World Gone Wrong (1993)
1. World Gone Wrong
2. Love Henry
3. Ragged & Dirty
4. Blood in My Eyes
5. Broke Down Engine
6. Stella
7. Stackolee
8. Two Soldiers
9. Jack-A-Roe
10.Lone Pilgrim
The second (and last) of Dylan's
latter day "acoustic only" albums featuring Dylan, his guitar, and the
occasional harmonica. In many ways this is a carbon copy of last
year's Good As I Been To You, yet
in many ways this album is actually superior. The songs are a little
more introspective, have a little bit more feeling, are a little more
melodious and resonate just a little bit better.
Also worth mentioning (for me, anyway) is that there are not as many
recognizable tunes as the last record. Again, these are all somewhat
older, traditional folk songs, but the only one that was immediately
recognizable to me is Stack O Lee (or as many people know it,
"Stagger Lee"). My favorite version of this song is the New Orleans
soul-filled Lloyd Price edition, and you could easily see that this one
is much different. Dylan adds just enough of his own character and
personality to make this song his own, without damaging the reputation,
and also making it damn near the best version that exists. Having said
that, I wish I would have been familiar with more of these songs
in their original format, because as great as these songs are, I might
have appreciated them more had I seen how Dylan changed them in his own fashion.
Contrary to the album's title, this is not really a morbid, depressing,
accusatory album of the state of affairs. It just so happened to be the
title of one of the songs. The worse thing about this album is the fact
that very few bought it or even have heard of it. With the oodles of
Dylan compilations out there (many released after this album), this
time period for was all but forgotten. A shame.
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