Dylan's Ruts

arthurprecarious

Still Go Barefoot wrote:

arthurprecarious wrote:

Apart from Infidels they are all different degrees of shite. However, within a couple of days there will be loads of posts saying that these albums are great and even Dylan's dregs are a million times bettter than the entire Stones, Springsteen, Neil Young and Bay City Roleers output combined. It will be a stupid opinion but lots of people will say it and I will be called a troll and will be told that I am worse than Hitler.

It doesn't take much to outdo Springsteen and...did I get this correct?...the Bay City Rollers (are you serious?)...why didn't you mention Mellencamp too?
Regardless, the albums listed in the poll above are all GREAT, so don't be such a troll, Hitler!

See?......

What's wrong with the Rollers?

Johanna Parker

iamhere

Knocked out Loaded has enough songs to keep it going better than Down In the Groove.

-Maybe Someday
-Got my Mind Made up
-Drifftin Too far
-Brownsville Girl
All energetic and fun where else Down In the Groove has nothing.. Maybe Silvio... but that songs sucks in my opinion. Some good live performances.

Dylan and the Dead... 87 was a good year for some songs.... just not the songs on the album, but I do like Slow train, I want you, Gotta Serve Somebody, knockin on heaven door; because as someone else mentioned it is interesting for its raw sloppiness.

(Empire burlesque shouldn't have that many votes)!

Troubadour64

henrypussycat wrote:

KoL is unique in having no redeeming qualities although I enjoy "Drifting" in some of its 1988 renditions and it made me curious to hear Waylon Jennings' "Precious Memories"

Infidels is a pretty fine record in places so I've no idea why it's on this list.

Burlesque was a big disappointment after the Rolling Stone writeup but I think that's Planet Waves syndrome: too much hype ruins some decent material and there are a handful of enjoyable tracks on that (Clean Cut Kid, Trust Yourself, Emotionally Yours, Something's Burning come to mind)

Real Live has the fabulous "Tangled" even if it's recorded too late in the tour after the voice is shot. And after initial disappointment with the repeating live tracks on the second side ("Masters", "Thin Man") I've warmed up to the performance. I just wish they would have recorded Vienna or used some of Paris.

DitG is pretty awful but I'm a sucker for the silly and breathtakingly amateur "Shenandoah" (hard to believe he didn't put Pretty Boy Floyd on that record) and I'll recommend the 1988 Lake Compounce "Had a Dream" to any Dylan fan.

I consistently enjoy the final 4-5 tracks on UTRS over anything on the crabby Oh Mercy; more humor, more bitterness, better players, less buttoned up.

I admit I don't have and probably never have had Dylan & the Dead but I recall getting a kick out of another version with Highway 61 and the Wicked Messenger, among others. Kind of a desperate choice after the massive chart failures of the previous few years. Kudos to Garcia for attempting to dig him out.

Troubadour64 wrote:

Also,
the only reason infidels is on the list is because it was released in the 80s and not a Christian album....i'm not anticipating any votes.

rolling_thunder · **Joined:** Sun June 5th, 2011, 07:05 GMT **Posts:** 1775

I don't have Knocked Out Loaded, Down In The Groove, Under The Red Sky or Dylan and The Dead yet. I want to get them pretty soon though as they are just about the only missing pieces in my Dylan collection...as far as albums go anyhow. I also need Dylan and the Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid soundtrack. A couple more live ones after that...anyway though of the 3 I have. Real Live is my least favorite of the bunch, I like Infidels quite a bit to be honest, and like Raging Glory said, Dark Eyes is a masterpiece of a song and goes a long way in making up for the low spots on Empire Burlesque, but I'll be honest I like a lot of the songs on there a good bit. Granted it's not Bob's finest hour or anything, but it's better than it gets credit for "Tight Connection", "When the Night Comes Falling", "Never Gonna Be the Same Again" are quite enjoyable for me as well.

Troubadour64

I think i signed up for the Empire Burlesque Society a while back, so I certainly support those views. i have to say, the one i voted for is the only one i don't own yet - so i've heard it the least. even the difficult albums grow with time...when i get my hands on it, Dylan and the Dead may switch to be my pick. i couldn't vote for it because it was one of my first dylan acquisitions. Iamhere, aren't there some dylan and the dead shows that blow that recording/collection out of the water? are there any shows you recommend?

Mr. Tambourine Man

Down In The Groove has the most redeeming qualities on this list so those who voted for it may want to give it another spin. It's seriously underrated and over-hated. Empire Burlesque (save for Dark Eyes), Infidels, Knocked Out Loaded, and Dylan and The Dead are the bottom of the barrel and the lowest of the lows.

jman

yeah, anyone can do that. you could, but you just didn't feel like it, right?

RichardW

Mr. Tambourine Man wrote:

Down In The Groove has the most redeeming qualities on this list so those who voted for it may want to give it another spin. It's seriously underrated and over-hated. Empire Burlesque (save for Dark Eyes), Infidels, Knocked Out Loaded, and Dylan and The Dead are the bottom of the barrel and the lowest of the lows.

I agree with Tambo - Down in the Groove is bearable. Under The Red Sky is actually okay - once you get passed Wiggle Wiggle.

Working on the "how many times have you listened to it" principle:

Infidels - several times end-to-end, now skip songs if I ever listen to it.

Knocked Out Loaded - twice. Now listen only to Brownsville Girl.

Dylan and the Dead - once. Oh God never again.

Empire Burlesque - never to the end. Once I managed to get to the middle of "When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky" before I had to stop. Mostly now I cannot get through "Clean Cut Kid". I've heard "Dark Eyes" separately, but I don't think I've ever heard the album version of "Something's Burning Baby".

This is an unbelievably unlistenable album. The only recording I've ever heard that made me wish I was deaf.

goombay · **Joined:** Sat April 18th, 2009, 22:24 GMT **Posts:** 4485

dylan and the dead has jerry, the mozart of the guitar.
i aint strifin just postin to this weary thread of woe.

Troubadour64

i couldn't find a bad song on infidels (now the mixing and the versions might be another story)..

agreed that there are some gems on DITG

iamhere

Troubadour64 wrote:

I think i signed up for the Empire Burlesque Society a while back, so I certainly support those views. i have to say, the one i voted for is the only one i don't own yet - so i've heard it the least. even the difficult albums grow with time...when i get my hands on it, Dylan and the Dead may switch to be my pick. i couldn't vote for it because it was one of my first dylan acquisitions. Iamhere, aren't there some dylan and the dead shows that blow that recording/collection out of the water? are there any shows you recommend?

Foxboro, MA
East Rutherford
And the "Determined Boot"legg

Jeeps

Someone voted UTRS?

Tragos114

I actually like UTRS . It's not like it's a good Dylan album but i find it cool none the less .
And i sometimes enjoy Empire in cult kind if way . There's something chadlerian about that album , some pulp thing going on

, especially on Tight Connection , When the Night Comes Falling and Dark Eyes . Whatever it is , it's the same thing that's making love Brownsville Girl .

Still Go Barefoot · **Joined:** Fri July 15th, 2011, 03:23 GMT **Posts:** 10381

henrypussycat wrote:

TheGunfighter wrote:

What? "Brownsville Girl" is one of his greatest songs, ever.

you like Billy Joel, too? Brownsville is a big demonstration of nothing.

How does one equate Brownsville Girl to Billy Joel? This defies logic for me.
Billy Joel kinda falls in the same general category as that of Mellencamp and the Bay City Rollers, no?
Please. Brownsville Girl is not a wimpy song.

henrypussycat

Still Go Barefoot wrote:

How does one equate Brownsville Girl to Billy Joel? This defies logic for me.
Billy Joel kinda falls in the same general category as that of Mellencamp and the Bay City Rollers, no?
Please. Brownsville Girl is not a wimpy song.

It's not a song at all. It's a smarmy Sam Shepard Rolling Thunder wannabe Paris Texas lousy lyric.

Tragos114

No , it's not . It's brilliant :wink:

Troubadour64

I'm pretty sure its a song,... I've tried singing along to it, dancing to it, and playing it in a jukebox and its held up to all three tests....

iamhere

jman

goombay wrote:

dylan and the dead has jerry, the mozart of the guitar.
i aint strifin just postin to this weary thread of woe.

my man.

Still Go Barefoot · **Joined:** Fri July 15th, 2011, 03:23 GMT **Posts:** 10381

Troubadour64 wrote:

I'm pretty sure its a song,... I've tried singing along to it, dancing to it, and playing it in a jukebox and its held up to all three tests....

Just checked that. Yup, you are correct!

Still Go Barefoot · **Joined:** Fri July 15th, 2011, 03:23 GMT **Posts:** 10381

henrypussycat wrote:

Still Go Barefoot wrote:

How does one equate Brownsville Girl to Billy Joel? This defies logic for me.
Billy Joel kinda falls in the same general category as that of Mellencamp and the Bay City Rollers, no?
Please. Brownsville Girl is not a wimpy song.

It's not a song at all. It's a smarmy Sam Shepard Rolling Thunder wannabe Paris Texas lousy lyric.

You probably have similar feelings for Highlands, no?

henrypussycat

Still Go Barefoot wrote:

henrypussycat wrote:

It's not a song at all. It's a smarmy Sam Shepard Rolling Thunder wannabe Paris Texas lousy lyric.

You probably have similar feelings for Highlands, no?

Not really. Highlands is a weird combination of blues riff & the Robert Burns refrain and it has the funny miscommunication at the end; plus Dylan sounds dead serious on that one; there's no Shepard wannabe detail for the sake of detail posing.

Untrodden Path

That anyone could consider Dylan's '80s output a "rut" is beyond me and reveals an obvious need for an album titled World Gone Wrong... (which Bob, in his infinite wisdom, produced to meet that void)...

Unless of course, one feels cheated by the sheer volume of songs remaining in the vaults from this period... but one needs to look at what was produced and what was released and with that there isn't a bad song in the bunch, much less a bad album. Each album contains a minimum of four tracks that define Dylan as an artist to be reckoned with, a tour de force in music, and define outstanding qualities of the album that simply are not available elsewhere on the musical spectrum... qualities so obvious even the deaf can hear it...

Which makes me wonder why so many people are missing it...

Expecting Rain

Dylan's Ruts

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