Just thought it might be interesting to see which tracks people have a fondness for from this period of Dylan’s career.
I’ve based the timeframe on the general (though I’m sure not universally accepted!) idea that his albums suffered a bit of drop in quality following 1978’s Street Legal, with 1997’s Time Out of Mind being a major return to form. Also think it’s a slightly less well documented period of his career that is still in some way quite fascinating to think about - something quite interesting to me about this huge cultural figure being somewhat on the periphery artistically during this period, straining for direction and, at times, putting out some absolute turkeys.
So, anything released in the almost two decades between those two records is welcome here. Any interview, pictures, or interesting tidbits of info about this period are encouraged too!
Currently been enjoying this one, the final track from his much maligned 1985 record Empire Burlesque. Nice sleepy moonlit melody on this one, feels like a natural successor to something like Buckets of Rain. This alternate version is on the Bootleg Series: Springtime in New York collection:
in fairness I like his response when someone was asking him in disbelief how he could leave it off the album: ‘ah it’s just an album, I’ve made 30 of them’
I understand it is essentially a demo live recording that he never got around to finishing. Kind of astounding how hard it is to recognise the lightening in the bottle moment when it happens
Of the 2 90s cover albums, I much prefer World Gone Wrong, you can tell it helped him get his mojo back. Especially this mournful ballad, with the video for it of ol’ Bob wandering around Camden in his top hat:
