As Bad As Its Reputation? Bob Dylan & Grateful Dead “Dylan & The Dead”

Two Giants come together – can they create musical magic?

There are many albums that have a reputation for being dire, or at least underwhelming, that is not fully deserved. There are just as many feted albums which are underwhelming or even dire, but that’s another story. Here we are going to discuss the reputation of ‘Dylan & The Dead‘, an album that sold by the million and achieved more than moderate chart success – not that easy for a live album – and yet for many is very much in the lukewarm category, and was pretty early on after release a favourite to end up in the record store bargain bin. It features recordings from the 1987 joint tour by Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan, which, much like the landmark 1974 tour with The Band, featured sections of Dylan and sections by the Grateful Dead.  The album, though, is just Dylan’s songs with the Dead acting as the backing band. And that may, of course, be the basic issue that many have with the album – put very simply it sounds like the Dead with Dylan on lead vocals. Of course it does. But that means that at some point in every song Jerry is going to head off into a soaring solo, or Brent Mydland is going to insert some funky keyboard riffs. And the songs will be perhaps longer than anticipated. So, for a Dylanhead the album might sound too Dead-ish. And then, on the flip side, there are only Dylan songs featured, and he has all the lead vocals, so for a Deadhead the album might sound too Dylan-ish. Maybe it just fails to please two, albeit massively overlapping, camps.  It was also a fairly long time between the recording and the release, so perhaps a bit of the crowd buzz had worn off.

Or maybe it is the song selection – there are only seven songs and two of these are from ‘Slow Train Coming‘, a release from Dylan’s critically unpopular “Christian Phase” – three overtly religious albums and some hectoring tours perhaps not unexpectedly produced a “what the hell is going on with Dylan these days” repsonse. From the point of view of the albums at least there is an undeserved lingering antipathy, but the truth is that all three of ‘Slow Train Coming‘, ‘Saved‘ and ‘Shot of Love‘ contain some perfectly good songs, with a few masterpieces sprinkled amongst them. We might return to this topic at a later date. We can, though, balance these songs out with the undoubted crowd pleasers of ‘All Along The Watchtower‘ and ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.’  Alongside these are a couple more of Sixties throwbacks – ‘I Want You‘ and ‘Queen Jane Approximately‘ – for those listeners who want “something old.” And, ok, yes there is a reworked ‘Joey‘ which tries to raise sympathy for those living on gambling and extortion and which asks perhaps the most pointless question in rock history “what made them want to come and blow you away?“. Well, there’s the criminal activity, the attempts at muscling in on larger criminal gangs, the assaults and possible murders, as well as the kidnapping and threats of blowing up rival gang members that the song describes. That doesn’t make murder ok, but this litany does pretty much explain what it was that got Joey blown away. In fact, taken as the sole source of pro and con evidence, it’s more of a wonder that Joey lived so long.

Overall though, not the worst imaginable song selection, particularly since ‘Slow Train‘ and ‘Gotta Serve Somebody‘ are two of the finer songs on ‘Slow Train Coming.‘ On paper it sounds fine, what’s the reality like? The album opens with a really good reading of ‘Slow Train‘, Dylan is in great voice and The Dead add both a better, rocking, accompaniment compared to the studio slightly funky and horn punched recording and they also provide a perfect set of backing vocals.  It really doesn’t hurt that the song’s lyrics have had a hatchet taken to them, with several particularly hectoring verses cut or completely reshaped.  Simply put, ‘Slow Train‘ is a better song when its message becomes more generalized.

‘I Want You‘ tinkles prettily in the hands of the Dead, but Dylan’s vocal is rough and angry sounding – there’s precious little sense of either love or lust in his delivery, it’s always seemed a slight song at the best of times and this doesn’t seem to be a night when Dylan was particularly in the mood for sensitivity. Or for getting the lyrics right – there are stumbles and repeated lines which don’t really lift it to a classic rendition status. It is odd that there wasn’t a better version – or a better song – to take the place on the record. Perhaps it was just some desire to present the veracity of the tour.

However, this somewhat harsh and contemptuous vocal is perfectly suited for the grimly unflinching ‘Serve Somebody‘ which also features those aforementioned soaring Garcia solos and Brent Mydland riffs. With the Dead providing a chorus of backing vocals it has a muscular strength, as good a reading of the song as could be wished for which tails off potentially endlessly – they could still be singing ‘gonna have to serve somebody‘ to this day.

‘Queen Jane Approximately‘ is just a delight, with a lovely intro by Garcia, and Dylan adding a vocal that draws on all the weary lover’s of folk song. There’s sympathy for all the perceived errors and mistakes, and a longing in the repeated ‘Won’t you come see me Queen Jane‘ that’s honest and affecting. Playing and delivery wise ‘Joey‘ is perfectly fine whatever one thinks of the pure merits of the song, it’s less romantic in delivery than the original relying as it does on guitar to carry the song, all the little “Italian-American” flourishes are missing and leave the lyrical paucity a little exposed. It’s ok – it does feature another fluffed line from Dylan.

And then there’s the big closure – ‘All Along The Watchtower‘ followed up by ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.’ The apocalyptic vision of ‘Watchtower‘ is chillingly conveyed, and whilst this is a very electric version Jerry Garcia treads his own path, there’s little of Hendrix here. Whilst the rhythm section chugs determinedly to the finish Garcia soars and sways like the howling wind that Dylan sings of.  ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door‘ is reverent in the backing, whilst Dylan declaims his woes like a lost soul. And again Jerry Garcia demonstrates his ability to add some perfectly attuned guitar solos, restrained and respectful and full of imagination. You can almost hear the lighters being waved overhead.

Taken as a whole we have seven songs, two of them slightly weak, and I’ll grant one of those marred by a badly chosen singing voice. There are also a couple of errors in the vocals, but that’s somewhat to be expected live. The rest of the album more than makes up for this though. It’s not a 10/10, no-one would argue that, that would be crazy, but it’s well up in the 7/10 class.  Most importantly – a live album always asks the question “would I have liked to have been there?” and the answer is an unequivocal yes. Oh god yes.