Of course I exaggerate, but this does have that the feel of a decent LP that's been produced to within an inch of its life. We have the horns, we have the organ and, most importantly, we have the ubiquitous backing singers, shrieking their way through every track. It seems Dylan can't sing a line without it being echoed by the chorus line. One fears that, during the sessions, if he'd said "let's take five I need a bathroom break" it'd be greeted by a shrill blast of "BATH-ROOM BREAK". The whole thing has the sound of one of those evangelical musical extravaganzas you'd catch on TV on a Sunday morning - perhaps fittingly given what was about come in Dylan's life.
I'm not sure who is to blame for this. It was Dylan who wanted the full band - horns, backing singers and all - supplied by his touring band. By some accounts he had fixed his idea of how he wanted the new material to sound and there is a suggestion that, following the death of Elvis Presley, he was going for a Elvis in Vegas kind of feel. However, producer Don DeVito has to take his share of credit and blame for the final product. Though, he might be somewhat forgiven - apparently, even before he came on board, the sessions were speedy and chaotic, leading to far from perfect recordings which DeVito needed to do a job on before they could be released. This would go a long way in explaining the layers of sound he plastered all over them.
The over-the-top production aside, this is not a bad album at all and certainly an interesting one. Written during the throes of his messy divorce from Sara and subsequent custody battles over their children, Dylan is clearly in a bad place. The song titles alone show this as a very personal album - No Time To Think, Baby Stop Crying, We Better Talk This Over, True Love Tends To Forget - in fact every one of the songs, bar Senor, hardly needs Sigmund Freud to work out where Dylan was coming from.
Within the songs he is often, lyrically, direct. In We Better Talk This Over he sings
This situation can only get rougher
Why should we needlessly suffer?
Let’s call it a day, go our own different ways
Before we decay
In No Time To Think,
Judges will haunt you, the country priestess will want you
Her worst is better than best
I’ve seen all these decoys through a set of deep turquoise eyes
And I feel so depressed
My one concern is with New Pony which, unless he is actually singing about a horse (which is unlikely) is simply unpleasant and verging on the misogynistic:
I had a pony, her name was Lucifer
She broke her leg and she needed shooting
Come over here pony, I, I wanna climb up one time on you
Well, you’re so bad and nasty
But I love you, yes I do
Musically, there is some really nice material here. Changing Of The Guard is a good lively opening, followed by New Pony which, beneath the bellowing backing vocals and wittering about horses, is based on a solid, funky, blues riff. All good stuff. No Time To Think is ok - no great shakes - and drags after eight minutes or so but then comes Baby Stop Crying. I adore the verse of this track with its beautiful understated vocal. Gorgeous. Unfortunately the spell is broken by being bludgeoned to death by the shrieking backing vocals on the chorus. A real shame, this could have been a great song, rather than half of one. Street Legal in a nutshell, really.
Elsewhere the songs are fine but no more than that. Is Your Love In Vain? is OK but dominated by the revivalist meeting style production. True Love Tends To Forget, We Better Talk This Over, and Where Are You Tonight? are all pleasant enough but don't provide a particularly strong finish to the LP.
But, of course, I've yet to mention Senor (Tales of Yankee Power). Clearly the outstanding track of the album in many ways. It is a great tune - knocking everything else on the LP into a cocked hat - lyrically more cryptic than the other tracks and, for once here, well produced. The production is not unmissable; every effort has been made to give a dusty South American or maybe spaghetti western feel, but it has been done with a deft touch, something that can't be said for the rest of the LP. It's as if all involved knew this was the track and gave it the attention it deserved. It is a beautiful song.
So, an LP with merit and some good material but nothing of the caliber of the previous two releases. I'm sure there must be a bootleg of the session tapes out there. If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd love to hear this LP before it was polished for release. Thank you.
Out of five?
Three and a half
Favourite track?
Senor
Next Up?
Slow Train Coming
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