Frank Zappa producing Dylan’s ‘Infidels’; how would it have sounded?

Well there is a link between Dylan and Zappa : they were both produced by Tom Wilson.
Tom Wilson made some amazing records.

 

It would have sounded like the middle part of "Flakes".

 

For sure. I don't know that albums like You Are What You Is sound much warmer than Infidels. I love Zappa but I don't see how this would have worked out. No way was Dylan going to strum his acoustic over a crazy synth track...although it would have sounded pretty cool if he had!

 

I do wonder if Bob ever heard ‘Flakes’ and if that’s what put the idea of a Zappa collab in his mind in the first place.

 

To me the real issue is the frankenstein of a band that Dylan took to the studio for this album. Mark Knopfler and Mick Taylor? Really? with Sly and Robbie Dunbar? So what is this supposed to be? I think they needed a better answer to the question before they started recording. I enjoy it. But it doesn't seem to gel in some ways.

 

"
...It wasn't but about ten minutes later where Frank and Bob Dylan went out into the studio, and they're plinking around on the piano. Both of them. Just plinking around. And I heated up a microphone, and I actually put it on cassette, by the way. Tommy Mars has this cassette, of Frank and Dylan just writing some stuff together, just plinking around and writing some stuff together. This went on for like a couple of hours. I just ran this—I heated up this microphone over the piano, and those guys were talking and playing, and doing all this little tinking around. And I'm looking through the glass, just thinking, Jesus, how lucky I was to be there, watching basically two legends, who kind of never knew each other, but it didn't matter, because within twenty minutes, they're getting along like they've been—like what made them famous in the first place. What makes these guys famous in the first place is their unique talent that they had, and their ability to just write and create. So you got two guys from two opposite ends of the spectrum, and here they are sitting out there playing, creating something together and having a good old time. To me, it was like an amazing revelation. I obviously felt very privileged, and I always felt very privileged, the whole time I worked with Frank, I really did. He made you feel that way.

But that cassette actually still exists somewhere. Tommy Mars still has the damn thing, I think. And it would be pretty interesting to listen to it. Because Tommy was my roommate at the time I brought it home. I just wanted to throw that in.

Mark Pinske, February 9, 2003
There was just 3 people in the studio that night. Frank, Bob Dylan & myself. Needless to say I felt quite privileged. I will say this much, when I walked Bob down the steps to his car at about 3 AM in the morning he said that he hadn't had that much fun since 1969.

Joe Travers, interviewed by Masato Kato, Player magazine, 2009 (quoted by Harold Lepidus, Bob Dylan Examiner, December 23, 2010)
What happened was, when Bob came to the house, and went and had a meeting with Frank, Frank's engineer at the time, his name was Mark Pinske. And Mark ran off cassettes of the meeting at the time that they were having it. And unfortunately, those cassettes were lent out, and given out to people, and, they are not around any longer. So, unfortunately, those master cassettes of Bob and Frank at the studio talking about a possible working relationship do not live in the vault. They live somewhere else out there in the world."


WOW!!! I had never heard this. Zappa and Dylan messing around with Infidels songs??? Holy moly.

 

I think we're fortunate Infidels turned out exactly the way it did, one of Dylan's Best, an incredible album.
Zappa producing this one........no.

 

Agreed.

 

It’s my favorite Dylan record by a country mile.

 

You mean Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare.

 

Sly Drumbar and Robbie Basspeare.

 

Todd Rundgren would be a better match.

 

To work with Frank Zappa?

 

Agree not a good match.

 

I'm intrigued by Frank's idea of using Giorgio Moroder sythn tracks. It's not specifically mentioned anywhere in the quotes, but IF Frank had planned to put his own blazing, distorted/flanged guitar solos on top of those Moroder tracks, along with Dylan's harmonica and vocals in there -- well to my own purely imaginary ears, it seems to me like THAT album in 1982, would have beaten both ZZ Top's Eliminator (1983) and Neil Young's Trans (December 1982) to the punch. The idea of Dylan making a futuristic synth rock album, a full year before ZZ Top or Neil did the same, would certainly have blown a few minds! Dylan goes really electric! Dylan goes robotic! Interesting to think what this forum's reaction to THAT album would have been, if it had happened.

 

Although I'd be glad to hear it, I don't consider it a holy grail because I think Zappa and Dylan didn't have enough in common musically to have been able to work well together.

 

Perhaps not, but I’d be interested in listening to it just to hear how they related to one another, never mind the music. I think it’s a fascinating moment cos here are 2 60s icons and eccentrics who never actually met during that time finally meeting and sizing each other up.

 

Interesting postulation, although given that the incident where Dylan doorstepped Zappa didn’t occur till December 1982, it wouldn’t have predated the Neil Young album, and probably not the ZZ Top album.

 

I think it's supposed to be inventive. And it was. I think it's supposed to be inspired. And it was. I think it's supposed to work in the context of the songs. It did. Like crazy.

 

I was listening to this album a lot back in 1983 and 1984 or so. Hardly slick for the 1980s dude. Not my favorite Dylan album of all time but a solid outing nevertheless. I mean Sly and Robbie on Jokerman what else can you ask for?

 

Lee Perry producing Infidels. That's the remix I want to hear.

Maybe there's still time to put that together.

 

Well...I could ask for it to sound better! Sly & Robbie do a great job, but overall the album just has on overly processed sound to it. Though it's not audiophile work, I'd take the original mix of Street Legal over the sound on Infidels. It breathes, you can hear Dylan's vocals reacting emotionally to the band's playing. Infidels is a canned version of that, which is a pity because there's some great players on it.

 

I think Dylan was looking for an 80's sound with a rough edge, enter Zappa.
Infidels is a slow paced album I think Zappa would have kick started Infidels to a more lively sound.

Listening to Zappas output 1980's he still made some great rock n roll when he had to. Them Or Us 1984 has some great solid instrumentation on it. No doubt Frank could have at least pumped up the atmosphere on Infidels. IMHO

Could see Bob doing a killer version of Ya Hazna.

 

Have Bob sing the Frank parts and Frank sing the “Bob” parts!