20TH ANNIVERSARY 2LP + 7″ edition on Sony Legacy. MIndblowing 1997 album w/Love Sick, produced by Daniel Lanois.
Reviews
Janet Chandler –
In his long career Bob Dylan has always liked to shake things up a bit for his fans. Just when he classified as the best folk singer around here comes an electric guitar added to the mix that outraged folk music fans. Then just as people accepted his going electric Dylan went country. Then there was that gospel period and so on and so on. In 1997 as Dylan was at it again when he released what would become a Grammy award winning album for him “Time Out Of Mind”. Dylan had always in the past dabbled a little in the blues but with this release Dylan was all in with the blues. Once again Dylan fools everyone by going in another direction musically. And it works.Now I will admit it took two or three times for me to listen to this before I started getting into the album. In fact if I had wrote this review after just listening to this for the first time I would maybe at best given this three stars. But realizing this was something different from what I was use to from Dylan I gave this album a chance and it is now grown on me. I get it what Dylan was doing here and I like it. This is down and dirty gritty kind of blues singing about lost love, unfaithful love and wanting a second chance. Factor in how Bob’s voice sounded at this stage of his career with its rough, gravelly sound just makes the songs seem better. This is an album he probably could have made earlier in his career when he was younger but the effect would not be the same as it is now as an older man, Dylan was in his mid-50s when this was recorded. This is a man who has been scarred by love but still looking for it.As for the song themselves Dylan shows he still knows how to write thought provoking lyrics with catchy musical hooks to them. Some of the better songs on here I like include “Not Dark Yet”, “Cold Irons Bound” and “Highlands”. The overall production of this album is outstanding but that is to be expected since Daniel Lanois produced it. He was the same producer who worked with Dylan on his 1989 “Oh Mercy” album (an album which I personally think is even better then this one) which many people hail as the beginning of Dylan’s comeback musically after earlier albums he had released during the ’80s that didn’t do so well. Whether that is true or not this altogether is up there among the best work Dylan has made in his long career. Maybe not quite in the same league as “Highway 61 Revisited” or “Blood On The Tracks” or some of his earlier albums but still a major contribution from his career.You may find this way different for Dylan the way I did the first time I listened to this album. But give it a chance the way I did and I think you will find this album will grow on you. Trust me this is an album you need to add to your music collection.
Bad Dolphin –
Over the years the first Dylan Recording I heard and purchased was in mono and he was sort of looking like a gypsy I thought in a Greek cap, but when he added at Newport early Sunday morning long before any programs started playing with members of the Butterfield Blues Band it was kind of amazing. I was sort of passed out next to my Triumph with some I think VCU student’s, and what I thought was Indian’s chasing me, (a guy with fringe leather pants no shirt and I am like 40 ft . behind the stage, as I remember they were like just using the amplifier’s on stage, not the big towers, though I think at some point people starting yelling louder and others folk purists yelling that Dylan was Judas, which really didn’t make sense to me then and less now. We behind the stage keep lighting these fires, and digging it, real and fresh, but no way organic.The point is for the most part I think his music has shown us his humility in later years, his always present comedic sense and his professionalism as an artist. Artists produce something and if they are known and someone likes it, they make money. I do art for myself, I have sold and given away a few pieces but that is not what I do it for , artists create. People and critic’s like to talk about this and other stuff, good for them. Along with Santana , Miles Davis and a few others these are people I have gone seen a multiple of times and have lots of the music they have produced, this has been one of my favorites. I think it is worth 5 stars it is one of the things that I have an extra brand new copy, (This purchase). I have it in my cloud on mixed Cd’s and on SDHC minis for the road, on the road play this, and it takes me to then when I don’t like now.
Edd Anderson –
In his long career Bob Dylan has always liked to shake things up a bit for his fans. Just when he classified as the best folk singer around here comes an electric guitar added to the mix that outraged folk music fans. Then just as people accepted his going electric Dylan went country. Then there was that gospel period and so on and so on. In 1997 as Dylan was at it again when he released what would become a Grammy award winning album for him “Time Out Of Mind”. Dylan had always in the past dabbled a little in the blues but with this release Dylan was all in with the blues. Once again Dylan fools everyone by going in another direction musically. And it works.Now I will admit it took two or three times for me to listen to this before I started getting into the album. In fact if I had wrote this review after just listening to this for the first time I would maybe at best given this three stars. But realizing this was something different from what I was use to from Dylan I gave this album a chance and it is now grown on me. I get it what Dylan was doing here and I like it. This is down and dirty gritty kind of blues singing about lost love, unfaithful love and wanting a second chance. Factor in how Bob’s voice sounded at this stage of his career with its rough, gravelly sound just makes the songs seem better. This is an album he probably could have made earlier in his career when he was younger but the effect would not be the same as it is now as an older man, Dylan was in his mid-50s when this was recorded. This is a man who has been scarred by love but still looking for it.As for the song themselves Dylan shows he still knows how to write thought provoking lyrics with catchy musical hooks to them. Some of the better songs on here I like include “Not Dark Yet”, “Cold Irons Bound” and “Highlands”. The overall production of this album is outstanding but that is to be expected since Daniel Lanois produced it. He was the same producer who worked with Dylan on his 1989 “Oh Mercy” album (an album which I personally think is even better then this one) which many people hail as the beginning of Dylan’s comeback musically after earlier albums he had released during the ’80s that didn’t do so well. Whether that is true or not this altogether is up there among the best work Dylan has made in his long career. Maybe not quite in the same league as “Highway 61 Revisited” or “Blood On The Tracks” or some of his earlier albums but still a major contribution from his career.You may find this way different for Dylan the way I did the first time I listened to this album. But give it a chance the way I did and I think you will find this album will grow on you. Trust me this is an album you need to add to your music collection.
Janet Chandler –
In his long career Bob Dylan has always liked to shake things up a bit for his fans. Just when he classified as the best folk singer around here comes an electric guitar added to the mix that outraged folk music fans. Then just as people accepted his going electric Dylan went country. Then there was that gospel period and so on and so on. In 1997 as Dylan was at it again when he released what would become a Grammy award winning album for him “Time Out Of Mind”. Dylan had always in the past dabbled a little in the blues but with this release Dylan was all in with the blues. Once again Dylan fools everyone by going in another direction musically. And it works.Now I will admit it took two or three times for me to listen to this before I started getting into the album. In fact if I had wrote this review after just listening to this for the first time I would maybe at best given this three stars. But realizing this was something different from what I was use to from Dylan I gave this album a chance and it is now grown on me. I get it what Dylan was doing here and I like it. This is down and dirty gritty kind of blues singing about lost love, unfaithful love and wanting a second chance. Factor in how Bob’s voice sounded at this stage of his career with its rough, gravelly sound just makes the songs seem better. This is an album he probably could have made earlier in his career when he was younger but the effect would not be the same as it is now as an older man, Dylan was in his mid-50s when this was recorded. This is a man who has been scarred by love but still looking for it.As for the song themselves Dylan shows he still knows how to write thought provoking lyrics with catchy musical hooks to them. Some of the better songs on here I like include “Not Dark Yet”, “Cold Irons Bound” and “Highlands”. The overall production of this album is outstanding but that is to be expected since Daniel Lanois produced it. He was the same producer who worked with Dylan on his 1989 “Oh Mercy” album (an album which I personally think is even better then this one) which many people hail as the beginning of Dylan’s comeback musically after earlier albums he had released during the ’80s that didn’t do so well. Whether that is true or not this altogether is up there among the best work Dylan has made in his long career. Maybe not quite in the same league as “Highway 61 Revisited” or “Blood On The Tracks” or some of his earlier albums but still a major contribution from his career.You may find this way different for Dylan the way I did the first time I listened to this album. But give it a chance the way I did and I think you will find this album will grow on you. Trust me this is an album you need to add to your music collection.
Bad Dolphin –
Over the years the first Dylan Recording I heard and purchased was in mono and he was sort of looking like a gypsy I thought in a Greek cap, but when he added at Newport early Sunday morning long before any programs started playing with members of the Butterfield Blues Band it was kind of amazing. I was sort of passed out next to my Triumph with some I think VCU student’s, and what I thought was Indian’s chasing me, (a guy with fringe leather pants no shirt and I am like 40 ft . behind the stage, as I remember they were like just using the amplifier’s on stage, not the big towers, though I think at some point people starting yelling louder and others folk purists yelling that Dylan was Judas, which really didn’t make sense to me then and less now. We behind the stage keep lighting these fires, and digging it, real and fresh, but no way organic.The point is for the most part I think his music has shown us his humility in later years, his always present comedic sense and his professionalism as an artist. Artists produce something and if they are known and someone likes it, they make money. I do art for myself, I have sold and given away a few pieces but that is not what I do it for , artists create. People and critic’s like to talk about this and other stuff, good for them. Along with Santana , Miles Davis and a few others these are people I have gone seen a multiple of times and have lots of the music they have produced, this has been one of my favorites. I think it is worth 5 stars it is one of the things that I have an extra brand new copy, (This purchase). I have it in my cloud on mixed Cd’s and on SDHC minis for the road, on the road play this, and it takes me to then when I don’t like now.
Edd Anderson –
In his long career Bob Dylan has always liked to shake things up a bit for his fans. Just when he classified as the best folk singer around here comes an electric guitar added to the mix that outraged folk music fans. Then just as people accepted his going electric Dylan went country. Then there was that gospel period and so on and so on. In 1997 as Dylan was at it again when he released what would become a Grammy award winning album for him “Time Out Of Mind”. Dylan had always in the past dabbled a little in the blues but with this release Dylan was all in with the blues. Once again Dylan fools everyone by going in another direction musically. And it works.Now I will admit it took two or three times for me to listen to this before I started getting into the album. In fact if I had wrote this review after just listening to this for the first time I would maybe at best given this three stars. But realizing this was something different from what I was use to from Dylan I gave this album a chance and it is now grown on me. I get it what Dylan was doing here and I like it. This is down and dirty gritty kind of blues singing about lost love, unfaithful love and wanting a second chance. Factor in how Bob’s voice sounded at this stage of his career with its rough, gravelly sound just makes the songs seem better. This is an album he probably could have made earlier in his career when he was younger but the effect would not be the same as it is now as an older man, Dylan was in his mid-50s when this was recorded. This is a man who has been scarred by love but still looking for it.As for the song themselves Dylan shows he still knows how to write thought provoking lyrics with catchy musical hooks to them. Some of the better songs on here I like include “Not Dark Yet”, “Cold Irons Bound” and “Highlands”. The overall production of this album is outstanding but that is to be expected since Daniel Lanois produced it. He was the same producer who worked with Dylan on his 1989 “Oh Mercy” album (an album which I personally think is even better then this one) which many people hail as the beginning of Dylan’s comeback musically after earlier albums he had released during the ’80s that didn’t do so well. Whether that is true or not this altogether is up there among the best work Dylan has made in his long career. Maybe not quite in the same league as “Highway 61 Revisited” or “Blood On The Tracks” or some of his earlier albums but still a major contribution from his career.You may find this way different for Dylan the way I did the first time I listened to this album. But give it a chance the way I did and I think you will find this album will grow on you. Trust me this is an album you need to add to your music collection.