Bob Dylan – Knocked Out Loaded
(CBS Records 1986 CBS86326)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing
Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)
Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
– “property of cbs demonstration only not for sale” stamped on back cover, top left corner
Inner Sleeve has a small split in the bottom
Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American songwriter, singer, artist, and writer. He has been influential in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when his songs chronicled social unrest. Early songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin'” became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving behind his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single “Like a Rolling Stone”, recorded in 1965, enlarged the range of popular music.
Dylan’s lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the performances of Little Richard and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning more than 50 years, has explored the traditions in American song—from folk, blues, and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and the Great American Songbook. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his songwriting is considered his greatest contribution.
Since 1994, Dylan has published seven books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. As a musician, Dylan has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. He has also received numerous awards including eleven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. In 2016, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
Knocked Out Loaded is the twenty-fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in July 1986 by Columbia Records.
The album was received poorly upon release, and is still considered by some critics to be one of Dylan’s least-engaging efforts. However, the 11-minute epic “Brownsville Girl”—co-written by Sam Shepard—has been cited as one of his best by some critics.
Composition
The album includes three cover songs, three collaborations with other songwriters, and two solo compositions by Dylan himself. Most of the album was recorded in the spring of 1986 (several tracks built on instrumental tracks from 1985 sessions), but one track, “Got My Mind Made Up”, was reportedly recorded during a one-day break in the Dylan/Tom Petty “True Confessions” tour in June. One song, “Maybe Someday”, paraphrases a line from T. S. Eliot’s poem Journey of the Magi: Eliot’s “And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly” becomes in Dylan “Through hostile cities and unfriendly towns”.
Reception
The album earned mostly negative reactions, with only a rewritten version of an outtake (“New Danville Girl'”, retitled “Brownsville Girl”) recorded during the Empire Burlesque sessions, receiving uniform praise. Robert Christgau called it “one of the greatest and most ridiculous of [Dylan’s] great ridiculous epics. Doesn’t matter who came up with such lines as ‘She said even the swap meets around here are getting corrupt’ and ‘I didn’t know whether to duck or run, so I ran’—they’re classic Dylan.”
The album as a whole was generally (but not universally) panned, as was its followup, Down in the Groove. “Knocked Out Loaded is ultimately a depressing affair,” wrote Anthony DeCurtis in his review published in Rolling Stone Magazine, “because its slipshod, patchwork nature suggests that Dylan released this LP not because he had anything in particular to say, but to cash in on his 1986 tour. Even worse, it suggests Dylan’s utter lack of artistic direction.” In the Howard Sounes book Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, it is reported that Dylan said “if the records I’m making only sell a certain amount anyway, then why should I take so long putting them together?”
Sales for Knocked Out Loaded were considered weak, as it peaked at #53 on U.S. charts and #35 in the UK.
Dylan has played few songs from this album in concert; “Driftin’ Too Far From Shore”, with 14 performances (all but one in 1988), is the most frequently performed. Four songs remain unplayed, while the other three have together been aired only five times.
In recent years the album has gained a cult following among some Dylan fans who believe it is one of his least-understood works, but critical consensus remains negative, with recent reviews from Salon.com to Rolling Stone Magazine calling it a “career-killer” and “the absolute bottom of the Dylan barrel” respectively.
Columbia has yet to remaster this album, but it is available on compact disc.
Track listing
- Side one
- “You Wanna Ramble” (Little Junior Parker) – 3:14
- “They Killed Him” (Kris Kristofferson) – 4:00
- “Driftin’ Too Far from Shore” (Bob Dylan) – 3:39
- “Precious Memories” (Trad. Arr. Bob Dylan) – 3:13
- “Maybe Someday” (Bob Dylan) – 3:17
- Side two
- “Brownsville Girl” (Bob Dylan, Sam Shepard) – 11:00
- “Got My Mind Made Up” (Bob Dylan, Tom Petty) – 2:53
- “Under Your Spell” (Bob Dylan, Carole Bayer Sager) – 3:58
Personnel
- Bob Dylan – guitar, harmonica, keyboards, vocals, production
- Additional musicians
- Mike Berment – steel drums
- Peggie Blu – background vocals
- Majason Bracey – background vocals
- Clem Burke – drums
- T-Bone Burnett – guitar
- Mike Campbell – guitar
- Carolyn Dennis – background vocals
- Steve Douglas – saxophone
- Howie Epstein – bass guitar
- Anton Fig – drums
- Lara Firestone – background vocals
- Milton Gabriel – steel drums
- Keysha Gwin – background vocals
- Don Heffington – drums
- Muffy Hendrix – background vocals
- April Hendrix-Haberlan – background vocals
- Ira Ingber – guitar
- James Jamerson, Jr. – bass guitar
- Dewey B. Jones II – background vocals
- Phil Jones – conga
- Al Kooper – keyboards
- Stan Lynch – drums
- Steve Madaio – trumpet
- Queen Esther Marrow – background vocals
- Larry Mayhand – background vocals
- John McKenzie – bass guitar
- Vince Melamed – keyboards
- Larry Meyers – mandolin
- Angel Newell – background vocals
- Herbert Newell – background vocals
- John Paris – bass guitar
- Bryan Parris – steel drums
- Al Perkins – steel guitar
- Tom Petty – guitar
- Crystal Pounds – background vocals
- Raymond Lee Pounds – drums
- Madelyn Quebec – background vocals
- Vito San Filippo – bass guitar
- Carl Sealove – bass guitar
- Patrick Seymour – keyboards
- Jack Sherman – guitar
- Daina Smith – background vocals
- Maia Smith – vocals
- Medena Smith – background vocals
- Dave Stewart – guitar
- Benmont Tench – keyboards
- Annette May Thomas – background vocals
- Damien Turnbough – background vocals
- Ronnie Wood – guitar
- Chyna Wright – background vocals
- Elesecia Wright – background vocals
- Tiffany Wright – background vocals
- Technical personnel
- Britt Bacon – engineering
- Judy Feltus – engineering
- Greg Fulginiti – mastering
- Don Smith – engineering
- George Tutko – engineering
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