3 ms·

Dylan's gospel albums are classics. Documentaries have been made about how good they are. IIRC "Shot of Love" is one of Dylan's favorites of his own records. M

by blast 2y ago

Dylan's gospel albums are classics. Documentaries have been made about how good they are. IIRC "Shot of Love" is one of Dylan's favorites of his own records. Many fans rejected them at the time because of the culture shock of his religious pivot, but that reaction was about the content, not the music, and has long faded. Nowadays it's understood that the sudden-fan-alienation-move is a Dylan thing, just like when he went electric at Newport in the first place. I'm not gonna argue that "Man gave names to all the animals" is one of Dylan's finest, but I'd be interested to know which specific tracks you think are terrible, because those records are full of great songs, and so are some of the outtakes. If you want awful Dylan I think you're a few years too early–Empire Burlesque anyone?

vundercind 2y ago
Admittedly, I’ve only listened to the supposedly-best one (Slow Train Coming, maybe? It’s been a while) and the supposedly-worst one (Saved?) of the three. The former got my toe tapping a couple times IIRC but was mostly forgettable—it was on its account that I allowed that as much as 20% of the three albums, together, might not qualify as very-bad. The latter was back-to-front a slog of a listen. The musical equivalent of contractor-beige painted walls with off-white trim. One of the dullest albums I’ve ever heard, and I owned some stinkers in my high school years. I sometimes like religious music, so that aspect’s not a deal-breaker for me. One of my favorite local bands was kinda secretly a Christian rock band, they just veiled the references enough and shifted things more-poetic so they didn’t sound ultra cheesy from the very first line like that stuff usually does, and probably some listeners didn’t even notice (they didn’t bill themselves as Christian rock and played normal venues). I love the couple of very-Christian tracks on Springsteen’s Nebraska. > If you want awful Dylan I think you're a few years too early–Empire Burlesque anyone? Sadly(?) that album-trilogy is the latest Dylan I’ve heard, so I can’t say whether it gets worse (but I’d believe it).

by blast 2y ago

vundercind 2y ago

Admittedly, I’ve only listened to the supposedly-best one (Slow Train Coming, maybe? It’s been a while) and the supposedly-worst one (Saved?) of the three. The former got my toe tapping a couple times IIRC but was mostly forgettable—it was on its account that I allowed that as much as 20% of the three albums, together, might not qualify as very-bad. The latter was back-to-front a slog of a listen. The musical equivalent of contractor-beige painted walls with off-white trim. One of the dullest albums I’ve ever heard, and I owned some stinkers in my high school years. I sometimes like religious music, so that aspect’s not a deal-breaker for me. One of my favorite local bands was kinda secretly a Christian rock band, they just veiled the references enough and shifted things more-poetic so they didn’t sound ultra cheesy from the very first line like that stuff usually does, and probably some listeners didn’t even notice (they didn’t bill themselves as Christian rock and played normal venues). I love the couple of very-Christian tracks on Springsteen’s Nebraska. > If you want awful Dylan I think you're a few years too early–Empire Burlesque anyone? Sadly(?) that album-trilogy is the latest Dylan I’ve heard, so I can’t say whether it gets worse (but I’d believe it).