Not all of Dylan’s albums are stone-cold classics. He’s had his share of missteps. Self Portrait [1970] was a double album of songs [half of which written by him, the other half covers] recorded at a time in his life where he just wanted people to leave him alone. Critic Greil Marcus began his Rolling Stone review of Self Portrait with a question – “What is this shit?” At the tail end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, Dylan converted to Christianity. He recorded three albums that expressed his devotion to his new-found faith. Some people liked them – many didn’t. The 1980s were not kind to Dylan. He put out one good album [Infidels, 1983] and one great one [Oh Mercy, 1989]. The albums in between are forgettable. During this time, Dylan had burned out. He was suffering from writer’s block. In his book Chronicles: Volume One, he confessed he had lost his muse and couldn’t relate to his own songs. He also confessed this situation made him contemplate retirement.
There are three noteworthy periods in Bob Dylan’s recording career – the first period [1961-66], he was the “spokesman for a generation,” a tag that he absolutely hated. When he stopped writing “folk” songs and “went electric” in 1965, the reaction of many fans was that of betrayal. One attendee of a concert in Manchester, England in 1966 called him “Judas!” Regardless of what the folkie purists thought, some of his best work came during 1965-66. His motorcycle crash in 1966 came at a time when Dylan and his wife were starting a family. Dylan wanted to get off the road and rest, and the crash was a convenient way to get off the album/tour/album/tour grind. In his second period he re-emerged with The Band in 1974, when he resumed touring. The mid-1970s were productive and produced music of great quality. Coincidentally [or not – it depends on who you ask], it was during this time Dylan’s marriage was on the rocks. As for the third period, we’re living it right now. It started with 1997’s Time Out of Mind. He took a detour during this time to produce three albums of American standards [one of which is a triple album (Triplicate)] and one Christmas album. His albums of original music since then have been top notch.
As with my list of Dylan songs, this isn’t a “best of” album list. This is a list of my personal favorites.
10. The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs - Rare and Unreleased, 1989-2006 – This collection captures several stray tracks that can be found only on movie soundtracks. It contains alternate versions of songs and unreleased songs recorded for the albums Oh Mercy, Modern Times, and Time Out of Mind. The quality of the songs contained herein are such that they would have made the albums for which they were intended better. Had the versions for Modern Times been included on that album, Modern Times would be on this Top 10 list. He had an abundance of riches for 1989’s Oh Mercy, the outtakes of which are found here.
9. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan [1963] – This is where Dylan the Legend began. How does someone 21 years old come up with songs like Blowin' in the Wind and A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall? Whenever I hear Masters of War, the mental image I have is of Robert McNamara. I know this song predates our involvement in Vietnam, and the song speaks more to those who produce weapons rather than those who command troops, but it still resonates with me in that way given McNamara’s lack of candor with the American public. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right was written in response to a long separation between Dylan and his girlfriend [who is on the album cover] Suze Rotolo. It’s not a break-up song per se, but it sure sounds like one of the best kiss-off songs one is likely to hear. Waylon Jennings did an outstanding cover not too long after this original was released. Oxford Town is Dylan’s account of James Meredith enrolling at Ole Miss. It’s a “topical song”, which is interesting in that Dylan claimed to NOT write topical songs. Phil Ochs wrote “topical songs,” to which Dylan criticized him for being a “journalist” rather than a singer. Talkin' World War III Blues is in the same vein of songwriting as Woody Guthrie. Dylan used the “talkin’ blues” format to sing about serious subjects with a wicked sense of humor. A similar song [and funnier], Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, was recorded for this album but removed by Columbia since they didn’t want a defamation suit from the John Birch Society.
8. Blonde on Blonde [1966] – This is rock’s first double album. To steal a phrase from the Grateful Dead, Blonde on Blonde is a long, strange trip. Can you get more strange than Rainy Day Women #12 & 35? And that’s the first song. How could you not like an album with Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat? Robbie Robertson, guitar hero, is born here. But believe it or not there’s another version with Michael Bloomfield on lead guitar that’s even better [The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack]. Blonde on Blonde was recorded quickly with top Nashville session musicians. He took blues, country, rock, and folk, threw them into a blender, and came up with this. Some of the lyrics of the songs are so bizarre that they probably made John Lennon jealous. It was arty for arts’ sake. Dylan described the album as “the closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind… It’s that thin, that wild mercury sound. It’s metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up…” On an album full of surrealism, Visions of Johanna is Dylan at his most surreal - ‘the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face / but these visions of Johanna have not yet taken my place.’ Many of the songs are about women [Pledging My Time, I Want You, Just Like a Woman, One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)], and one is for one woman in particular [new wife Sara] – the side-long Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands.
7. The Times They Are a-Changin' [1964] For a guy who claimed to not write “topical songs’, there sure are quite a few of them here. This is his first album [his third overall] to feature songs all of which are written by him. The title song needs no explanation. It is an enduring anthem for change. He addressed poverty [Ballad of Hollis Brown], the murder of Medger Evers [Only a Pawn in Their Game], the outsourcing of American jobs overseas [North Country Blues], and the killing of a black woman by a young, rich white man [The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll]. Folkies itching for social justice ate it up. My favorite from this album is When the Ship Comes In. Dylan wrote this in a single night. Joan Baez said this was inspired by a hotel clerk who didn't want to rent a room to Dylan because he looked like an unwashed bum. It’s Dylan giving the finger to those in power who will get their comeuppance soon.
6. Time Out of Mind [1997] - Time Out of Mind won the Grammy® for Album of the Year. It was heralded as his return to form after years of sub-par albums [like Knocked Out Loaded, Down in the Groove, and Empire Burlesque]. Time Out of Mind was produced by Dylan and Daniel Lanois, the Canadian producer and musician who has turned out many great works with U2 [The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby], Peter Gabriel [So, Us], Willie Nelson [Teatro], the Neville Brothers [Yellow Moon] and Emmylou Harris [Wrecking Ball]. The two men also worked together on Oh Mercy in 1989. Lanois’ productions [at least the works of which I own a copy] have been described as ‘ambient,’ ‘atmospheric,’ ‘wrapped in gauze,’ ‘smoky,’ ‘spooky,’ while containing lots of echo and reverb. One might think I write this because I think it’s a bad thing – it isn’t. For productions like Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind, this style works, but it’s more of a Daniel Lanois trademark than what one would associate with Bob Dylan. Prior to recording this album, Dylan had produced two albums [Good as I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993)] that were traditional folk songs, performed by him alone with only an acoustic guitar and a harmonica to accompany him. These albums served to get Dylan reacquainted with the music that inspired him in the first place, and they appear to these ears that they achieved the desired result. This album was recorded with top-drawer session musicians in Miami, who according to sources had to be told more than once to play less. Contained herein are songs of death, lost love, lust, insanity, and depression. Four months after completing the album, Dylan nearly died from acute pulmonary histoplasmosis—a nasty fungal infection caused by bird-and-bat feces, which he inhaled during many motorcycle trips across America. But he recovered, as did his music. This album began a winning streak of albums with original Dylan music that has continued until the present day.
5. Bringing It All Back Home [1965] – Dylan goes electric. He ditched the folk songs and pissed off a lot of the folkie faithful who thought they “owned” him. When Dylan wrote he wasn’t going to work on Maggie’s Farm anymore, I think [yes, this is an opinion] that he was addressing the folkie faithful in that regard – he wasn’t “theirs” anymore. That audience could have also been the target of It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, but Dylan has never said. Instead of writing about the “political” concerns of the day, Dylan tapped into to his own imagination to delve into more personal things. The first side of the album is electric, while the other side is acoustic. The songs are outstanding - Subterranean Homesick Blues - She Belongs To Me - Maggie's Farm - Love Minus Zero / No Limit - Outlaw Blues - On The Road Again - Bob Dylan's 115th Dream - Mr. Tambourine Man - Gates Of Eden - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. "You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows..."
4. Highway 61 Revisited [1965] - Not only is Dylan “electric” on this album, Dylan borrowed Michael Bloomfield from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. In the pre-Hendrix era, Bloomfield could be mentioned in the same breath as Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck. If that wasn’t enough, the songs are fantastic - Like a Rolling Stone – Tombstone Blues - It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry - From a Buick 6 - Ballad of a Thin Man - Queen Jane Approximately - Highway 61 Revisited - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues – Desolation Row. This album is packed with quality from start to finish. On top of that, Positively 4th Street, which is lyrically similar and equally as scathing as Like a Rolling Stone, was recording during these sessions but released as a stand-alone single. Dylan was well and truly on top of his game.
3. Oh Mercy [1989] – The 1980s were not kind to Bob Dylan. He ended the 1970s having made a good album [Slow Train Coming – 1979] after his conversion to Christianity. The rest of what followed wasn’t so good. He recorded six more albums [Saved (1980), Shot of Love (1981), Infidels (1983), Empire Burlesque (1985), Knocked Out Loaded (1986), Down in the Groove (1988)], only one of which was any good [Infidels]. He toured with the Grateful Dead in 1987, from which emerged an album [Dylan & the Dead] that wasn’t very good either. But during this time Bob Dylan injured his hand in what he called a freak accident. He had lost inspiration. He didn't feel any connection to his own songs. He wanted to retire. He never expected to write any more songs. In 1988 there was a flicker [and a very funny one at that] of Dylan at his best. It came in the form of a very funny spoof of Bruce Springsteen on the first Traveling Wilburys album – Tweeter and the Monkey Man. Then one night, alone at his kitchen table, the muse found him. He started to write twenty verses of a song called "Political World." It was the first of about twenty songs [by his estimate] he would write. Before he knew it, Dylan had a bunch of songs. Those songs turned into Oh Mercy, which he recorded in New Orleans with Daniel Lanois.
2. “Love And Theft” [2001] - Many Dylan albums have been reviewed with the words “the best Dylan album since Blood on the Tracks.” A bit of hyperbole, but this time all the critics were correct for once. This is the best one since then. “Love And Theft,” Bob Dylan’s 31st studio album, was released on September 11, 2001. Dylan reportedly took the album’s title from Eric Lott’s book Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, hence the album title in quotation marks. In retrospect Things Have Changed, the song that won Dylan an Academy Award® for Best Original Song for a motion picture, provided a hint of the direction Dylan would take after Time Out of Mind. On Things Have Changed and later “Love And Theft” Dylan took over the production duties himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost. Gone are the ambience and atmospherics of the Lanois productions. With “Love And Theft” we get Dylan without any frills. He took his road band into the studio this time. These guys [including Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton on guitar, Tony Garnier on bass, David Kemper on drums] had been touring with Dylan on his “Never Ending Tour” for years, so they instinctively knew what he wanted. What he got was a combination of jazz [Po’ Boy], swing [Summer Days], hard roadhouse blues [Lonesome Day Blues], country [High Water (for Charley Patton)], rockabilly [Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum], ballads [Sugar Baby] and some of the hardest rock one has heard from Dylan in a long time [Honest With Me]. With all these quintessentially American forms thrown into the mix, critics would label this music “Americana.” It’s not the first-time critics have used this word [music from The Band comes to mind], but since critics need a label for whatever they review, Americana was the only one that fit for them.
1. Blood on the Tracks [1975] – Many have called this Dylan’s “breakup album.” Dylan denies this, but his own son Jakob describes this album as a conversation between his parents. Dylan does accept that maybe some of what was happening in his life showed up in this collection of songs, but he complained in an interview after this album’s release “a lot of people tell me they enjoyed that album. It’s hard for me to relate to that — I mean, people enjoying that type of pain.” It’s not that people enjoy it - they can empathize with it. The New Yorker described Blood on the Tracks as “a ten-song study in romantic devastation, as beautiful as it is bleak.” The “tracks” are brutally honest. There’s desperation, determination, and a healthy dose of vitriol. But amidst all this, there is also hope. Unlike Dylan’s best work of the 1960s, his words are concise – there’s nothing surreal here. Who doesn’t have these feelings when they’re in a relationship that’s going South?
