The Five Worst Bob Dylan CDs
In anticipation of Scorsese's Dylan doc No Direction Home (DVD out today, but airs on PBS next week), Entertainment Weekly breaks down the legend's catalog for newbies. In addition to recommending the classics you should already own, the mag goes a step further, citing Dylan discs "for absolutely no one."
Self Portrait (1970)Can't really argue with their picks, as I don't own 'em. Anything you would add?
"What is this s---?" Greil Marcus famously wondered in Rolling Stone at the time. Answer: a motley, seemingly random assortment of cutesy curios, covers, and live tracks intended to throw worshippers off the scent of brilliance.Street Legal (1978)
Released just before he found God, this suggests he was profoundly in need of some kind of born-again experience. Cloying female backing vocals fatally sandbag a set of so-so post-divorce material.Dylan & the Dead (1988)
A marriage made in a surprisingly unheavenly place, with each party bringing out the other's sloppy somnambulism. Almost any concert bootleg you could pick up handily beats this (and 1979's At Budokan and 1984's Real Live are almost as lame).Down in the Groove (1988)
Fans debate whether this or 1986's equally undercooked Knocked Out Loaded represents Dylan's studio nadir. Notice we didn't say passionately debate.Under the Red Sky (1990)
Produced by Don and David Was with a musical cast including George Harrison, Slash, Elton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. What could go wrong? Everything, actually, with Dylan phoning in his weakest batch of material ever, defended by a few stalwarts as "nursery-rhyme-inspired." Mother Goose nearly sued.
Posted at 3:29 PM
Tags: Bob Dylan
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i agree with 4 out of 5 but as always with the Dead, its you had to be there...its hard to convey, veg burritos, grilled cheese sandwiches & shrooms on CD,
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haha... shame Street Legal & Under The Red Sky are on that list cause i think they contain two of Dylan's best songs ever:
"Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" & "Cat in the Well"
I agree on the Self Portrait. yuk.
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So no appearance on the big screen?
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ohh.. and i wanna add "Knocked Out Loaded" on that list.
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I bought Down in the Groove from a bargain bin as a teenager. I thought, "hey, it's Bob Dylan."
It's horrendous.
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What about 'Infidels'?
I absolutely *cannot stand* that one.
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street legal is worth it for 'baby please stop crying', 'senor', & 'where are you tonite?'. infidels is pretty damn good too. knocked out loaded i think is the worse dylan cd. down in the groove being a close 2nd tho
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Self Portrait is great.
IT has All The Tired Horses, and a great live version of Quinn the Eskimo.
Scott, I'll send your way if you want.
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the version of LARS on self portrait is very interesting too.
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where's Empire Burlesque?
in fact best chalk up the 80s as a decade long performance piece on the best ways to set fire to a reputation, give me one other reason for 'Hearts of Fire'.
i think when someone finally got it he decided the game jig was up and started knocking out some decent albums again.
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Street Legal ain't bad. The others are pretty awful though. Oh, and "infidels" is good too.
Worst album cover - Empire Burlesque
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FYI -- in the article they also dissed Tarantula and Masked & Anonymous, but I figured let's just discuss the CDs.
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Street Legal is fucking brilliant. Dylan's delivery
and lyrics are on par with anything he's ever done. With Street Legal, he's showing Springsteen he taught him everything he
knows and he does The Boss better than The Boss.
Please revisit "Is Your Love In Vain?" and "Where are you Tonight"
xo
n
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I'd have to add 1981's "Shot of Love" for album and Lichtenstein-ish cover art.
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Street Legal -- good songs, lousy production with very muddled sound (if the recording was as clear as it is on Blood on the Tracks, I think that LP would have a better reputation).
Self-Portrait actually has some good cuts on it, in spite of that record's reputation (I can't argue with the awfulness of the singer-songwriter covers, but I quite like Bob's recordings of old folk tunes, like "Days of 49").
Dylan and the Dead -- yeahhhhh, can't defend that one.
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Can't really argue with their picks, as I don't own 'em.
youse really think anybody wid half a brain would give a shit what youse think. witlessbrain stick yer head back in the turloit
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Great artist,
i like the music...
world-music.blogspot.com/
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How could anyone leave Dylan (1971) off that list? It was so bad that even Bob wouldn't be involved in it! Maybe that's what they meant when they said Self Portrait, because, Self Portrait can be really enjoyable to listen to.
And as a Dylan nerd, I just have to defend Under the Red Sky, Infidels and Street Legal, based solely on a couple songs on each album You just have to put the production in the context of its lame musical times. (Oh yeah and Empire Burlesque was good don't bad mouth it.)
But as far as Dylan and the Dead, Knocked Out Loaded, At Budokan, and Down in the Groove go, anyone that likes them is totally on their own.
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Dylan (1971) was released without Dylan's permission after he temporarily switched ships from CBS to Geffen. It was an act of retaliation consisting of barrel-scraping outtakes. Which probably explains why it isn't currently available (as Dylan's back on Columbia). Including it on the list isn't exactly fair as Bob never intended any of it for release in the first place.
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Wait...there are only 5?
KIDDING!!!! ;)
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Street Legal?
Street Legal?
It's great.
Shot of Love or Empire Burlesque deserve a spot on the list far more - as do his debut album.
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I think slow train coming is pretty f*ing terrible. I absolutely love the man, but I would use that CD as a clay pidgeon
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ahhh - kids - Self Portrait is a fantastic record. It's not for everybody - but it really is pretty good.
when was the last time any of you trusted Entertainment Weekly?
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I'm also going to have to jump on the pro-"Self Portrait" bandwagon. It kind of reminds me of the Clash's "Sandinista!" in that it's just a little bit too ambitious to be really enjoyed by anyone who can't forgive a few "What the fuck were they thinking?" moments on an otherwise solid album.
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Knocked Out Loaded is by far his worst album. When those children start singing "There was a man named Mahatma Gandhi" in the Kris Kristofferson-penned "They Killed Him"--that exact moment is the nadir of Dylan's mostly sterling career.
Knocked, Down In The Groove, and Under The Red Sky are all far worse than Self Portrait. And Street Legal is actually good.
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I've got a soft spot for Street Legal, too. There are some very likeable and memorable songs on that disk -- Senor (Tales of Yankee Power), Is your Love in Vain?, and No Time to Think come to mind. This album doesn't deserve to be on a list like that.
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I hate Street Legal when I first listen to it. But now it's my favourite album. The remastered version has definitely done it greater justice. I sure hate to see it on a list like this!
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Bob making a bad album! well i suppose everybody gets a touch of flatulance at times!
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My choice for 5 weakest Dylan albums:
01) "Self Portrait"
02) "At Budokan"
03) "Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid"
04) "Dylan" (1973)
05) "Hard Rain"
I don't believe any of those albums are bad, just less
inspired and essential than is the norm.
And I love "Knocked Out Loaded", as my site demonstrates. We are out there.
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OK, soooo...
Logic 101: If fans debate whether "Down in the Groove" or "Knocked Out Loaded" is his worst effort... Then why isn't the latter album on this list?!?
Next, Street Legal isn't anywhere near the list of Dylan's worst albums. It certainly isn't anywhere near his best works, either, but it does contain some of his most creative singing in my opinion. And "Journey through Dark Heat" is one of his more overlooked songs.
As for Self Portrait... while I think if I had been alive at the time Self-Portrait came out I would have hated it too (I mean, four years removed from Blonde on Blonde; are you kidding me?!).
As it is, I have the luxury of hearing it in the context of knowing that:
A)It did not represent anything approximating a permanent descent into mediocrity
B)Dylan made the album as shitty as possible on purpose to scare off obsessed fans... and still struck gold on a couple of tunes
So, with that said, I don't think I would place SP among his five worst albums ever. Take songs like "Days of 49," "Alberta," and "Livin the Blues" and place them on New Morning, which came out only a few months later, and suddenly they don't sound that bad.
Same opinion for "Dylan," which was basically just an outtakes album from Self-Portrait (it isn't on this list, but many have cited it as among his low points).
So in other words, I agree with two out of the five albums listed by Rolling Stone. Here are MY selections for five worst Dylan albums:
#5 -- Dylan and the Dead (1987)... What shall we do with the drunken sailor? Apparently, the answer is to pair him with the Grateful Dead, with highly comedic results. Some critic once referred to their collective rendition of "Queen Jane Approximately" as "wrecked majesty."
I actually think that description is more fitting for the album's version of "Joey" ... It's not exactly good, and it's not exactly bad. But I dare you to listen to it and not laugh.
#4 -- Empire Burlesque (1985)... The songwriting is actually pretty awesome on this record, but the problem, as many have pointed out, is that the production is godawful and the back-up singing just doesn't fit with Dylan.
So this is a case where the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
Still, as with most Dylan things that suck, there are moments of redemption: "Clean Cut Kid" and "Dark Eyes." Both songs are better than 95 percent of the songs ever written by any artist other than Dylan.
#3-- Knocked Out Loaded (1986)
Sounds awful, with the one obvious and well-documented exception: "Brownsville Girl," which --again--is better than 95 percent of the songs ever written.
In fact, it may be one of Dylan's ten best songs from a lyrical standpoint.
There are few lines that are more classically Zimmerman than: "The only thing we knew about Henry Porter is that his name wasn't Henry Porter."
And the good news is there are many more like it on this track.
The bad news is that's all you get on this album!
#2 -- Down in the Groove (1988)
Silvio/silver and gold/won't buy back the shittiness/ of the other nine tracks on this record.
#1 -- Under the Red Sky (1990)
Is anyone else starting to see a pattern from Dylan's releases from 1985-1990? With the exception of 1989's "Oh Mercy" - a good album --they all contain
flashes of brilliance amidst a sea of darkness.
In this case, the one redeemable track is "Cat's in the Well," which has justifiably become a fixture of his live shows in recent years.
But "Under the Red Sky" may be the stupidest song has ever written, and Cat's in the Well is not nearly as good as "Brownsville Girl".
Even Dylan admitted in a 2006 Rolling Stone interview that he "wasn't brining anything to the studio" when he made this album.
So it wins the worst album award.
All this negative momentum culminated in Dylan's 1991 live performances in Europe, which are among the worst live concerts in human history, but - - again -- are highly comical.
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worst albums
1.)Blonde on Blonde
2.)Blood on The Tracks
3.)Bringing It All Back Home
4.)Highway 61 Revisited
5.)Desire
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