[rating=8.00]
If Bob Dylan in the 80’s: Volume One proves anything, it’s that even in his most fallow periods, the Bard of Minnesota has been capable of brilliant songs (if not always brilliant recordings–that’s a different thing). The revelations are few and far between here, but readily apparent: Hannah Cohen suffuses “Covenant Woman” with a spiritual glow Dylan’s born-again material didn’t always display and it’s one of the select surprises here that compel hearing this collection rather than simply dismiss it out of hand (dual reactions that liner author Jonathan Lethem willfully avoids).
Glen Hansard’s “Pressing On” at first sounds too much like he’s trying to caricature Bob Dylan, but the track turns into a personal expression of passion before it’s over. My Morning Jacket’s, Carl Broemel, may turn in the pinnacle of this recording with a performance of “Death is Not the End” as ghostly as it is intimate: the man who wrote it might well envy the performance in its dual evocation of gospel and Appalachian folk songs.
As with most such collections, however, there are those tracks that totally miss their mark. Langhorne Slim & The Law tries to infuse “Got My Mind Made Up” with a wry twist at odds with the purposeful intent of the song. Reggie Watts’ reggae reworking of a portion of “Brownsville Girl” initially piques curiosity, but proves a flimsy premise as the cinematic conceit of the song eludes him. Tea Leaf Green’s exculpation of an outtake called “Waiting to Get Beat” only reaffirms its own literal mindedness, mostly through its electronic loops. Aaron Freeman and Slash confirm that Bob’s not been above throwaways with songs like “Wiggle Wiggle,” though the similarly lightweight “Unbelievable” by Blitzen Trapper suggests how far off the mark was production of albums like Under the Red Sky. Elvis Perkin’s “Congratulations” proves how Dylan can create a lovely melody, but saddle it with an over-obvious set of lyrics and the wheezy harmonica is an over-obvious reach for vintage Sixties style. Deer Tick’s “Night After Night” illustrates how even a great songwriter can compose just for the sake of style, here a Mexicali twirl.
On the contrary, the truly stellar songs elicit superior performances. Built to Spill do justice to both Dylan and “Jokerman” with an emphatic hard rock reading that allows exact elocution of the lyrics. Doug Martsch and company doesn’t try to reinvent this cryptic tune, a conservative but effective approach assumed by Ian and Alyosha to chugs steadily along for the duration of “You Changed My Life.” Marco Benevento turns “Every Grain of Sand” into a wordless paean to wonder with acoustic piano ringing through the corollary electronics for its brief duration, while Yellowbirds do justice to the evocative “Series of Dreams,” by artfully re-creating its shadowy mood. Meantime, Dawn Landes and Bonnie “Prince” Billy utilize the vivid imagery of “Dark Eyes” as the means to a detailed arrangement Bob didn’t apparently have the patience for while recording Empire Burlesque and Lucius moves full-throttle through a dramatic rocking rendition of that album’s corollary gem, “When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky,” comparable to Dylan’s own version before mix master Arthur Baker got ahold of it.
Bob Dylan in the 80’s: Volume One captures the best of the iconic composer in that decade of Dylan, so much so it begs the question of whether another volume is truly a viable option. But if, like this one, a portion of the sales proceeds goes to charity, it’s worth the effort to see what effect Bob Dylan’s songs from this era have had on another set of artists.
