Album: "Love And Theft"
Recorded: May 2001
Released: September 2001
Recorded: May 2001
Released: September 2001
Songs / length: 12 / 57:25
No other Dylan record has quote marks around its name – here, they signal that "Love and Theft" was stolen from the title of an Eric Lott book, itself about how America loves, but also appropriates, black culture. This theme of theft is a constant one throughout, with Dylan stealing lines of dialogue from The Great Gatsby, as well as referencing Shakespeare and Mark Twain. The opening song also features two characters stolen away from Lewis Carroll's classic Through the Looking-Glass, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum – to my mind, Dylan uses the well-known identical twins as metaphors for the two-party system of government, with one often blindly following the other at a time of war.
Musically, the album sounds very tight from the outset. Dylan's touring band provide the accompaniment and the album was self-produced, making it sound more raw than previous effort, Time Out of Mind. Personally, it reminds me a lot of Highway 61 Revisited – with its strong driving force from one song to the next and its consistent high quality, though arguably it doesn't have as many standout tracks as Highway 61. Even though his singing voice is shot, Dylan still sounds energetic and upbeat. In an interview at the time, when asked about this late flourishing in his songwriting, Dylan largely evades the question, but says he’s amazed he can still do it. He says that there were times in the early 90s where he almost made the decision to stop recording. No doubt part of his renewed confidence came from winning an Oscar for Things Have Changed, which was released as a single in 2000 and featured in the film, Wonder Boys.
In the same interview, Dylan says: “The album deals with power, wealth, knowledge and salvation ... if it’s a great album – which I hope it is – it’s a great album because it deals with great themes. It speaks in a noble language.” There's undoubtedly a real grandeur and nobility to Mississippi, which mixes the personal and political – for example, it's not clear if the line, "I know that fortune is waiting to be kind, so give me your hand and say you’ll be mine", is addressed to an idealised woman (Rosie) or his own country. Either way, he feels he might have outstayed his welcome, and is looking to move on, with or without them.
There's lots of humour in the album too, like the exchange between Romeo & Juliet on Floater (Too Much To Ask), or the “knock knock” joke on Po’ Boy and the line, "Poor boy, in the hotel called the Palace of Gloom / Calls down to room service, says, 'Send up a room'". The record has a strong Americana feel too, with a homage to Charley Patton and the 12-bar delta blues on High Water (For Charley Patton), one of my favourites songs on "Love & Theft". The banjo playing is astonishingly good and the lyrics foreboding, biblical and full of powerful natural images.
Other favourites on the album include Floater (Too Much to Ask), a song narrated by a worn-out old tobacco worker and set in the American Civil War, as well as Po' Boy and closer Sugar Baby, which is inspired musically and lyrically by Gene Austin's 1920s classic The Lonesome Road. Like the original song, Sugar Baby has a weary tone but also a sense of defiance, though Dylan does seem to be conveying the idea that we're doomed to keep making the same mistakes. Released on the day of 9/11, "Love & Theft" is fully engaged with the modern world even if many of its influences are rooted in America's past – when asked later about 9/11, Dylan cryptically quoted the Kipling poem “Gentleman Rankers”, as well as Sun Tzu, on the importance of knowing one’s enemy.
Album rating: A-
No other Dylan record has quote marks around its name – here, they signal that "Love and Theft" was stolen from the title of an Eric Lott book, itself about how America loves, but also appropriates, black culture. This theme of theft is a constant one throughout, with Dylan stealing lines of dialogue from The Great Gatsby, as well as referencing Shakespeare and Mark Twain. The opening song also features two characters stolen away from Lewis Carroll's classic Through the Looking-Glass, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum – to my mind, Dylan uses the well-known identical twins as metaphors for the two-party system of government, with one often blindly following the other at a time of war.
Musically, the album sounds very tight from the outset. Dylan's touring band provide the accompaniment and the album was self-produced, making it sound more raw than previous effort, Time Out of Mind. Personally, it reminds me a lot of Highway 61 Revisited – with its strong driving force from one song to the next and its consistent high quality, though arguably it doesn't have as many standout tracks as Highway 61. Even though his singing voice is shot, Dylan still sounds energetic and upbeat. In an interview at the time, when asked about this late flourishing in his songwriting, Dylan largely evades the question, but says he’s amazed he can still do it. He says that there were times in the early 90s where he almost made the decision to stop recording. No doubt part of his renewed confidence came from winning an Oscar for Things Have Changed, which was released as a single in 2000 and featured in the film, Wonder Boys.
In the same interview, Dylan says: “The album deals with power, wealth, knowledge and salvation ... if it’s a great album – which I hope it is – it’s a great album because it deals with great themes. It speaks in a noble language.” There's undoubtedly a real grandeur and nobility to Mississippi, which mixes the personal and political – for example, it's not clear if the line, "I know that fortune is waiting to be kind, so give me your hand and say you’ll be mine", is addressed to an idealised woman (Rosie) or his own country. Either way, he feels he might have outstayed his welcome, and is looking to move on, with or without them.
There's lots of humour in the album too, like the exchange between Romeo & Juliet on Floater (Too Much To Ask), or the “knock knock” joke on Po’ Boy and the line, "Poor boy, in the hotel called the Palace of Gloom / Calls down to room service, says, 'Send up a room'". The record has a strong Americana feel too, with a homage to Charley Patton and the 12-bar delta blues on High Water (For Charley Patton), one of my favourites songs on "Love & Theft". The banjo playing is astonishingly good and the lyrics foreboding, biblical and full of powerful natural images.
Other favourites on the album include Floater (Too Much to Ask), a song narrated by a worn-out old tobacco worker and set in the American Civil War, as well as Po' Boy and closer Sugar Baby, which is inspired musically and lyrically by Gene Austin's 1920s classic The Lonesome Road. Like the original song, Sugar Baby has a weary tone but also a sense of defiance, though Dylan does seem to be conveying the idea that we're doomed to keep making the same mistakes. Released on the day of 9/11, "Love & Theft" is fully engaged with the modern world even if many of its influences are rooted in America's past – when asked later about 9/11, Dylan cryptically quoted the Kipling poem “Gentleman Rankers”, as well as Sun Tzu, on the importance of knowing one’s enemy.
Album rating: A-
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