You (old time music listeners that is) can't really argue with this week's selection - we have a couple of "mid" period Dylan albums, the last Doors album, and some JJ Cale, plus another Bob who surprisingly sounds like Dylan, and a classic from Dylan's sometime backing band, the Band.
The Doors - American Prayer
Bob Geldof - The Happy Club
Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy
Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind
JJ Cale - Naturally
The Band - Music From Big Pink
Pretty good eh? Not what I expected from Bob Geldof.
No time left this week to give the Band's record a thorough review but checkout this post for some background reading on the making of "Big Pink".
Cover art this post: The Oh Mercy cover is a picture by street artist "Trotsky" Dylan found on a wall in New York.
American Prayer is surprisingly a really good record. It is a pot pourri of live performances, parts of existing recordings, and "new" Jim Morrison poems set to music. It shouldn't work, but it does, very well.
Morrison's spoken words are on the verge of being sung and don't sound much different to some regular Doors tracks. The accompanying music is chilled - funky and jazzy. The music fits perfectly and if you didn't know you probably would never guess that the vocal tracks were recorded separately (apparently by Morrison in 1969 and 1970). The editing is top class and the tracks merge with each other producing a coherent album which is greater than the sum of its parts and one that should really be listened to in one sitting from start to finish.
Morrison's spoken words are on the verge of being sung and don't sound much different to some regular Doors tracks. The accompanying music is chilled - funky and jazzy. The music fits perfectly and if you didn't know you probably would never guess that the vocal tracks were recorded separately (apparently by Morrison in 1969 and 1970). The editing is top class and the tracks merge with each other producing a coherent album which is greater than the sum of its parts and one that should really be listened to in one sitting from start to finish.
American Prayer earns its right to be considered a genuine part of the Doors discography.
We have two what I've called "mid" period albums from Bob Dylan although really you could argue they are "late" period considering his output slowed a lot from the 90s. These two albums featured here are separated by 8 years and only one intervening (originals) album (Under The Red Sky).
Like many artists who made their name in the 60s and 70s, the 80s was a tough decade for Dylan who was struggling to find his way in the new musical environment. For many his last great album from his hey day would have been Street Legal (1978), or my personal favourite Desire (1976), or even the one before that, the classic Blood On The Tracks (1975).
He had a brief dally with religion as the 70s turned - a trilogy of gospel celebrations of his new found christianity beginning with Slow Train Coming and following up with Saved and Shot of Love.
Moving into the general musical wasteland of the 80s Dylan bounced back somewhat with Infidels which is pretty alright but then fell victim of the musical fashions of the day with some bland over produced albums like Empire Burlesque and Knocked Out Loaded supplemented by some uninspiring live albums.
But then, mirroring similar trajectories of singer-songwriter contemporaries Van Morrison (Avalon Sunset) and Neil Young (Freedom), Dylan pulled one out the bag right at the end of the decade with Oh Mercy released in 1989.
The album was hailed as a return to form on its release and this wasn't merely due to comparison with the preceding string of disappointing efforts. The production by Daniel Lanois is smooth and positively lush like on the gorgeous Most Of The Time. The sound is polished but the balance is right and the laid back introspective music flows assuredly behind Dylan's nasal outpourings (thankfully the 80s drum slap has been left behind). Man In The Long Black Coat and What Good Am I? are beautiful / Ring Them Bells could be an outtake from 1970's New Morning and I really like the blues chug of Everything is Broken which foreshadows the tracks on Time Out Of Mind:
Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds,
Ain't no use jiving,
Ain't no use joking,
Everything is broken.
There is some gorgeous languid guitar on this album. I have a feeling it could be Lanois's playing? Almost certainly it won't be Dylan. Let's check...
Oh yes, it is (Lanois) at least on some of the tracks like the aforementioned Most Of The Time and the brilliant What Was It You Wanted which also features some of the best ever Dylan harmonica blowing:
Daniel Lanois also produces Time Out Of Mind but with quite a different approach. The production here is stripped right back to a raw blues and rock sound which ideally suits Dylan's new found gravelly growl and the backing band's bar room aesthetic. With plentiful gutsy guitar riffs on tracks like Can't Wait and Cold Irons Bound (below) this is one of Dylan's heaviest albums despite one or two down tempo ballads like Make You Feel My Love.
What a great looking band too.
The album finishes on the Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands like Highlands - at 16 minutes Dylan's longest ever recorded song. It's no symphonic epic - the track just repeats a hypnotic blues guitar round over and over and Dylan sings long verses of stream of consciousness lyrics (just like the old days!):
I'm listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound
Someone's always yellin' "Turn it down."
Like many artists who made their name in the 60s and 70s, the 80s was a tough decade for Dylan who was struggling to find his way in the new musical environment. For many his last great album from his hey day would have been Street Legal (1978), or my personal favourite Desire (1976), or even the one before that, the classic Blood On The Tracks (1975).
He had a brief dally with religion as the 70s turned - a trilogy of gospel celebrations of his new found christianity beginning with Slow Train Coming and following up with Saved and Shot of Love.
 |
| The 'born again' trilogy |
Moving into the general musical wasteland of the 80s Dylan bounced back somewhat with Infidels which is pretty alright but then fell victim of the musical fashions of the day with some bland over produced albums like Empire Burlesque and Knocked Out Loaded supplemented by some uninspiring live albums.
 |
| Dylan sits under the red sky and surveys the wasteland of most of his 80s work |
But then, mirroring similar trajectories of singer-songwriter contemporaries Van Morrison (Avalon Sunset) and Neil Young (Freedom), Dylan pulled one out the bag right at the end of the decade with Oh Mercy released in 1989.
The album was hailed as a return to form on its release and this wasn't merely due to comparison with the preceding string of disappointing efforts. The production by Daniel Lanois is smooth and positively lush like on the gorgeous Most Of The Time. The sound is polished but the balance is right and the laid back introspective music flows assuredly behind Dylan's nasal outpourings (thankfully the 80s drum slap has been left behind). Man In The Long Black Coat and What Good Am I? are beautiful / Ring Them Bells could be an outtake from 1970's New Morning and I really like the blues chug of Everything is Broken which foreshadows the tracks on Time Out Of Mind:
Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds,
Ain't no use jiving,
Ain't no use joking,
Everything is broken.
There is some gorgeous languid guitar on this album. I have a feeling it could be Lanois's playing? Almost certainly it won't be Dylan. Let's check...
Oh yes, it is (Lanois) at least on some of the tracks like the aforementioned Most Of The Time and the brilliant What Was It You Wanted which also features some of the best ever Dylan harmonica blowing:
Daniel Lanois also produces Time Out Of Mind but with quite a different approach. The production here is stripped right back to a raw blues and rock sound which ideally suits Dylan's new found gravelly growl and the backing band's bar room aesthetic. With plentiful gutsy guitar riffs on tracks like Can't Wait and Cold Irons Bound (below) this is one of Dylan's heaviest albums despite one or two down tempo ballads like Make You Feel My Love.
What a great looking band too.
The album finishes on the Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands like Highlands - at 16 minutes Dylan's longest ever recorded song. It's no symphonic epic - the track just repeats a hypnotic blues guitar round over and over and Dylan sings long verses of stream of consciousness lyrics (just like the old days!):
I'm listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound
Someone's always yellin' "Turn it down."
When asked for a short version of the song by one of the recording engineers Dylan replied: "That was the short version."
It seems odd to talk about an artist finding himself (or more to the point re-finding himself) after 30 years or so but both these albums and in particular Time Out Of Mind sounds like an artist who has come to terms with a new style and is at home in his own skin. The voice is now a gruff growl but this is Bob Dylan sounding like his real self in 1997.
It is often easy to write off post 70s output of many artists especially singer song writers like Bob Dylan. These two albums demonstrate that can be a short sighted view - a view I must admit having assumed too. I'm mighty pleased to have rediscovered these two albums which have given me a new found respect for latter period Bob Dylan which opens up a whole new catalogue of listening I had assumed was unworthy of examination. Standby for some further excursions into post 1978 Bob Dylan!
It is however a shame that for the most part Dylan isn't able to reproduce the quality of the production on these two albums live. I've seen him a few times since the 80s and his live voice leaves plenty to be desired (unlike the aforementioned Young and Morrison who are still great singers). In my experience it is even difficult to recognise some Dylan songs live and you sometimes wonder if he has even met his backing band let alone rehearsed with them!
You just never know what you're going to get. He's an eccentric man.
Daniel Lanois on Bob Dylan
It seems odd to talk about an artist finding himself (or more to the point re-finding himself) after 30 years or so but both these albums and in particular Time Out Of Mind sounds like an artist who has come to terms with a new style and is at home in his own skin. The voice is now a gruff growl but this is Bob Dylan sounding like his real self in 1997.
It is often easy to write off post 70s output of many artists especially singer song writers like Bob Dylan. These two albums demonstrate that can be a short sighted view - a view I must admit having assumed too. I'm mighty pleased to have rediscovered these two albums which have given me a new found respect for latter period Bob Dylan which opens up a whole new catalogue of listening I had assumed was unworthy of examination. Standby for some further excursions into post 1978 Bob Dylan!
It is however a shame that for the most part Dylan isn't able to reproduce the quality of the production on these two albums live. I've seen him a few times since the 80s and his live voice leaves plenty to be desired (unlike the aforementioned Young and Morrison who are still great singers). In my experience it is even difficult to recognise some Dylan songs live and you sometimes wonder if he has even met his backing band let alone rehearsed with them!
As for the other Bob - I heard this song in a shop and thought it was Dylan:
Pretty good eh? Not what I expected from Bob Geldof.
No time left this week to give the Band's record a thorough review but checkout this post for some background reading on the making of "Big Pink".
Cover art this post: The Oh Mercy cover is a picture by street artist "Trotsky" Dylan found on a wall in New York.
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