Submitted by Jason8291 on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 22:53.
5
Bob seems to be having fun here and the result shows as these are some of the funniest songs he's ever made. High Water, Tweedle Dee, Po' Boy are the best songs, but everything here is up to par. Just a good old fun album.
Submitted by WagTheDog on Fri, 10/16/2009 - 15:57.
5
Chris recorded this album analogue, and comparing this on vinyl to the "Modern Times" on vinyl, (wich I also love) this album is hands down sounding better, especially the 3D soundstage in terms of depth. The songs and arrangement + production is great.
You are right. It is really hard to compare Dylan albums. I have a hard time picking my favorite albums or my favorite songs. Dylan is just an amazing songwriter and musician. He always has been and always will be.
Submitted by MrButlertoyou on Mon, 06/22/2009 - 11:40.
5
I, along with many, had lost Dylan before 'Time out of Mind'. That was a really good album - but to me it still had the aura of 'really good for late Dylan'. The songs were so much better, the performances so more involved, but the production annoyed me a bit, I must say.
'Love and Theft' is a genuinely great album. The production is lovely - simple, crisp, with that wonderfully crisp, live drum, and the sound of musicians playing together and enjoying it. The guitars sound wonderful - it is a very good record.
The songs, however, are what lifts it. Playful, funny, poignant, with the deep country blues croak, it really is one of my favourite Dylan records.
IIt works on many levels, but the ground floor of any album - does it move you - is where this album stands up with, for instance, Highway 61. It does. It's a great album, with no codicil attached. And the follow ups have been great too. I really like the older Dylan. The album doesn't need comparison to 'early' or 'classic' or'country' Dylan. It is a fantastic album on its own merits.
Submitted by MrButlertoyou on Mon, 06/22/2009 - 11:40.
5
I, along with many, had lost Dylan before 'Time out of Mind'. That was a really good album - but to me it still had the aura of 'really good for late Dylan'. The songs were so much better, the performances so more involved, but the production annoyed me a bit, I must say.
'Love and Theft' is a genuinely great album. The production is lovely - simple, crisp, with that wonderfully crisp, live drum, and the sound of musicians playing together and enjoying it. The guitars sound wonderful - it is a very good record.
The songs, however, are what lifts it. Playful, funny, poignant, with the deep country blues croak, it really is one of my favourite Dylan records.
IIt works on many levels, but the ground floor of any album - does it move you - is where this album stands up with, for instance, Highway 61. It does. It's a great album, with no codicil attached. And the follow ups have been great too. I really like the older Dylan. The album doesn't need comparison to 'early' or 'classic' or'country' Dylan. It is a fantastic album on its own merits.
Submitted by littlesister on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 13:20.
5
Today is the first time I've ever listened to this album, and Mississippi moved me, 'falling in love with my cousin' made me laugh - and reading the English lyrics; to me they all sound very good; a lot of wisdom in his head/heart!! I think anyone may feel they are looking into a "mirror" when they hear his music. So, I liked all of the songs in this album, both the singing, the instrumental part and the lyrics! Thanks for sharing! Maybe one day I'll buy it!
Submitted by Amanda Monroe on Sun, 05/17/2009 - 21:31.
No Rating
After years in another world, this album has brought me back to quiet contemplation of memories and futures. A wonderful album indeed.
As for all the comments on Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum - don't we all have positive and negative in us, and doesn't each side have something to say to the other - obnoxious as it may be? I would think that making it a concert favourite shows how personal a song it is.
How does one go about organising a Nobel prize for this writer?
I find it really impressive that Bob Dylan almost 40 years after his first record can write something so good as these songs. From start to end, this is a great, great record. My favorites are Po' Boy, Mississippi, Floater (Too Much To Ask) and of course the gorgeous Summer Days.
Well, as you all say, hard to compare Dylan albums, but there's some albums that's been someones' favourite all time, that's been maybe "special" sometimes - as if the album had dedicated or writen for himself/herself/themselves.
It means: This album is responded all my expectations & all my humour thoughts - and, I guess, all my imagination; even, "compelled my imagination many hours, many hours and many days." This is a different way, 'cause, you know, the album which compelled your heart, must be "some kind of moving, romantic, falling apart (maybe a little bit mysteriously), full of broken and blinded love songs" album and you must bound to cry when you listen (they love Michael Jackson's "Thriller", but I didn't know anybody who calls it "my special"). But this album, lyrically and fantastic logically and -not movingly but- musically which makes you have to move (all except for "Sugar Baby" and "Mississippi") and -again- with its all fantastic humour, is my favourite Dylan album, and it means a lot of thing for me - not like "Automatic for the People" but following it.
Why? For example - to response of humour: "Poor boy in the hotel called Palace of Gloom/calls down to room service, says 'Send up a Room.' " (Melancholic and funny - makes you nearer to cry but a grinning cry.) or: "They got Charles Darwin trapped out there on Highway Five/Judge says to the High Sheriff, "I want him dead or alive/Either one, I don't care." " or: "Tweedle-dee Dee - he's on his hands and his knees/Saying, "Throw me somethin', Mister, please."/"What's good for you is good for me,"/Says Tweedle-dee Dum to Tweedle-dee Dee." (Again there's a melancholy pouring down but it's -strandedly, i don't what this word means but i know stranded, don't worry- funny.) or: "If it's information you want, you can go get it from the police."
For example - it's intellactual: "Bertha Mason shook it - broke it/Then she hung it on a wall/Says, "You're dancin' with whom they tell you to/Or you don't dance at all." " (There I can't see any connection -and it's another funny point- but Bertha's phrase - consider this.) or: "Sometimes somebody wants you to give something up/And tears or not? it's too much to ask..." ("Those are only tears, those are only tears, Nastenka, they will dry, they will dry, Nastenka." Dostoyevsky, -I don't know how American Publish translated its title but I will say as I say in Turkish- White Nights) or: "Well a childish dream is a deathless need/And a noble truth is a sacred creed."
For example - music that makes you move: "Summer Days" - it's an awesome song; and "Honest With Me" and "Cry a While" (though the title) and "High Water" and "Lonesome Day Blues".
Also he has a secret gloom, no, not gloom, i must say 'blues', yes he has a secret blues in "Floater" and "Po' Boy" and "Tweedle-dee & Tweedle-dum" and "Moonlight" and "Bye and Bye" and "Cry a While" and a plain blues - but you can feel it. Mississippi and Sugar Baby (a messenger for "Ain't Talkin'" just like "Floater" to "Spirit on the Water" and "Moonlight" to "Beyond the Horizon") are really very moving songs, changing the atmosphere of the album but not breakin' it.
So, as you can understand easily by now, this is a huge album for me "and me only".
I feel sorry for those here who have elevated this work so much higher than Dylan's 70's and 80's work. In mentioning his BEST albums, you have to be out of touch with reality not to mention Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Street Legal, Infidels, and Empire Burlesque. I don't think this new one can even hold a candle to those earlier works of his. And I certainly would not mention Oh Mercy in the same breath with these later works of his. Granted, I may not have heard much of his stuff from the 90's and beyond, but come on now. Oh Mercy is one of Dylan's all time BEST works.....almost as good as Desire, or even Street Legal, on it's own merrits. It is even better when you listen to it with those outtakes from Tell Tale Signs (and the one from the Touched by an Angel soundtrack).
I don't know....maybe I need to give his later stuff from the '90's and on a little more time, but please be reasonable. Are you elevating Dylan for turning back to his "blues" roots? But what ever happened to such masterpieces as Tangled up in Blue, Idiot Wind, Shelter from the Storm, (not to mention almost all of the other songs on BOTT)? And what ever happened to such masterpieces as Up to Me, Hurricane, Black Diamond Bay, and Abandoned Love (I love Biograph....it was the first Dylan album I ever owned)?
I don't see how this new stuff can hold a candle to those works of his. I think his best work took place between (around) 1965 and 1989.
I feel sorry for those here who have elevated this work so much higher than Dylan's 70's and 80's work. In mentioning his BEST albums, you have to be out of touch with reality not to mention Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Street Legal, Infidels, and Empire Burlesque. I don't think this new one can even hold a candle to those earlier works of his. And I certainly would not mention Oh Mercy in the same breath with these later works of his. Granted, I may not have heard much of his stuff from the 90's and beyond, but come on now. Oh Mercy is one of Dylan's all time BEST works.....almost as good as Desire, or even Street Legal, on it's own merrits. It is even better when you listen to it with those outtakes from Tell Tale Signs (and the one from the Touched by an Angel soundtrack).
I don't know....maybe I need to give his later stuff from the '90's and on a little more time, but please be reasonable. Are you elevating Dylan for turning back to his "blues" roots? But what ever happened to such masterpieces as Tangled up in Blue, Idiot Wind, Shelter from the Storm, (not to mention almost all of the other songs on BOTT)? And what ever happened to such masterpieces as Up to Me, Hurricane, Black Diamond Bay, and Abandoned Love (I love Biograph....it was the first Dylan album I ever owned)?
I don't see how this new stuff can hold a candle to those works of his. I think his best work took place between (around) 1965 and 1989.
I couldn't get into this album when I first listened. Now I listen often, but I jump around certain tracks. The opener is a disappointment, but the closer is heaven. I also like Mississippi, Summer Days, Bye And Bye and Lonesome Day Blues. Floater is one I jump over, as well as High Water and Moonlight. I love Honest With Me and Cry A While. I love the way the blues riff in Honest With Me seems to change tempo but doesnt really from verse to verse. Very creative. I wouldn't have thought of that.
"Sugar Baby" is another closing song like "Highlands," "Shooting Star," "Dark Eyes," "Every Grain Of Sand," "When He Returns," "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands," "Desolation Row," and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," which finalizes this album as a masterpiece. It's simply masterful songwriting right up there with Dylan's best. It's this song that hits the mark, making this album worth the listen.
In the 60s we had:
Another Side Of Bob Dylan,
Bringing It All Back Home,
Highway 61 Revisited,
Blonde On Blonde.
Four obvious masterpiece albums of great creativity, clarity and vision.
Now we have:
Oh Mercy,
Time Out Of Mind,
Love And Theft,
Modern Times.
Four more albums with the same qualities as the latter (though spread out over more years, and with several other efforts inbetween). It seems that Dylan could go on creating wonderful works ad infinitum; but eventually the momentum will die out. We should enjoy these efforts while we can. The rumors of a new Dylan album of original songs coming out in the spring are well confirmed in the rags and mags. I'm looking forward to it.
This album has my favorite song since Tangled Up in Blue, that being Mississippi.
Summer Days, Lonesome Day Blues and Sugar Baby would probably be my other favorites, but really this album is a true masterpiece.
For the life of me, I cannot understand Bob's obsession with playing Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum live, which is probably the one song on here I care for the least.
I think you have to put this album up there with anything he's done, which is really saying a lot.
I must have over 2000 records and this is my favourite. Ever since hearing it apon release, it's been in my heart. I never thought would have thought that my favourite record would be one past the 60s but instead it's one 41 years later.
Love & Theft is the greatest record in the world!
"Love And Theft" is the crown of the poet's achievement. In order to find a companion to this album, you will have to select from Modern Times, Time Out Of Mind, Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong. That's a long winded way of saying; you will have to go back to the roots of folk blues. What you get in "Love And Theft" is the culmination of lyricism that has been going on for decades, known by various names and "Love And Theft", fittingly, startles you by its newness.
"Love And Theft", with or without Eric Lott's Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class might be the most accurately titled Dylan album since his very personal Blood On The Tracks, which in comparison is a minor for Dylan.
What you have here is a poet who has shot down his lover, after writing more than hundered dirges he starts out for the swamp. There in the swamp is a city, a hidden fortress where the poet has to serve time. This is a place he knows but this time he has come incognito, reviving the vital memory. Everything starts after this and becomes "Love And Theft". The poet is not a folk blues poet; he is someone who has been around the roulette of fortune for a very long time and begins to imagine a folk blues poet and writes his songs for him, fights back with something for himself. All he sees is beginnings and vitality in the figure which goes back and forth in time. The figure is of how he looked at himself and of the one he remembered and imagined.
I think Love & Theft is a very good album. The instrumentation is really strong, in fact I would say this band is one of the best he ever had. They should release a live album with this exact band on the Bootleg Series.
I think Moonlight is a terrific song- lyrically it is has great imagery. Po Boy is nice too. Of course Mississippi is a great track.
The only downside is I really get the feeling he stole some of the melodies from early 20th century songs. The swing-jazz feel of a couple songs sounds derivative. it still works though,unlike Modern Times which sounds even more like a rip from the past- When the Deal Goes Down in particular, and I dont know how he could honestly attach his name to a song like Rollin and Tumblin.
Of course if Led Zep can take writing credit for In My Time of Dying I guess anything is possible.
Dylan proves that he is still vital. The album sounds timeless and essential at the same time. A great celebration of American roots music. And blues. And rock. And everything. Plus, Bob is being really playful with the lyrics.
Submitted by manks_dawbs on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 22:11.
5
love and theft is more focused than its predecessor... the songs hit hard, and the contrasts between the different types of songs work very well (the edge of TweedleDee up against Bye&Bye for instance). the production is super, with Bob's voice sitting in a nice place in a mix that has room for lots of sharp guitars plus a stringy, swinging rhythm section. Not to be overlooked: C. Meyers' bongos on TD... song wouldn't be the same without them. personally, i just totally dig the lyrical mayhem on L&T... Po' Boy, Mississippi, TD... i don't care what anyone says about what's been said before. Bob was the one that sang it with this great band behind him.
fave live shot: Mississipipi
i can understand everyone has their faves,and some might not like this as much as their particular favorite, but there's no denying this was a stellar album with all the best: best players, best songs, best sequencing...
Submitted by GuillemTM on Wed, 08/06/2008 - 10:56.
2
Though there are some good songs in it, it's the only album where I can't stand his singing. That growling voice makes me want to cough at every note, as he did the time I saw him in 2004. I read many reviews adoring it and I can't understand why. I think it's highly overrated. Mississippi is a great song and Summer days and Highwater work really well live, and lately Sugar baby. Even you can say Cry a while is interesting, but... why so much? There's too one of the few Dylan albums where i have to skip 2 songs: Bye and bye and Floater. Better than Time out of mind? No way!
Love & Theft is to Time Out Of Mind what Under The Red Sky is to Oh Mercy!: a fun, goofy follow-up to a dark, murky, serious Daniel Lanois produced comeback. Although the perception of it has waned a little since, I don’t know why Love & Theft was so hailed at first while Under The Red Sky was so reviled. Perhaps the four years (instead of one) that separated Love & Theft from its predecessor gave rise to fears that Time Out Of Mind was going to be Bob’s last big hurrah. Maybe producing it himself with his touring band instead of using flavor-of-the-month Don Was and his stable of rock stars, helped lower expectations a bit. Who knows? I liked it when it first came out – and I still like it. Lyrically it’s his funniest since Another Side Of Bob Dylan. Knock-knock jokes? Booty call? Hunting bare? “Throw your panties over board”? “I’m sitting on my watch so I can be on time”? “Call down to room service/ Said send up a room”? I know Bob’s words don’t usually affect me that much, but this is great stuff. And musically – it’s all over the map (crooners, blues, ‘50s rockers), but thanks to the touring band backing him, it’s still cohesive. Most of the songs are more versions of the 3 (or less) chord blues (“Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee”, “Summer Days”, “Lonesome Day Blues”, and “Honest With Me”). Yet, “Moonlight” and “Bye And Bye” use some the most complicated jazzy chords since “If Dogs Run Free” from New Morning. And to keep the album from getting too monotonous, the occasional accordion, banjo or violin just shows up. As hard as it may be to believe, Bob’s latest really is one of his best.
One more thing about this album: I think that the sound of Love&Theft is something that Bob Dylan had been struggling to attain since 1970. It's a sound that is new, and yet old. Bold, and yet traditional. It's a sound he's attempted in Self Portrait, the Rolling Thunder Review, the gospel albums, the Traveling Wilburies, Down in the Groove, Under the Red Sky, and yet was never 100% successful until this album. It's funny, scary, heart-warming and horrifying, often within a single song. I can take a single portion from any of the L&T songs and be amazed by how every morsel is brimming with energy, activitity, and life:
"The Cuckoo is a pretty bird, she warbles as she flies
I'm preachin' the Word of God
I'm puttin' out your eyes
I asked Fat Nancy for something to eat, she said, "Take it off the shelf -
As great as you are a man,
You'll never be greater than yourself."
I told her I didn't really care
High water everywhere."
WOW! What does it mean? I don't know. But I love it.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
P. T i m o t h y E r v i n
Yasuda Women's University, Hiroshima, Japan
Yasuda Observatory N34°28'41" E132°27'06"
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
This album is by far one of Bob's greatest. It combines the wit and humor of 'Another Side' and 'Freewheelin'', the zaniness of 'Nashville Skyline' and 'Self Portrait', the complex lyricism of 'Blood on the Tracks', and the passionate spirituality of 'Slow Train Coming' all together in a folk/blues concoction of genius.
Note: Be sure to listen to just several hours of Son House, Doc Watson, Hank Williams, and Muddy Waters along with this album... There are so many references to those old artists' works on this album it is amazing!
Comments
Hilarious
Bob seems to be having fun here and the result shows as these are some of the funniest songs he's ever made. High Water, Tweedle Dee, Po' Boy are the best songs, but everything here is up to par. Just a good old fun album.
over the moon
What can I say....... Another great album from the master of lyrics and melody and
A Studer A800 masterpiece.
Chris recorded this album analogue, and comparing this on vinyl to the "Modern Times" on vinyl, (wich I also love) this album is hands down sounding better, especially the 3D soundstage in terms of depth. The songs and arrangement + production is great.
Hard to Compare
No Rating
You are right. It is really hard to compare Dylan albums. I have a hard time picking my favorite albums or my favorite songs. Dylan is just an amazing songwriter and musician. He always has been and always will be.
Love and Theft (2001)
My favourite tracks on the album are:
1. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
2. Mississippi
3. Summer Days
The January 2007 issue of 'Mojo' rated this album Dylan's 14th best album - I consider it to be his 27th best album.
:D
By far one of his best and one of my favourite albums ever.
Every song is a gem and has a completely different mood from the last.
Love and Theft, and the 'rebirth' of Bob Dylan
I, along with many, had lost Dylan before 'Time out of Mind'. That was a really good album - but to me it still had the aura of 'really good for late Dylan'. The songs were so much better, the performances so more involved, but the production annoyed me a bit, I must say.
'Love and Theft' is a genuinely great album. The production is lovely - simple, crisp, with that wonderfully crisp, live drum, and the sound of musicians playing together and enjoying it. The guitars sound wonderful - it is a very good record.
The songs, however, are what lifts it. Playful, funny, poignant, with the deep country blues croak, it really is one of my favourite Dylan records.
IIt works on many levels, but the ground floor of any album - does it move you - is where this album stands up with, for instance, Highway 61. It does. It's a great album, with no codicil attached. And the follow ups have been great too. I really like the older Dylan. The album doesn't need comparison to 'early' or 'classic' or'country' Dylan. It is a fantastic album on its own merits.
Love and Theft, and the 'rebirth' of Bob Dylan
I, along with many, had lost Dylan before 'Time out of Mind'. That was a really good album - but to me it still had the aura of 'really good for late Dylan'. The songs were so much better, the performances so more involved, but the production annoyed me a bit, I must say.
'Love and Theft' is a genuinely great album. The production is lovely - simple, crisp, with that wonderfully crisp, live drum, and the sound of musicians playing together and enjoying it. The guitars sound wonderful - it is a very good record.
The songs, however, are what lifts it. Playful, funny, poignant, with the deep country blues croak, it really is one of my favourite Dylan records.
IIt works on many levels, but the ground floor of any album - does it move you - is where this album stands up with, for instance, Highway 61. It does. It's a great album, with no codicil attached. And the follow ups have been great too. I really like the older Dylan. The album doesn't need comparison to 'early' or 'classic' or'country' Dylan. It is a fantastic album on its own merits.
Today is the first time I've
Today is the first time I've ever listened to this album, and Mississippi moved me, 'falling in love with my cousin' made me laugh - and reading the English lyrics; to me they all sound very good; a lot of wisdom in his head/heart!! I think anyone may feel they are looking into a "mirror" when they hear his music. So, I liked all of the songs in this album, both the singing, the instrumental part and the lyrics! Thanks for sharing! Maybe one day I'll buy it!
Great blues
SLUMDOG
I love Tweedle Dee. I think that it works really well live.
Cry a while is my favorite.
Great bluesman you have become Mr Dylan!
A revelation
No Rating
After years in another world, this album has brought me back to quiet contemplation of memories and futures. A wonderful album indeed.
As for all the comments on Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum - don't we all have positive and negative in us, and doesn't each side have something to say to the other - obnoxious as it may be? I would think that making it a concert favourite shows how personal a song it is.
How does one go about organising a Nobel prize for this writer?
Amanda
Impressive
I find it really impressive that Bob Dylan almost 40 years after his first record can write something so good as these songs. From start to end, this is a great, great record. My favorites are Po' Boy, Mississippi, Floater (Too Much To Ask) and of course the gorgeous Summer Days.
It's Why You Couldn't See My Eyes
Well, as you all say, hard to compare Dylan albums, but there's some albums that's been someones' favourite all time, that's been maybe "special" sometimes - as if the album had dedicated or writen for himself/herself/themselves.
It means: This album is responded all my expectations & all my humour thoughts - and, I guess, all my imagination; even, "compelled my imagination many hours, many hours and many days." This is a different way, 'cause, you know, the album which compelled your heart, must be "some kind of moving, romantic, falling apart (maybe a little bit mysteriously), full of broken and blinded love songs" album and you must bound to cry when you listen (they love Michael Jackson's "Thriller", but I didn't know anybody who calls it "my special"). But this album, lyrically and fantastic logically and -not movingly but- musically which makes you have to move (all except for "Sugar Baby" and "Mississippi") and -again- with its all fantastic humour, is my favourite Dylan album, and it means a lot of thing for me - not like "Automatic for the People" but following it.
Why? For example - to response of humour: "Poor boy in the hotel called Palace of Gloom/calls down to room service, says 'Send up a Room.' " (Melancholic and funny - makes you nearer to cry but a grinning cry.) or: "They got Charles Darwin trapped out there on Highway Five/Judge says to the High Sheriff, "I want him dead or alive/Either one, I don't care." " or: "Tweedle-dee Dee - he's on his hands and his knees/Saying, "Throw me somethin', Mister, please."/"What's good for you is good for me,"/Says Tweedle-dee Dum to Tweedle-dee Dee." (Again there's a melancholy pouring down but it's -strandedly, i don't what this word means but i know stranded, don't worry- funny.) or: "If it's information you want, you can go get it from the police."
For example - it's intellactual: "Bertha Mason shook it - broke it/Then she hung it on a wall/Says, "You're dancin' with whom they tell you to/Or you don't dance at all." " (There I can't see any connection -and it's another funny point- but Bertha's phrase - consider this.) or: "Sometimes somebody wants you to give something up/And tears or not? it's too much to ask..." ("Those are only tears, those are only tears, Nastenka, they will dry, they will dry, Nastenka." Dostoyevsky, -I don't know how American Publish translated its title but I will say as I say in Turkish- White Nights) or: "Well a childish dream is a deathless need/And a noble truth is a sacred creed."
For example - music that makes you move: "Summer Days" - it's an awesome song; and "Honest With Me" and "Cry a While" (though the title) and "High Water" and "Lonesome Day Blues".
Also he has a secret gloom, no, not gloom, i must say 'blues', yes he has a secret blues in "Floater" and "Po' Boy" and "Tweedle-dee & Tweedle-dum" and "Moonlight" and "Bye and Bye" and "Cry a While" and a plain blues - but you can feel it. Mississippi and Sugar Baby (a messenger for "Ain't Talkin'" just like "Floater" to "Spirit on the Water" and "Moonlight" to "Beyond the Horizon") are really very moving songs, changing the atmosphere of the album but not breakin' it.
So, as you can understand easily by now, this is a huge album for me "and me only".
Johnny Cash said this was Dylan's best album
"Love and Theft" tells everything important about America just before 9/11, from the inside out and the bottom up.
Johnny Cash said this was Dylan's best album
"Love and Theft" tells everything important about America just before 9/11, from the inside out and the bottom up.
Questioning
No Rating
I feel sorry for those here who have elevated this work so much higher than Dylan's 70's and 80's work. In mentioning his BEST albums, you have to be out of touch with reality not to mention Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Street Legal, Infidels, and Empire Burlesque. I don't think this new one can even hold a candle to those earlier works of his. And I certainly would not mention Oh Mercy in the same breath with these later works of his. Granted, I may not have heard much of his stuff from the 90's and beyond, but come on now. Oh Mercy is one of Dylan's all time BEST works.....almost as good as Desire, or even Street Legal, on it's own merrits. It is even better when you listen to it with those outtakes from Tell Tale Signs (and the one from the Touched by an Angel soundtrack).
I don't know....maybe I need to give his later stuff from the '90's and on a little more time, but please be reasonable. Are you elevating Dylan for turning back to his "blues" roots? But what ever happened to such masterpieces as Tangled up in Blue, Idiot Wind, Shelter from the Storm, (not to mention almost all of the other songs on BOTT)? And what ever happened to such masterpieces as Up to Me, Hurricane, Black Diamond Bay, and Abandoned Love (I love Biograph....it was the first Dylan album I ever owned)?
I don't see how this new stuff can hold a candle to those works of his. I think his best work took place between (around) 1965 and 1989.
I feel sorry for those here
No Rating
I feel sorry for those here who have elevated this work so much higher than Dylan's 70's and 80's work. In mentioning his BEST albums, you have to be out of touch with reality not to mention Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Street Legal, Infidels, and Empire Burlesque. I don't think this new one can even hold a candle to those earlier works of his. And I certainly would not mention Oh Mercy in the same breath with these later works of his. Granted, I may not have heard much of his stuff from the 90's and beyond, but come on now. Oh Mercy is one of Dylan's all time BEST works.....almost as good as Desire, or even Street Legal, on it's own merrits. It is even better when you listen to it with those outtakes from Tell Tale Signs (and the one from the Touched by an Angel soundtrack).
I don't know....maybe I need to give his later stuff from the '90's and on a little more time, but please be reasonable. Are you elevating Dylan for turning back to his "blues" roots? But what ever happened to such masterpieces as Tangled up in Blue, Idiot Wind, Shelter from the Storm, (not to mention almost all of the other songs on BOTT)? And what ever happened to such masterpieces as Up to Me, Hurricane, Black Diamond Bay, and Abandoned Love (I love Biograph....it was the first Dylan album I ever owned)?
I don't see how this new stuff can hold a candle to those works of his. I think his best work took place between (around) 1965 and 1989.
Lonesome Summer Days In the Mississippi Moonlight Blues
I couldn't get into this album when I first listened. Now I listen often, but I jump around certain tracks. The opener is a disappointment, but the closer is heaven. I also like Mississippi, Summer Days, Bye And Bye and Lonesome Day Blues. Floater is one I jump over, as well as High Water and Moonlight. I love Honest With Me and Cry A While. I love the way the blues riff in Honest With Me seems to change tempo but doesnt really from verse to verse. Very creative. I wouldn't have thought of that.
"Sugar Baby" is another closing song like "Highlands," "Shooting Star," "Dark Eyes," "Every Grain Of Sand," "When He Returns," "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands," "Desolation Row," and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," which finalizes this album as a masterpiece. It's simply masterful songwriting right up there with Dylan's best. It's this song that hits the mark, making this album worth the listen.
In the 60s we had:
Another Side Of Bob Dylan,
Bringing It All Back Home,
Highway 61 Revisited,
Blonde On Blonde.
Four obvious masterpiece albums of great creativity, clarity and vision.
Now we have:
Oh Mercy,
Time Out Of Mind,
Love And Theft,
Modern Times.
Four more albums with the same qualities as the latter (though spread out over more years, and with several other efforts inbetween). It seems that Dylan could go on creating wonderful works ad infinitum; but eventually the momentum will die out. We should enjoy these efforts while we can. The rumors of a new Dylan album of original songs coming out in the spring are well confirmed in the rags and mags. I'm looking forward to it.
MUY BUENO
Un gran disco, los musicos son geniales, gran sonido y muy divertido. Me gusta mucho más que "Modern Times".-
Wow
This album has my favorite song since Tangled Up in Blue, that being Mississippi.
Summer Days, Lonesome Day Blues and Sugar Baby would probably be my other favorites, but really this album is a true masterpiece.
For the life of me, I cannot understand Bob's obsession with playing Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum live, which is probably the one song on here I care for the least.
I think you have to put this album up there with anything he's done, which is really saying a lot.
Dave
Good.
Good.
I must have over 2000
No Rating
I must have over 2000 records and this is my favourite. Ever since hearing it apon release, it's been in my heart. I never thought would have thought that my favourite record would be one past the 60s but instead it's one 41 years later.
Love & Theft is the greatest record in the world!
"Love And Theft" Please
"Love And Theft" is the crown of the poet's achievement. In order to find a companion to this album, you will have to select from Modern Times, Time Out Of Mind, Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong. That's a long winded way of saying; you will have to go back to the roots of folk blues. What you get in "Love And Theft" is the culmination of lyricism that has been going on for decades, known by various names and "Love And Theft", fittingly, startles you by its newness.
"Love And Theft", with or without Eric Lott's Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class might be the most accurately titled Dylan album since his very personal Blood On The Tracks, which in comparison is a minor for Dylan.
What you have here is a poet who has shot down his lover, after writing more than hundered dirges he starts out for the swamp. There in the swamp is a city, a hidden fortress where the poet has to serve time. This is a place he knows but this time he has come incognito, reviving the vital memory. Everything starts after this and becomes "Love And Theft". The poet is not a folk blues poet; he is someone who has been around the roulette of fortune for a very long time and begins to imagine a folk blues poet and writes his songs for him, fights back with something for himself. All he sees is beginnings and vitality in the figure which goes back and forth in time. The figure is of how he looked at himself and of the one he remembered and imagined.
another strong album
No Rating
I think Love & Theft is a very good album. The instrumentation is really strong, in fact I would say this band is one of the best he ever had. They should release a live album with this exact band on the Bootleg Series.
I think Moonlight is a terrific song- lyrically it is has great imagery. Po Boy is nice too. Of course Mississippi is a great track.
The only downside is I really get the feeling he stole some of the melodies from early 20th century songs. The swing-jazz feel of a couple songs sounds derivative. it still works though,unlike Modern Times which sounds even more like a rip from the past- When the Deal Goes Down in particular, and I dont know how he could honestly attach his name to a song like Rollin and Tumblin.
Of course if Led Zep can take writing credit for In My Time of Dying I guess anything is possible.
Cryptic spooky scary
The music is great, but all in all I dont like this record.
One of my faves
Dylan proves that he is still vital. The album sounds timeless and essential at the same time. A great celebration of American roots music. And blues. And rock. And everything. Plus, Bob is being really playful with the lyrics.
l & t is topnotch
love and theft is more focused than its predecessor... the songs hit hard, and the contrasts between the different types of songs work very well (the edge of TweedleDee up against Bye&Bye for instance). the production is super, with Bob's voice sitting in a nice place in a mix that has room for lots of sharp guitars plus a stringy, swinging rhythm section. Not to be overlooked: C. Meyers' bongos on TD... song wouldn't be the same without them. personally, i just totally dig the lyrical mayhem on L&T... Po' Boy, Mississippi, TD... i don't care what anyone says about what's been said before. Bob was the one that sang it with this great band behind him.
fave live shot: Mississipipi
i can understand everyone has their faves,and some might not like this as much as their particular favorite, but there's no denying this was a stellar album with all the best: best players, best songs, best sequencing...
Overrated
Though there are some good songs in it, it's the only album where I can't stand his singing. That growling voice makes me want to cough at every note, as he did the time I saw him in 2004. I read many reviews adoring it and I can't understand why. I think it's highly overrated. Mississippi is a great song and Summer days and Highwater work really well live, and lately Sugar baby. Even you can say Cry a while is interesting, but... why so much? There's too one of the few Dylan albums where i have to skip 2 songs: Bye and bye and Floater. Better than Time out of mind? No way!
Love & Theft
Love & Theft is to Time Out Of Mind what Under The Red Sky is to Oh Mercy!: a fun, goofy follow-up to a dark, murky, serious Daniel Lanois produced comeback. Although the perception of it has waned a little since, I don’t know why Love & Theft was so hailed at first while Under The Red Sky was so reviled. Perhaps the four years (instead of one) that separated Love & Theft from its predecessor gave rise to fears that Time Out Of Mind was going to be Bob’s last big hurrah. Maybe producing it himself with his touring band instead of using flavor-of-the-month Don Was and his stable of rock stars, helped lower expectations a bit. Who knows? I liked it when it first came out – and I still like it. Lyrically it’s his funniest since Another Side Of Bob Dylan. Knock-knock jokes? Booty call? Hunting bare? “Throw your panties over board”? “I’m sitting on my watch so I can be on time”? “Call down to room service/ Said send up a room”? I know Bob’s words don’t usually affect me that much, but this is great stuff. And musically – it’s all over the map (crooners, blues, ‘50s rockers), but thanks to the touring band backing him, it’s still cohesive. Most of the songs are more versions of the 3 (or less) chord blues (“Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee”, “Summer Days”, “Lonesome Day Blues”, and “Honest With Me”). Yet, “Moonlight” and “Bye And Bye” use some the most complicated jazzy chords since “If Dogs Run Free” from New Morning. And to keep the album from getting too monotonous, the occasional accordion, banjo or violin just shows up. As hard as it may be to believe, Bob’s latest really is one of his best.
Brimming with Life
No Rating
One more thing about this album: I think that the sound of Love&Theft is something that Bob Dylan had been struggling to attain since 1970. It's a sound that is new, and yet old. Bold, and yet traditional. It's a sound he's attempted in Self Portrait, the Rolling Thunder Review, the gospel albums, the Traveling Wilburies, Down in the Groove, Under the Red Sky, and yet was never 100% successful until this album. It's funny, scary, heart-warming and horrifying, often within a single song. I can take a single portion from any of the L&T songs and be amazed by how every morsel is brimming with energy, activitity, and life:
"The Cuckoo is a pretty bird, she warbles as she flies
I'm preachin' the Word of God
I'm puttin' out your eyes
I asked Fat Nancy for something to eat, she said, "Take it off the shelf -
As great as you are a man,
You'll never be greater than yourself."
I told her I didn't really care
High water everywhere."
WOW! What does it mean? I don't know. But I love it.
Ditto above, a personal
Ditto, a personal favourite.
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P. T i m o t h y E r v i n
Yasuda Women's University, Hiroshima, Japan
Yasuda Observatory N34°28'41" E132°27'06"
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A favorite
This album is by far one of Bob's greatest. It combines the wit and humor of 'Another Side' and 'Freewheelin'', the zaniness of 'Nashville Skyline' and 'Self Portrait', the complex lyricism of 'Blood on the Tracks', and the passionate spirituality of 'Slow Train Coming' all together in a folk/blues concoction of genius.
Note: Be sure to listen to just several hours of Son House, Doc Watson, Hank Williams, and Muddy Waters along with this album... There are so many references to those old artists' works on this album it is amazing!
Love AND Theft?
Tweedle
High Water
I love this song. The guitar picking is super cool.