bob dylan, "good as i been to you" and "world gone wrong" - c or d

these albums seem to have been somewhat forgotten as dylan's story is continually rewritten to account for his late-period renaissance (i write "re-written" because although there now seems a consensus that "love and theft" represents the definitive beginning of his comeback, i recall "time out of mind" being considered a major return to form at the time, likewise with "oh mercy" and on and on).

they do seem to represent a dip into the great wellspring of AFM, and some have ascribed the newfound inspiration of his late work to this.

but i think these are pretty extraordinary albums on their own, with some nice guitar playing. the singing is hit or miss, i suppose.

some favorite tracks:

from "good as i been to you": canadee-i-o, hard times, arthur mcbride, froggie went a -courtin

from "world gone wrong": world gone wrong, blood in my eyes, broke down engine, two soldiers, jack-a-roe

in general the ballads work better for his voice than the uptempo numbers.

Forgotten by who? "World Gone Wrong" is one of my all-time favorite Dylan albums. Like up there w/Blood On the Tracks.

yeah i really think these albums are the start of the renaissance. it's where he went back to the well and got rebaptized or whatever.

and if you count dylan's late career as starting with these records, which i do, then it's already a 17-year run -- i.e., longer than any other coherent period in his catalog.

yes, World Gone Wrong is a deep record and I don't think they've been forgotten. They don't get referenced in reviews of the new work but yeah, they were 17 years ago! But man, the title song on WGW...if we were drunk and talking in person I would go on about the religion on these albums and we would have a proper good time. The way he sings "I can't be good no more, once like I did before" each verse, so soft and tender (oh esp. the "no more" as it trails off) before the vituperation of the second "I can't be good no more": listen to that, study it, and you might learn as much about the fear of redemption as you would from an ICP seminar.

OTM. World Gone Wrong is like like, top ten Dylan. His playing/singing and especially the interplay between the two rarely this expressive

doesn't marcus fix on these two for a bit in 'the invisible republic'?

i never got deeply into them because i was listening to basement tapes boots for the first time at the time and those were so much more immediately affecting to me. i kind of want to run through all the 70s/80s dylan before i get around to these again.

These albums are often referenced as the beginning of the Dylan renaissance, so I don't think they've been forgotten. But they are sometimes seen as an exercise that paved the way for "greater things", Time Out Of Mind, Love & Theft etc. So in that sense perhaps sometimes underestimated. I agree that WGW itself possesses greatness. Absolute classic. For me, one of the highlights of the album is Dylan's guitar playing. It hadn't been so audible for a long time before and hasn't since. And it's fantastic -- on first listen it appears rough and a little sloppy and yet it works wonderfully, the licks and timing are so spot on. A bit like his voice. I'd add Delia to the list of fave tracks.

Marcus referred to them as Dylan's best since John Wesley Harding--which is goin' a bit too far, imo (hello! NS, NM, BOTT, etc.)--in Invisible Republic.

I kinda think World Gone Wrong is as good as Blood on The Tracks?

agreed. nothing is as good as nashville skyline, though.

these records are great! "Canadee-I-O"! Dylan is a Nic Jones fan, clearly ....

also, World Gone Wrong has one of the best album covers of Dylan's career. Good As I Been to You -- one of the worst!

totally

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_EpC1K6KZzNA/Rp1maT8lYsI/AAAAAAAAHPY/IXSURM8E9T0/s400/World_Gone_Wrong-Frontal.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/GoodYou.jpg

dylan has had some awful album covers recently. aside from (re)issues of older material, the last half-decent album cover he's put out is, sad to say, "under the red sky." before that, i admit i enjoy the lichtenstein-inspired "shot of love," but you have to go back to, say, "new morning" to find something memorable in a good way.

rong

Good As I Been To You is fine, but it sounds like a warmup to World Gone Wrong, which is epic. The beginning of his 2nd great phase. And of course, it's responsible for this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5pOh1FLb2g

I kind of slept on these when they came out - but lately I've been listening to World Gone Wrong, and I have to agree with what people are saying on this thread. I'm really surprised by how good it is. "Delia" just completely knocked me out.

Some interesting background on Dylan's version of "Delia" in this thread:

http://www.guitarseminars.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001558.html

I listened to "World Gone Wrong" for the first time on Sunday night. I wasn't as blown away as I thought I might be, but my favorite song was "Ragged and Dirty."

It's definitely grown on me over the few times I've listened to it, but I still wouldn't rate it quite as highly as "Love and Theft" or "Modern Times", never mind even "Blood on the Tracks", which someone suggested up-thread. Probably my favorite post-1980/pre-2001 Dylan thing I've heard though.

God "Blood In My Eyes" is just...completely unbelievable. So hard to do old songs like these and not come off like an asshole - David Johansen & the Harry Smiths I feel did a great job in a simliar vein but Dylan just digs all the way down to bone on "Blood In My Eyes"