In “Going, Going, Gone," Dylan is more distractedly resolute and rudderless, as we sense that Planet Waves may indeed signal a bridging, a transitional time for Dylan, looking back but still seeking an ill-defined fairly-formed change musically and — not incidentally — personally: “I'm closin' the book / On the pages and the text / And I don't really care / What happens next. / I'm just going / I'm going / I'm gone.” In “Wedding Song," his aimlessness take on a more ritualistic and anticipatory but still indistinct form as “I've said goodbye to haunted rooms and faces in the street / To the courtyard of the jester which is hidden from the sun / I love you more than ever and I haven't yet begun.”
All Dylan knows for sure is that it’s time for his boot heels to be wandering, and in this more carefree “Mr. Tambourine Man” frame of mind wherein he can “forget about today until tomorrow,” Dylan displays a little Maggie's Farm fun in the album’s punchiest and jauntiest song, the colorful “Tough Mama” where a self-deprecating Dylan — in dire circumstance and in weather that “was a-hotter than a crotch” — rolls with rollicking instrumental punches that could’ve been thrown from The Band:
I'm crestfallen
The world of illusion is at my door,
I ain't a-haulin' any of my lambs to the marketplace anymore.
The prison walls are crumblin', there is no end in sight,
I've gained some recognition but I lost my appetite.
Dark Beauty
Meet me at the border late tonight.
If anything is going to bring Dylan back down to earth, to serious purpose and that detected Blood On The Tracks mindset (as manifested perhaps in that elusive “Dark Beauty”) it is the aptly-titled “Dirge,” a stark and dark tale made even more so by the late Richard Manuel’s somber piano punctuation, and by Dylan’s emphatic vocals — vocals that nearly see him spit out Idiot-Winded spite and self-loathing: “I hate myself for lovin' you and the weakness that it showed / You were just a painted face on a trip down Suicide Road.” It’s a wonder that we still know how to breathe, indeed. And it’s a wonder the singer of the song can even live with himself:
There are those who worship loneliness, I'm not one of them,
In this age of fiberglass I'm searching for a gem.
The crystal ball up on the wall hasn't shown me nothing yet,
I've paid the price of solitude, but at last I'm out of debt.
Article comments
1 - Penelope
I LOVED your article on Planet Waves--so much that now I'm going to buy it...p.s. I love Dylan too (or at least my view of him)....
2 - Rodney Welch
Gordon,
I've been listening to nothing but Dylan for a solid week; sometimes I just get in those moods. Planet Waves hasn't been part of the mix, as yet, because I've never really warmed up to the disc all that much. I notice you focus a lot on "Wedding Song," which is about the only song on it I ever play.
Something I wrote two years ago, after buying it: "Planet Waves was released [several years after Nashville Skyline], in 1974, and it's a spotty record as well, but it certainly has more spark and spontaneity. He's backed by the Band, which is not, to my way of thinking, his best band, but the one which he is most comfortable with. It's not remotely at the level of inspiration they achieved with The Basement Tapes -- in fact it's probably the least of their collaborations together -- but it comes close to evoking the same spirit, the same loose, funky feel, with playing that's often a good deal more inspired than Dylan's songs. "Cast-Iron Songs and Torch Ballads," the cover promises, and in fairness it does have the spirited "On a Night Like This," a good version of "Forever Young" (inexplicably followed by a alternate, shitty one) and the lively "You Angel You." Women been on Dylan's mind in the making of this disc, with elegies to women both soft ("Hazel") and hard ("Tough Mama"); wives, apparently, too, in the haunting and fascinating "Wedding Song," which I'd love to believe was something he wrote for Sara after they went to a couple's retreat. On this record, we hear Dylan at his lamest ("In this age of fiberglass, I'm searching for a gem") and his best ("I love you more than ever now that the past is gone.") A game effort."
3 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Thanks, Penelope, for the comments. I like the idea of "my view of him."
4 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Rodney--thanks for sharing that fine piece about "Cast-Iron Songs and Torch Ballads" you had written a couple years back. I get in those inexplicable moods to listen to a particular album--and that's what happened when I chose Planet Waves this time. Now maybe I can get "Tough Mama" from endlessly going through my head.
5 - Rodney Welch
Gordon,
Ket's do a roundtable discussion on Dylan sometime. I got a head full of ideas that are driving me insane.
6 - Anne-Marie
Gordon, your article on this album is very thought provoking, I enjoyed it immensely. I purchased Planet Waves when it was first released and it has been one of my favorite Dylan albums ever since. Could never understand how so many reviews of this album described it as nothing more than a bit of drabble. The songs are moving and the music is haunting. But then that's Dylan, isn't it...
7 - Jay
Rodney,get over it man! planet waves is, as noted by Gordon, totally under-rated. while not as polished as many other great dylan albums it has a feel and intensity that is right up there. Dirge, Something there is about you, on a night like this, you angel you are all great songs by any standard. Thanks Gordon for shining the light on this one.
8 - Glen Boyd
Gordon,
The first time I ever saw Dylan was on the 1974 "Before The Flood" comeback tour with The Band, which was in support of Planet Waves. The show was amazing and I became a life long Dylanologist as a result.
But I always thought Planet Waves was a rather underwhelming album in the Dylan canon. Based on your review, I'm definitely going to back and take another listen. One thing your review did remind me was how cool a song "Tough Mama" is. I'd also forgotten that one and it is a great little rocker powered along by The Band.
Definitely gonna pull out my dusty copy of Planet Waves and give it another spin. Right now it's filed somewhere inbetween "Self Portrait" and "Knocked Out Loaded"...the other Dylan albums I rarely go back to.
Another Dylan album that doesn't get a lot of respect is "Street Legal." Like Planet Waves, "Street Legal" was a transition album for Dylan...he was basically between the "Rolling Thunder" period and the Jesus Years which began with his very next album "Slow Train Coming."
"Changing Of The Guard," "Where Are You Tonight," and "Is Your Love In Vain" from "Street Legal" rank right up there with his best songwriting in my view.
Maybe you oughtta tackle that one next Gordon.
-Glen
9 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Thanks Rodney and Anne-Marie. I don't consider me as being comprehensively Dylan-savvy (can't afford to own a lot, lots of gaps)so I think I'd be too inconsistent to be much good in a roundtable setting.
But Planet Waves is one of those exceptions, not a classic but a schizophrenic special case that didn't seem to warrant its lukewarm reviews. It always struck me that certain songs foreshadowed a tone and theme more fully realized on Blood on the Tracks, and I don't recall reviews on Planet discussing that too much.
10 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Thanks Jay and Glen, for the comments. In this feature, I'm trying to stay away the usual classics and shine a revisionist light on some undervalued albums.
As Glen alluded to, "Tough Mama" has always been a fine song, one that, for whatever reason, plays a lot in the random shuffle of my mind, if you will. And there's always something of interest in the more dismissable Dylan album I've heard--in his "born-again" phase, "Every Grain of Sand" (from Shot of Love) stands with his finest work.
11 - Kevin Davis
Gordon, thanks for the great article. As a die-hard Dylan fan, I always enjoy reading people's musings on the man. That said, Planet Waves was honestly one that never made much of an impact on me. The songs are mostly decent, but there's something about the record that rubs me the wrong way. Most likely, it's the Band, who I always found irritating. But "Dirge" and "Hazel" are up there with the best of them; "Hazel" was once described to me as the "Dylan fan's Dylan song," meaning that if you find someone who is serious about Dylan, "Hazel" will likely hold some kind of special place in their hearts. From people I've met, it seems to be at least relatively accurate.
Street-Legal is a wonderful album with some kickass songs (if Dylan had never written anything besides "Changing of the Guards," it would still be enough to qualify them among the greats), but I don't think "Is Your Love in Vain?" is one of them. It has a nice tune, but the thing that ruins it for me is the lyrics, especially the "Can you cook and sew/And make flowers grow?" line. "Senor" is great too, though the studio version is ass compared to latter-day live versions from the Never-Ending Tour.
Agreed about "Every Grain of Sand," too. "In the Summertime" is another great song off Shot of Love.
In my opinion, the ultimate underrated Dylan album is World Gone Wrong, his album of blues and folk standards from 1993. The atmosphere to that record is ridiculous, and Dylan's guitar playing is phenomenal. Easily in my top ten favorite Dylan records.
12 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Kevin--thanks for the comments and the Dylan album buyer's guide of sorts, and further incentive to add to my collection some of the lower-profile works I had passed up mostly for empty-wallet reasons. "World Gone Wrong" sounds especially inviting from your description.
On Planet Waves, which can justifiably be attributed to "Bob Dylan and The Band" I can see where the opinion about the Band, in part, could be a deciding factor.