BOB DYLAN: UNDER THE RED SKY (1990)
1) Wiggle Wiggle; 2) Under The
Red Sky; 3) Unbelievable; 4) Born In Time; 5) T.V. Talkin' Song; 6) 10,000 Men;
7) 2 x 2; 8) God Knows; 9) Handy Dandy; 10) Cat's In The Well.
I think that most of the critics misunderstood
this album when it came out. Most of the reviews were starkly negative — after
the oh-so-obvious and oh-so-welcome comeback of Oh Mercy, here was a cold shower that threateningly hinted: Oh Mercy was just an accident, and now
we are back to the washed-up state of its predecessors. Rote, stale, toothless,
simplistic rock'n'roll. And the lyrics? "Wiggle wiggle wiggle like a gypsy
queen, wiggle wiggle wiggle all dressed in green". "One by one, they
followed the sun; two by two, to their lovers they flew". "Handy
dandy, just like sugar and candy". "Cat's in the well, the wolf is
looking down". This is Dylan? Sounds more like Dr. Seuss on a bad day.
The only exception from the crowd was Robert
Christgau, who fabulously gave the record an A- and populated his brief review
with phrases like: "aiming frankly for the evocative, the fabulistic,
the biblical, Dylan exploits narrative metaphor as an adaptive mechanism that
allows him to inhabit a ʽmatureʼ pessimism he knows isn't the meaning of life" — as much as
we sometimes hate The Dean for a variety of aesthetic reasons, this is clearly
just a provocative hoot: The Dean thinks he can claim as good a right to be bullshitting
his audience as Bob Dylan has a right to be bullshitting his. Hence, the only real difference is that most critics thought
Bob had produced an unintentionally bad record, whereas Christgau probably
thought it was quite intentional.
What they missed was
the dedication of the record — «to Gabby Gabby Goo», later revealed to be Bobby's
little daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan. The dedication explains it
all: Under The Red Sky is nothing
but Robert Zimmerman's idea of a «children's record», designed and executed
through the vision frame of Bob Dylan. What would a four-year old kid do with Blonde On Blonde or Blood On The Tracks? A four-year old
kid would much rather wiggle wiggle wiggle, or learn to count to ten, or hear
about the cat and the wolf. And if most of the lyrics are absurdist and do not
make any literal sense, the same can be said about quite a large percentage of
children's literature as well.
Consequently, Under The Red Sky should not be put in
the same league with Knocked Out Loaded.
It is clearly Dylan's most «Traveling Wilburies-style» album, sharing the
general lightweight atmosphere of that band, but then it goes further than
that, stripping the melodies and the lyrical structures to their bare bones,
and not even beginning to pretend to any depth, seriousness, or nuanced
atmosphere. Unlike Knocked Out Loaded,
Under The Red Sky knows exactly what
it is doing, with one exception: as a «writer for kids», Dylan is not
particularly well experienced, and the «fun» component of the album seems
underdone.
That this is a
specially concocted «Dylan lite» variety is most evident on ʽHandy Dandyʼ, I
think, which opens with a bombastic organ riff, very similar to the one of
ʽLike A Rolling Stoneʼ — but the lyrics are sheer nonsense, their delivery is
rather expressionless, and the backing band has no particular idea of what sort
of feelings it should be trying to convey. Most of the other «rock» songs are
based on well-known rock'n'roll patterns (ʽUnbelievableʼ opens like ʽHoney
Don'tʼ; ʽCat's In The Wellʼ is really ʽLucilleʼ; ʽ10,000 Menʼ is ʽGood Morning
Little Schoolgirlʼ, etc.) that Dylan explores with gusto, probably drawing his
inspiration from those early high school days when playing in a rock'n'roll band
was still the only life for him — in other words, he is not simply writing for
children, he is sort of reliving his own childhood. I guess you're allowed to
do that as you turn 50, no?
The backing band
assembled for the purpose is quite impressive — with guest appearances from Al
Kooper (I assume it is him responsible for the organ on ʽHandy Dandyʼ, for
obvious reasons) to Elton John to Slash to Jimmie and even Stevie Ray Vaughan
(on ʽGod Knowsʼ). George Harrison makes a notable appearance on the title track
(I can only assume the pretty slide solos there come from George's hand), Dave
Crosby sings backing vocals, Bruce Hornsby contributes piano runs, and producer
Don Was adds his own guitar skills. And all of this talent thrown together for
a thirty-minute long kiddie album? Truly and verily, nobody but Dylan can pull off
a stunt like that and get away with just a few negative reviews.
If we preserve that
angle of view, Under The Red Sky has
no highlights or lowlights. ʽGod Knowsʼ is actually a bit more serious than
everything else, both lyrically and musically (due largely to Stevie Ray's
participation), but it is lurking at the rear and does not add much coloring to
the rest of the album. A deliberate throwaway, it would have fared much better
had it been properly advertised — but Dylan hates proper advertisement, and it
is a hatred I can empathize with. As an experiment, you can leave it in storage
for your own little «Gabby Gabby Goos» and see for yourself whether Robert's
paternal instincts were functioning correctly. Or, if you are ever in the mood
to play the fool, you can «wiggle like a big fat snake» yourself, provided you
have nothing better to do.
One last word about
the album cover — I think the «Dylan in the desert» image, which, if you do not
look at it hard enough, seems very much like a «Dylan in the dumps» image,
generated more harm for the overall critical impression than the songs
themselves. You listen to ʽWiggle Wiggleʼ, you look back at the cover, you
listen to the title track, your glance returns to the cover again, and you do get the impression of a completely
washed-up intellectual tramp, with nothing but sheer pity or utter disgust to
evoke from the consumer. The photo and the songs just do not go together, no
matter how much you twist the angle. Then again, come to think of it, Desire was probably the last time when
Bob actually gave a proper hoot about the shapes, colors, and facial
expressions on the album sleeve. I do wonder, though, if «Gabby Gabby Goo»
actually enjoyed all the ashen grey on that photo.
Check "Under The Red Sky" (CD) on Amazon
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