Scroll > > >

Thirteen Records, HTML, 375 pixels square each, (about)

         
         
         
         
         

 

Desire -1976

         
         
         
         
         

 

Street Legal - 1978

         
         
         
         
         

 

Slow Train Coming, 1979

         
         
         
         
         

 

Saved, 1980

         
         
         
         
         

 

Shot of Love, 1981

         
         
         
         
         

 

Infidels, 1983

         
         
         
         
         

 

Empire Burlesque, 1985

         
         
         
         
         

 

Knocked Out Loaded, 1986

         
         
         
         
         

 

Down in the Groove, 1988

         
         
         
         
         

 

Oh Mercy, 1989

         
         
         
         
         

 

Under the Red Sky, 1990

         
         
         
         
         

 

Good as I Been to You, 1992

         
         
         
         
         

 

World Gone Wrong, 1993

Scroll > > >

After Bob Dylan's 1975 masterpiece Blood on the Tracks he recorded album after album of mixed successes and peculiarities, many full of raucous, not terribly rehearsed live takes, backup singers, and changing lineups. Slow Train Coming was his first record after converting to Christianity, a phase which lasted through Shot of Love. This strange Christian period yielded a lot of very good and under-appreciated music. Knocked Out Loaded brought him back to the hard driving bluesy Americana that incluenced him when starting out, Down in the Groove took this further, which eventually resulted in two cover albums of traditional and folks songs, Good as I Been to You and World Gone Wrong.

These thirteen albums, as uneven as they might seem, are full of surprises, nuggets, and "The Old, Weird America" that Greil Marcus wrote about in his book subtitled, "The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes." These records show a musician constantly returning to and working with his folk and blues roots to take part in the folk continuum, and making music that, despite its hits and misses, is far beyond what almost any other singer/songwriter in the folk/blues/rock vein, with the exception of Neil Young, could even begin to accomplish.

The thirteen drawings represented here, square in format, just like an LP jacket, borrow colors from the original album art. I did not attempt to re-represent the album art or alternately represent the music. This series acknowledges a musician who is certainly recognized and valued, but not as fully or completely as I maintain he ought to be based on the evidence in this strange middle period.

  1. Desire, 1976
  2. Street Legal, 1978
  3. Slow Train Coming, 1979
  4. Saved, 1980
  5. Shot of Love, 1981
  6. Infidels, 1983
  7. Empire Burlesque, 1985
  8. Knocked Out Loaded, 1986
  9. Down in the Groove, 1988
  10. Oh Mercy, 1989
  11. Under the Red Sky, 1990
  12. Good as I Been to You, 1992
  13. World Gone Wrong, 1993