ever good again, the “bad” albums such as Under The Red Sky are often just as interesting as the acknowledged peaks such as Time Out of Mind. At least to me.

 

Or there are outtakes or live versions from the lesser albums that show what could have been. Like many people, I’m not a huge fan of Saved as it was released, yet I find the live version of Solid Rock on Trouble No More pretty compelling.

 

Exactly. For example, the triad of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde is a creative peak that I don't think Bob could ever repeat or reproduce on that level. Now, to a lesser degree, Blood on the Tracks, Desire and Street Legal could be seen as the parallel or 70's counterpart to the previous decade, but its within a different age, mindset and maturity level. Also, the first round of the Rolling Thunder Revue was much more exciting, in my opinion than the early spring/summer of the '76 cycle. Of course, I think he was going through the beginnings of the break-up divorce with Sara, but I digress. Bob's career has certainly seen its share of peaks and valleys and even on some of his single album releases, the songs represent this too.

 

It's Dylan.....buy 'em all.

 

This guy gets it!

 

I agree with almost everything you say here except for Saved. Saved is a great heart-felt soulful record. I love its sincerity. Knocked out Loaded is a very good album; certainly, it's not excellent, but it's fun to listen to that "Brownsville Girl" and the movie about Gregory Peck.

 

Yeah Saved is great, although maybe my least favorite of the gospel albums...are we calling those Slow Train, Saved, and Shot of Love? With those I'd go:

1. STC
2. SOL
3. Saved

but dig them all.