Bob Dylan's "Oh Mercy": C/D?

yuppp.

This album is kinda boring? I love the versions on Tell Tale Signs and until tonight had never listened to this album (dunno why, just never got around to it). But the sound here makes too little impressive: the guitar playing just floats away, and there's not enough low end to make up for it.

I still prefer it to Time Out of Mind. I'm unusually forgiving of this record because it's the first Dylan I owned, and as a high schooler I became infatuated with its crankiness, one-dimensional rants, and Lanois' production voodoo.

dunno, isn't "what was it you wanted" all low end?
i really love this record -- don't think it's too Lanois-y. only song i'm not crazy about is probably "disease of conceit."

The rants are cranky, but the sound is gentle, and these aren't cohering well for me. Well, of course I'll listen again.

I just put on Under The Red Sky for the first time also, and the pop of the drums on "Wiggle Wiggle" is already a relief (not Lanois I gather).

UTRS is a record I need to spend more time with. It's not like OM; I can hear the beginning of how he'd dust himself off in the early noughties (TOOM is really a throwback to Lanois obfuscation).

yeah, red sky is probably more of a piece with his 21st century records. that said, there are some duds on there, and far too many pointless guest stars. if he had recorded it with his touring band at the time, it might've been far better received.

It's def. a rowdier listen than Oh Mercy. Plus, can I just

http://www.bjorner.com/90%200-filer/image002.jpg

He looks just like my grandmother there.

He looks like Bob Dylan's grandmother.

first time i saw him he opened with "cat's in the well" and the confusion in the audience was immense.

apparently he's never played "Handy Dandy" live; gotta get in on that fantasy Dylan league so that I can claim it as my shot to glory

ah fuck, he did play it (in 2008)

ha, yeah. i remember reading that he had broken it out once. so weird.
another thing about that song is that someone (Don Was?) said that the released take is edited down from a 30+ minute version! haha. that song is hilarious.

I'm very fond of "Wiggle Wiggle."

wow @ 30 minute "Handy Dandy"

Handy Dandy, just like sugar and candy
Handy Dandy, pour him another brandy

^^^ this guy has game

and Dylan is still very fond of the title track (Harrison's slide solo is one of the few guest-star moments I like).

listening to "Born In Time" now and it's shockingly different from the tremendous version on Tell Tale Signs, like a completely different (& inferior) song.

but still, this album is really nice! It's silly but isn't that what you expect from Dylan, at least half the time?

wow, that's Crosby on "Born In Time"? I suppose when you're singing from jail, you lose some vocal quality.

Christgau:

Under the Red Sky [Columbia, 1990]

This Was Bros. pseudothrowaway improves on the hushed emotion, weary wisdom, and new-age "maturity" of the Daniel Lanois-produced Oh Mercy even if the lyrics are sloppier--the anomaly is what Lanois calls Oh Mercy's "focused" writing. Aiming frankly for the evocative, the fabulistic, the biblical, Dylan exploits narrative metaphor as an adaptive mechanism that allows him to inhabit a "mature" pessimism he knows isn't the meaning of life. Where his seminal folk-rock records were cut with Nashville cats on drums--Kenny Buttrey when he was lucky, nonentities when he wasn't--here Kenny Aronoff's tempos are postpunk like it oughta be, springs and shuffles grooving ever forward. The fables are strengthened by the workout, and as a realist I also treasure their literal moments. I credit his outrage without forgetting his royalty statements. I believe he's gritted his teeth through the bad patches of a long-term sexual relationship even if he still measures the long term in months. And when he thanks his honey for that cup of tea, I melt. A-

xpost yeah crosby sounds like he's reading the lyrics while singing them.

haha @ "postpunk" but maybe I can see where he's coming from, if he means Dylan's postpunk i.e. gospel period, when the songs pounced.

"Shooting Star" and "Most of the Time" alone are enough to get this one close to Classic. Overall its a fairly solid effort despite Lanois & his dreamy mush.

yeah, most of the time is incredible -- amazing how it made it from that acoustic demo on Tell Tale Signs to the released version!

Also really like "Man in the Long Black Coat."

that one totally works with lanois' atmosphere stuff

I need to hear this album at some point

Me too. Just heard a presentation by writer Alexander Haase on it at EMP New Orleans discussing the role the city of New Orleans played for Dylan at that time-- Dylan listening to New Orleans roots Americana on WWOZ there, etc.

my friend goes to the same LA bar as Lanois and talked to him recently about this record -- lanois said that his inspiration for the production on "most of the time" was my bloody valentine! which is weird because that would be isn't anything era MBV not loveless (which might make sense). but that's what he said!

sound like tequila talking

there's rumored to be an solo piano outtake of dylan doing an amazing feed me with your kiss

So Bono told Dylan to work with Lanois, and Dylan liked watching the Neville Brothers at work in the studio with Lanois (and covering a Dylan song or 2)

haha tyler i can't tell if you're kidding or not

Dylan himself writes about recording this album in Chronicles.

Art and Cyril Neville backed Dylan on an organ-anchored version of "Blown a Wish."

That's one of my favorite chapters. Dylan makes it sound like a tough slog, constantly battling with Lanois and endlessly frustrated at casting around for the best songs/performances. It's also got the famous line about how Bob was listening to Public Enemy, NWA, and Ice-T, much to Lanois' surprise ("these guys were throwing horses off cliffs").

xp

haha, i wish i wasn't kidding.
but yeah, this is a great album and that chronicles chapter is marvelous too. probably all made up too! my friend asked lanois if he had read chronicles and he was like "let's just say i remember it totally differently."

I haven't read Chronicles but the writer at EMP was quoting from that chapter in his presentation

Didn't Dylan fire Lanois during the "Love and Theft" sessions? Thought I remembered reading that somewhere.

no i don't think lanois was involved with love & theft at all. around the time of L&T dylan had some disparaging things to say about the production of time out of mind, though.
might have posted this elsewhere, but anyone who's read chronicle should read this -- http://newhavenreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/NHR-006-Warmuth.pdf

That chapter is the best in the book. I like the allusion to Paula Abdul.

Thanks for posting that, tylerw.

In a 2006 essay for the Poetry Foundation, responding to my discovery of Dylan’s use of the words of the poet Henry Timrod in the songs of
Modern Times, Robert Polito addressed this topic, concluding that the borrowing “certainly isn’t plagiarism.” He calls Dylan’s samplings “among the most daring and original signatures of his art.”

Polito OTM.

(and I'm gonna take it on faith that the Dylan/Cecil Taylor collaboration actually happened)

and I'm gonna take it on faith that the Dylan/Cecil Taylor collaboration actually happened

lol doesn't dylan say something like he and cecil played old blues tunes and pop hits after hours? seems v. v. unlikely but i guess dylan's life, more than most ppl's, is littered w/ improbable moments

It was mostly a jazz coffeehouse where Cecil Taylor played a lot. I played there with Cecil once. We played "The Water Is Wide," the old folk song. Cecil could play regular piano if he wanted to.

I dunno, can't think of any reason why it wouldn't/couldn't have happened.

Love the sound of this record. I just wish we could go back and get Lanois to record some of Dylan's 80s records over again.

Which?

That atmosphere that Lanois was able to get could improved 'Down in the Groove' and 'Empire Burlesque'. Usually the tunes are better than the performance and somewhat dated production on some tracks.

Anything probably would have improved "DitG," but "EB"? - no way (tbf, I'm not a fan of the Lanois sound to begin with)

oh shit. earlnash just walked into the empire burlesque trap Alfred set

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nheBN2UWAaM

vs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg29g6D0sPs

First tune is better, but that production sounds like Mr. Mister or something else very '85. 'Political World' really isn't all that much of a song, but this recording to me sounds really good. I think that more room for everything in the mix would have helped the garage rock stuff on 'Down in the Groove'.

"Tight Connection..." is a song, "Political World" is perfumed air.

still stand by this judgment:

I still prefer it to Time Out of Mind. I'm unusually forgiving of this record because it's the first Dylan I owned, and as a high schooler I became infatuated with its crankiness, one-dimensional rants, and Lanois' production voodoo.

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, May 27, 2010

xp isn't that basically earlnash's point ?

No, because Mr. Mister didn't sound like this.

his other point, about good production but not much in the way of songwriting; "perfumed air" is conceivably a poetic way of expressing this, but if you insist on being obtuse then whatever

If you insist on being a jerk.

No, because Mr. Mister didn't sound like this.

New borad descript?

No reason for that rudeness. xpost

sorry

what i ought to have said is:

if "tight connection" is indeed a song, and "political world" is perfumed air (understood as nice sonics but not much of Song), what's wrong with wishing that "Lanois' production voodoo" had graced the former, regardless if you disagree with earl's characterization of its production flaws ?

Oh! Well, I see now. To answer the question: no. I like the sharpness of the lines in both versions of "Tight Connection," and the backing vocals work.

There's a lot I like about Lanois's productions, but with artists who typically don't work with him, I feel like he has a tendency to overdo it.

I think his instincts are generally good and 90% of what he does on OH MERCY is perfect, like setting up the recording space in that old house, handpicking the local players, employing Mark Howard as their engineer and most importantly the way he was able to record Dylan's voice, which is a massive improvement over everything Dylan's recorded since DESIRE. (He picked a good mic, and he kept things quiet and hushed so that Dylan didn't have to fight over the band, he just let his voice settle in that lower range that Dylan's been able to explore so richly - no nasal whining or voice cracking, just a beautifully wrecked blood-soaked vocal.) And he really pushed for songs that should have been on the album, like "Dignity" and especially "Series of Dreams" - he really fought for the latter as the opening track, but in both cases, their exclusion came down to Dylan's own veto.

On the other hand, it's like he doesn't know when to stop working, which I guess is what happens when you're a perfectionist to a fault - even when he's nailed down a great mix or a great track, he's likely to clutter it up or weigh it down with more overdubs, more reverb, etc. That's partly why the alternates that have been released on TELL TALE SIGNS and elsewhere have been a godsend - they go back an iteration or two, before he piled on some extra layers, so they're not so overproduced. The differences are subtle, but you get a less cluttered version of "Everything Is Broken," a "Ring Them Bells" without the intrusive noises, and an earlier mix of "Most of the Time" that isn't drowning in murk (unfortunately those last two are placed on the outrageously priced three-disc version).

I really wish they had a mix of "Man in the Long Black Coat" that dialed back the over-the-top echo, but throw in "Born in Time" (*much* better than the one later recorded for UNDER THE RED SKY), the final mix of "Series of Dreams" from GREATEST HITS VOL. III, and Lanois's preferred version of "Dignity" from the three-disc DYLAN (those last two are also on SIDE TRACKS if you've got that), and I think there's more than enough material for a truly great album, one that I wouldn't hesitate to call a masterpiece.

Good post! Yeah, he overdoes it for sure.

I think "Series of Dreams" worked out cool as the final track of the first Bootleg Series set, but I understand wishing it had been on Oh Mercy.

FWIW, I'm not a fan of "Political World" either. Great intro, but it never gets anywhere. "Perfumed air" indeed - great sound but not much of a song.

"Series of Dreams" was a great closer for that Bootleg Series set, it's just too bad it came at the expense of a perfect opener for OH MERCY

"Series of Dreams" ranks with any of Dylan's great songs: one of those moments in which the song uses the Lanois atmospherics instead of relying upon it. "Series of Dreams" is already home to shrouds; Lanois adds more spooks.

i'm a big fan of dylan's faux-u2 period.

(this sounds like a snarky post, but i'm very genuine)

Licensing would've made it too impractical, but a compilation of Daniel Lanois's best productions would've been nice, cherrypicking his best with U2, Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Robbie Robertson. His stamp is so distinctive, it could make it a cohesive record.

Even better would be a Brian Eno box set of his collaborations/productions, but I digress. (FWIW, I was surprised by Mark Howard's interview in Uncut where he talks about Eno in relation to OH MERCY. Eno didn't do any work specifically for OH MERCY, but he programmed some things that were later used for the album, like the "cricket" sounds that pop up throughout "Man in the Long Black Coat.")

(And the Neville Brothers, forgot YELLOW MOON)

There's smoke on the water it's been there since June
Tree trunks uprooted beneath the high crescent moon
Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumbling force
Somebody is out there beating on a dead horse

daniel lanois invented the '90s

I love the squirrely glee in his voice in that last line.

I really wish they had a mix of "Man in the Long Black Coat" that dialed back the over-the-top echo

Absolutely not.

lanois said that his inspiration for the production on "most of the time" was my bloody valentine! which is weird because that would be isn't anything era MBV not loveless (which might make sense). but that's what he said!

i mean, even if he's lying, i believe it

maybe kevin shields can get Dan to help him finish the next mbv record, that would probably go great

I think the closest we'll ever get to that is "Le Noise."

I love that moon/June rhyme because you know Dylan was like I can make the most made fun of rhyme into something new and awesome

I know that several outtakes were reworked for later releases, like it says here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Mercy But I find myself wanting an expanded edition with the originals, which I haven't heard---have you? Could this be good?

I really enjoy the expanded versions of similar Lanois-produced albums, Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball and Willie Nelson's Teatro. I'm guessing we'll get a Bootleg Series covering Oh Mercy if there's more that hasn't already been released.

(Also: maybe some alts, before all the processing---yes I'm still a sucker for this kind of geekbait.)

I love the squirrely glee in his voice in that last line.

otm

xxp Didn’t Tell Tale Signs cover the Oh Mercy era(?)

I think so. But I think even the first installment of the Bootleg Series touched on "Oh Mercy."

^^Just "Series of Dreams". I think the idea is that if TOoM could get a standalone set after Tell-Tale Signs, than maybe Oh Mercy could too.

"Dignity" had an odd trek:

"Dignity", another outtake, was performed live during a 1994 appearance on MTV Unplugged, and the same performance was later issued on the accompanying album. A remixed version of "Dignity" featuring new overdubs by producer Brendan O'Brien was also released on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3, while the original Lanois production would not see release until the soundtrack album of the television show Touched by an Angel.

"Dignity" is one of my very favorite latter-day Dylan songs. It's had so many different versions released, it could get confusing.

I'm not 100% sure about the chronology, but the bootlegged outtake that was celebrated by "Dylanologists" back in the day is the same exact version that eventually found release on the Touched by an Angel soundtrack (which is pretty bizarre but whatever) and on an official non-U.S. compilation that was released around the same time called The Best of Bob Dylan, Vol. 2 (a sequel to another non-U.S. compilation released around the time Time Out of Mind came out). It was also included on that brick-red Dylan compilation from 2007 that had a single-disc and triple-disc configuration. The only difference between these official releases and the bootleg version is that the bootleg version goes on for another minute or so. No additional lyrics or anything, it just doesn't bother to fade out until much later so we hear the same vamp repeated over and over for the extra amount of time.

Before that bootlegged take was finally given an official release, Dylan played it on MTV Unplugged and that's probably why it was decided to include a studio version on Greatest Hits Vol. 3 except they completely remixed it using a new backing track - all produced by Brendan O'Brien in a very un-Lanois-like fashion.

Tell Tale Signs includes two more versions - a charming demo made of a shorter, incomplete version of the song, and a not-very-good studio take from the Oh Mercy sessions that Dylan seems to have criticized earlier in his memoir.

*Dylan and his band played the song on MTV Unplugged