Street-Legal

by

Bob Dylan

Edit

"Street Legal" is a pivotal album in Dylan's career. If you want to get autobiographical about it, it marks the final coming to terms with his broken marriage after the turmoil of the two previous albums ("Blood on the Tracks", "Desire") and the beginning of his turning to God which was the subject of the next three ("Slow Train Coming", "Saved", "Shot of Love").

But it is MUCH more than a personal chronicle. Musically and lyrically, it is his most complex and in some ways his best work. The three long songs, "Changing of the Guards", "No Time to Think", and "Where Are You Tonight (Journey Through Dark Heat)" have the richness of imagery of Dylan's best albums from the 60's ("Highway 61 Revisited", "Blonde on Blonde"), the emotional power of "Blood on the Tracks", the spiritual awareness (though implicit rather than explicit) of "Slow Train Coming", and a degree of formal poetic unity and discipline greater than any of them. Dylan is the only songwriter in the world even capable of such control of rhyme, meter, and diction.

Also first-rate are the nasty blues "New Pony" and the beautiful "Is Your Love In Vain?"; but every song is strong.

Dylan's singing also reaches something of a peak on this album -- with the agility of "Blood on the Tracks" and "Desire" and the exuberant emotion of "Saved". On the whole, I'd have to put this one in the top 5 (along with "Blood on the Tracks", "Highway 61", "Bootleg Series Vol 3" and "Time Out of Mind").

The band larger than Dylan usually works with, and he makes the most of it; also of note is the cover photo, which has a coded key to the whole album that also explains the album's title (hint: tan line).

Not necessarily a 5 star album--maybe almost a 4, but not one to pass over either. I think I made a mistake giving it only 3 stars but they won't let me change it. The sound has been remastered and the sound is GREAT--you would never think that this album HAD TO BE remastered. I agree with one of the reviews from one of the books I have at home that Bob's voice is a bit nasal in this one. HOWEVER, New Pony (a put down on one of his girlfriends?) is REALLY a VERY GOOD one and WORTH listening to. It is not an enlightened piece of poetry, but it is good and when Bob sings, he hits all the difficult notes and passages with ease--that is amazing to me!!! It has a good twang to it, a good beat to it and it is a great song. In fact, it is one of my favorites. Maybe this slight nasal sound to this song adds in a positive way to the back alley sound. I have filed away a couple of his earlier albums, but not this one. Just keep your expectations in check--that's all.

I still think Bob Dylan is an amazing composer-song writer and equally a good singer since I never heard him off key at any time--truly amazing that he has it all.

New Pony is not the ONLY good work in this album! There are a few more that are GOOD that have been indicated on the other reviews. I have no regret buying this album as ANY GOOD SONG DISCOVERED is a good deal. You can never go wrong buying Bob's CDs at these prices.

However, you may find this one CD super great as some of the others--you be the judge.