Red Mosquito • View topic - Good as I Been to You/World Gone Wrong(and Basement Tapes)

Big Pink · **Joined:** Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:55 pm **Posts:** 1712

Okay, so lately I can't get enough of these albums, nor the Basement Tapes. Seems all my favorite Dylan material are his covers of the old songs, at least at the moment. Am I really a fan then? God, they are fantastic though. Discuss.

vacatetheword · **Posted:** Sat Jan 13, 2007 2:13 am

i love blood in my eyes like a child.

Big Pink · **Joined:** Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:55 pm **Posts:** 1712

Love that song. Jim Jones and Blackjack Davey blow me away though. The guy is an absolute prophet with those tunes.

washing machine · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:40 am

Well, I'm very near finishing Dylan's discography. I downloaded World Gone Wrong today. Should have done this long ago. No new ground, but I never thought I'd hear that early 60s sound from him again. :shock:

The star of the show here is the finger-picking.

Kevin Davis · **Joined:** Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:37 am **Posts:** 3819

World Gone Wrong is a top five Dylan album for me. What a stunning piece of work.

Good As I Been to You is great, too, if not quite as consistent. Still, some truly amazing performances there.

washing machine · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:50 pm

I ended up downloading both, and I liked World Gone Wrong more too. Both albums are nice enough collections of folk covers with minimal arrangements, but there's a darker tone permeating World Gone Wrong. Dylan's voice adds much more weight to the songs on that album, and in turn, I dig.

Here are the gaps that are left in my Dylan discography. Is there anything on here that I should rush to hear or should have heard already?

Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
Dylan
Slow Train Coming
Saved
Shot Of Love
Empire Burlesque
Down In The Groove
Under The Blood Red Sky
Together Through Life

Kevin Davis · **Joined:** Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:37 am **Posts:** 3819

I think Saved is a great album propelled by probably the best singing of Dylan's career--essential if the gospel thing isn't a turnoff for you.

I adore Under the Red Sky--it's kind of someone dropped an atomic bomb on Oh Mercy and made a record out of the remnants. A lot of people hate it, but I think it's wonderful. Robert Christgau agrees: http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/dylan-90.php

Together Through Life is kind of a modern-day Under the Red Sky; if you liked the three old man Dylan albums leading up to it, I suspect you'll like it too, but be prepared for it to be minor by comparison.

The other albums are spotty but, if you've made it this far, you'll want to hear them for the good songs.

Have you heard much of the Bootleg Series stuff?

washing machine · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 3:00 pm

I own every title in the bootleg series, but I currently can't find Vol 8. or disc 1 of Vol 7.

The 1964 Philharmonic concert is actually the collection that introduced me to Dylan. I bought it on a whim sometime back in 2003 or 2004, then went on a spree of sorts.

It's funny that you mentioned Saved and not Slow Train Coming. I've long had my sights on Slow Train Coming but I've never considered Saved to be essential over STC when it comes to that born-again period, based on reviews I've read over the years (thought that pretty much just amounts to allmusic, christgau, and maybe pitchfork)

washing machine · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 3:05 pm

Also, one of my favorite things on the internet is the template of Christgau's website. It's a beacon of constancy in this ever-changing ocean of web 3.0 and beyond.

Kevin Davis · **Joined:** Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:37 am **Posts:** 3819

Slow Train Coming is pretty good--it's probably better than I'm giving it credit for. It's worth getting. All those gospel album are worth getting, really. Even Shot of Love has 3-4 songs you wouldn't want to be without. Saved is just such an unrelenting force to be reckoned with. I've been in Dylan communities almost as long as I've been in Pearl Jam communities, and there's a big consensus among heavy-hitters in the Dylan world (dumb term, I know) that his peak as a singer was 1980-81, a position I totally agree with. If you've never heard any live shows from 1980-81, I'll hook you up.

washing machine · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 3:48 pm

I'd never turn down a show. Thanks!

Kevin Davis · **Joined:** Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:37 am **Posts:** 3819

Here's something an internet friend of mine wrote on a Dylan board years ago, in a thread about Slow Train Coming:

Quote:

Some of those "sermon-iacal" songs did take on a power in live performance that made them more compelling than they are on the album - particularly "Slow Train," particularly in its "choo-choo" phase - also, "When You Gonna Wake Up." On the album, the unbroken sequence of them gets a bit tiresome. "Saved" is more a collection of devotional songs, and harkens back to the sources of the oldest tradition of western lyric, the Troubadour songs, with their roots in the mystical love lyrics of Arab and Asian devotional poetry, e.g., Sufi and bhakti lyrics. Denis De Rougemont traces this lineage in his "Love in the Western World." They're not gospel songs as such, but they do work when adapted by gospel singers - see the documentary "Gotta Serve Somebody," about the recordings of these songs made by gospel groups, for some moving evidence of the "chord" struck by Bob in these songs.

To me that sums up a lot of why I think Saved is the better album. In the end, it's all joy and devotion; Slow Train is fire-and-brimstone judgment. The latter is more Dylanesque, perhaps, but the former is better suited to this tradition of material. And did I mention how good the singing is?

washing machine · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:59 pm

The thing that draws me to Slow Train Coming before Saved, honestly, is just the production. I'm a big sucker for that muscle shoals sounds, which I understand is the star of Slow Train Coming. I realize that I probably sound kind of crazy saying that I'm more interested in production and keyboard on a Dylan album than any lyrical theme or vocal delivery, but that's how much I like that particular sound.

mastaflatch · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:07 pm

washing machine wrote:

The thing that draws me to Slow Train Coming before Saved, honestly, is just the production. I'm a big sucker for that muscle shoals sounds, which I understand is the star of Slow Train Coming. I realize that I probably sound kind of crazy saying that I'm more interested in production and keyboard on a Dylan album than any lyrical theme or vocal delivery, but that's how much I like that particular sound.

let's not forget Mark Knopfler.

washing machine · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:10 pm

Oh, he was involved too? Double plus. He's pretty great on Infidels.

Kevin Davis · **Joined:** Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:37 am **Posts:** 3819

washing machine wrote:

The thing that draws me to Slow Train Coming before Saved, honestly, is just the production. I'm a big sucker for that muscle shoals sounds, which I understand is the star of Slow Train Coming. I realize that I probably sound kind of crazy saying that I'm more interested in production and keyboard on a Dylan album than any lyrical theme or vocal delivery, but that's how much I like that particular sound.

Slow Train does sound great; as a studio recording, I probably only like Love and Theft more, though I do like the quirkier sounds of the '60's records. You certainly wouldn't be doing wrong going for it.

SuperNintendoChalmers · **Joined:** Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:38 pm **Posts:** 4388

Pat Garrett dude, come on! Thats a great one.

Booker T on bass.

Good as I Been to You/World Gone Wrong(and Basement Tapes)

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