Bob Dylan - "Love and Theft" POLL

"honest with me." one of his best ever rock songs

Floater

lots here i like, but "high water" coming out on sept. 11th was so spooky. "coffins dropping in the street/like balloons made out of lead." my favorite apocalypse song of the decade.

man I voted "summer days." he nails that vibe so perfect.

I went for "Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee" though I could have voted for, god, half of 'em. This sounded amazing at the time and a decade has done nothing but make it sound better.

the only track I'm meh about is "Floater."

"Lonesome Day Blues" over "Mississippi" and "Sugar Baby" -- love how his growl is like a second lead guitar.

"Lonesome Day Blues" was my 2nd choice.

Just listened to this for the first time thanks to this thread. On first time through, I'm saying "Sugar Baby."

this is almost impossible for me. may go "po' boy" b/c it cracks me up. remember hearing "tweedle dum & tweedly dee" for the first time and being blown away. just seems so effortless.

Is there anyone still reluctant to call this a good album? Just curious.

I have friends who are 60s Dylan fiends who won't even consider listening to this album. They are obviously nuts.

My first thought is to vote for "High Water". I've not listened to this album this summer, I don't think (been sticking with Tell-Tale Signs lately); I should relisten before I vote.

my dylan-fanatic dad has never liked it much, not sure why. he much prefers the ones on either side. (for one thing he complains about the singing, he thinks it's dylan being lazy or something. i dunno.)

Mississippi

for one thing he complains about the singing, he thinks it's dylan being lazy or something. i dunno.

That's insanity! His singing is totally spry; how else can you cram that whole piece of Gatsby dialogue into a few quick bars?

god, tough tough call. such a record

and speaking of fathers, my dad (huge dylan fan) confessed to me that he "didn't know what tweedle dee was about but it scared the shit out of him". notable too for the rare cuss outta him

That's insanity! His singing is totally spry; how else can you cram that whole piece of Gatsby dialogue into a few quick bars?

i know, i think he sounds great on the record. don't actually understand my dad's issue with it.

my dad (huge dylan fan) confessed to me that he "didn't know what tweedle dee was about but it scared the shit out of him".
― bear, bear, bear

bear, bear, bear's dad OTM

so tough but sugar baby

This album is not only easily in my list of top five Dylan albums, but it boasts my favorite Dylan vocal performance, period.

^^^^^^^

so expressive. weathered, humorous, joyful, mean. all on a dime too

My favorite record of the 2000s, and along with Highway 61, my favorite Dylan record ever. So much to choose from. Mississippi is an obvious highlight, as is Summer Days and Floater. But I think right now it's Lonesome Day Blues

Haven't listened to this in a long time. Based on memory, I'm going with High Water.

Mississippi

The sound quality on this whole record is incredible. I'd pay just to hear the backing band play the tracks.

I'm so glad I got to see this iteration of the band live just a few months after this came out. Such a great and sympathetic group of musicians, and they really brought the best out of Bob.

I had the misfortune of watching a great band at its peak in an appalling setting: a stadium designed for hockey. A stage the size of a matchbook in the middle of the floor. Worse, the audience was comprised of louts shouting, "`Like a Rolling Stone,' BOBBY! HURRICAAAANE!"

Mine was in a little old arena (around 6000 people), with the band on one end and an enthusiastic but respectful crowd that hushed when he sang and cheered like hell between numbers. Not to loud, not to much reverb from the cement walls - a decent audio experience, considering. Great setlist, too:

Hallelujah, I'm Ready To Go
One Too Many Mornings
Desolation Row
This World Can't Stand Long
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
Not Dark Yet
Stuck Inside Of Mobile
Lonesome Day Blues
Mama, You Been On My Mind
Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
Tangled Up In Blue
Summer Days
Mississippi
Drifter's Escape
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

First encore:

Things Have Changed
Like A Rolling Stone
If Dogs Run Free
Honest With Me
Blowin' In The Wind
All Along The Watchtower

Second encore:

Knockin' On Heaven's Door

He played a really sarcastic "Gotta Serve Somebody" at mine.

I wish he'd played that! But "Not Dark Yet" was ripping.

If he'd included "Things Have Changed" on this (from the same sessions, I think), this would have been monumental. Either way, it's still my favourite Dylan record.

This record also marks the period (perhaps not coincidentally tied to my leaving university and running out of student loans) that I more-or-less stopped buying records and started downloading them for free instead. (Audiogalaxy!) So this might be one of the last records I ever experienced old-school (i.e. paying for it) style.

"Things Have Changed" is mid-2000. I believe the "L&T" sessions took place about a year later (and were concentrated on the album). But yes, fantastic song.

"Things Have Changed" was one of the first songs I downloaded (April 2000).

Things Have Changed is the same band as L&T I think, but not the same sessions.

Yup, and what a marvelous dust clearing it was after TOOM.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Great podcast on Dylan, mostly from the perspective of engineers, the best interview segment is the first one by Chris Shaw.

He already gave a great interview once to Uncut, but he actually adds a lot of detail and character in this podcast to what he's said before. (It's also funnier to hear him elaborate on some stories, like taking hours to set up Dylan's request to record him "singing into a corner" because Robert Johnson had done that, and then Dylan comes in, spends like two seconds in that position before walking over to a piano Shaw set up in a few minutes and staying there for the remainder of the session.)

One key detail pretty much explains why I've always preferred Love and Theft over Modern Times (and Shaw sets this up by saying he was under the impression Modern Times got better reviews, which I'm not sure is true, but he does mention it sold more copies than Love and Theft). Sexton and Campbell really wanted to stand out on this album, but Dylan was the one putting the brakes on everything, like "you're not soloing while I'm singing." That didn't stop them though, it basically became a game of cat-and-mouse where they'd let Dylan fly but then stick in a fill here or there whenever they had a chance. Once they left, that push-and-pull tension was gone - the new guitarists who came in were as Shaw put it "oh my god we're playing with Bob Dylan!" so their attitude was more like "you want us to just play rhythm? That's ALL we're going to play." Don't get me wrong, I love that album too, but the band performances don't get off the ground the way Love and Theft does.

Love that story about the guitar players. The Campbell/Sexton band was such hot shit. So many apocalyptic Cold Irons Bound.

My recollection is Campbell was in the band before Sexton arrived and for a short while after he left.

The L&T album is Autumn to me. I had just moved to NY (Long Island) six weeks before 9/11, was in Brooklyn that day for one of my first court appearances as a practicing attorney, and got out of on the last LIRR train before service got shut down. I picked L&T up at a Borders that afternoon and it was my soundtrack to that entire Autumn of daily reports on the cleanup of Ground Zero. It was a comfort tbh - I was having a lot of problems adjusting to living here and the new job - this album is probably written in my soul like no other Dylan album.

Never really felt like I was into Bob Dylan the "correct" way. Growing up, my younger brothers both learned guitar off of Highway 61 Revisited. That became The Only Bob Dylan album as a result so I never cottoned to the folksy stuff. Never had a Blood On The Tracks phase and was always bothered by how much high end was in the version I heard. The S's hurt my ears. Eventually thought Before The Flood was so much better than his studio work, so much more alive, that it became all I listened to. I was a zealot about that record.

Then I lived in Malibu for some reason and to me Bob Dylan became one of the people who could afford Malibu, and I sort of resented him. Heard stories about him being a jerk. Ramblin' Jack Elliott told me a story about being pissed off that Bob wouldn't let him through his security gate. Started trying to find somebody more "authentic." Skimmed his '90s and '00s albums and thought "he makes Tom Waits records now, got it."

Then I heard Mississippi while I was sitting outside a Walgreen's on Christmas day, smoking a cigarette in my shitass Ford Explorer with a blown head gasket, and for unknown environmental reasons, this was the best song in the world, and then I thought this was the best album in the world. Still do. (I also have a sort of BDSM thing going on with Street Legal.)

Saw the Charlie Sexton lineup of his band in 2008 or so and was just floored. Huge thunder and lightning doom sound, and one of my favorite concerts. Left that show completely earnestly confused as to why anybody would dislike "late" Bob Dylan. Made no sense to me at all anymore. Anyway, this album rules. It's still the foundation of my adult relationship with Bob Dylan's music. Haven't listened to Highway 61 Revisited in fifteen years but I throw Love & Theft on almost every weekend.

my first time seeing Bobby was, i think, 2001 after L&T was released at a large ampitheatre (Berkeley, Greek) and he and band were astounding. Saw him again a year+ ago at a theater (The Fox, Oakland), can't recall if Sexton was there or not, and it was just as incredible, but different (more moody lighting, the stage lit up under the band and it added magic vibes, smaller more intimate feel). Also saw him ~2008 in Lake County, CA at Konocti which doesn't exist anymore and was another "one of the great music nights of my life". There was one at the Greek after 2008 that the sound was off and I wasn't into it much, but holy heck, the good shows were all-time great memories.