Empire Burlesque: Bob Does the '80s Thing | Discovering Bob Dylan, Ep. 25
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- Bob does the '80s, and critics are displeased.
Poor Bob. He's lost out there in the 1980s. Stuck in a time where he just doesn't fit in, Empire Burlesque was a swing for the fences. Despite the enthusiasm for Infidels following the Christian Trilogy, Bob made some CHOICES with Empire Burlesque (including, but not limited to: producing it himself) that many people did not like and it got pilloried by critics and audiences alike.
But there are defenders out there.
Are Dylan and Joe amongst them?
Are you?
Watch the video. Then leave your opinions on Bob's most righteously 80s album yet, Empire Burlesque in the comments.
Bonus: • Bob Dylan - Tight Conn...
#bobdylan #musicpodcast #empireburlesque
Like a good TLM soldier, I re-listened to this Empire Burlesque album (after about 10 or more years) in preparation for your session. Other than the great title and the cover design from my cousin Nick (it was the ‘80s), it was a sad and dispiriting experience. I love the Bob, but this album is the prime example in modern music of a great artist who has lost his way, lost his confidence, lost his mojo.
The great irony is contained in the song “Trust Yourself”: “Trust yourself to do the things you know best, Trust yourself to do what’s right and not be second-guessed”. Bob didn’t or couldn’t listen to his own wisdom, and this album is the result. EB is what happens when the record company says it knows best, when the powers that be say, we’re here to help, go for this new sound, here take Arthur Baker (New Order, Hall and Oates, Tommy Boy records, etc.) and trust his ears to get a new, contemporary sound! That’s what the kids want! I feel so sorry for Bob here…his confidence is shot, his instincts doubted, his ego deflated…and this is the result. It’s a crime against talent, and Bob was the whipped boy, the punched bag, the over-cooked spaghetti. Bob had no one in his corner, and he was flaying, obliged to churn out an album (and the next couple) with no idea how to bridge the “popular artist”/instincts beyond reproach divide. A man out of time, as Elvis Costello might say.
So, be easy on the Bob here. Not a great album by any means, but this is the sound of pain, of drink, of being lost. Any germ of an idea was second-guessed and beaten down. Even the grains of good songs are mushed, and only Dark Eyes (a good but not great song) and Trust Yourself is much worthy of a repeated listen. A genius betrayed, the sound of a lost man. The beginning of a very dark patch, but he will emerge…mercifully. Enjoyed the discussion as always. Cheers, JPE
Great analysis.
Tight connection, emotionally yours, dark eyes and I’ll remember you…. All straight bangers
Oof. Emotionally Yours is dreadful. - Joe
Emotionally yours and I'll Remember You should be/are standards. Check out the covers of them by Thea Gilmore, OJays, Bettye Lavette... 2 classic songs.
@@TastesLikeMusic i'm with grunntalll about song bob supposedly wrote for elizabeth taylor.... "when the night comes falling from the sky" isn't a fave as it appears on album but is worthy on bootleg series.
I was a young man in the 80s. Everyone who used to be cool suddenly forgot how to be cool, and they knew it but couldn't stop themselves pretending they didn't know it.
Call me crazy but there are some really nice songs on this album. The production has never really bothered me. I've always been real fond of Tight Connection To My Heart, Trust Yourself, When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky and Clean Cut Kid. I like this album. I guess I'm a shameless Bob Dylan fan.
I agree :) ✌️
Plus Emotionally Yours
@@AABB-bm9kk I forgot "Seeing the Real You at Last" - really like that one too.
I agree, there is nothing wrong with these songs.
It's not something you'd try to impress your friends with, but it is a good listen for "true" Dylan fans.
@@michaellord9745Yes! That’s a good one, too :)
Putting KOL and DITG together in a single episode makes a lot of sense. That's a good call.
For some reason, spring time in New York seems much better to my ears than the individual albums. I really enjoy listening to it.
Lot of his bootleg material sounds better than the album cuts. I'm of the opinion the late 70s to Infidels/Empire is easily the most underrated of his catalog and it's actually my second favorite era next to the mid 60s.
One of my favorite lines of all time comes from the Arthur Baker train wreck of a production (there’s a different version on one of the bootleg series discs) “When Night Comes Falling From the Sky” -
‘Who are you that I should have to lie?’ 💙
I have a soft spot for empire burlesque because it gives us tight connection to my heart with it's ridiculous music video. I laughed so hard the first time i saw bob dylan do choreographed dance with two japanese women.
I cant help but think this would be in jasons top 5
Nah, it wouldn’t be in his top 5, it’s not oddball enough lol
I'm the rare Knocked Out Loaded defender. "Driftin too Far from Shore" and "Maybe Someday" are definitely meh, but the rest is good and both "Brownsville Girl" and "Under Your Spell" are excellent.
@@179rich I Wanna Ramble is a decent opener but the rest of side one is a mess. I really like side two though, it’s too bad the whole album didn’t sound like “Under Your Spell” I think Bob was onto a cool sound with that track.
Empire Burlesque is the first Bob Dylan album that I really do have a hard time with, even though I do like some of the songs quite a bit.
Tight Connection to My Heart is a really fun, catchy number, even if the production is messy and lets it down in parts. Bob’s falsetto is cool to hear and shows he wasn’t phoning it in on this track.
I’ll remember you is a beautiful ballad, and in my opinion the best produced track on the album by far. It is a simple set of lyrics but really effective and really powerful. I love this song.
Trust Yourself has a good groove and a good lyrical message, although the production choices are again bizarre.
When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky is the best song on the album. Lyrically it is the standout track. And yes the production is too 80s but on this song I think the production works the best because Bob just goes all in with the synths and 80s guitar sound. The best version though is the one from his tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers live in Sydney Australia 1986. You should check it out because it seriously rocks.
Dark Eyes is an effective closer. I think Bob sings it really well.
But the bad stuff on here is seriously really bad. Clean Cut Kid has just about the worst drum groove ever. And all the other songs are just mediocre to straight up bad.
All in all. I don’t think Empire Burlesque is a total failure. I think there about 5 good songs that could’ve been better with different arrangements and production choices (there are better versions on Bootleg Vol. 16).
I give the album 3 stars.
Here’s a link to the live version of When The Night Comes Falling from the Sky with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
ruclips.net/video/2khuCKCOwMo/видео.htmlsi=TUsgBbebF3m65Eon
When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky has always been a favourite of mine. I wish he'd write another high energy synth pop banger sometime.
"synth pop banger" 😆🤣😜 Good one!
Remember to check out “Band of the Hand (It’s Hell Time Man)” a single released around the time of Knocked Out Loaded, recorded with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Really good lyrics, with a decent guitar riff and a cool gospel arrangement.
I've always really enjoyed this album. I remember reading bad reviews years back and then looking up the songs on RUclips and being surprised how much I liked it. I love the vibe of it and do enjoy the almost holiday/homely feel to it. I then ended up buying the CD. It feels like a continuation of Infidels but a little bit more poignant and less heavy on the lyrics. It's not as good of an album, but enjoyable. Emotionally Yours and I'll Remember You are easily two of the most moving songs he's ever done, but definitely agree the Bootleg Series version is much better. Definitely some misses on it but I like the album. I can see why Joe absolutely cannot stand it. It's not an album a more Casual Dylan listener would like really.
There is a fantastic version of “When the Night comes falling from the Sky” on the bootleg series, featuring the E-Street Band.
To hear what “Tight Connection to My Heart” should sound like, listen to the You Tube recording of Sheila Atim from the play Girl From The North Country at The Old Vic in London. You will have to be picked up off the floor. In my opinion it’s the best cover of a Dylan song. Truly brings out the beauty of Dylan’s lyrics.
I will defend Knocked Out Loaded when you get to it!
This album is my guilty pleasure Dylan album. It's bad but in a kind of fun and corny way. It suffers from very bad 1985 production sound, even the album's producer Andrew Baker admitted it sounded horrible. Tight Connection (to the Heart) is a great track tho, not a great record (it's better than Self Portrait) but still not a terrible one.
This might shock you but I actually think Side Two of Knocked Out Loaded is quite good. The first half of that album is a total tire fire. But the second half is great: Brownsville Girl, Got My Mind Made Up (good rocker with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), and especially Under Your Spell which is perhaps one of Bob’s most underrated songs. These are songs I go back to quite often, and so I think you should give them a chance!
Down in the groove is probably the nadir for me…Death Is Not The End and Silvio are okay, but that’s about it. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on what are widely regarded to be his two worst albums.
And then came along 'Springtime in New York'! Which is amazing. When I finally got around to listening to Emipre I actually didn't mind it, I'm sick! not compared to other Dylan albums of course, but there's far worse to come 😂
There were times when I appreciated this album for want of anything else new from Dylan. But it’s rarely one that is worth revisiting and you guys are heroes for doing so. The lyric “Something is burning baby are you aware? Something is burning there’s smoke in your hair.” What can I say?
In his book THE BOB DYAN ALBUMS, Anthony Varesi headed his chapter for this album: "Has Anybody Seen My Style?" Indecision is certainly an overriding flavour on EMPIRE BURLESQUE. So many players, so many different sessions, so much mixed up confusion. Dylan wanted something 'modern' and Arthur Baker was drafted to provide a production sheen to give it all some kind of unity. Big drums, big echo, synthetic horns, keyboard effects, female choruses, it's all here. Baker is quoted regretfully in Rolling Stone, saying "I cringe at some of the shit I did on that record."
I regard this and the next two studio collections as comedy albums. The funny lines certainly work fine but the straight sentiment is often buried. There are some good songs ("Tight Connection", "When the Night Comes Falling", "Dark Eyes") and some okay arrangements ("The Real You At Last", "Trust Yourself") mixed with lazy writing ("Never Gonna Be the Same", "Something's Burning") and messy sonic choices ("I'll Remember You", "Clean Cut Kid", "When the Night Comes Falling"). Apparently, Bob tried recording with Al Green's band and I hear that along with a driving Staple Singers vibe on many songs, undermined by the production. Still, there's nothing here as dumb as "Neighbourhood Bully" or "Union Sundown" and even a formulaic lyric like "Emotionally Yours" gains some resonance as it waltzes along , finishing with a tasteful Memphis guitar break. I can live with the production style as it now sounds nostalgic (like hearing a Prince or Madonna album of that era). Maybe out of guilt, Baker suggested ending the mess with an acoustic song. Dylan obliged with the gentle "Dark Eyes", proving he could move his listeners when he wasn't trying too hard to figure them out.
Like most of Dylan's disasters (SELF PORTRAIT, SAVED, DOWN IN THE GROOVE, UNDER THE RED SKY) EB is disappointing but interesting. I find his mid- to late-'Eighties albums more fun than frustrating.
Under the Red Sky is a disaster? I think it’s fine, certainly better than EB
@@painless465 RED SKY certainly has a better production sound than EMPIRE but I think the songs are slighter. It seems to me he's employing children's song structures that (for me) don't land. The playing on RED SKY can be impressive at times but that only highlights how banal the lyrics are. Dylan is a master with language but when he writes lines like "Baby, thank you for my tea! It's so sweet of you to be so nice to me" or "God knows everything... God knows there's a heaven" or "The world's being slaughtered and it's such a bloody disgrace", I wonder if more care could have been taken to make these lines have greater impact. Dylan's muse has taken him to all sorts of styles and genres. I think RED SKY was a dead end. Unsurprisingly, his next two releases were covers of deep blues and folk traditions. It was as if he needed to expose himself to stronger writing as a launchpad for his later renaissance.
I'm almost positive that Empire Burlesque was the first Bob Dylan album I bought when it came out, and then saw him for the first time around that period on tour. We were very close to the stage at that concert and Bob seemed sort of listless and out of it the entire show, sort of going through the motions. This makes me think of all those years when before he came out on stage the audience would hear the spoken intro wherein something along the lines of a "period of drug use" was mentioned, before coming out with some of his strongest material to date (Time Out of Mind, "Love and Theft", etc.). Perhaps this was that period? All of that said, I never hated the album, and do really like "Tight Connection" which was a moderate hit back then. I had completely forgotten the video, which is really a gem!
Real Live and Empire Burlesque are the first Bob Dylan albums I bought as new releases. It took a a while (a couple of decades) for the songs on Empire Burlesque to grow on me. Dark Eyes, and Clean Cut kid are my favourites. Jeff Healey's version of When The Night Comes Falling From the Sky in Road House is really good. 3 or 4 good songs is enough for me.
Great analysis as always. I used to place "Infidels" miles ahead of "Empire Burlesque" because I felt the songs on "Infidels" were pretty strong from top to bottom. Over time, I've started to feel "Infidels" is more uneven songwriting wise than I initially thought. So it is still ahead of "Empire Burlesque" for me, but the gap has closed. I think Dylan S. hit on the biggest difference being Dylan's level of confidence is considerably higher on "Infidels". You can just hear it.
I don't hold the production against "Empire Burlesque" as much as you guys do. That's not to say I like the production choices here, I just know that it is a product of its time. Yes, there are other artists that were able to produce better sounding albums in the mid-80s, and there are albums from that time that have held up better on the ears over time than "Empire Burlesque", but this is the document we have of where he was at during that time.
My bigger gripe has always been that I don't love many of the songs on "Empire Burlesque". I have always preferred the slower songs on the album. 'Dark Eyes' is the standout for me. And I always liked 'I'll Remember You' and 'Emotionally Yours'. I've never had a problem with the album version of 'Emotionally Yours'. I feel like Dylan sounds pretty invested in that lyric, even if he delivers it flatly in places. That said, I will admit that there are better versions out there. I think it is a really good song, and I dig the soulful version by The O'Jays. 'Something's Burning, Baby' is rather plodding, but it's a better song than its title would lead you to believe. I prefer the faster takes of 'When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky' available on some of the Bootleg Series collections, but it is still kind of generic sounding 80s rock. I've always found 'Clean Cut Kid' kind of annoying, no matter which version is being considered.
The next episode should be interesting because...it does get worse. In hindsight, Dylan should have taken an extended break after "Infidels". He could have built his confidence back up, and built up a good batch of songs while he figured out the direction he wanted to go. But that's not what he chose to do, and, as a result, we got these wilderness years albums.
Interesting episode as always, and the criticism is fair and deserved. Having said that, I don't think it's a record that should be taken too seriously, my comparison would be Elton John's disco album *Victim Of Love* which he knocked out in an afternoon ... its just "product", not some big artistic statement. I would maybe have done Empire Burlesque/Knocked Out Loaded as a twofer rather than Down In The Groove as production-wise they are similar whereas DITG is a different animal. Personally I think both are more listenable than Empire Burlesque 😂😂😂
I love 80’s Bob
The opening song, Emotionally Yours and Dark Eyes - i like those.
Me too. Dylan made much worse albums before and after.
Joe I know you're a skeptic and thats cool. But you have to admit at the very least the journey has been fascinating. Not many artist in history could be as interesting or long. Paul Weller, Costello, Springsteen are comparable in that they still put out music consistently. Im sure there are some others. But man the dude started as a kid with and acoustic guitar and a mouth organ. And changed it all.
On the subject of artists who made a jarring shift to synth-heavy production, have you ever considered doing a Leonard Cohen listography? I don't think I ever heard you talk much about him
Give Bob an A for effort but a C- for results on this album. The tracks with ace Jamaican session musicians Sly & Robbie are the best. Bob , having a bad hair day on the cover.
I love “Dark Eyes.” It sticks out like a good thumb on a broken smashed hand.
Knocked Out Loaded & Down In The Groove are coming up next in one big medicine swallow of a show. I can’t wait for that one.
Bought both when they came out on cassette. I can still remember listening to them. On a positive note, I did enjoy Silvio.
First Dylan album I brought. I enjoyed it a lot at the time. It made me a fan. Then stated buying his catalogue. The 80s ,well who cares. It was the 80s. It's like saying ,the beach boys sound to 60s
Bob's swing for the disco fences six years too late, but I like the sound. Thanks for both of your comments.
Agree completely with your opinions on this album 😂
.."leaned into the ridiculousness of the 80's in a way that works." Alas, about 95% of older musicians seemed So Completely lost and unable to do that.
I own nearly every official Bob Dylan album until 2012, I think, and I liked Shot of Love and Infidels, but the first Dylan album I have not been buying, and really not even been considering to listen to for a moment, was Empire Burlesque. I do not know anymore why I was so sure back then that it was total crap, but I was. I thought it would sound like Joe is describing here so vividly. Later, it was similar with Under the Red Sky, I never did consider this either. (But I did not quit being a Dylan fan. I waited patiently, and even did buy in cold turkey phases Knocked Out Loaded and Down in the Groove, fully aware that I would find them to be not good.)
Interestingly in the same year 1985, turning 24, all of a sudden I also did quit listening to contemporary music, after very intense 10 years of being a sort of music junkie. I then started to listen to old soul records, Stax in my case, and Bill Withers and Al Green. I just now had a look at the wikipedia 1985 albums list, and boy, all of this is so brutally uninteresting. Even now I do not want to listen to any of these albums, including those from artists that I do respect.
(I bought and loved only one album in 1985, it seems: Don't Stand Me Down from Dexy's Midnight Runners. Some years later I came to know and like Tom Waits' Rain Dogs too.)
I am old compared to you guys, when I first started listening to Dylan Infidels was the new album and so my point of reference is different. I am a Bob fan so I like most albums including Empire Burlesque (and the next to be discussed Knocked out Loaded). Let me try to defend Empire Burlesque as a themed album. The title is Empire Burlesque! Where does that title come from? This album is definitely a burlesque show and a crumbling Empire. As song lyrics Emotionally Yours and Trust Yourself are clunckers.
As a center piece of where I am coming from I find actually the Night Comes Falling From the Sky from the album itself its highlight of this Burlesque show. I find the out-takes viable but they don't fit in the albums theme of unrequited love / unrequited secularism / accentuated morass. It is a rewrite of Isis and I think much better done!
My two cents.
"He's not Phil Collins." THANK GOD.
Random fact, i was watching the original and better Roadhouse film a few weeks ago and at the end the Dave Healey Band play a storming version of When the Night... Also, i thought Arthur Baker produced this album?
IMO some excellent songs marred by poor production. Emotionally Yours, I'll Remember You and Dark Eyes are for me classics. Dylan's 80s are better than many artists' entire careers. A 7/10, for me, with some true standouts. Stuart
A few good songs--every Dylan album has those. But no one can place this in the top tier of Dylan albums if they've heard anything in the 60's and 70's.
Oh. My. God. I knew nothing about the Tight Connection video until now (I didn't have cable when the album came out). Wow. That was ... just... horrible.
Bob Dylan's first album was released 32 days before my birth.
Great opener and closer. Shame about everything in between.
I used to consider this his worst. I changed my mind on that, but it’s close. Tight Connection grew on me. The version of “When the Night Comes falling” is ATROCIOUS, sounding like it scores a chase scene in a bad action movie (the Rocky IV comment is spot on). But there is a fantastic version on the Bootleg Series which improves it in every way. Even “Dark Eyes”, though a good song, sounds downright amateur the way he’s playing it, as if he’s been away from acoustic so long that he forgot how. The only thing that really saves this from being the absolute worst for me is that it mostly has a cohesive sound (until Dark Eyes). It’s a bad sound, but feels like an album.
Like most fans, I completely agree with both of you guys that this album's not...great but I think there are some stand out tracks. Tight Connection to My Heart used to be 1 of my favorite Dylan songs actually, although nowadays I prefer the original version from the bootleg series but at least the music video for Tight Connection is still entertaining to me. Dark Eyes was and probably still is a top 20 to maybe even top 10 favorite Dylan song for me and I personally do enjoy Emotionally Yours (even if that is admittedly a little bit of a guilty pleasure). I can kind of agree with Joe though that Dylan's vocal performance on the chorus of Emotionally Yours is certainly odd but I like it (probably because of how silly it is)
I would have put this album along with Knocked Out Loaded as Dylan's nadir, with Down In The Groove a (maybe slight) improvement. Of course I haven't listened to any of them in 30 years, but that's the way I remember them. Silvio is still a pretty good song.
Hi guys, this is one of the few i don't have both CD and vinyl, i listened to it on youtube and other devices. I'm sure you'll have much more to say for Oh Mercy!
Thanks!
Abandon all hope, Bob and the children's choir await you 😂 Watching Hearts of Fire with Bob, "Fiona" and Rupert Everett will add to to the misery nicely!
We talked about it in the next episode!!
To me it’s the versions of these songs (and Infidels) that made my lens into these songs different. I know Dylan S. has said that too. Fascinating phase (again)
Apologies versions on Springtime in New York box set.
Gonna watch later, so don't know if this was covered, but what are your opinions on the " Springtime in New York " versions?. I thought they were a big step up.
We delve into that. - Joe
@@TastesLikeMusic cool 👍
I have always believed Arthur Baker had a hand in the production of this record.
Knocked out Loaded is actually my favorite of his “ Shit Trilogy”. Nothing is worse than Down in the Groove, not even EB
except for "had a dream about you, baby" which i've never warmed up to, i love "down in the groove".
My dad only likes this album and Infidels and swears they are his best. It's embarrassing
Sorry about your dad. - Joe
The one thing Empire Burlesque has going for it is when you are ranking his albums, you won't spend much angst on the last spot.
Thanks guys. Sometimes you just have to take the bad with the good.
I love "Tight Connection" "Dark Eyes" and especially "I'll Remember You." But yeah, the album is certainly not his best work.
There is a 1987 film called High Tide where a drunken Elvis impersonator, played by the great Judy Davis, is on the floor of a public bathroom singing Dark Eyes. So, yeah, one good thing came out of that mess. I was a real-time hater of that production style, though there were a handful of artists whose material may have transcended that gummy gloss, though I can't think of any. Maybe he should have gotten Elvis Costello to produce EB; that same year he did a great job on Rum, Sodomy and the Lash by the Pogues.
Empire Burlesque is the sound of an artist struggling to stay relevant. It’s possible that with a stronger set of songs, it might be easier to ignore the horrible production. What’s sad is that with a sympathetic producer, this album could have been salvaged.
This starts a trilogy of albums where one wondered if Bob Dylan was finished. What's funny is Rolling Stone said Dylan was working on a great album (which became this), and they ended giving it four stars. I bought it as a starving student, and I was aghast. I tried liking it. I now can say I only tolerate it because of the acoustic closer (and a few glimpses of good songs). We would find out that the sessions had some better versions. Joe - brace yourself...two more bad albums (although there is a hot mess of a minor masterpiece on the next one), but "Oh! Mercy" is fantastic and a precursor of some really good stuff (granted, it will take a few detours).
As far as I remember, Joe is not a big Lanois fan, so it may be a long rocky road ahead.
@@suartgilmour4540 You’re right as far as I can remember. It will be interesting.
This album reminds me of John Hiatt's Warming Up To The Ice Age (1985) with it's horrible 80s production that contains some decent songs. I'm a fan of Hiatt's catalog but that album is a stinker. Bob covered a song from it (Warming...) and it ended up on the Hearts Of Fire sdtk. The Hiatt song Bob covered is called The Usual
This is not a good album by any means, but I must say that a recent listen revealed it to be better than my memory of it. Before, I would have rated it as low as the next two albums. Now, I think it's a little better than those--not saying much, I know. I like Dark Eyes and Something's Burning Baby. Other than that, the version of When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky from the Bootleg Series is much better than "palpable". I'd say it's brilliant. Nothing else from the album is worthwhile.
EB isn’t great is it? lol. KOL is one of the worst albums I have ever heard by any artist. I never got the love from other Dylan fans for Brownsville Girl. Can’t stand it. Reminds me of Street Legal, which I’m not a fan of. DITG I don’t mind compared to the previous 2. I enjoy some of the covers on it. Great discussion as always guys. Been enjoying the journey.
talk about New Pony
I think Empire Burlesque has good songs, but it does suffer from poor production. It could have been much better than it is.
I definitely think it gets worse than this album but it's certainly not great. I need to check out that music video!
I can't find it 😭 maybe it's not available in Canada
Empire Burlesque --> rank - 33, rating - 3
It's a hard listen. No real fun in revisiting this one. Interesting Joni is mentioned because I feel the artists from that period were a bit lost in the 80's, trying to find footing or hold onto their relevance. And both Joni and Bob kind of stop trying to do that and then leaned into things they wanted to do or discovered different ways to do it.
Lou Reed handled the 80’s better than any artist out of the 60’s. Some of his best albums are recorded then. As bad as Bob was in this period, Bowie and Neil were even worse
I don't know that Knocked Out Loaded is bad. It's just not all that good. Or worth putting out. Just listened to it for the first time ever. I couldn't follow "Brownsville Girl." Are the lyrics, or is the story, out of this world? Because, strictly from an aural presentation, I had no reaction to it whatsoever. The only song that sounded interesting to me was "They Killed Him."
It's not exactly busy being born...
I kind of like the album, but mostly because I think there is quite a bit of good songwriting (except for "Clean Cut Kid", which is a total trainwreck. The production, though, is horrendous. When I listen to this, I mostly think about what could have been, with better production choices.
I love Clean Cut Kid!
A lot of Bob Dylan hate accruing here in this series now, and you haven't even reached Knocked Out Loaded yet. Kind of surprising.
Now we separate the normies from the crazies. - Joe
@@TastesLikeMusic I'm a huge fan and defender of Bob Dylan's music. To whatever degree you think that Empire Burlesque is a bad album, Knocked Out Loaded is light years worse. It really is the "low ebb", and by a quantum leap. By any measure, however, Ol' Bob does turn things around. It just takes a while.
@@TastesLikeMusicthen call me crazy because I like KOL (apart from one bizarre choice). Fown in the Groove however… well there’s that one song.
The synth, drum compression, mix are all horrible 80's tropes. But there are still good songs on this record - certainly Dark Eyes. But I'll Remember You, Night Comes Falling and Something is Burning are great songs that could sound great with a better production.
the bad news is that the next two albums are even worse.
Theres an album in early 90s that is even worse possibly.
Yeah this one is totally forgettable for me…I think I might have given it one listen when it came out. This 85 to 97 period is not much in the terms of songs he put out. Definitely not a period I paid much attention to his new music. I will say I actually like Clean Cut Kid but the TEXTONES Carla Olson version , I hate the version here. I give this album a D in Dylan terms.
There’s a lot of comedy too. Sound is 85 for sure..but some of the lyrics are hilarious..clean cut kid…terrible sound but funny delivery….
It is a disappointing album....but theres a couple worse coming up. Coupla good songs here still though the big budget production just hides the lack of genuinely great songs here. Production doesnt really matter if the songs arent there. The alternate take (on Bootleg series 1-3) of When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky is better he also cdve put original take of Danville Girl on this album. I still give it a 3 star (2.5 rounded up mayb) cos in places it rocks with big arrangements even with the 80s production & the phoney Dylan rock star sound here.
Stop being be a slave to what somebody else believes.
Stop being a simp. - Joe
So he won’t be remembered for his 80s’ production. Thinking of the 80s everything really was mostly danceable even the Rock- Def Leopard, Billy Idol, Motley Crew, Guns & Roses. So making Dylan successful the 80 would require he TOO would had to incorporate that dance element which seems absurd, funny. The Knopfler collaboration was met with nasty reviews. At this point liked Dylan when he kind of ROCKS, “Let it Run” “Confusion Surrounds” “Union Sundown” It’s his voice at times it sounds strange, nasal like. You compared this record it to Elton’s “Ice on Fire” which is horrifying 😂But far more provocative is that in a 2011 interview when describing BIG personas in Pop music Joni Mitchell eviscerates Dylan who she apparently worked with the past by spewing “Bob Dylan is not authentic, he’s a plagiarist and his name and voice are fake, DAMN Joni, mercilessly unkind, brutal, did they have some kind of romance in the past that went bad?
Sounds like dog shit to me , least favourite Dylan album maybe and next few will suck too but thankfully we’ll end the 80s on a banger
Infidels is popular stop the slander joe