Descrizione
PREMESSA: LA SUPERIORITA’ DELLA MUSICA SU VINILE E’ ANCOR OGGI SANCITA, NOTORIA ED EVIDENTE. NON TANTO DA UN PUNTO DI VISTA DI RESA, QUALITA’ E PULIZIA DEL SUONO, TANTOMENO DA QUELLO DEL RIMPIANTO RETROSPETTIVO E NOSTALGICO , MA SOPRATTUTTO DA QUELLO PIU’ PALPABILE ED INOPPUGNABILE DELL’ ESSENZA, DELL’ ANIMA E DELLA SUBLIMAZIONE CREATIVA. IL DISCO IN VINILE HA PULSAZIONE ARTISTICA, PASSIONE ARMONICA E SPLENDORE GRAFICO , E’ PIACEVOLE DA OSSERVARE E DA TENERE IN MANO, RISPLENDE, PROFUMA E VIBRA DI VITA, DI EMOZIONE E DI SENSIBILITA’. E’ TUTTO QUELLO CHE NON E’ E NON POTRA’ MAI ESSERE IL CD, CHE AL CONTRARIO E’ SOLO UN OGGETTO MERAMENTE COMMERCIALE, POVERO, ARIDO, CINICO, STERILE ED ORWELLIANO, UNA DEGENERAZIONE INDUSTRIALE SCHIZOFRENICA E NECROFILA, LA DESOLANTE SOLUZIONE FINALE DELL’ AVIDITA’ DEL MERCATO E DELL’ ARROGANZA DEI DISCOGRAFICI .
BOB DYLAN
infidels
Disco LP 33 giri , CBS , 25539 , 1983, Italia, first pressing, included lyrics sheet / inserto con i testi incluso
OTTIME CONDIZIONI, vinyl ex++/NM , cover ex++
Infidels è il ventiduesimo album in studio di Bob Dylan, pubblicato nel 1983 dalla Columbia Records.
Prodotto da Mark Knopfler e Dylan stesso, Infidels è visto come il suo ritorno alla musica laica, dopo la conversione al Cristianesimo e tre album evangelici e Gospel. Sebbene Dylan non abbia mai pubblicamente rinunciato alla sua fede o abbandonato la sua immagine religiosa, Infidels
ottenne molta attenzione per il fatto di concentrarsi su temi più
personali come l’amore e l’abbandono, in aggiunta a un’analisi dell’ambiente e della geopolitica.
La reazione della critica è stata la migliore per Dylan da molti
anni, le sue performance e i suoi testi sono stati osannati quasi
universalmente. L’album andò abbastanza bene anche da un punto di vista
commerciale, raggiungendo la posizione numero 20 negli Stati Uniti, e
ottenendo un disco d’oro, e la posizione numero 9 in classifica nel
Regno Unito.
Infidels is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan‘s 22nd studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1983.
Produced by Mark Knopfler and Dylan himself, Infidels is seen as his return to secular music, following a conversion to Christianity and three evangelical, gospel records. Though he has never renounced his faith or abandoned religious imagery, Infidels gained much attention for its focus on more personal themes of love and loss, in addition to commentary on the environment and geopolitics.
The critical reaction was the strongest for Dylan in years, almost
universally hailed for its songwriting and performances. The album also
fared well commercially, reaching #20 in the US and going gold, and #9
in the UK. Still, many fans and critics were disappointed that several
songs were inexplicably cut from the album just prior to mastering –
primarily “Blind Willie McTell“, considered a career highlight by many critics, and not officially released until it appeared on The Bootleg Series Volume III eight years later.
Infidels was the first secular record Bob Dylan recorded since Street Legal, and it’s far more like a classicist Dylan
album than that one, filled with songs that are evocative in their
imagery and direct in their approach. This is lean, much like Slow Train Coming, but its writing is closer to Dylan‘s
peak of the mid-’70s, and some of the songs here — particularly on the
first side — are minor classics, capturing him reviving his sense of
social consciousness and his gift for poetic, elegant love songs. For a
while, Infidels
seems like a latter-day masterpiece, but toward the end of the record
it runs out of steam, preventing itself from being a triumph. Still, in
comparison to everything that arrived in the near-decade before it, Infidels is a triumph, finding Dylan coming tantalizingly close to regaining all his powers.
Etichetta: Cbs Dischi
Catalogo: CBS 25539
Data di pubblicazione: 1983
Matrici: CI 25539 1L / CI 25539 2L
Data matrici : 26/10/83
- Supporto:vinile 33 giri
- Tipo audio: stereo
- Dimensioni: 30 cm.
- Facciate: 2
- Orange label, lyrics sheet insert / foglio interno con i testi , original picture inner sleeve
Track listing
All songs by Bob Dylan.
Lato 1
- Jokerman – 6:12
- Sweetheart Like You – 4:31
- Neighborhood Bully – 4:33
- License to Kill – 3:31
Lato 2
- Man of Peace – 6:27
- Union Sundown – 5:21
- I and I – 5:10
- Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight – 5:54
Personnel
- Bob Dylan – chitarra, armonica, tastiere, voce
- Sly Dunbar – batteria, percussioni
- Robbie Shakespeare – basso
- Mick Taylor – chitarra
- Mark Knopfler – chitarra
- Alan Clark – tastiere
- Clydie King – voce in “Union Sundown”
Critici e storici del rock spesso menzionano la produzione pulita e raffinata di Infidels. Uno dei più grandi artefici del sound generale dell’album è Mark Knopfler, meglio conosciuto come leader e chitarrista dei Dire Straits.
Dylan voleva produrre lui stesso il disco, ma rendendosi conto che la
tecnologia lo aveva ormai lasciato indietro, contattò diversi artisti
contemporanei più a loro agio in un moderno studio di registrazione. David Bowie, Frank Zappa, e Elvis Costello furono tutti interpellati prima che Dylan scegliesse Knopfler.
In seguito Knopfler ammise le difficoltà trovate nel produrre Bob Dylan: «Vedi
la gente lavorare in modi differenti, ed è una cosa buona per te.
Bisogna che impari ad adattarti alle diverse modalità di lavoro delle
persone. Certo, alle volte era molto strano con Bob. Una delle cose più
importanti circa la produzione è che ti dimostra quanto bisogna saper
essere flessibili. Ogni canzone ha il suo proprio segreto che è
differente da quello di un’altra canzone, e ognuna ha la sua propria
vita. Certe volte bisogna faticare per tirarla fuori, altre volte esce
in fretta in superficie. Non ci sono regole fisse circa lo scrivere
canzoni o il produrre. Dipende da quello che si vuol fare, non solo da
quello che si sta facendo. Bisogna essere sensibili e flessibili, ed è
divertente. All’epoca dissi che ero più disciplinato di lui. Ma penso
che Bob sia molto più disciplinato come autore e come scrittore di
testi, come poeta. È un genio assoluto. Come cantante – assolutamente
geniale. Ma musicalmente, penso che sia molto essenziale. La musica
tende ad essere solo un veicolo per la sua poesia».
Ingaggiato Knopfler, Bob e lui assemblarono velocemente un gruppo di musicisti per l’album. In primis Mick Taylor, ex chitarrista dei Blues Breakers e dei Rolling Stones, celebre per le sue improvvisazioni chitarristiche fluide, melodiche e venate di blues.
Poi Knopfler suggerì Alan Clark,
tastierista e il tecnico del suono Neil Dorfsman, entrambi ingaggiati.
Secondo Knopfler, fu una idea di Dylan il chiamare Robbie Shakespeare e
Sly Dunbar come sezione ritmica. Meglio conosciuti come Sly & Robbie, Shakespeare e Dunbar erano celebrati produttori di dischi reggae.
«L’abilità tecnica di Bob è limitata, se si tratta di suonare la chitarra o il pianoforte», disse Knopfler. «È
molto rudimentale, ma questo non sminuisce il suo istinto, il suo senso
della melodia, il suo canto. È tutto qui. Infatti, molte delle cose che
suona al piano mentre canta sono magnifiche, anche se sono rozze.
Questo dimostra che non è necessario essere un grande virtuoso. È sempre
la solita storia: se qualcosa viene suonata con “sentimento”, è questo
l’importante.»
Mixaggio finale e outtakes
Sebbene la prolificità di Dylan come autore sia ben nota e nondimeno
la sua proverbiale tendenza a escludere dai suoi lavori i brani
migliori, Infidels in particolare ha generato negli anni considerevoli
polemiche circa la selezione finale dei brani per il disco. Nel giugno
1983, Dylan e Knopfler prepararono una sequenza preliminare di nove
canzoni, inclusi due brani che poi saranno esclusi: Foot Of Pride e Blind Willie McTell. Altri notevoli scarti come Someone’s Got A Hold Of My Heart (in seguito riscritta e riregistrata per Empire Burlesque) vennero registrati durante queste sessioni, ma solo Foot Of Pride e Blind Willie McTell furono seriamente in lizza per essere incluse nell’album in uscita.
Blind Willie McTell è probabilmente l’esclusione più clamorosa
dell’intero catalogo di Dylan, essendo stata definita da molti critici
come una delle migliore composizioni di Dylan, in grado di reggere il
confronto con i suoi classici degli anni sessanta e settanta.
Sia Foot Of Pride che Blind Willie McTell vennero
escluse dal disco finale poco dopo l’uscita di scena di Mark Knopfler
dalla lavorazione dell’album. In seguito, Knopfler affermò che Infidels
avrebbe potuto essere un disco migliore se lui si fosse potuto occupare
del mixaggio finale, ma dovette abbandonare il progetto per iniziare un
tour di concerti in Germania.
Dylan passò un mese intero a remixare e sovraincidere, durante
svariate sedute di registrazione nel giugno riregistrando le sue parti
vocali utilizzando nuovi testi per i brani. Durante questo periodo,
decise l’esclusione di Foot Of Pride e Blind Willie McTell dal disco per rimpiazzarle con Union Sundown.
Anche se Infidels venne accolto in maniera più favorevole rispetto al suo predecessore, Shot of Love, Graham Lock del New Musical Express si riferì a Dylan definendolo: «Culturalmente una forza spenta…un uomo confuso che cerca di riaccendere vecchi fuochi». Il critico di Rolling Stone e del The Village Voice
Robert Christgau parimenti non rimase impressionato dal disco,
scrivendo di un Dylan ormai povero di ispirazione. Ma persino gli
scettici trovarono qualche merito in Infidels. La critica fu unanime nel celebrare il sound generale dell’album e la complessità e maturità delle canzoni in esso contenute.
Anni dopo, quando vennero alla luce outtakes come Someone’s Got A Hold Of My Heart, Blind Willie McTell e Foot Of Pride,
la reputazione dell’album iniziò a crescere, diventando “una grossa
occasione perduta di realizzare un capolavoro”, come asserirono i
critici Rob Bowman e Clinton Heylin.
Senza nessun tour di supporto, Infidels generò vendite modeste, vendendo principalmente durante le festività natalizie. La CBS produsse anche un videoclip per Sweetheart Like You, il primo video di Dylan nell’era di MTV. A questo fece seguito un secondo video per la canzone Jokerman che la CBS fece uscire come singolo nel febbraio del 1984. Dylan avrebbe voluto girare un video anche di Neighborhood Bully, ma alla fine non se ne fece più nulla.
Infidels è il primo album di Dylan a essere interamente
registrato usando la tecnologia digitale, seguendo le tecniche di
produzione dell’epoca.
Critics and historians often make a note of Infidels’ polished, tasteful production. One of the main contributors to the album’s overall sound is Mark Knopfler, best known as the frontman of Dire Straits.
Dylan wanted to produce the album himself, but feeling that technology
had passed him by, he approached a number of contemporary artists who
were more at home in a modern recording studio. David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and Elvis Costello were all approached before Dylan hired Knopfler.
Knopfler later admitted it was difficult to produce Dylan. “You see
people working in different ways, and it’s good for you. You have to
learn to adapt to the way different people work. Yes, it was strange at
times with Bob. One of the great parts about production is that it
demonstrates to you that you have to be flexible. Each song has its own
secret that’s different from another song, and each has its own life.
Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come
fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on
what you’re doing, not just who you’re doing. You have to be sensitive
and flexible, and it’s fun. I’d say I was more disciplined. But I think
Bob is much more disciplined as a writer of lyrics, as a poet. He’s an
absolute genius. As a singer – absolute genius. But musically, I think
it’s a lot more basic. The music just tends to be a vehicle for that
poetry.”
Once Knopfler was aboard, the two quickly assembled a team of
accomplished musicians. Knopfler’s own tough and flinty guitar tone was
paired with that of Mick Taylor; former lead guitarist of the Blues Breakers and, more famously, the Rolling Stones,
Taylor was best known for his fluid, melodic improvisations that were
firmly placed in the blues tradition. Having been introduced to Mick
Taylor the previous summer, Dylan had developed a friendship with him
that resulted in the guitarist hearing the Infidels material first during the months leading up to the April sessions. In addition, the sessions benefited as well from Taylor’s ability as a slide guitarist.
Knopfler said about the instrument he plays on Infidels: “I
still haven’t got a flat-top wooden acoustic, because I’ve never found
one that was as good as the two best flat tops I ever played. One…was a
hand-built Greco that Rudy Pensa, of Rudy’s Music Stop lent me. I
used…the Greco on Infidels.”
Knopfler suggested Alan Clark for keyboards as well as engineer Neil Dorfsman, both of whom were hired. According to Knopfler, it was Dylan’s idea to recruit Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar as the rhythm section. Best known as Sly & Robbie, Shakespeare and Dunbar were famed reggae
producers who were major recording artists in their own right. An
unlikely but inspired mix, the chemistry between these players is
largely responsible for the album’s sweet, pop-bent while maintaining a
tough, rocking core.
“Bob’s musical ability is limited, in terms of being able to play a
guitar or a piano,” said Knopfler. “It’s rudimentary, but it doesn’t
affect his variety, his sense of melody, his singing. It’s all there. In
fact, some of the things he plays on piano while he’s singing are
lovely, even though they’re rudimentary. That all demonstrates the fact
that you don’t have to be a great technician. It’s the same old story:
If something is played with soul, that’s what’s important.”
The songs
Beginning with Infidels, Dylan ceased to preach a specific
religion, revealing little about his personal religious beliefs in his
lyrics. In 1997, after recovering from a serious heart condition, Dylan
said in an interview for Newsweek,
“Here’s the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out
truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don’t find
it anywhere else…I don’t adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. I’ve learned more from the songs than I’ve learned from any of this kind of entity.”
Though Infidels is often cited as a return to secular work (following a trio of albums heavily influenced by born-again Christianity), many of the songs recorded during the Infidels
sessions retain Dylan’s penchant for Biblical references and strong
religious imagery. An explicit example of this is the opening track, “Jokerman“. Along with the Biblical and religious references, however, are lyrics about populists who are too concerned with the superficial, (“Michelangelo could’ve carved your features“) and more about action than thinking through the complexities (“fools rush in where angels fear to tread“). A number of critics have called Jokerman a sly political protest, addressed to a “manipulator of crowds…a dream twister.“
The second track, “Sweetheart Like You”, is sung to a fictitious woman. Oliver Trager’s book, Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, mentions that some have criticized this song as sexist. Indeed, NPR‘s Tim Riley makes that accusation in his book, Hard Rain: A Dylan Commentary, singling out lyrics like “…a woman like you should be at home/That’s where you belong/Taking care of somebody nice/Who don’t know how to do you wrong.” However, Trager also cites other interpretations that dispute this claim.
Some have argued that “”Sweetheart Like You”” is being sung to the
Christian church (“what’s a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like
this?”), claiming that Dylan is mourning the church’s deviation from
scriptural truth. The song was later covered by Rod Stewart on his 1995
album A Spanner in the Works.
A few critics like Robert Christgau and Bill Wyman claimed that Infidels betrayed a strong, strange dislike for space travel, and it can be heard on the first few lines of “License to Kill.” (“Oh, man has invented his doom/First step was touching the moon.“)
A harsh indictment accusing mankind of imperialism and a predilection
for violence, the song deals specifically with mankind’s relationship to
the environment, either on a political scale or a scientific one. A
skeptical opinion toward the American space program was shared among
other evangelicals of Dylan’s generation.
The song “Neighborhood Bully” is often regarded as a defense of Israel. Events in the history of the State of Israel are referenced, such as the Six-Day War and Operation Opera, Israel’s bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad on June 7, 1981. Dylan commented extensively on the song in a 1984 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine. In 2001, the Jerusalem Post described the song as “a favorite among Dylan-loving residents of the territories“. Israeli singer Ariel Zilber covered “Neighborhood Bully” in 2005 in a version translated to Hebrew.
Others cite it as a critique of the decimation of the Palestinian
population since the 1967 map was drawn (the album came out in 1983).
“Union Sundown” is a political protest song against imported
consumer goods and greed. It displays Dylan’s penchant and ability to
take a concept and examine it from every angle in a single song,
discussing the greed and power of unions and corporations (“You know
capitalism is above the law,/ It don’t count unless it sells./ When it
costs too much to build it at home you just build it cheaper someplace
else.” … “Democracy don’t rule this world,/ You better get that through your head./ This world is ruled by violence…“), the hypocrisy of Americans who complain about the lack of American jobs while not paying more for American-made products (“Lots
of people complainin’ that there is no work./I say, ‘Why you say that
for? When nothin’ you got is U.S.-made? They don’t make nothin’ here no
more“), the collaboration of the unions themselves (“The unions are big business, friend’/ And they’re goin’ out like a dinosaur.“), and the desperate conditions of the foreign workers who make the goods (“All
the furniture, it says “Made in Brazil”’/ Where a woman, she slaved for
sure’/ Bringin’ home thirty cents a day to a family of twelve’/ You
know, that’s a lot of money to her.” … “And a man’s going to do what he has to do,/ When he’s got a hungry mouth to feed.“).
“I And I”, according to author/critic Tim Riley, “updates the
Dylan mythos. Even though it substitutes self-pity for the [pessimism
found throughout Infidels], you can’t ignore it as a Dylan
spyglass: ‘Someone else is speakin’ with my mouth, but I’m listening
only to my heart/I’ve made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still
go barefoot.'” Riley sees the song as an exploration of the distance between Dylan’s “inner identity and the public face he wears”.
Infidels’ closer, “Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight” stands out on the album as a pure love song. On past albums like John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline,
Dylan closed with love songs sung to the narrator’s partner, and that
tradition is continued with “Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight”, with a
chorus that asks “Don’t fall apart on me tonight, I just don’t think
that I could handle it./Don’t fall apart on me tonight, Yesterday’s just
a memory, Tomorrow is never what it’s supposed to be/And I need you,
yeah, you tonight.“
Final sequencing and mixing
While Dylan was known to be prolific and had numerous outtakes for most of his albums, Infidels
in particular garnered considerable controversy over the years
regarding its final selection of songs. By June 1983, Dylan and Knopfler
had set a preliminary sequence of nine songs, including two songs that
were ultimately omitted: “Foot Of Pride” and “Blind Willie McTell.”
Other notable outtakes like “Someone’s Got A Hold Of My Heart” (later
re-written and re-recorded for Empire Burlesque)
were recorded during these sessions, but only “Foot Of Pride” and
“Blind Willie McTell” received serious consideration for possible
inclusion.
“Blind Willie McTell” is perhaps the most heatedly discussed outtake
in Dylan’s catalog. “On the surface, ‘Blind Willie McTell’ is about the
landscape of the blues,” writes Tim Riley, “and the figures Dylan pays
respects to on his 1962 debut. But it’s also about the landscape of pop,
and how an aging persona like Dylan might feel as he casts his
experienced gaze over the road he’s walked. Always skeptical about the
quality of his own voice, he didn’t release ‘Blind Willie McTell’ at
first because he didn’t feel his tribute lived up to its sources. The
irony here is that his own insecurity about living up to his imagined
blues ideal becomes a subject in itself. ‘Nobody sings the blues like
Blind Willie McTell’ becomes a way of saying how Dylan feels displaced
not just by the industry…but by the music he calls home.” Clinton
Heylin gives “Blind Willie McTell” a more ambitious interpretation,
describing it as “the world’s eulogy, sung by an old bluesman recast as
St. John the Divine.”
Both “Foot Of Pride” and “Blind Willie McTell” were dropped from
consideration soon after Mark Knopfler ended his involvement with the
album. In later years, Knopfler claimed that “Infidels would have
been a better record if I had mixed the thing, but I had to go on tour
in Germany, and then Bob had a weird thing with CBS, where he had to
deliver records to them at a certain time and I was away in
Europe…Some of [Infidels] is like listening to roughs. Maybe
Bob thought I’d rushed things because I was in a hurry to leave, but I
offered to finish it after our tour. Instead, he got the engineer to do
the final mix.”
Dylan spent roughly a month on remixing and overdubbing, holding a
number of sessions in June rerecording vocal tracks using newly
rewritten lyrics. During this time, he decided to cast aside “Foot Of
Pride” and “Blind Willie McTell,” replacing them with “Union Sundown”.
While Infidels was better received than its predecessor, Shot of Love, Graham Lock of New Musical Express still referred to Dylan as “culturally a spent force…a confused man trying to rekindle old fires.” Rolling Stone and The Village Voice
critic Robert Christgau was not impressed either, writing that Dylan
had “turned into a hateful crackpot. Worse than his equation of Jews
with Zionists with the Likud or his utterly muddled disquisition on
international labor is the ital Hasidism that inspires no less than
three superstitious attacks on space travel. God knows (and I use that
phrase advisedly) how far off the deep end he’ll go if John Glenn becomes president.” Greil Marcus
dismissed it many years later as another “bad [album] that made no
sense, didn’t hang together, had no point, and did not need to exist.”
But even the skeptics found some merit in Infidels. In the
same review, Christgau wrote, “All the wonted care Dylan has put into
this album shows…His distaste for the daughters of Satan has gained
complexity of tone—neither dismissive nor vituperative, he addresses
women with a solicitousness that’s strangely chilling, as if he knows
what a self-serving hypocrite he’s being, but only subliminally. At
times I even feel sorry for him, just as he intends.” Indeed, critics
were unanimous in praising the overall sound, “one case where the
streamlined production doesn’t seem to work against the rugged authority
he can still command as a singer,” wrote Tim Riley. Music critic Bill Wyman
conceded that “the songs are mature and complex” even though
“melodically they are similar sounding and the affair as a whole still
has echoes of his crackpot Christian days.”
Infidels would place tenth on The Village Voice‘s Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1983, Dylan’s highest placement since 1975 when The Basement Tapes placed #1 and Blood on the Tracks
placed #4. Years later, when outtakes like “Someone’s Got A Hold Of My
Heart,” “Blind Willie McTell,” and “Foot Of Pride” began to circulate,
the album’s stature would in some ways grow, becoming a missed
opportunity at a potential masterpiece to some critics like Rob Bowman
and Clinton Heylin.
Without a tour in 1983, Infidels still generated modest sales,
selling consistently through the Christmas shopping season. CBS even
produced a music video for “Sweetheart Like You,” Dylan’s first in the MTV era. It was followed by a second video for “Jokerman,” which CBS issued as a single in February 1984.
Aftermath
Dylan spent the fall of 1983 recording demos and various songs at his
home in Malibu, California. Rather than work alone, Dylan brought in a
number of young musicians, including Charlie Sexton, drummer Charlie Quintana,
and guitarist JJ Holiday. As Heylin notes, “this was Dylan’s first real
dalliance with third-generation American rock & rollers.” These
informal sessions set the stage for Dylan’s first public performances
since 1982.
Late Night with David Letterman had only aired since 1982, but the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed talk show was already a hit on late night television. After months of phone calls, Dylan agreed to appear on Late Night,
and on March 22, 1984, he appeared with Quintana, Holiday (introduced
by Letterman as “Justin Jesting”), and bassist Tony Marsico. Performing
three songs with his band of post-punk musicians, Dylan delivered what
many consider to be his most entertaining television performance ever.
The poorly-prepared but energetic combo first performed an unrehearsed
version of Sonny Boy Williamson‘s
“Don’t Start Me To Talking”, then a radically different arrangement of
“License To Kill”. The final song was a peppy, somewhat new-wave
version of “Jokerman” that was to end with a harmonica solo. However,
Dylan began playing before he realized the harp was in the wrong key,
and the band had to riff endlessly while he stepped off-camera to
retrieve the correct one. After the performance, Letterman walked
onstage and congratulated Dylan, asking him if he could come back and
play every Thursday. Dylan smiled and jokingly agreed.
Dylan would soon dissolve his impromptu band after their one performance on Late Night, but within a few months, Dylan would begin his first tour since 1981, and from that compile his next record.
Bob Dylan’s influence on popular music is incalculable. As a
songwriter, he pioneered several different schools of pop songwriting,
from confessional singer/songwriter to winding, hallucinatory,
stream-of-conscious narratives. As a vocalist, he broke down the
notions that in order to perform, a singer had to have a conventionally
good voice, thereby redefining the role of vocalist in popular music.
As a musician, he sparked several genres of pop music, including
electrified folk-rock and country-rock. And that just touches on the
tip of his achievements. Dylan’s force was evident during his height of
popularity in the ’60s — the Beatles’ shift toward introspective
songwriting in the mid-’60s never would have happened without him —
but his influence echoed throughout several subsequent generations.
Many of his songs became popular standards, and his best albums were
undisputed classics of the rock roll canon. Dylan’s influence
throughout folk music was equally powerful, and he marks a pivotal
turning point in its 20th century evolution, signifying when the genre
moved away from traditional songs and toward personal songwriting. Even
when his sales declined in the ’80s and ’90s, Dylan’s presence was
calculable.
For a figure of such substantial influence, Dylan
came from humble beginnings. Born in Duluth, MN, Bob Dylan (b. Robert
Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) was raised in Hibbing, MN, from the age
of six. As a child he learned how to play guitar and harmonica, forming
a rock roll band called the Golden Chords when he was in high school.
Following his graduation in 1959, he began studying art at the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. While at college, he began
performing folk songs at coffeehouses under the name Bob Dylan, taking
his last name from the poet Dylan Thomas. Already inspired by Hank
Williams and Woody Guthrie, Dylan began listening to blues while at
college, and the genre weaved its way into his music. Dylan spent the
summer of 1960 in Denver, where he met bluesman Jesse Fuller, the
inspiration behind the songwriter’s signature harmonica rack and
guitar. By the time he returned to Minneapolis in the fall, he had
grown substantially as a performer and was determined to become a
professional musician.
Dylan made his way to New York City in
January of 1961, immediately making a substantial impression on the
folk community of Greenwich Village. He began visiting his idol Guthrie
in the hospital, where he was slowly dying from Huntington’s chorea.
Dylan also began performing in coffeehouses, and his rough charisma won
him a significant following. In April, he opened for John Lee Hooker at
~Gerde’s Folk City. Five months later, Dylan performed another concert
at the venue, which was reviewed positively by Robert Shelton in the
-New
York Times. Columbia AR man John Hammond sought out Dylan on the
strength of the review, and signed the songwriter in the fall of 1961.
Hammond produced Dylan’s eponymous debut album (released in March
1962), a collection of folk and blues standards that boasted only two
original songs. Over the course of 1962, Dylan began to write a large
batch of original songs, many of which were political protest songs in
the vein of his Greenwich contemporaries. These songs were showcased on
his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Before its release,
Freewheelin’ went through several incarnations. Dylan had recorded a
rock roll single, “Mixed Up Confusion,” at the end of 1962, but his
manager, Albert Grossman, made sure the record was deleted because he
wanted to present Dylan as an acoustic folky. Similarly, several tracks
with a full backing band that were recorded for Freewheelin’ were
scrapped before the album’s release. Furthermore, several tracks
recorded for the album — including “Talking John Birch Society Blues”
— were eliminated from the album before its release.
Comprised
entirely of original songs, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan made a huge
impact in the U.S. folk community, and many performers began covering
songs from the album. Of these, the most significant were Peter, Paul
Mary, who made “Blowin’ in the Wind” into a huge pop hit in the summer
of 1963 and thereby made Bob Dylan into a recognizable household name.
On the strength of Peter, Paul Mary’s cover and his opening gigs for
popular folky Joan Baez, Freewheelin’ became a hit in the fall of 1963,
climbing to number 23 on the charts. By that point, Baez and Dylan had
become romantically involved, and she was beginning to record his songs
frequently. Dylan was writing just as fast, and was performing hundreds
of concerts a year.
By the time The Times They Are A-Changin’
was released in early 1964, Dylan’s songwriting had developed far
beyond that of his New York peers. Heavily inspired by poets like
Arthur Rimbaud and John Keats, his writing took on a more literate and
evocative quality. Around the same time, he began to expand his musical
boundaries, adding more blues and RB influences to his songs. Released
in the summer of 1964, Another Side of Bob Dylan made these changes
evident. However, Dylan was moving faster than his records could
indicate. By the end of 1964, he had ended his romantic relationship
with Baez and had begun dating a former model named Sara Lowndes, whom
he subsequently married. Simultaneously, he gave the Byrds “Mr.
Tambourine Man” to record for their debut album. the Byrds gave the
song a ringing, electric arrangement, but by the time the single became
a hit, Dylan was already exploring his own brand of folk-rock. Inspired
by the British Invasion, particularly the Animals’ version of “House of
the Rising Sun,” Dylan recorded a set of original songs backed by a
loud rock roll band for his next album. While Bringing It All Back Home
(March 1965) still had a side of acoustic material, it made clear that
Dylan had turned his back on folk music. For the folk audience, the
true breaking point arrived a few months after the album’s release,
when he played ~the Newport Folk Festival supported by the Paul
Butterfield Blues Band. The audience greeted him with vicious derision,
but he had already been accepted by the growing rock roll community.
Dylan’s spring tour of Britain was the basis for D.A. Pennebaker’s
documentary Don’t Look Back, a film that captures the songwriter’s edgy
charisma and charm.
Dylan made his breakthrough to the pop
audience in the summer of 1965, when “Like a Rolling Stone” became a
number two hit. Driven by a circular organ riff and a steady beat, the
six-minute single broke the barrier of the three-minute pop single.
Dylan became the subject of innumerable articles, and his lyrics became
the subject of literary analyses across the U.S. and U.K. Well over 100
artists covered his songs between 1964 and 1966; the Byrds and the
Turtles, in particular, had big hits with his compositions. Highway 61
Revisited, his first full-fledged rock roll album, became a Top Ten hit
shortly after its summer 1965 release. “Positively 4th Street” and
“Rainy Day Women 12 35” became Top Ten hits in the fall of 1965 and
spring of 1966, respectively. Following the May 1966 release of the
double-album Blonde on Blonde, he had sold over ten million records
around the world.
During the fall of 1965, Dylan hired the Hawks,
formerly Ronnie Hawkins’ backing group, as his touring band. the Hawks,
who changed their name to the Band in 1968, would become Dylan’s most
famous backing band, primarily because of their intuitive chemistry and
“wild, thin mercury sound,” but also because of their British tour in
the spring of 1966. The tour was the first time Britain had heard the
electric Dylan, and their reaction was disagreeable and violent. At the
tour’s Royal Albert Hall concert, generally acknowledged to have
occurred in Manchester, an audience member called Dylan “Judas,”
inspiring a positively vicious version of “Like a Rolling Stone” from
the Band. The performance was immortalized on countless bootleg albums
(an official release finally surfaced in 1998), and it indicates the
intensity of Dylan in the middle of 1966. He had assumed control of
Pennebaker’s second Dylan documentary, Eat the Document, and was under
deadline to complete his book -Tarantula, as well as record a new
record. Following the British tour, he returned to America.
On
July 29, 1966, he was injured in a motorcycle accident outside of his
home in Woodstock, NY, suffering injuries to his neck vertebrae and a
concussion. Details of the accident remain elusive — he was reportedly
in critical condition for a week and had amnesia — and some
biographers have questioned its severity, but the event was a pivotal
turning point in his career. After the accident, Dylan became a
recluse, disappearing into his home in Woodstock and raising his family
with his wife, Sara. After a few months, he retreated with the Band to
a rented house, subsequently dubbed Big Pink, in West Saugerties to
record a number of demos. For several months, Dylan and the Band
recorded an enormous amount of material, ranging from old folk,
country, and blues songs to newly written originals. The songs
indicated that Dylan’s songwriting had undergone a metamorphosis,
becoming streamlined and more direct. Similarly, his music had changed,
owing less to traditional rock roll, and demonstrating heavy country,
blues, and traditional folk influences. None of the Big Pink recordings
were intended to be released, but tapes from the sessions were
circulated by Dylan’s music publisher with the intent of generating
cover versions. Copies of these tapes, as well as other songs, were
available on illegal bootleg albums by the end of the ’60s; it was the
first time that bootleg copies of unreleased recordings became widely
circulated. Portions of the tapes were officially released in 1975 as
the double-album The Basement Tapes.
While Dylan was in
seclusion, rock roll had become heavier and artier in the wake of the
psychedelic revolution. When Dylan returned with John Wesley Harding in
December of 1967, its quiet, country ambience was a surprise to the
general public, but it was a significant hit, peaking at number two in
the U.S. and number one in the U.K. Furthermore, the record arguably
became the first significant country-rock record to be released,
setting the stage for efforts by the Byrds and the Flying Burrito
Brothers later in 1969. Dylan followed his country inclinations on his
next album, 1969’s Nashville Skyline, which was recorded in Nashville
with several of the country industry’s top session men. While the album
was a hit, spawning the Top Ten single “Lay Lady Lay,” it was
criticized in some quarters for uneven material. The mixed reception
was the beginning of a full-blown backlash that arrived with the
double-album Self Portrait. Released early in June of 1970, the album
was a hodgepodge of covers, live tracks, re-interpretations, and new
songs greeted with negative reviews from all quarters of the press.
Dylan followed the album quickly with New Morning, which was hailed as
a comeback.
Following the release of New Morning, Dylan began to
wander restlessly. In 1969 or 1970, he moved back to Greenwich Village,
published -Tarantula for the first time in November of 1970, and
performed at ~the Concert for Bangladesh. During 1972, he began his
acting career by playing Alias in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy
the Kid, which was released in 1973. He also wrote the soundtrack for
the film, which featured “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” his biggest hit
since “Lay Lady Lay.” The Pat Garrett soundtrack was the final record
released under his Columbia contract before he moved to David Geffen’s
fledgling Asylum Records. As retaliation, Columbia assembled Dylan, a
collection of Self Portrait outtakes, for release at the end of 1973.
Dylan only recorded two albums — including 1974’s Planet Waves,
coincidentally his first number one album — before he moved back to
Columbia. the Band supported Dylan on Planet Waves and its accompanying
tour, which became the most successful tour in rock roll history; it
was captured on 1974’s double-live album Before the Flood.
Dylan’s
1974 tour was the beginning of a comeback culminated by 1975’s Blood on
the Tracks. Largely inspired by the disintegration of his marriage,
Blood on the Tracks was hailed as a return to form by critics and it
became his second number one album. After jamming with folkies in
Greenwich Village, Dylan decided to launch a gigantic tour, loosely
based on traveling medicine shows. Lining up an extensive list of
supporting musicians — including Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Rambling
Jack Elliott, Arlo Guthrie, Mick Ronson, Roger McGuinn, and poet Allen
Ginsberg — Dylan dubbed the tour ~the Rolling Thunder Revue and set
out on the road in the fall of 1975. For the next year, ~the Rolling
Thunder Revue toured on and off, with Dylan filming many of the
concerts for a future film. During the tour, Desire was released to
considerable acclaim and success, spending five weeks on the top of the
charts. Throughout ~the Rolling Thunder Revue, Dylan showcased
“Hurricane,” a protest song he had written about boxer Rubin Carter,
who had been unjustly imprisoned for murder. The live album Hard Rain
was released at the end of the tour. Dylan released Renaldo and Clara,
a four-hour film based on the ~Rolling Thunder tour, to poor reviews in
early 1978.
Early in 1978, Dylan set out on another extensive
tour, this time backed by a band that resembled a Las Vegas lounge
band. The group was featured on the 1978 album Street Legal and the
1979 live album At Budokan. At the conclusion of the tour in late 1978,
Dylan announced that he was a born-again Christian, and he launched a
series of Christian albums that following summer with Slow Train
Coming. Though the reviews were mixed, the album was a success, peaking
at number three and going platinum. His supporting tour for Slow Train
Coming featured only his new religious material, much to the bafflement
of his long-term fans. Two other religious albums — Saved (1980) and
Shot of Love (1981) — followed, both to poor reviews. In 1982, Dylan
traveled to Israel, sparking rumors that his conversion to Christianity
was short-lived. He returned to secular recording with 1983’s Infidels,
which was greeted with favorable reviews.
Dylan returned to
performing in 1984, releasing the live album Real Live at the end of
the year. Empire Burlesque followed in 1985, but its odd mix of dance
tracks and rock roll won few fans. However, the five-album/triple-disc
retrospective box set Biograph appeared that same year to great
acclaim. In 1986, Dylan hit the road with Tom Petty the Heartbreakers
for a successful and acclaimed tour, but his album that year, Knocked
Out Loaded, was received poorly. The following year, he toured with the
Grateful Dead as his backing band; two years later, the souvenir album
Dylan the Dead appeared.
In 1988, Dylan embarked on what became
known as “The Never-Ending Tour” — a constant stream of shows that ran
on and off into the late ’90s. That same year, he released Down in the
Groove, an album largely comprised of covers. The Never-Ending Tour
received far stronger reviews than Down in the Groove, but 1989’s Oh
Mercy was his most acclaimed album since 1974’s Blood on the Tracks.
However, his 1990 follow-up, Under the Red Sky, was received poorly,
especially when compared to the enthusiastic reception for the 1991 box
set The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare Unreleased), a collection of
previously unreleased outtakes and rarities.
For the remainder of
the ’90s, Dylan divided his time between live concerts and painting. In
1992, he returned to recording with Good As I Been to You, an acoustic
collection of traditional folk songs. It was followed in 1993 by
another folk album, World Gone Wrong, which won the Grammy for Best
Traditional Folk Album. After the release of World Gone Wrong, Dylan
released a greatest-hits album and a live record.
Dylan released
Time Out of Mind, his first album of original material in seven years,
in the fall of 1997. Time Out of Mind received his strongest reviews in
years and unexpectedly debuted in the Top Ten. Its success sparked a
revival of interest in Dylan — he appeared on the cover of Newsweek
and his concerts became sell-outs. Early in 1998, Time Out of Mind
received three Grammy Awards — Album of the Year, Best Contemporary
Folk Album and Best Male Rock Vocal. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All
Music Guide
