Expecting Rain

yes - Top 50 Worst Dylan Songs.

but Disease of Conceit is such a giggle; what would a Dylan record be without something nasty like that?

I always thought "Oh Mercy" was kind of overrated and doesn't have much going for it other than its interesting, curious sound. I don't find the writing particularly fascinating and I get quite annoyed by the fact he keeps repeating lines in songs, like "We live in a political world" or "What good am I" - most of these songs just come off as quick scribblings to me, lyric-wise. I listen to it every once in a while, but I prefer his other '80s albums. "Broken idols, broken heads, people sleeping in broken beds"? Zzz.

AND Lou Reed's "New York" came out the same year. Now the writing there is 5 times better than on "Oh Mercy", which is basically, to me, just a whole lot of repetition and lazy rhyming, even though his dedication is undeniable.

This. Neil Young's Times Square/Freedom dates from the same time too, and I think Lou and Neil's comebacks were much, much better. Oh Mercy is okay but as is, I wouldn't call it one of the ten best records of 1989, let alone Dylan's career.

I like "Oh Mercy". A good solid second division Dylan album. Not quite as good as "Time Out Of Mind". Leaving the best song off the album didn't help. Also, like "Time Out Of Mind", Lanois production, while extremely professional and atmospheric, tends to make the songs blend into one another. Probably works better on "Oh Mercy".

A while back I put together a playlist of live performances of "Oh Mercy" session songs. I felt it was a huge improvement on the album, giving it a great deal more variation.

Overrated?!

Overrated?!

Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft are clearly better... but after that its wide open and Oh Mercy as it was released easily in his five best albums. As with the albums that came later, Oh Mercy did not benefit as much from the NET performances as earlier albums. But I don't see how one could consider it overrated.

So, Mr Path, what are Bob's Top 5 albums and where does "Oh Mercy" fit into your ranking? Please, please, please don't rank L&T, Modern Times or TOOM in that Top 5!

If Love and Theft and Time Out of Mind, undoubtedly Bob's best two works (as released) are withdrawn from consideration, then Slow Train Coming, Oh Mercy, Infidels, Modern Times, and Blood On the Tracks would be the top five. Street Legal, Desire, Empire Burlesque, Saved, and Under the Red Sky round out the top ten. The second five are more fluid and often are in reverse order from what I listed.

This is assuming that the "live" albums cannot qualify since they have previously released material. Even though some of the greatest performances of the NET are from the early albums, the original studio releases are so bad it would be unconscionable to consider them based on the NET performance(s). Though these performances significantly improved the original studio releases, the comparisons are being based on the original release.

Oh Mercy is a VERY GOOD album.

I'm sorry UP, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave the KOLLECTIVE (Knocked Out Loaded Lovers Enjoy Coming Together In Various Enterprises), which you may or may not have remembered you were a member of. Saved, EB, and UTRS are to be ranked below KOL by members of the KOLLECTIVE. Think about what you have done.

Some top class trolling on display here - bravo, lads! Here's hoping you can get the sport recognised for 2016....

Top Class UP!

I agree.
Oh mercy is my favourite album, but it has to do with the moment. I was 13 at that time and it unveiled a world for me. It was my immersion in the Dylan world.

Anyway I think it's objectively a masterpiece. And I agree that Where teardrops fall and Disease of conceit are the weaker numbers, but only comparing to the rest.

I wouldn't change the tracklisting because the whole album has a magic. Series of dreams and Dignity are good, but I understand why he left them out:because they would break the feeling. As we have them in other albums, it's alright this way.

I don't know if it's obejectively better than Time out of mind (another wonderful album). For me Oh mercy is more regular, while Time out of mind has more ups and downs. Love & theft is quite inferior for me. I know many people consider it a masterpiece, but not me. I thing those who praise it said this because of the lyrics. I tend to consider that only good lyrics don't do a masterpiece. Wonderful music is more important than that.

Probably it's objectively inferior to Blood on the tracks, but Oh mercy is still special for me.

Here's the version of the album I have on my portable player.

Yo! Mercy
1. Series of Dreams (Tell Tale Signs version)
2. Born In Time (TTS)
3. Everything Is Broken (TTS)
4. Ring Them Bells (Oh Mercy, 2000 remaster)
5. Man In Long Black Coat (OM)
6. Dignity ('Dylan' 3-disk comp)
7. Most Of The Time (OM)
8. What Good Am I (OM)
9. What Was It You Wanted? (OM)
10. Shooting Star (OM)

Looks like a good assessment BB - will make this up and report back. I like the album but it wouldn't be in my Top 5.

Here was NME's take on 1989:

1. 3 Feet High & Rising - De La Soul
2. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
3. New York - Lou Reed
4. Doolittle - Pixies
5. Technique - New Order
6. Yellow Moon - Neville Brothers
7. Club Classics Vol I - Soul Ii Soul
8. Hup - The Wonder Stuff
9. Maria Mckee - Maria Mckee
10. Spike - Elvis Costello
11. Pauls Boutique - Beastie Boys
12. Paradise - Inner City
13. Avalon Sunset - Van Morrison
14. Oh Mercy - Bob Dylan
15. Automatic - The Jesus & Mary Chain
16. Raw Like Sushi - Neneh Cherry
17. The Sensual World - Kate Bush
18. Hats - The Blue Nile
19. Freedom - Neil Young
20. Straight Outta Compton - Nwa

http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/1989.html

To me Everything is Broken is tight focused writing with a bouncy blues background and a great harmonica solo... everything you expect from a good Dylan number. Dylan worked on several takes of this song and tried out diffrent lyrics, but successfully pared things down like good writing does. The repetition works really well. Teardrops has to by my favourite song of that period. Except for the middle eight Shooting Star is a wonderfully compact number - again on the verses great writing. It's a good album although sometimes the levels of lanoisery are turned up too high... Most of the Time and Man in a... being prime examples.

BTW ~ Although I like the overall sound of Time Out of Mind better, it's choc full of lazy writing.... Million Miles... Til I Fell in Love... Make You Feel My Love... hideously bad stuff. At least Lovesick, Not Dark Yet & Trying To Get To Heaven were worth it alone. Red River Shore when I got to hear it was a disappointment too... more formula stuff. The first hearing of Oh Mercy out-take Dignity was much more exciting.

Many giving way more importance to lyrics than to music... And I guess even to certain kind of lyrics, excluding others that are equally great.

Aside from Neil Young, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, and Lou Reed, none of that other stuff deserves to be sold in the same record shop as Oh Mercy, much less on a list with it. With all candor, does anyone want to live in a world where Oh Mercy is regarded as 14 among that list?

Someone should have been fired for that...

^^The Neville Brothers are great, too.

I like "Oh Mercy" quite a bit.
esp. Ring Them Bells, Man in the Long Black Coat and Shooting Star

I dunno. I like Oh Mercy a lot, and have trouble relating to many of the more hostile assessments of it. Even the songs most routinely condemned - 'Political World' and 'Conceit' - have substantial appeal to my ears. The former is a great-sounding track, intensely sung. It has a few dummy lines for sure ('we all know for sure that it's real'), but gets its point across forcefully enough, while the latter offers an appealingly oddball combination of humour with moral gravitas. Lanois was right that 'it's got something,' even if it's hard to specify just what.

As for a fable like 'Man in the Long Black Coat,' there's something puritanical in the attitude that refuses to enjoy it. I think those who dump on it reject any 'objective' art from Dylan; they only want him in a purely 'subjective' mode, spilling his guts from some sort of position of emotional extremity, or seeming to - as on BOTT or the great mid-60s works. Songs like 'Man,' as with much of his later stuff, are clearly coming from a different place, a place of craft and story. But if you accept that kind of songwriting, then what's not to like?

Bob hasn't found any new way of writing or presenting himself on this particular album. It's not an epochal release or a great record in that sense. But there's a depth in the simplicities of these compositions that's not easy to achieve, and that gives me, for one, a lot of satisfaction. Really a fine, enjoyable record.

it was a hard choice to make, but in the end i found side B better.

The tunes are way better on Oh Mercy
Time Out Of Mind is fuck boring in comparison

I agree with this!

I've never cared about almost anything Bob did after "Under the Red Sky". I listen to those newer records every once in a while but they're not the same Bob me. Maybe it's the voice.

This one does: