Album: Under The Red Sky
Recorded: January-May 1990
Released: September 1990
Recorded: January-May 1990
Released: September 1990
Songs / length: 10 / 35:21
To say this record must have been disappointment to Dylan fans after the promise of Oh Mercy is putting it mildly. Dedicated to "Gabby Goo Goo", his then 4 year-old daughter Desiree Gabrielle, Under The Red Sky includes several songs with references to nursery rhymes and children's songs. These are mixed with reworked material from the Oh Mercy sessions, making for a stylistically incoherent record that fails to satisfy. The fact that both Slash from Guns N' Roses and Elton John both play on it serves to underline the album's incongruity. That said, you could see the LP – in fact, it was the first Dylan album to be released primarily on CD – as a daring but doomed attempt at fusing children's songs with rock and the blues.
Dylan's singing can be very lacklustre at times on this record, and opener Wiggle Wiggle is the best example of that. Like another children's song on the record, Handy Dandy, it's just plain awful and full of inane lyrics – such as Handy Dandy being rhymed with “just like sugar & candy” and “pour him another brandy”. Another song, 10,000 Men, is an obvious reference to the nursery rhyme Grand Old Duke of York, while 2 x 2 is a counting song that summons up images of Noah's ark. For me, 2 x 2 is one of the better cuts musically, but it's lyrically uninspired at times ("six by six, they were playing with tricks").
Not all the songs have little success in fusing rock music with nursery rhymes. The title song Under The Red Sky is a decent cut, with both evocative singing and lyrics, cleverly lacing well-known images like “baked in a pie” from Sing a Song of Sixpence into a metaphorical song about protecting the innocence of childhood. The only single from the album, Unbelievable, is both commentary on modern America (now a “land of money” where every urge is satisfied, not the “land of milk & honey” of yesteryear) and also the rejuvenating power of love ("Turn your back, wash your hands / There’s always someone who understands / It don’t matter no more what you got to say").
Religion also permeates several songs on this record, notably God Knows (which opens in similar musical style to In The Garden) and Cat’s In The Well, which sounds to me like a gloomy jeremiad – mixed with nursery rhyme lyrics – about how the world is on the verge of some sort of disaster caused by war or environmental collapse ("Goodnight, my love, may the Lord have mercy on us all"). They find Dylan in a more world-weary mood compared to his 80s Christian records.
This perhaps explains why Dylan sought emotional refuge in the innocence of children's songs on this LP, and why he would go on to cover This Old Man for a Disney album not long after this album's release. Dylan seems tired of the modern world, notably on TV Talking Song, which starts off in Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park and goes on to bemoan how cultural tastes are changing with the rise of TV (and no doubt the effect this might be having on sales of music albums). Dylan suggests we should all do what Elvis did and shoot our TVs to pieces.
For me, the record's highlight is Born In Time, with its tender singing and lovely mood, mixed with powerful lyrics about how lovers only get a fleeting sense of unison ("In the hills of mystery / In the foggy web of destiny / You can have what’s left of me / Where we were born in time"). The fact the album's most accomplished song doesn't fit at all stylistically on the album is a good indication to me that the rest of the material is quite lacking in comparison.
Album rating: C+
To say this record must have been disappointment to Dylan fans after the promise of Oh Mercy is putting it mildly. Dedicated to "Gabby Goo Goo", his then 4 year-old daughter Desiree Gabrielle, Under The Red Sky includes several songs with references to nursery rhymes and children's songs. These are mixed with reworked material from the Oh Mercy sessions, making for a stylistically incoherent record that fails to satisfy. The fact that both Slash from Guns N' Roses and Elton John both play on it serves to underline the album's incongruity. That said, you could see the LP – in fact, it was the first Dylan album to be released primarily on CD – as a daring but doomed attempt at fusing children's songs with rock and the blues.
Dylan's singing can be very lacklustre at times on this record, and opener Wiggle Wiggle is the best example of that. Like another children's song on the record, Handy Dandy, it's just plain awful and full of inane lyrics – such as Handy Dandy being rhymed with “just like sugar & candy” and “pour him another brandy”. Another song, 10,000 Men, is an obvious reference to the nursery rhyme Grand Old Duke of York, while 2 x 2 is a counting song that summons up images of Noah's ark. For me, 2 x 2 is one of the better cuts musically, but it's lyrically uninspired at times ("six by six, they were playing with tricks").
Not all the songs have little success in fusing rock music with nursery rhymes. The title song Under The Red Sky is a decent cut, with both evocative singing and lyrics, cleverly lacing well-known images like “baked in a pie” from Sing a Song of Sixpence into a metaphorical song about protecting the innocence of childhood. The only single from the album, Unbelievable, is both commentary on modern America (now a “land of money” where every urge is satisfied, not the “land of milk & honey” of yesteryear) and also the rejuvenating power of love ("Turn your back, wash your hands / There’s always someone who understands / It don’t matter no more what you got to say").
Religion also permeates several songs on this record, notably God Knows (which opens in similar musical style to In The Garden) and Cat’s In The Well, which sounds to me like a gloomy jeremiad – mixed with nursery rhyme lyrics – about how the world is on the verge of some sort of disaster caused by war or environmental collapse ("Goodnight, my love, may the Lord have mercy on us all"). They find Dylan in a more world-weary mood compared to his 80s Christian records.
This perhaps explains why Dylan sought emotional refuge in the innocence of children's songs on this LP, and why he would go on to cover This Old Man for a Disney album not long after this album's release. Dylan seems tired of the modern world, notably on TV Talking Song, which starts off in Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park and goes on to bemoan how cultural tastes are changing with the rise of TV (and no doubt the effect this might be having on sales of music albums). Dylan suggests we should all do what Elvis did and shoot our TVs to pieces.
For me, the record's highlight is Born In Time, with its tender singing and lovely mood, mixed with powerful lyrics about how lovers only get a fleeting sense of unison ("In the hills of mystery / In the foggy web of destiny / You can have what’s left of me / Where we were born in time"). The fact the album's most accomplished song doesn't fit at all stylistically on the album is a good indication to me that the rest of the material is quite lacking in comparison.
Album rating: C+
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