Over six decades of recording have produced precious few absolute clunkers in the Bob Dylan catalog. But some of the albums that he’s released tend to take a backseat to more celebrated releases.
What’s fascinating is how even those middling releases contain at least one song where Dylan raises his game to peak levels. These four gems epitomize that trend.
“All Along The Watchtower”
Dylan had blazed the trail for a new kind of eloquence in rock throughout the mid-60s. But after his motorcycle accident in 1966, he stepped back a bit from the forefront to work a quieter kind of magic. While everyone else was heading down a psychedelic path in 1967, Dylan released the hushed, mysterious John Wesley Harding. The songs were muted and often inscrutable, daring listeners to peel back the layers. “All Along The Watchtower”, even though it fits in with its somewhat untouchable meaning, stands out thanks to its vivid imagery. Jimi Hendrix certainly recognized the greatness of this track, turning in a drama-pumped hit version a year after Dylan’s original.
“Pressing On”
When Dylan made his move to religious material in the late 70s, he focused his lyrics on matters of faith and salvation. On Slow Train Coming, his first album from this period, he also delivered a musically thrilling album. Saved, which appeared in 1980, didn’t take that same kind of care with the music. And Dylan failed to plumb the same lyrical depths as he did on the predecessor. Basically, Saved came off sounding like a faded retread. But “Pressing On” certainly didn’t fall into those same doldrums. You could look far and wide in Dylan’s catalog and struggle to find a vocal where he’s quite so emotionally engaged. This song beautifully captures the inspirational vibe he was seeking on these records.
“Brownsville Girl”
We’re here to tell you that Dylan’s 80s output is much better than it’s generally rated. But there’s no denying that the second half of the decade found him floundering a bit, at least until he righted the ship with Oh Mercy in 1989. Knocked Out Loaded, released in 1986, displayed a lack of inspiration. Dylan wrote only two of the eight songs on the record by himself. But one of those co-writes, “Brownsville Girl”, asserted itself as a towering achievement. He concocted the 11-minute track with actor and playwright Sam Shepard. “Brownsville Girl” features a ramshackle, time-jumping story that nonetheless delivers sly humor and packs an emotional wallop.
“This Dream Of You”
Dylan found his groove again on the 1997 album Time Out Of Mind. And every one of the albums he’s released since then has mostly garnered high acclaim from critics and fans. But as the years sort themselves out, there are some in that bunch that have receded somewhat in terms of their hold on Dylanologists. Together Through Life, which came out in 2009, is one of those. In a rare event, Dylan penned most of the record in conjunction with famed Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. But the one song he wrote all by himself is the unmistakable keeper. “This Dream Of You” effortlessly makes its claim as one of Dylan’s best songs about profound heartbreak.
(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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