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Good As I Been To You (1992)
(14 votes)
Tracks (Click song title for lyrics)
- Frankie & Albert
- Jim Jones (trad. arr. by Bob Dylan)
- Blackjack Davey (trad. arr. by Bob Dylan)
- Canadee-i-o
- Sittin' On Top Of The World
- Little Maggie
- Hard Times (Stephen Foster)
- Step It Up And Go
- Tomorrow Night (Sam Coslow - Will Grosz)
- Arthur McBride
- You're Gonna Quit Me
- Diamond Joe
- Froggie Went A-Courtin'
Album Info
Vocals, Guitar and Harmonica -- Bob Dylan
Production Supervised by Debbie Gold for The Gold Network
Recorded and Mixed by Micajah Ryan
Mastered by Stephen Marcussen at Precision Mastering, LA
Front Cover Photography by Jimmy Wachtel
Art Direction/Design by Dawn Patrol, LA
Special Thanks to Don Ienner, Debbie Gold and Jeff Rosen
Comments
I love this album - a
No Rating
I love this album - a masterpiece in acousticguitar!!
TO YOU
always good bob and his guitar
back to his roots
Froggie went a courtin' and Frankie and Albert are my favorites. It really is a good album as we get to hear what influecnes the bard.
Good As I Been to you
I really do love this album. The best thing on it is the song "Frankie 'n' Albert",that reminds me of "Stack O'lee Blues" by Mississippi John Hurt.
O Verdadeiro Dylan
No Rating
Este é o melhor disco de Dylan desde Desire. Aliás, este disco e seu sucessor, World Gone Wrong, mostram o verdadeiro Dylan, ao passo que tudo o que este fez entre Desire e Good As I Been To You mostraram um Dylan extremamente comercial, monótono e aparentemente sem nada a dizer, esgotado. Para os que pretendem saber o que é Bob Dylan, dou a seguinte dica: adquira todos os álbuns dos anos 60; dos 70, apenas Blood On The Tracks e Desire; pule toda a década de oitenta, não há nada ali que valha a pena e que seja Bob Dylan; adquira este Good As I Been Too You e World Gone Wrong; e os vols. 4, 5 e 6 das Bootleg Series; para completar, a compilação The Essential. Isto é tudo. Os discos que Dylan vem lançando após Desire parecem ter sido feitos por encomenda para a cena comercial e posteriormente para a MTV. Mas aqui está um grande disco lançado numa época de anemia musical.
Diamond Joe
No Rating
I forgot how much I love Diamond Joe. What a good song from a good album (although there really isn't a Dylan song or album that I don't like).
As Good As I Been to You (1992)
My favourite tracks on the album are:
1. Canadee I-O
2. Blackjack Davey
3. Jim Jones
The January 2007 issue of 'Mojo' rated this album Dylan's 24th best album - I consider it to be his 20th best album.
I really like this album - I think it's so nice to hear Dylan on his own - singing and playing guitar and harmonica. I do like stuff he's done with other people - but I think that there is a beauty in Dylan playing on his own - a beauty that cannot be achieved if anyone else is playing with him. I think It's a shame that this album doesn't contain any songs that were written by Dylan - but still - I think it's a great album!
Worst Album Cover Of All Time
Despite my grade of 5 stars back in February, I have to give this album's cover a 1 star (or less) for the worst album cover of all time. What were they thinkning? Still terrific music, though.
Fine Specimin of Traditional Folk Stylings
Some would say that Dylan returned to his routes here. True, but he also managed to garner a whole new audience for this style of music. This album and World Gone Wrong were both recorded in Dylan's own garage. They were intended to finalize the requirements of his contract with Columbia. I'm not sure if they were intended to be anything more - but they turned out that way. These are perhaps the best collection of covers Dylan ever recorded. The underproduction probably helped. Remember "Dylan" from 73? These recordings are far superior in demonstrating Dylan's craftsmanship.
I enjoy World Gone Wrong more than this album, but all-in-all they're both great. Highlights here?
Jim Jones - wonderful traditional Austrailian ballad;
Sittin' On Top of The World;
Hard Times;
Tomorrow Night;
Arthur McBride
You're Gonna Quit Me
And of course the wonderful children's song Froggie Went a-Courtin'
This album can be listened to over and over without getting tired.
Fine Specimin of Traditional Folk Stylings
Some would say that Dylan returned to his routes here. True, but he also managed to garner a whole new audience for this style of music. This album and World Gone Wrong were both recorded in Dylan's own garage. They were intended to finalize the requirements of his contract with Columbia. I'm not sure if they were intended to be anything more - but they turned out that way. These are perhaps the best collection of covers Dylan ever recorded. The underproduction probably helped. Remember "Dylan" from 73? These recordings are far superior in demonstrating Dylan's craftsmanship.
I enjoy World Gone Wrong more than this album, but all-in-all they're both great. Highlights here?
Jim Jones - wonderful traditional Austrailian ballad;
Sittin' On Top of The World;
Hard Times;
Tomorrow Night;
Arthur McBride
You're Gonna Quit Me
And of course the wonderful children's song Froggie Went a-Courtin'
This album can be listened to over and over without getting tired.
what the hell?
wow i just love how people claim to be dylan freaks and say they love his music and then turn around and become his critics... isnt that a bit hypocritical? i mean, there's so much good to be said of blonde on blonde (which is fantastic, don't get me wrong, i'm just trying to make a point) when folkies bitched and moaned about that, but he does something new RECENTLY and people are whinin' and complainin'. let the man be himself and do new and different things WITHOUT bitching about how it doesn't hold up to the Dylan standard. just stop being so goddamn critical and focus on the good things...we would be nowhere if Dylan had been dumb and paid attention to anything negative. don't be so damn pessimistic...
Dude
I got to agree with teree, or the comment below me. Sure its not the most creative or whatever but its fun to listen to and thats all that counts for me.
close your eyes
Imagine yourself just sittin around a campsite with a fire cracklin', and he walks by with his guitar.. sits down..and plays a few songs. You might not know them..but so what? The sound is great, the guitar work is incredible. You are privvy to a jam session you will always remember with fondness and everlasting appreciation.
Those that say they understand and feel that they can judge the depths or meanings of music from anyone..just dont understand the musicians need to merely play. Enjoy the musicianship of this album! Its fantastic! its one of the best jamming albums i had ever hoped to hear... and thank you.. this has been my going to work cd, Ok... one of them.. but a Favorite one of them.
Some of you folks like to think too hard.
Something Different
I guess I get what he was trying to do, and some people probably took to it rather well. I like it, but I would certainly rather listen to some of his other stuff. I don't know if he really captured the sound he was going for.
Dave
GOOD AS I BEEN TO YOU: THE IMAGINATIVE LISTENING
The true listening of the music I love begins here. I discovered this album rather late and after listening to it I felt immense gratitude for the worlds I was allowed to go to. Couple this album with The Grateful Dead's Reckoning and lying in a cell you could say, I've been all around this world. The songs here become foregrounds for dreams, for motives and chances, for other songs and songs coinciding with life. There are lessons here no more than anywhere else; there are the mysterious workings of chance ever present in them.
I am baffled by the cold disregard of this album by listeners who ought to know music better. It is commonly taken, the album is Dylan's return to his roots. It is inconsiderate on their part to take interest in THE TIMES THEY ARE A- CHANGIN’ or BLOOD ON THE TRACKS and disregard this album roughly on grounds of a missing central theme.
When I say Dylan, I think of a poet who sings his poetry. Poetry is foremost an oral tradition. These songs are no less Dylan's than any other of his compositions are his own. The meaning of folk blues or poetry in general, is to become part of tradition. To cure the early Dylan listener of the proposed separation of the poet and his ballads, I suggest a deep listening of The Grateful Dead. Let us not leave that up to the "Dead-Heads" alone. If you are sick or poor to travel think of storytellers who travelled and sang ballads abroad. Invent a plot to find someone you have lost or forgotten about. Where there is representation with beauty, we become a part of it.
Not a favorite
No Rating
This is one of my least favorite Dylan albums, along with Knocked Out Loaded and most of all Modern Times.
The best would be:
Blood
Desire
Blonde
Freewheelin
Basement
Bob Dylan II
So, Bob's tired of writing and wants to remind us of where he came from and all that. This is the true sequel to his first Columbia album. Just Bob, his guitar, and some old folk tunes. All the folks who hated him for going electric can rejoice.
What is it?
I still can't believe that could be the new Bob Dylan album at some point. It was a big dissapointment. Not because it's only he and his guitar, but it doesn't sound good, it seems improvized, and have very few interesting performances. Even more dissapointing was the album presentation, with the vacant inside of the booklet. It seems a bootleg.
As Good As I Been To You
Once again, Bob tries something new. Or rather, something old – really, really old. Another collection of traditional folk tunes with just the acoustic guitar, harmonica and voice, it makes everything that came after his 1962 debut, Bob Dylan until now seem like a diversion. A long and pleasant diversion, but still just a detour from Dylan’s main calling: folksinger. And what of the grammatically incorrect Good As I Been To You? Where John Wesley Harding showed off his harp playing and New Morning demonstrated his piano playing ability, here Bob gets to spotlight his fingerpicking prowess. Compared to his debut, his improvement as a guitar player is not only stunning, but also surprising since we’ve never heard anything like it on any of his previous efforts. But the biggest difference between this album and his first is in song-selection. While history could eventually prove me wrong on this, the songs Bob dug up for this album are not nearly as good as the ones on Bob Dylan (why, I heard some character on the Showtime series Dead Like Me singing “In My Time Of Dyin’” just last night). There’s not nearly the range – none of the songs are as goofy and funny as “Pretty Peggy-O” or “Freight Train Blues”, and whereas he added his own personality and wit to those song, on this album he’s much more of a strict historian, performing these traditional ditties the way they are meant to be sung. While there are many great tracks on this album (“Blackjack Davey”, “Sittin’ On Top Of The World”, “Step It Up And Go” and “Tomorrow Night” are my favorites), overall the album is too monotonous to be truly enjoyable. Really the song that stands out the most is the closer, “Froggie Went A-Courtin’”. For the first time since Slow Train Coming, Bob’s doing children’s songs. He also recorded a version of “This Old Man” for the charity album For Our Children around this time. Maybe someday he’ll do a whole kids’ album. That would be great, but Good As I Been To You is an album that was probably a lot better for Dylan to make than for us to listen to.