Oh Mercy - Bob Dylan (1989)

There might be a name for it, but I don’t know it: the first new record by an artist you hear after you’ve gotten into them from their older work. Golden album? up-to-speed album?

Whatever you call that, this is that Dylan record for me. I was a bit lucky that it’s such a good one.

Dylan spent much of the 80s a bit lost. Prior to 1989, the decade had produced a couple of generally–though not universally–acknowledged classics, the end of a trilogy of decent but uncharacteristically unsubtle records about his conversion to Christianity, and a string of other records that each contain the occasional great song, but are generally mediocre.

Towards the end of the decade, as he outlines in his memoir, he rediscovered the joy of performing. Around the same time, he agreed to let Daniel Lanois (previously) produce a record for him. Dylan created what people called a “late-era classic” at the time, although no one knew that he’d crank out multiple of those late-era classics over the next 30 years, making the term kind of meaningless.

Lanois was not a slick 80s producer, even though he produced a couple of slick 80s records. He shared Dylan’s belief in getting musicians in the room and letting them work. What emerged was an organic and spontaneous sounding record, built around solid songs and the first emergence of Dylan’s new emphasis on phrasing and melody in his vocals.

I could write a lot about this era, and its importance to Dylan reinventing himself yet again, but i’ll skip it til I get either a podcast or a book deal. The point is that, while it’s certainly not the last great record he’s made, it’s the beginning of a new era of great records.

Tracks I Liked

Political World - a nasty little lyric about the modern world that only seems more relevant today

The Man In The Long Black Coat - a classic narrative song with ominous music.

What Good Am I - plaintive soul searching