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Down in the Groove
Down in the Groove is the twenty-fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released on May 30, 1988, through Columbia Records. The album was recorded over a period of five years, spanning the sessions for Infidels (1983) to recordings made specifically for the album in 1987. The record, which is made up of both originals and covers, features multiple guest musicians including Ronnie Wood, hip-hop group Full Force, and members of the Grateful Dead, while two of the album's four originals were co-written with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
Following up on the poorly-received Knocked Out Loaded (1986), Down in the Groove was released to similarly negative reviews and low sales. The album stalled at number 61 in the US and number 32 in the UK, while its only single, "Silvio", failed to chart in either territory. Both contemporary and retrospective reviews criticize the album as having an incohesive and scattered nature, and rankings of Dylan's work tend to place the album near the bottom of his discography.
"Even by Dylan standards, this album has had a strange, difficult birth", wrote Rolling Stone critic David Fricke. "Its release was delayed for more than half a year, and the track listing was altered at least three times. If the musician credits are any indication, the songs that made the final cut come from half a dozen different recording sessions spread out over six years." Like its predecessor Knocked Out Loaded, Dylan once again used more collaborators than normal.
In a review published in his Consumer Guide column, Robert Christgau wrote, "Where Self Portrait was at least weird, splitting the difference between horrible and hilarious, [Dylan is now] forever professional—not a single remake honors or desecrates the original. All he can do to a song is Dylanize it, and thus his Danny Kortchmar band and his Steve Jones–Paul Simonon band are indistinguishable, immersed in that patented and by now meaningless one-take sound." Christgau would later call Down in the Groove "horrendous product".
Recently coming off of the album Knocked Out Loaded, Dylan took the opportunity to further work on his collaborative efforts. The album features several guest appearances for the first time. Most prominent was the appearance of The Grateful Dead, who provided the album with one of its notable high spots with the single "Silvio". The track was later included on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3 and The Essential Bob Dylan.
As stated in the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the album shares no single recording session. This created a tone that the Encyclopedia described as, "raucous to pensive to sombre in a heartbeat."
In the book Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960–1994, author Clinton Heylin offers an explanation for the style and layout of the album's tracks. He states, "As it is, Dylan's intent all along may have been to show the rich vein of music he listened to when growing up in Hibbing." The author goes on further to describe how the album was a sensible step for Dylan, suggesting his issues with creative writing had hampered his ability to produce new material.
A unique aspect of the album was the "garage rock"-type tour that followed. Dylan's previous tour had placed a heavy emphasis on guest appearances to allow for a more variety-themed show. The intimate nature of the smaller band allowed the artists to interpret songs differently each time they played. Often the performances held little resemblance to prior shows.
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Down in the Groove
Down in the Groove is the twenty-fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released on May 30, 1988, through Columbia Records. The album was recorded over a period of five years, spanning the sessions for Infidels (1983) to recordings made specifically for the album in 1987. The record, which is made up of both originals and covers, features multiple guest musicians including Ronnie Wood, hip-hop group Full Force, and members of the Grateful Dead, while two of the album's four originals were co-written with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
Following up on the poorly-received Knocked Out Loaded (1986), Down in the Groove was released to similarly negative reviews and low sales. The album stalled at number 61 in the US and number 32 in the UK, while its only single, "Silvio", failed to chart in either territory. Both contemporary and retrospective reviews criticize the album as having an incohesive and scattered nature, and rankings of Dylan's work tend to place the album near the bottom of his discography.
"Even by Dylan standards, this album has had a strange, difficult birth", wrote Rolling Stone critic David Fricke. "Its release was delayed for more than half a year, and the track listing was altered at least three times. If the musician credits are any indication, the songs that made the final cut come from half a dozen different recording sessions spread out over six years." Like its predecessor Knocked Out Loaded, Dylan once again used more collaborators than normal.
In a review published in his Consumer Guide column, Robert Christgau wrote, "Where Self Portrait was at least weird, splitting the difference between horrible and hilarious, [Dylan is now] forever professional—not a single remake honors or desecrates the original. All he can do to a song is Dylanize it, and thus his Danny Kortchmar band and his Steve Jones–Paul Simonon band are indistinguishable, immersed in that patented and by now meaningless one-take sound." Christgau would later call Down in the Groove "horrendous product".
Recently coming off of the album Knocked Out Loaded, Dylan took the opportunity to further work on his collaborative efforts. The album features several guest appearances for the first time. Most prominent was the appearance of The Grateful Dead, who provided the album with one of its notable high spots with the single "Silvio". The track was later included on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3 and The Essential Bob Dylan.
As stated in the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the album shares no single recording session. This created a tone that the Encyclopedia described as, "raucous to pensive to sombre in a heartbeat."
In the book Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960–1994, author Clinton Heylin offers an explanation for the style and layout of the album's tracks. He states, "As it is, Dylan's intent all along may have been to show the rich vein of music he listened to when growing up in Hibbing." The author goes on further to describe how the album was a sensible step for Dylan, suggesting his issues with creative writing had hampered his ability to produce new material.
A unique aspect of the album was the "garage rock"-type tour that followed. Dylan's previous tour had placed a heavy emphasis on guest appearances to allow for a more variety-themed show. The intimate nature of the smaller band allowed the artists to interpret songs differently each time they played. Often the performances held little resemblance to prior shows.