Details
Track Listing
1. You Wanna Ramble
2. They Killed Him
3. Driftin' Too Far From Shore
4. Precious Memories
5. Maybe Someday
6. Brownsville Girl
7. Got My Mind Made Up
8. Under Your Spell
Album Notes
Personnel includes: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, keyboards); T-Bone Burnett, Jack Sherman, Ron Wood, Ira Ingber, Dave Stewart (guitar); Al Perkins (steel guitar); Larry Meyers (mandolin); Steve Douglas (saxophone); Steve Madaio (trumpet); Al Kooper, Vince Melamed, Patrick Seymour (keyboards); James Jamerson Jr., Vito San Flippo, John Paris, Carl Sealove, John McKenzie (bass); Raymond Lee Pounds, Anton Fig, Don Heffington, Clem Burke (drums); Philip Lyn Jones (conga); Milton Gabriel, Mike Berment, Brian Parris (steel drums); Carole Dennis, Madeline Quebec, Muffy Hendrix, Annette May Thomas, Damien Turnbough, Majason Bracey, Keysha Gwin, Crystal Pounds, Lara Firestone, Tiffany Wright, Chyna Wright (background vocals).
The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty (vocals, guitar); Mike Campbell (guitar); Benmont Tench (keyboards); Howie Epstein (bass); Stan Lynch (drums).
Engineers include: Britt Bacon, George Tutko, Judy Feltus.
As with most other 1980s Bob Dylan albums, KNOCKED OUT LOADED is a piece-meal work--a combination of various sessions, performed by different groups of musicians, presenting the many sides of Bob Dylan. Touching upon juke-joint R&B ("You Wanna Ramble"), reeling Stones-like blues-rock ("Got My Mind Made Up," co-written by then touring partner Tom Petty and featuring his Heartbreakers), and a gospel arrangement of a Kris Kristofferson tune ("They Killed Him") which inevitably harkens back to Dylan's earlier spiritual explorations, the bard seems unsure where his own attention lay.
Still, much as KNOCKED OUT lacks a sense of cohesion, it doesn't exclude the mystery of Dylan's best work. "Brownsville Girl," an eleven-minute opus co-written by playwright Sam Sheppard, is vintage Zimmerman, struggling to encompass an entire worldview within the context of a mid-tempo, brassy, Tex-Mex blues-as-passage-in-a-diary. It is a rough-edged diamond that is among the most unique parts of Dylan's entire catalog, and it was delivered so effortlessly that nobody dared think Dylan had lost any of his powers.
|
|
)
)
)
)
All rights reserved.
