Album: Knocked Out Loaded
Recorded: April-June 1986
Released: July 1986
Recorded: April-June 1986
Released: July 1986
Songs / length: 8 / 35:18
By all accounts, the recording sessions for Knocked Out Loaded were a disaster, with Dylan's various attempts at finding inspiration all ending in defeat. The resulting release is a real hotchpotch of material from a wide variety of sessions (including those for Empire Burlesque), and despite the inclusion of an 11-minute masterpiece, Knocked Out Loaded is actually a fair bit shorter than other Dylan records of the time. Al Kooper, back in the fray with Dylan after a long break, was annoyed that lots of good material from the sessions got left off the record, and peeved that his suggestions for inclusion were ignored. He's right; essentially, as a coherent album, it's a failure.
Opening song You Wanna Ramble is a cover of an obscure blues song by Little Junior Parker, and its dark, cinematic lyrics and lively sound – T Bone Burnett on guitar and Kooper on keyboard – make for a fairly entertaining start. The first major misstep is They Killed Him, a cover of a Kris Kristofferson song, which is rightly condemned for its cringeworthy inclusion of a children's choir. Dylan and his backing choir sing passionately about martyred heroes such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Jesus, and the song is a potent reminder of Dylan's abiding Christian faith at this time, but despite the depth of feeling in the singing, it all falls flat musically.
Dated 80s sound notwithstanding, Driftin' Too Far From Shore has its merits and is one of only two songs on the record that Dylan composed alone. For me, no other song on the record better reflects Dylan's prevailing state of mind at the time ("bottom of the barrel"), love sick and devoid of inspiration. What follows exemplifies best how faulty Dylan's musical radar was in the mid-80s; Precious Memories, with its mawkish lyrics and hybrid gospel-reggae sound, is arguably the worst thing he's ever recorded. Side 1 closer Maybe Someday is a slight improvement, with Dylan in classic spurned lover mode, singing the occasional poetic line, but musically it's small beer.
That Dylan could follow such a weak, inconsistent side 1 with one of his all-time masterpieces, Brownsville Girl, is one of the mysteries of his 80s output. That Dylan penned the song in collaboration with wordsmith and playwright Sam Shepard is part of the solution to this riddle, with his old friend from the Rolling Thunder Revue days serving as a creative spur during the two days they spent together writing the song. Originally it was entitled New Danville Girl (a nod to Woody Guthrie's Danville Girl) and an early version was recorded as part of the Empire Burlesque sessions but not released, allowing Dylan to enhance and refine the song into the 17 verses that make up the final version.
On one level, Brownsville Girl is a celebration of actor Gregory Peck (Dylan was truly a huge fan) and specifically his 1950 film, The Gunfighter, but the song's structure is highly complex and there's no single narrative. The obsession with film is reflected in the image on the LP's cover, taken from a poster for a 1940s B-movie. On another level, the lyrics are a meditation on the clichés of the western film genre and a reflection of the creative impasse that Dylan felt he'd reached himself – "Oh! if there’s an original thought out there, I could use it right now". Sometimes the song feels like a conversation from two perspectives – "You know I can’t believe we’ve lived so long and are still so far apart" – and other times the work of a single narrator reflecting on a series of flashing memories.
For me, one of the song's greatest achievements is Dylan's delivery, almost in the taking blues style that first made his name in the early 60s. There's a warmth and humanity in the lyrics that characterises some of Dylan's best work, with none of the bitterness of some of his love songs and the odd flash of genuine insight – "Strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than people who are most content". Another element of Brownsville Girl's genius is that Dylan makes it all sound so spontaneous, yet it was clearly a song that was long in production. Musically too, it has a timeless quality, which is not something you can say about most of Dylan's 80s output.
Closing the album are the relatively forgettable Got My Mind Made Up, recorded with Tom Petty's band, while final song Under Your Spell was recorded with the Eurythmics (minus Annie Lennox). I quite like the melody of Under Your Spell, and the songwriting is solid, but the music and production leave a lot to be desired. One great song doesn't make an album, hence the harsh score below.
Album rating: D
By all accounts, the recording sessions for Knocked Out Loaded were a disaster, with Dylan's various attempts at finding inspiration all ending in defeat. The resulting release is a real hotchpotch of material from a wide variety of sessions (including those for Empire Burlesque), and despite the inclusion of an 11-minute masterpiece, Knocked Out Loaded is actually a fair bit shorter than other Dylan records of the time. Al Kooper, back in the fray with Dylan after a long break, was annoyed that lots of good material from the sessions got left off the record, and peeved that his suggestions for inclusion were ignored. He's right; essentially, as a coherent album, it's a failure.
Opening song You Wanna Ramble is a cover of an obscure blues song by Little Junior Parker, and its dark, cinematic lyrics and lively sound – T Bone Burnett on guitar and Kooper on keyboard – make for a fairly entertaining start. The first major misstep is They Killed Him, a cover of a Kris Kristofferson song, which is rightly condemned for its cringeworthy inclusion of a children's choir. Dylan and his backing choir sing passionately about martyred heroes such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Jesus, and the song is a potent reminder of Dylan's abiding Christian faith at this time, but despite the depth of feeling in the singing, it all falls flat musically.
Dated 80s sound notwithstanding, Driftin' Too Far From Shore has its merits and is one of only two songs on the record that Dylan composed alone. For me, no other song on the record better reflects Dylan's prevailing state of mind at the time ("bottom of the barrel"), love sick and devoid of inspiration. What follows exemplifies best how faulty Dylan's musical radar was in the mid-80s; Precious Memories, with its mawkish lyrics and hybrid gospel-reggae sound, is arguably the worst thing he's ever recorded. Side 1 closer Maybe Someday is a slight improvement, with Dylan in classic spurned lover mode, singing the occasional poetic line, but musically it's small beer.
That Dylan could follow such a weak, inconsistent side 1 with one of his all-time masterpieces, Brownsville Girl, is one of the mysteries of his 80s output. That Dylan penned the song in collaboration with wordsmith and playwright Sam Shepard is part of the solution to this riddle, with his old friend from the Rolling Thunder Revue days serving as a creative spur during the two days they spent together writing the song. Originally it was entitled New Danville Girl (a nod to Woody Guthrie's Danville Girl) and an early version was recorded as part of the Empire Burlesque sessions but not released, allowing Dylan to enhance and refine the song into the 17 verses that make up the final version.
On one level, Brownsville Girl is a celebration of actor Gregory Peck (Dylan was truly a huge fan) and specifically his 1950 film, The Gunfighter, but the song's structure is highly complex and there's no single narrative. The obsession with film is reflected in the image on the LP's cover, taken from a poster for a 1940s B-movie. On another level, the lyrics are a meditation on the clichés of the western film genre and a reflection of the creative impasse that Dylan felt he'd reached himself – "Oh! if there’s an original thought out there, I could use it right now". Sometimes the song feels like a conversation from two perspectives – "You know I can’t believe we’ve lived so long and are still so far apart" – and other times the work of a single narrator reflecting on a series of flashing memories.
For me, one of the song's greatest achievements is Dylan's delivery, almost in the taking blues style that first made his name in the early 60s. There's a warmth and humanity in the lyrics that characterises some of Dylan's best work, with none of the bitterness of some of his love songs and the odd flash of genuine insight – "Strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than people who are most content". Another element of Brownsville Girl's genius is that Dylan makes it all sound so spontaneous, yet it was clearly a song that was long in production. Musically too, it has a timeless quality, which is not something you can say about most of Dylan's 80s output.
Closing the album are the relatively forgettable Got My Mind Made Up, recorded with Tom Petty's band, while final song Under Your Spell was recorded with the Eurythmics (minus Annie Lennox). I quite like the melody of Under Your Spell, and the songwriting is solid, but the music and production leave a lot to be desired. One great song doesn't make an album, hence the harsh score below.
Album rating: D
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