Unplugged (1995)
1. Tombstone Blues
2. Shooting Star
3. All Along the Watchtower
4. The Times They Are A-Changin'
5. John Brown
6. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
7. Desolation Row
8. Dignity
9. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
10.Like a Rolling Stone
11.With God on Our Side
Bob Dylan really was a strange choice
for this sort of release. This particular "Unplugged" phenomonem took off in the early
nineties with mostly younger, grungier acts playing their hits in a much
more stripped down approach. With Bob Dylan, the first thing you have
to honestly ask is, "Hasn't Dylan sort of always been
unplugged??". It's almost like an album called "The Harder side of
Motley Crue" or something. Then you have to honestly ask yourself if
the MTV crowd of the early nineties really cared that much at all about such an
older artist.
Listening to the audience on this album, they cheer, they applaud, they
do what they're supposed to do, but you can't help but wonder if they
really belong there. Which makes you wonder, "Is this really a sincere
recording, or a record company exploiting the audience to make a buck?"
The songs sound as they should. They don't really come across as
particularly exciting, but he does do justice to his catalog. There are
mostly old hits (that to be honest, sound a bit tired), one unreleased
song (the exceptional John Brown - why has this never been
released??) and a few somewhat newer songs that sound very welcome.
Maybe this is a testament that Dylan should play more newer material
when he performs live? Then again, probably most people in the audience
(or those buying the album) probably never heard of a song like Dignity.
So it sounds o.k., but I honestly rarely listen to it. It doesn't help
when the last half of the album seems to have an average song length of
about six or seven minutes. Hopefully the bean counters were happy.
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