Bob Dylan turns 70 today (the nicknames above are ones he names in “Gotta Serve Somebody”). Though he’s best known for his string of great 60s albums, one of the most amazing things about him is that he’s made remarkable music in every single one of his incarnations since then too. Here are my favorite picks for some lesser-appreciated and lesser-known Dylan albums that worth exploring or revisiting.
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, ORIGINAL NEW YORK RECORDINGS (????)
Blood on the Tracks (1975) is one of Dylan’s best-loved post-60s works,
but he had actually made solo recordings of several of the songs in New York before he rerecorded them in Minneapolis with a band for the album. For me, these original takes are perhaps the most heartbreakingly soulful music he’s ever made. The version of “Idiot Wind” is a tragic, introspective love song (with an absolutely magical organ part and final harmonica solo), rather than a sarcastic put-down as it ultimately became. As far as I know, these recordings have never been officially released and have made their way around only as bootlegs.
STREET LEGAL (1978)
The album that bridges Dylan’s mid-70s touring in whiteface (try unwrapping that one!) and his late 70s Christian rebirth expresses a state of great confusion in a voice harried and desperate. “Changing of the Guards” and “Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)” are both intriguing songs with apocalyptic undertones (from the latter: “Señor, señor, can you tell me where we’re headed, Lincoln County Road or Armageddon?”) As a bonus, Katey Sagal, who played the mom on Married with Children, sang back-up on some of early takes of the album’s tracks.
SLOW TRAIN COMING (1979)
The first and best of Dylan’s three wrongly-maligned “Christian” albums. Like most fans, I dismissed these as embarrassing oddities until a friend of mine turned me on to them a few years ago (thanks, Matt Blake!). There’s some of his most honest and vulnerable singing on each of these albums, but this one has the coolest-sounding band on it.
OH MERCY (1989)
A hidden gem—and each song on this album is gem-like in its tight-knit construction. I used to think that the rigorous efficiency and craftsmanship of these lyrics made it one of his best albums, but now I find the lack of freedom somewhat of a limitation. Still, it’s a severely under-rated work with a few achingly slow tempos (“What Good am I?”, “Disease of Conceit”) and lush production touches by Daniel Lanois.
GOOD AS I BEEN TO YOU (1992)
The first of two albums of solo recordings of traditional folk tunes that Dylan recorded in the early 90s. The second, World Gone Wrong, is praised in the Sean Wilentz book, Dylan in America, that came out last year, but this one is just as good. And yes, his singing can sound pretty weird on these tunes—like a half-deranged, tattered, old hermit with a beat-up guitar and a story to tell whether you want to hear it or not…but in a good way!
“LOVE AND THEFT” (2001)
This is the second of three stunning and profound albums Dylan made in the decade between the mid-90s and mid-2000s (Time Out of Mind and Modern Times are the other two). It actually took me a few years to “get” this one. At first, I thought the lyrics were long-winded and lacking in focus and the music sounded too “ordinary” in a way. Now it’s one of my all time favorites—an incredible re-creation and collage of Americana in all its craggy weirdness.