Desire

by

Bob Dylan

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If I had to choose only one of Bob Dylan's albums for the proverbial desert island adventure, it might just be 1976's "Desire." I'm still a little baffled by "Joey," the song our bard co-wrote in inexplicable praise of mobster Joey Gallo, but I'm also deeply moved by it. Scarlet Rivera's mournful violin and Emmylou Harris' beautiful falsetto duetting with Dylan makes it my favorite track even though I tend to side with the late Lester Bangs' famous essay ("Dylan's dalliance with mafia chic") in which he offered a line by line refutation of every admirable claim Dylan makes on Gallo's behalf.

Elsewhere, "Isis" contains some of the cleverest lyrics Dylan has written, and the often unheralded "Black Diamond Bay" is its equal. Then there's the the hauntingly beautiful "Oh, Sister" and Dylan's unabashed tribute to his ex-wife, "Sara." And I love "Mozambique," which deserved to be a hit single in that year when "Silly Love Songs" by Wings was a number one smash. What's the matter with people? Are they deaf?

Apparently some of them are. I've often read about how "Desire" fails to make the grade because of its lousy production. I admit I'm no audiophile, but it always sounded like one of Dylan's most polished efforts, and it sounds even better now. Sony has done an outstanding job with the remastering, but while they were at it, I wish they had added "Abandoned Love," one of Dylan's most infectious love songs, recorded for this album but shelved (ironically in favor of the aforementioned "Joey") until the release of "Biograph" nine years later.

I can't tell you how disappointed I am with the performances here. I tried living with this for awhile, but most of it sounds too lethargic and too ragged. Every track sounds like a run-through or rehearsal, with one exception: the first track, "Hurricane." Not surprisingly, it was actually re-recorded at the last minute. The earlier recording of "Hurricane" circulates in bootlegs and some say it's better, but to me, the one here is so much better. It's tighter, faster, and rocks harder (it's actually an edit of two takes, and it even speeds up a bit at the edit, but when you get carried away by the song, you don't mind). The earlier recording feels like it's plagued by the same lethargy and raggedness as the other tracks on this album.

As for those other tracks, listen to the live versions on either the three-CD BIOGRAPH set or the two-CD BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 5: LIVE 1975, whichever you can find or borrow. Live, these songs smoke. The Rolling Thunder Revue rocks and propels forward in tight precision, and the wild mix of sounds really gels together live. It never does on DESIRE, and it may be because Dylan was using an ensemble this large for the first time in his career. His producer wasn't sure how to use them in the studio (hence the funny producing credit), and it's not until after the sessions during the fall 1975 tour (captured on those other CD's I mentioned) that they really nail these songs. Dylan's singing is also a lot better live, burning with a passion that is absent on DESIRE. Listen to "Oh Sister" on LIVE 1975: it's much more tender. Listen to "Isis" on BIOGRAPH: it rocks with a vengeance (the version on LIVE 1975 isn't as good, but still better than the one on DESIRE). "Sara" was never a favorite on mine, but to hear it on LIVE 1975, it's almost stirring. It's almost a cliché for someone to say the music is better live than on record, but this is one case where it's absolutely true.

I should add that two songs from DESIRE will not be found on those other CD's: "Black Diamond Bay" and "Joey." The former is a little obscure but is still fairly enjoyable, but the latter is terrible. Some may be offended that Dylan would romanticize Joey Gallo in song, but the track in general is very poor. One wishes he dropped it in favor of "Catfish": a pretty good track about Catfish Hunter, it can be found on the three-CD BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 1-3. One reviewer said "Abandoned Love" would've been, too, and I agree.

I do listen to this DESIRE for it's performance of "Hurricane," but you can get that in other places, including the GREATEST HITS VOL. 3 CD. The hybrid SACD reissue sounds better, especially the SACD layer, but not enough to recommend DESIRE over BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 5: LIVE 1975.