Bob Dylan Live At Carnegie Hall 1963

Released November 15, 2005

In 2005, Columbia Records released a six song EP composed of songs from Dylan's Carnegie Hall concert that took place on October 26, 1963. The year had witnessed Dylan's meteoric rise with the release of the The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and his historic debut at the Newport Folk Festival. "The Times They Are-A-Changin'" opens the disc in a sedate, but earnest, call to arms for the new generation. "Ballad of Hollis Brown" followed; a version that matched the stark intensity that would appear on the LP The Times They Are-A-Changin. Dylan introduced the melancholy "Boots of Spanish Leather" as a song about "settling for less." Next "Lay Down Your Weary Tune", which according to Dylan's official website is the sole live performance. The version here is slower and more meditative than the studio recordings available on the Bootleg Series. It's deeply moving and effective. Then "North Country Blues," a song that paints a portrait of the mining industry's decline in Dylan's hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota. Interestingly, Dylan wrote the song from the perspective of a miner's wife who watches her family come apart after the company decides to close the mine because in South America people "work for almost nothing." An intriguing song to compare with Dylan's 2006 track from Modern Times "Workingman's Blues #2" as a foreshadowing of globalization. The EP concludes on "With God On Our Side." War's always been a fascination with Dylan, in his memoir he credited Von Clauswitz's On War as an influence on his songwriting. Few songs better encapsulated the horror of 20th Century conflict (and the scourge of Cold War propaganda). Overall, a worthwhile record of Dylan performing his early songs as he was finding his voice as an artist.

The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack

Released August 30, 2005

The Documentary

Martin Scorsese was called into service to edit the documentary that would cover the first 25 years of Dylan's life. No Direction Home is arguably the best documentary made about Dylan and offers an excellent introduction to anyone unfamiliar with his work. Dylan granted over ten hours of interviews with his manager Jeff Rosen, adding compelling commentary to his own life story. Many who knew him in the early days also appear: friends from Minnesota, Suze Rotolo, Dave Von Ronk, Liam Clancy, Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, and many others. The true magic in No Direction Home is Scorsese's impeccable editing skills. The film begins with footage of Dylan performing in 1966 with the Band at the height of his powers, then shifts back to the early years. The effect builds a suspense and significance to the narrative. Access to Dylan's archive allowed for lots of rare footage never seen by the public.

The Soundtrack

Overall, a worthy addition to the Bootleg Series. Although a few of the tracks had appeared on previous releases (and would appear on future ones), there's a wonderful collection rare recordings and alternate versions. Highlights on the first disk include "When I Got Troubles," one of the earliest Dylan recordings. A live version of Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" is another highlight, with Dylan beginning the performance sounding melancholy, but gradually adding a majesty to each verse. "Dink's Song" is another stirring early performance. An early version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" with Ramblin' Jack Elliot providing on backup vocals. Several live tracks are included, including an early performance of "Chimes of Freedom," with Dylan delivering a soulful vocal.

The second disk illustrate's Dylan transition into folk rock, symbolized by the performance of "Maggie's Farm" at the Newport Folk Festival. An alternate version of "Desolation Row," played with electrical instruments adds a psychedelic quality. "Visions of Johanna" is also supported by the Band, casting light on the early version of Blonde on Blonde. Much more would come on the 2015 release The Cutting Edge, but the No Direction Home soundtrack is a worthy companion piece to the series and its narrative arc. 

The Bootleg Series Volume 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert At Philharmonic Hall

Released March 30, 2004

One of my personal favorites in the Bootleg Series is Bob Dylan's Halloween Concert at the Philharmonic Hall. A pivot point in his early career, the show showcases his early songs and suggested what was to come. The concert, performed in two sets, featured songs from his first four albums and new material that would appear on Bringing It All Back Home. On this particular evening he appeared relaxed and good natured before a packed house, joking "I'm wearing my Bob Dylan mask tonight."

Dylan began the show with "The Times They Are A-Changin" in an almost jaunty heralding of a new age. Next came the only live version on record of "Spanish Harlem Incident." "Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues" was a staple of Dylan's early live shows, still a crowd pleaser in 1964 (once again relevant in the current climate). "To Ramona" displayed Dylan's interest in writing daring love songs that were also political. "Who Killed Davey Moore" was another early effort that never appeared on an album, a song about a boxer who tragically died after a fight. 

The next three songs offered something new, even revolutionary, for the audience. What on earth did they make of "Gates of Eden"? Was it a protest song? Beat inspired poetry? Dark and mysterious lyrics suggested abstract art as folk song. "If You Gotta Go, Go Now (or else you gotta stay all night) could be a Top 40 pop song with its playful lyrics, a possible Beatles parody. And then another showstopper with "It's All Right Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), a terrifying secular sermon that was a different from anything Dylan had written up to that point.

The first set closed with more familiar songs. Dylan forgot the lyrics to "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met) and got some help from the audience. "Mr Tambourine Man" and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" were performed with precision and passion.

After a brief break Dylan began the second set with some familiar favorites. "Talkin' World War III Blues" got a thunderous applause. Then stirring performances of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll." 

Joan Baez joined Dylan for "Mama, You've Been On My Mind," one of their favorite songs to sing together. Baez took lead vocals on the traditional "Silver Dagger" with Bob on harmonica. "With God On Our Side" was another duet they performed together many times. An exuberant "It Ain't Me Babe" could almost be a dialogue between Baez and Dylan at that particular moment in time. Dylan closed the evening on a light note with "All I Really Want to Do."

The Dylan of late 1964 would be vastly different than the Dylan of 1965, the Dylan of 1966. The Philharmonic Hall concert showcases the artist coming into his own, signaling a new direction.

The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue

Released November 26, 2002

During the autumn of 1975 Bob Dylan embarked on an impromptu tour known as the Rolling Thunder Revue. Each show was designed to be a theatrical extravaganza, going against the grain of the arena rock that dominated the decade. This edition in the Bootleg Series features performances from the autumn of 1975. 

The CD opens with a rocking version of "Tonight I'll Be Staying Home With You," from the 1969 album Nashville Skyline. The guitars of Mick Ronson and T-Bone Burnett combined with Dylan's excitable vocal brought new life to the song. In fact pretty much every song Dylan performed on the tour got a major reboot, no longer recording stuck in amber on a record, but live bytes of creativity being rediscovered and redefined. "It Ain't Me Babe," is a defiant song of lament from the the 1964 LP Another Side of Bob Dylan that gets converted into a rally cry of personal liberation. The solemn poetics of "A Hard Rain's A- Gonna Fall" is now driving rock and roll song with dizzying apocalyptic imagery. "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" reminded audiences Dylan still cared about social justice (detractors still took him to task for not writing protest music).

Next followed two from the yet to come Desire album: "Romance in Durango" and "Isis." Then two acoustic numbers the classic "Mr. Tambourine Man" and the moving "Simple Twist of Fate" from Blood on the Tracks. Joan Baez joined Dylan for "Blowin' in the Wind" and then one they performed many times a decade earlier, "Mama, You've Been on My Mind." The first CD concludes with Dylan and Baez doing a duet of "I Shall Be Released" with a country music twang.

The second CD starts with two more acoustic numbers, both songs from Bringing It All Back Home, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and "Love Minus Zero/No Limit." Then "Tangled Up in Blue" an instant classic with some slightly revised lyrics. Baez joined Dylan again for the traditional song, "The Water is Wide." An impassioned version of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh (It Takes a Train to Cry)" captured the spirit of Highway 61 Revisited. When someone from the crowd demanded a protest song Dylan responded with "Oh Sister." A lawsuit settlement prevented Dylan from performing "Hurricane" so this particular bootleg is one of few live versions out there (although it doesn't come close to the stirring version on Desire). "One More Cup of Coffee" and "Sara" would also both appear on Desire. Dylan even took audience requests and played "Just Like A Woman." The CD appropriately closes with "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."

At best, this volume in the Bootleg series captures a sense of the excitement of the Rolling Thunder Revue. The tour produced two immediate albums Desire and a live album that caught the tail end of the tour entitled Hard Rain. The 1978 film Renaldo and Clara, Dylan's lone directorial effort, also resulted from the tour. 

These shows were a Dylan no had ever seen before: interactive, political, theatrical, and completely possessed with the spirit of the music. 

Love and Theft: A House of Mortar and Brick

Released September 11, 2001

Everyone of the records I’ve made has emanated from the entire panorama of what America is to me.  America, to me, is a rising tide that lifts all ships, and I’ve never really sought inspiration from other types of music.

-Bob Dylan quote from Interview with Rolling Stone, 12/21/2001

"Love and Theft" glides through the past, present, and future in alternating timelines. Like Highway 61 Revisited, the album boldly traverses through vast landscapes; shifting terrains and existential cul-de-sacs.  Historical eras flip on a dime: one line in the civil war, the next the Great Depression, then uncertain futures.

"Tweedledum and Tweedledee" tells of two disreputable characters who leave wreckage and chaos everywhere they go. As Dylan relates their dubious adventures that range from running a brick and tile company to stealing pecan pies - it's clear they are amoral opportunists. There's a Gothic touch to the song, hints of Flannery O'Connor, as the duo swindle their way through a vapid existence (Robert Johnson and Tennessee Williams are also referenced). Despite their dubious enterprises; their stupidity and cruelty win out in the end; welcome to the new century, says Bob.

If life teaches us anything, it’s that there’s nothing that men and women won’t do to get power. The album deals with power, wealth, knowledge and salvation . . . Rolling Stone Interview 12/21/2001

"Mississippi" had a long recording history, originally intended for the 1997 LP Time Out Of Mind. Dylan gave the song to Sheryl Crow for her 1998 LP The Globe Sessions. One of the central tracks of Love and Theft, "Mississippi" celebrates wondrous landscapes and individuality. A love song of sorts of well with line like, "All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime/Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme." "Mississippi" hints at autobiography with its themes of time passing and endless traveling.

"Summer Days" sounds like a jukebox hit from the early 1950s, a gumbo of blues, rockabilly, and swing. The sense of abandonment and malaise in Time Out Of Mind seems a distant memory; the mojo is back. "Bye and Bye" is the album's most placid song, a romantic ballad that recalls the 1930s.

"Lonesome Day Blues" burns down the house in a blistering onslaught of blues fury. Despair and defiance come in form of blunt declarations from a world weary character. "Lonesome Day Blues" could the basis of a lost film with Warren Oates.  The mention of the Captain always makes me think of the Civil War battle in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, sending his troops to die with an indifferent fatalism. A lyric confesses, "I tell myself something's comin', but it never does." It's a Beckett play set in some God forsaken space in anytown America (where everyday gets more absurd).

"Floater (Too Much To Ask)" may be the most perplexing song on "Love and Theft." Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg. Ohio comes to mind. The opening stanza speaks of "another endless day" of banality. Once again we're in Main street USA with all its exhausting power struggles, unrequited love, violent outbursts. Even Romeo and Juliet are bickering in a surreal aside. The narrator wonders if his pioneer grandparents had hopes or dreams and confesses he dreamed of "going with all the ring-dancin' Christmas carols on all the Christmas Eves." Well, Bob would release a Christmas album with a cover suggesting such imagery.  

Then magisterial "High Water (for Charley Patton)" plays with Southern mythology: the Mississippi River flooding, the emotional toll of looming apocalyptic threat, and a gallows humor that careens into social commentary. The verses weave from the tragic to the absurd:

High water risin’, the shacks are slidin’ down

Folks lose their possessions—folks are leaving town

Bertha Mason shook it—broke it

Then she hung it on a wall

Says, “You’re dancin’ with whom they tell you to

Or you don’t dance at all”

It’s tough out there

High water everywhere

And the lyrics get even darker, taking on a new resonance considering the fateful day it was released:

High water risin’, six inches ’bove my head

Coffins droppin’ in the street

Like balloons made out of lead

Water pourin’ into Vicksburg, don’t know what I’m goin' to do

“Don’t reach out for me,” she said

“Can’t you see I’m drownin’ too?”

It’s rough out there

High water everywhere

With a lynch mob ready to pounce on Charles Darwin and angry preachers threatening to put out your eyes, it's indeed getting rough out there.  The fade out is one of my favorite moments on the record; the banjos are the only defense against tomorrow.

"Moonlight" is the most romantic song on Love and Theft, a throwback to Cole Porter and foreshadowing Dylan's recent interest in American standards.

Basically, the songs deal with what many of my songs deal with - which is business politics, and war, and maybe love interest on the side. Rolling Stone Interview, 12/21/2001

"Honest with Me" is the closest "Love and Theft" comes to a modern rock sound, the pre-rock and roll influence gives way to a more industrial arrangement with the aggressive guitars that open the track. Each stanza is addressed to a woman and includes asides hinting at a never ending power struggle:

I’m here to create the new imperial empire

I’m going to do whatever circumstances require

I care so much for you—didn’t think that I could

I can’t tell my heart that you’re no good

The tenth track "Po Boy" bristles with a quiet, elegiac tone. The song follows the nameless "Po Boy" through many misadventures as he traverses the South, "Been workin' on the mainline-workin'  like the devil/The game is the same- it's just on a different level." He survives by traveling here, there, and everywhere, taking wage labor where and when he can, occasionally fomenting trouble, and tries to find peace. Despite it's short length, there's an epic scope to the Homeric travels chronicles in "Po Boy."

But it is time now for great men to come forward. With small men, no great thing can be accomplished . . . Rolling Stone Interview, 12/21/2001

In "Cry A While" Dylan returns to the blues, with zany one liners, verbal salvos fired into the void. The opening verse sets the tone:

Well, I had to go down and see a guy named Mr. Goldsmith

A nasty, dirty, double-crossin’, backstabbin’ phony I didn’t wanna have to be dealin’ with

But I did it for you and all you gave me was a smile

Well, I cried for you—now it’s your turn to cry awhile

"Sugar Baby" concludes "Love and Theft" on a subdued note, a song filled with mysterious visions and meditations on existence.There's a sense of finality; Gabriel's about to blow his horn to announce the Second Coming.  The themes of the album get boiled down to their DNA.

"Love and Theft" brought Dylan into the new Millennium with a vengeance. The archaic references and hard earned wisdom resonated with audiences - old and new. The sound was unlike anything he put on record, finally hitting the energy of his live shows. As Dylan’s portrait on the album cover suggests, staring at you as he did on Highway 61 Revisited, daring the listener to enter and see where it will take you, it's a call to arms of sorts.  But the journey is more metaphysical that geographical, more questions are raised than are ever answered.

Things will have to change. And one of these things that will have to change: People will have to change their internal world. Rolling Stone Interview, 12/21/2001

Work Cited

Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews. Ed. Jonathan Cott. New York: Warner Books, 2006. Print.
Lyrics from Bobdylan.com

Live 1966 "The Royal Albert Hall Concert" The Bootleg Series Vol. 4

Released October 13, 1998

On May 17, 1966, exhausted and weary after a grueling tour through Europe, Bob Dylan performed before a hostile audience in Manchester, England.  He performed a solo acoustic set and was then joined by the Hawks for the electric portion of the show. On that night a spectator famously cried "Judas" when Dylan begin to play "Like A Rolling Stone."  Feeling betrayed at Bob's embrace of electric music and abandonment of politically driven songs, fans were divided.  Determined to go his own way, Dylan extolled his band "to play fucking louder" as the boos continued.  A performance of historic importance in the frenzy of the mid 1960s, an unforgettable confrontation between artistic expression and audience expectation.

Acoustic Set:

She Belongs To Me
Fourth Time Around
Visions of Johanna
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Desolation Row
Just Like A Woman
Mr. Tambourine Man

The acoustic set is subdued.  Filmed by the same crew that followed Dylan around on Don't Look Back, he sits slouched over as he strums his guitar.  Dylan's performance lacks the passion he brought to them in the studio, here the effect is more hypnotic. He seems to be serving as his own opening act - or expressing his exhaustion with the folk format. 

I wouldn't single out any highlights from the solo set, except that three of the songs were yet to be released: "Fourth Time Around," Visions of Johanna," and "Just Like A Woman." All was prologue to the explosive electric set.

Electric Set:

Tell Me, Momma
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met)
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Leopard-Skin Pillbox-Hat
One Too Many Mornings
Ballad of a Thin Man
Like a Rolling Stone

The second set begins with Dylan's foot stomping as the band launches into "Tell Me, Momma," a song he never recorded for official release.  Dylan slurs the lyrics, sort of Ginsburg meets Jerry Lee Lewis, but the energy of the band gets infectious.  The lazy harmonica intro to "She Acts Like We Never Met" gives way to a psychedelic jam.  An even heavier version of "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down," displays how far Dylan had come since his debut album.  Garth Hudson's swirling organ on "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and Robbie Robertson's guitar perfectly matches the surreal imagery of the lyrics. 

"Leopard-Skin Pillbox-Hat" goes in a more bluesy direction, much more in the style of Blonde on Blonde.  "One Too Many Mornings" gets a drastic reinterpretation as well, the drowsy musings from the original give way to an epic lament on longing.  "Ballad of Thin Man" is even more blistering than the version on Highway 61 Revisited, as the film shows, Dylan took the negative vibes from the audience and threw it back at them. "Like A Rolling Stone" closes out the concert in one of the best live versions, with Dylan almost breaking his voice as the concert ended. Before leaving he offered a monotone, "Thank you," to the crowd.

The Manchester show is historically relevant for many reasons. The year 1966 witnessed rock and roll evolving into not just a cultural force, but an art form. Performers like Dylan, The Beatles, and The Beach Boys were refusing to give the public what they wanted, they were going into their own individualistic directions.  After completing the tour Dylan would vanish from public view for several years, but continued to record music. 

A highlight of the Bootleg Series, "The Royal Albert Hall Concert" would be complimented by the release of The Real Royal Albert Hall Concert released in 2016, the concert Dylan performed a few days later in London.

Time Out Of Mind: Prisoner in a World of Mystery

Released September 30, 1997

"I'm walkin' through streets that are dead."

Thus begins Bob Dylan's 1997 magnum opus Time Out Of Mind.  Seven years since his last album of original songs Under the Red Sky, Dylan reunited with his Oh Mercy producer Daniel Lanois in one of his moodiest albums.  Drenched in blues and folk mythology with some of Dylan's most straight forward lyrics to date, words that conjure existential dread and defiance in cascading waves.

Time Out of Mind won the Grammy for Album of the Year - a work many critics and fans viewed as not only Dylan's return to form, but a masterpiece.

Dylan's ghostly façade on the cover speaks to the "out of time" feel of the entire album, a record full of ghosts.  With the Millennium looming, Dylan seems to be in a race against time itself in a desperate search for meaning, refusing to let the listener off the hook with songs about loss sung with raw emotion.

Even though it sounds grim, the listening experience transcends all the gloom that's balanced by a gallows humor, a scorched earth cynicism combined with fin di siècle grace.

"Love Sick" opens the album with a staccato guitar and the haunting organ of Augie Meyers. Dylan's gravelly singing in the style of a 1930s bluesman.  He sings "I'm sick of love, but I'm in the thick of it," sets up the de facto narrative running through the songs.

"Dirt Road Blues" returns to the walking motif in a song that sounds like a lost jukebox standard circa 1957.  With the proper promotion it would've worked as a single, who knows?

"Standing in the Doorway" continues the walking motif works as a companion piece to "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" from Blonde on Blonde. 

On "Million Miles" Bob sounds a bit mischievous, "You took a part of me that I really miss."  There's a more of a comic quality, especially with the closing stanza:

Well, there’s voices in the night trying to be heard
I’m sitting here listening to every mind-polluting word
I know plenty of people who would put me up for a day or two
Yes, I’m tryin’ to get closer but I’m still a million miles from you

Dylan's growing cragginess and melancholy with the modern world comes out throughout Time Out Of Mind.  Especially on "Tryin to Get to Heaven", a wistful musing on existence through observing others:

People on the platforms
Waiting for the trains
I can hear their hearts a-beatin’
Like pendulums swinging on chains

Loss cannot be avoided, but we are all in the same boat.

"Til I Fell In Love With You" is a swinging jukebox jam with the signature Lanois "swamp sound" on full display.

The majestic "Not Dark Yet," conjures biblical imagery from the Book of Revelation.  He can't even hear the "murmur of a prayer" and his "sense of humanity has gone down the drain," telegraphs despair and a touch of the divine. 

"Cold Irons Bound" offers more blistering blues, as if a hurricane just blew through the studio, one that will engulf the world.  Ragtag turmoil kicks the album up a few gears, futility gives way to rollicking swagger.

Dylan also included his hit single "To Make You Feel My Love," a song he handed off to Billy Joel and Garth Brooks. Adele also recorded a popular version in 2008.

"Can't Wait" delves deeper into the darkness, here Dylan sounds even more conniving. The "end of time" has begun, the question is for who?  It sounds like 4AM.

And finally "Highlands," the final track that runs over 16 minutes, a Chaplinesque by way of Godard chronicle of a day in the life of "Bob Dylan." "Highlands" lifted a stanza from a Robert Burns poem and transposed the setting to 1990s America. Even though life remains the "same ol' rat race" he decides to get out of bed and face the day. A comical encounter with a waitress parodies the themes of the album as a final joke.  And the last verse:

The sun is beginning to shine on me
But it’s not like the sun that used to be
The party’s over and there’s less and less to say
I got new eyes
Everything looks far away

Like the blind man from the Gospels he's "got new eyes" and is determined to keep on living in spite of everything.

Time Out of Mind propelled Dylan's career into the 21st Century not as a dreaded "elder statesman of rock" but an artist continuing to follow the muse wherever it would lead.

Bob Dylan: Unplugged

Released, May 2 1995

The MTV concert show Unplugged was at the apex of its popularity in the mid 1990s, drawing in some of the biggest names in music.  Dylan's appearance introduced him to Generation X and proved to be his highest selling album in years. Originally Dylan planned to perform material from his two previous albums of folk music Good As I've Been to You and World Gone Wrong, but at the suggestion of the MTV producer decided to perform more of a "greatest hits" setlist, with a few rarities thrown in.  With the The Never-ending Tour in full swing, Dylan and his band played an exuberant set of 12 songs ("Love Minus Zero/No Limit" was left off the CD).

With Dylan donning a classic polka dot shirt he lead things off with a rollicking version of "Tombstone Blues." Then a soulful rendition of "Shooting Star" from his 1989 album Oh Mercy.  Next Dylan played a more epic version of "All Along the Watchtower," one of the few examples of Dylan being upstaged in his career (by the 1968 cover version recorded by Jimi Hendrix).  Dylan dove deeper into his catalog with "The Times They Are-A-Changin" from 1963, a modern arrangement that retains the power of the song.  He even revived "John Brown," an anti-war composition from the 1960s that never appeared on an official album. "Rainy Day Women #12 & #35" remains an eternal crowd pleaser.

A truncated version of "Desolation Row" is a highlight of the concert. Then a full version of "Dignity," an outtake from Oh Mercy.  "Knockin" on Heaven's Door" sounds stately and heroic.  "Like A Rolling Stone" gets a great arrangement in a soaring take on the 1965 classic. After a brief encore, Dylan ended the concert with another classic being kept alive for modern times, 'With God On Our Side."

Despite the mixed reviews the official release received, the album sold well and got some airplay on MTV.  Dylan appears relaxed and cheerful during the performance, proudly showcasing his band.  

World Gone Wrong: Lead Me Through Seas Most Severe

Released October 26, 1993

In 1994 Bob Dylan released an album of traditional songs that earned a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album.  More intense and darker than Good As I've Been to You from 1992, World Gone Wrong takes a deep dive into the subconscious of the American mythos. Dylan also wrote his own liner notes.

The first track "World Gone Wrong" is a highlight, the most straightforward song on the album.  The tune is credited to the Mississippi Sheiks, a song Dylan describes as going "against cultural policy." Dylan sounds like he means it on this one, a raging epic on a dysfunctional relationship entering the end times. The narrator rages at the woman and himself, confessing "he can't be good anymore, once, like I did before." Dylan's driving guitar and grizzled vocal makes it clear he's not playing games, if you can't take the heat here you're best to stick with FM radio or Pearl Jam.

"Love Henry" tells a Gothic tale of avarice in the form of a woman who murders Henry because he prefers another woman.  Henry succumbs in the third verse "with a penny knife she held in her hand/she murdered mortal he." Then she disposes of him in the well and imagines the girl he left behind weeping over him with a sense of glee.  Dylan suggests "Love Henry" is about blindness, not being in tune with our instincts in the barrage of distractions life throws at us.

"Ragged and Dirty" is a desperate plea for salvation from the confines of a one room country shack. A rascal makes a plea for understanding. 

Then "Blood In My Eyes," another Mississippi Sheiks song that according to Dylan is about "revolt against routine." The narrator's enamored with a lady of the night "I went back home, put on my tie/Gonna get that girl that money will buy." Dylan paints a vivid picture.

"Broke Down Engine" chronicles another lost soul looking for grace anywhere it can be found. Beneath all the anxiety about mortality there's a driving insanity for meaning, people will fight for it and march to the ends of the earth (if they are wide awake).

The tragic "Delia" tells another dark love story from the viewpoint of a rejected suitor. He repeats throughout the song "all the friends I ever had are gone" and then relates the tale of his beloved Delia getting gunned down by a scoundrel. So the murderer sits in the jailhouse and Delia rests in the ground and life goes on. Meanwhile the narrator laments "You loved all them rounders, you never did love me."

Next comes the traditional "Stack-a-Lee," another sordid tale of a tavern dispute over a stetson hat.  The Stack-a-Lee character is a brutal killer who shrugs at moral conventions and kills without remorse. He murders Billy Lynn in cold blood, a father of three.  Dylan wrote of the song "Billy didn't have an insurance plan, didn't get airsick yet his ghost is more real & genuine than all the dead souls on the boob tube."

Dylan tells a Civil War tale without the romance on "Two Soldiers," they perish in battle and leave the women who love them burdened with grief.  It's terrain Dylan covered before in the anti-war talking song "John Brown." No one who perishes in war as an expendable person, yet history has a way of seeing to it anyways.  

The penultimate track "Jack-A-Roe" promises meaning and joy are a possibility on the temporal plain. A lovely daughter of a wealthy merchant disguises herself as a man to be with Jack the Sailor.  Somehow they both survive the war, Jack-A-Roe nurses Jack back to health and they get married.  Dylan's guitar playing features a ghostly reverb putting the song out of time, floating it into the ether.

In "Lone Pilgrim" a man visits a grave and something miraculous occurs.  Dylan's own musings on the song are like a futuristic telegram:

 . . . what's essentially true is virtual reality. technology to wipe out truth is now available. not everybody can afford it but it's available. when the cost comes down look out!  there won't be songs like these anymore.  factually there aren't any now .

Thus ends World Gone Wrong.  A few years later Dylan would revisit the existential themes in a more intimate way on another Grammy Award winning LP Time Out of Mind, the one critics would hail as Dylan's late masterpiece. More were to follow.

Work Cited

Dylan, Bob. "About the Songs (what they're about)." Liner Notes. World Gone Wrong. LP. Columbia, 1993.

30 Years Down the Line: Good As I Been To You

Released November 3, 1992

Thirty years after Bob Dylan's debut LP of mostly traditional covers he returned to his folk roots on Good As I Been to You. The record is a one man show featuring Dylan on acoustic guitar, harmonica, and vocals - showcasing his picking skills and increasingly gravel voice. 

"Frankie and Albert" tells the story of a love triangle that ends in murder, the twist being the scorned woman Frankie shoots her man Albert. "Jim Jones" takes direct inspiration from an Australian folk song about a tragedy at sea. "Black Jack Davey" tells the story of an innocent beauty with a "lily-white hand" who runs off with a rogue. More intrigue at sea happens on "Canadee-I-O", a Canadian ballad of a woman disguising herself as a sailor to be with her beloved on his sea voyage only to be rejected and eventually courted by the Captain!

Dylan revisits the blues standard "Sittin' on Top of the World" recorded in 1930 by the Mississippi Sheiks. Many greats including Doc Watson, Ray Charles, Howlin' Wolf, and Cream have all covered the song, an expression of defiance and swagger in the face of misfortune. Dylan's snarling performance pours water on the fire as he gleefully watches the smoke rise.  

Unrequited love eats away at the narrator in "Little Maggie" as he angrily watches the woman drink away her troubles "over courtin' some other man." Next comes a Stephen Foster tune "Hard Times." The title says it all. "Step It Up And Go" brings a rock and roll vibe, a rollicking tune better known as "Bottle Up and Go" recorded by the Memphis Jug Band. The romantic ode "Tomorrow Night" was written in 1939 by Sam Coslow and Will Grosz, a standard for Sun Record artists in the 1950s including Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.  

"Arthur McBride" originates from the British Isles, an "anti-recruiting" song telling the tale of a recruiter's attempt to persuade McBride and his cousin to join the army.  On "You're Gonna Quit Me" Dylan offers a playful take on a blues traditional. The penultimate track "Diamond Joe" was a cowboy tune popularized by Dylan's old buddy "Ramblin"Jack Elliot. The closer "Froggie Went A Courtin" originates from Scotland, 19 verses of fairy tale intrigue between Froggie and Miss Mousey that ends in macabre tragedy.

Good As I Been To You feels like a work of scholarship at times, but in retrospect the album set the course of Dylan's future. Attempts to keep up with the music scene in the 1980s met with mixed results so Dylan decided to go his own way in the 1990s by getting back to basics, keeping the folk tradition vibrant for the new millennium on the horizon.