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Knocked Out Loaded
Knocked Out Loaded is the twenty-fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 14, 1986 by Columbia Records.
The album was received poorly upon release, and is still considered by some critics to be one of Dylan's least-engaging efforts. However, the 11-minute epic "Brownsville Girl", co-written by Sam Shepard, has been cited as one of his best songs by some critics. Sales for Knocked Out Loaded were weak, as it peaked at No. 53 on U.S. charts and No. 35 in the UK. The album's highest chart position was in Norway, where it peaked at No. 9.
The album includes three cover songs, three collaborations with other songwriters and two solo compositions by Dylan. Most of the album was recorded in the spring of 1986, although recording or mixing work on one track, "Got My Mind Made Up", reportedly occurred in June. Several tracks from the album used overdubbing to build on instrumental tracks from 1984 and 1985 sessions.
One song, "Maybe Someday", paraphrases a line from T. S. Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi: Eliot's "And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly" becomes in Dylan "Through hostile cities and unfriendly towns".
Artist Rick Griffin, primarily known for the Grateful Dead's logos and poster art, was initially commissioned to design the cover of the record jacket. Griffin's work featured Marlon Brando's character from The Wild One and the working title All Jacked Up. Griffin's artwork sold at auction in 2008 for $7,350.
Dylan ultimately rejected Griffin's design in favor of a reworking of the January 1939 cover of the pulp magazine Spicy Adventure Stories. The album's inner sleeve includes a long list of special thanks, acknowledging musicians who performed on the album (such as Tom Petty), musicians who did not (Stevie Wonder), surreal characters ("Gal Shaped Just Like A Frog"), and Dylan's youngest daughter ("Desiree"), who was born the year of the album's release.
Knocked Out Loaded received mixed to negative reviews from contemporary music critics, who found the album uneven and lacking cohesion. "Knocked Out Loaded is ultimately a depressing affair," wrote Anthony DeCurtis in his review for Rolling Stone magazine, "because its slipshod, patchwork nature suggests that Dylan released this LP not because he had anything in particular to say, but to cash in on his 1986 tour. Even worse, it suggests Dylan's utter lack of artistic direction."
In a more positive review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote Knocked Out Loaded "sounds like something Dylan threw together in a week and away forever. But throwing it away is how he gets that off-the-cuff feel, and side two is great fun." Christgau singled out "Brownsville Girl" for praise, hailing it as "one of the greatest and most ridiculous of [Dylan's] great ridiculous epics."
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Knocked Out Loaded
Knocked Out Loaded is the twenty-fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 14, 1986 by Columbia Records.
The album was received poorly upon release, and is still considered by some critics to be one of Dylan's least-engaging efforts. However, the 11-minute epic "Brownsville Girl", co-written by Sam Shepard, has been cited as one of his best songs by some critics. Sales for Knocked Out Loaded were weak, as it peaked at No. 53 on U.S. charts and No. 35 in the UK. The album's highest chart position was in Norway, where it peaked at No. 9.
The album includes three cover songs, three collaborations with other songwriters and two solo compositions by Dylan. Most of the album was recorded in the spring of 1986, although recording or mixing work on one track, "Got My Mind Made Up", reportedly occurred in June. Several tracks from the album used overdubbing to build on instrumental tracks from 1984 and 1985 sessions.
One song, "Maybe Someday", paraphrases a line from T. S. Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi: Eliot's "And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly" becomes in Dylan "Through hostile cities and unfriendly towns".
Artist Rick Griffin, primarily known for the Grateful Dead's logos and poster art, was initially commissioned to design the cover of the record jacket. Griffin's work featured Marlon Brando's character from The Wild One and the working title All Jacked Up. Griffin's artwork sold at auction in 2008 for $7,350.
Dylan ultimately rejected Griffin's design in favor of a reworking of the January 1939 cover of the pulp magazine Spicy Adventure Stories. The album's inner sleeve includes a long list of special thanks, acknowledging musicians who performed on the album (such as Tom Petty), musicians who did not (Stevie Wonder), surreal characters ("Gal Shaped Just Like A Frog"), and Dylan's youngest daughter ("Desiree"), who was born the year of the album's release.
Knocked Out Loaded received mixed to negative reviews from contemporary music critics, who found the album uneven and lacking cohesion. "Knocked Out Loaded is ultimately a depressing affair," wrote Anthony DeCurtis in his review for Rolling Stone magazine, "because its slipshod, patchwork nature suggests that Dylan released this LP not because he had anything in particular to say, but to cash in on his 1986 tour. Even worse, it suggests Dylan's utter lack of artistic direction."
In a more positive review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote Knocked Out Loaded "sounds like something Dylan threw together in a week and away forever. But throwing it away is how he gets that off-the-cuff feel, and side two is great fun." Christgau singled out "Brownsville Girl" for praise, hailing it as "one of the greatest and most ridiculous of [Dylan's] great ridiculous epics."