I received a number of letters and Web responses to a column I wrote recently on Bob Dylan‘s latest, Modern Times.
There were years when this didn’t seem possible, when the release of a new Dylan
album was met less with hope than with resignation, with a sense that maybe Dylan would awake from his musical slumber and once again make music that mattered but that the chances were slim. There were 20 years of uninspired music that had damaged his reputation, recasting rock’s first bard as a hokey has-been, a caricature of the man who changed both rock ‘n’ roll and folk music with a trio of explosive rock records 40 years ago.
The notes took one basic tack — one that I don’t necessarily disagree with, that the albums from that 20-year period between Desire and Time Out of Mind are better than too many critics are willing to admit. The problem, to my ears anyway, is that the defenders of this music have taken their response too far in the other direction.
I am the first to admit that there was plenty of good music made during the 1980s — the late ’70s is a more difficult proposition, given that the religious albums are a hard sell, though actually pretty good on an emotional level. I own most of it.
My argument about it is not that all of it is terrible, but that there really only was about three discs worth of good music during the time — Oh Mercy was the only fully realized disc, one that could have been viewed as the first comeback if it weren’t marred by David Lanois atmospherics or followed by Under the Red Sky (good musically, awful lyrically) and his two folk cover records.
There were five studio albums released between Saved and Oh Mercy, five albums of inconsistent quality. Only Down in the Groove lacks much of redeeming value (I blame this on his association at the time with the Grateful Dead).
The four remaining discs could be culled, I think, to make two good discs:
- Shot of Love: “Lenny Bruce,” “Groom Still Waiting at the Alter,” “Dead Man, Dead Man” and “Every Grain of Sand.”
- Infidels: “Jokerman,” “Sweetheart Like You,” “License to Kill,” “I and I” and “Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight.”
- Empire Burlesque (probably the most consistent of these albums): “Seeing the Real You at Last,” “Trust Yourself,” “Emotionally Yours” and “When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky.”
- Knocked Out Loaded: “You Wanna Ramble,” “They Killed Him,” “Brownsville Girl” (best song of the decade) and “Got My Mind Made Up.”
- Down in the Groove: “Let’s Stick Together” and “Silvio” (though I would probably not include either in a Dylan in the ’80s disc)
In the end, the decade’s music is marred by his disconnection from the times (something that he later realizes and uses to his great advantage), but his striving to be relevant. It led too often to unrealized lyrics and poor production.
So there you have it. I stand by my thinking on those albums and will continue to listen to them.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 