Expecting Rain

I finally bought it this week, meaning I now own every Dylan studio album.

My expectations were set low and perhaps partly as a result I was pleasantly surprised. Things started off badly though, They Killed Him has to be a contender for most embarrassing Dylan recording ever and after that I was concerned about how awful the album was going to get. But, Precious Memories, Maybe Someday, Under Your Spell...well those three are all quite good and welcome additions to my Dylan collection.

I haven't listened to Knocked Out Loaded in years (I believe it was the last vinyl album I bought, so I don't even have it on CD), but I certainly don't recall thinking of it as a "southwestern masterpiece" or even a decent collection of songs. I actually think "Brownsville Girl" would be more acclaimed if it hadn't been buried on this album. But reading this thread has gotten me interested in it again, so I'll give it a listen. I do recall liking some of the songs but really not liking the album as a whole.

I'm a bit puzzled by this statement. It is easily Dylan's best use of a children's choir on any album he's released. I don't see how anyone could possibly say that...

Yes, you're right, I have to admit you've got me there. I certainly hope each one of those singers is still collecting their performance royalties!

I'm a newbie to Knocked Out....Loaded so can I ask what your favourite song on it is? I understand you consider it one of his great albums.

Under Your Spell is a pretty song, beautiful.
Brownsville Girl is fun and enjoyable...
I like Maybe Someday... I've seen the lyrics criticized but so what, again, a fun song.
Precious Memories... I remember my mother and grandother singing that at the piano about 50 years or so ago so everytime I hear it, the song literally brings back precious memories. And who could dislike the steel drums on that anyway?
They Killed Him is probably one of his least appreciated recordings ever and it appears to me he copied Johnny Cash... children's choir and all. And to be honest, Johnny's preformance didn't quite pull it off either.
You Wanna Ramble, Got My Mind Made Up, and Driftin' Too Far From Shore... are good natured, fun songs.

If They Killed Him is taken from the album, Knocked Out Loaded was Dylan's first album without some strong moral statement or undertones. I find that rather interesting.

It had the '80s sound which many hate... I ignore the "production" when I listen to it. The album reminds me a great deal of Dylan's '60s work... the songs could have been so much better if not rushed and some better decisions made. That cannot be changed. Dylan has chosen through the last five decades to continue playing and improving on the stuff he wrote and played in the '60s. Unfortunately, he's not played much of the Knocked Out Loaded material live and so the album is pretty much what we've got.

Thanks!

Under Your Spell has been stuck in my head all week, definitely the catchiest song on the album.

The song reminds me of Tarantino ! Actually , the whole album! The children give me the creeps.
There was a man named Mahatma Gandhi

The children are singing in tune... can wee cut them a little slack? And think about it, how cool would it be to tell all your friends, "I sang on a Bob Dylan album."?

Are there actually any others? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Well...

Not that I can think of...


But that's beside the point.

It does make your statement 'it is easily Dylan's best use of a children's choir' pretty pointless though.

Some people feel that way about me and Knocked Out Loaded... what can I say?

I stumbled upon this picture earlier this morning and immediately noticed the similarity to the cover of Knocked Out and Loaded. It is from a comic book titled Detective Tales. This is the cover from February 1939
http://www.philsp.com/mags/detective_tales.html





Pardon if this has already been posted. I did a search but found nothing.

Here's the scene after they kiss and make up

and later that very same day..



Note Bob in the background pre-empting his Love & Theft look by a good 12 years!!

Everything about Knocked Out Loaded exudes beauty and the old timeness of a bygone era... when things were simpler... there's a nostalgic grace and loveliness to it that no other album captures in quite the same way for me and is the reason I sometimes consider this THE album of the '80s.

I might agree. Look what that really says about the 80's though. I think you're right on Path.

Mr Path - I know that you are continuing to sharpen up your Dylan-Stand-Up routine by writing even more outlandish jokes. As your potential manager I have to tell you to stop flogging the dead beast that is "Knocked Out Loaded". No-body in their right mind will believe that this heap of rotting dog turds is "The" album of the 80's. Hell, i'd even go for U2 above this pile of shite. Therefore no-one will laugh when you crack that gag.

Furthermore, your logic around "They Killed Him" being Bob'd best use of a kids choir falls flat because, as I think Imogan points out, it's his only use of a kids choir and so it is also his worst use of a kids choir so this isn't a joke it's a paradox and will therefore confuse your audience.

I can probably get you a gig at a comedy club in Newcastle-upon-Tyne but i'd need 25% of your fee and i'd have to vet the final material. Some of your jokes are sensational. I think you should save the one about Bob and his cowboy band re-recording "Blonde on Blonde" until the end. It will kill 'em! When do you think you might be ready for your debut?

Forget "Knocked out Loaded" though jokes on this one just won't work. OK?

Knocked Out Loaded has several things that every other Dylan album is missing and is a work of courage by a man with brass balls... Name any other artist that could have pulled off releasing an album with the artistic diversity found on Knocked Out Loaded.

You Wanna Ramble starts right out of the gate for the entire world to hear that this is Dylan, this is the '80s, and he isn't making any excuses for it... he's forging ahead with courage... and he's gonna ramble 'til the break of dawn.

They Killed Him... a song harkening deeper spiritual insights about human nature and its response to visionaries who reject society's injustice... and Dylan allows children to assist in proclaiming those spiritual truths. Should we not teach our children well? (Okay, that was Crosby, Stills, & Nash, but they were right.) Its the kind of story that should be sung from every street corner and its theme is not so different from The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll. In fact, I think a medley with The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll and They Killed Him would further cement his status as voice of a generation. (One has to wonder if this isn't somewhat autobiographical too... I think he knew the response he was going to receive for this and after its release it was as if They Killed Him.)

Driftin' Too Far From Shore brings one firmly into the '80s with that oh-so-'80s production style. Paradoxically, when one listens to it, they realize they haven't actually drifted so far after all. Its the only admission we have in song that Dylan "don't like playing cat and mouse". That line just gets me everytime!

Precious Memories has the the sentimental early 20th century pietist vibe that interestingly includes beautiful Caribbean steel drums. Who'd ever thought of that? Its the kind of song that takes one back to one's childhood, stting at the piano with one's grandparents for the family holiday sing-a-long.

Maybe Someday returns us to the '80s with the techno-production style that set Dylan apart from his contemporaries. Where all others failed, ('cause lets face it, that production style is best left forgotten) Dylan succeeds with lyrics as no other artist can. Lines like Maybe someday you’ll find out everybody’s somebody’s fool burn into one's memory and soul... and the song is full of those wondrous one liners.

Brownsville Girl... takes us back to a merger of the old west of the 19th century cowboys, the Dustbowl days, and the post World War II era traversing a lyric landscape that made him famous in the '60s... proof that that man's still got "it"... that magical genius for painting a picture with words and adapting a melody for the backdrop.

Got My Mind Made Up is a reminder that, just as a record revolves on the turntable, Dylan is bringing us back yet again to the '80s. Rhyming his lyrics in his masterful way, he weaves a tapestry of images that are every bit as Dylanesque as anything he's done before. And in keeping with so many other things on this album, its the only song mentioning Libya and "living in an oil refinery"... seriously, who would have ever come up with that besides Dylan?

Under Your Spell... beautiful... simply beautiful. A love song that deserves to be sung with regularity on the Never Ending Tour. Seldom does any song move the heart and soul the way Under Your Spell does.

The "failure", if there were to be such a thing, with Knocked Out Loaded isn't what it delivers. If anything its what is left off the album and not delivered at all... those songs he left off that could have made this a masterpiece of a double album. And we're still waiting the release of those gems.

Mr Path - I confess that I really hadn't considered all the complex and interesting points you make here. I have just listened to the album again and I am stunned to discover that you are quite wrong afterall.

This album is almost without any redeeming features at all (excepting "Brownsville Girl"). It is totally shite. You really, really need to get out and listen to some proper music.

You didn't say if you wanted the gig? I have managed to reserve April 1st for you - can you do it?

UP is a genius troll and he has cemented himself in the wind up hall of fame long ago.

But its a fine line between inhabiting a persona and jumping the shark.

I cleaned that up for you.

well Bennyboy, if Mr Path is really trolling he is, indeed, brilliant. Maybe, afterall, you and he are the same person?

Between thought and expression lies a forum.