Knocked Out Loaded
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2008) |
| Knocked Out Loaded | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 14, 1986 | |||
| Recorded | 1984–1986 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 35:18 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Bob Dylan | |||
| Bob Dylan chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Knocked Out Loaded | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Robert Christgau | B[3] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [4] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B−[5] |
| MusicHound | 1.5/5[6] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [7] |
| Rolling Stone | [8] |
Knocked Out Loaded is the twenty-fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 14, 1986 by Columbia Records.
The album was received poorly upon release, and is still considered by some critics to be one of Dylan's least-engaging efforts. However, the 11-minute epic "Brownsville Girl", co-written by Sam Shepard, has been cited as one of his best songs by some critics.[9] Sales for Knocked Out Loaded were weak, as it peaked at No. 53 on U.S. charts and No. 35 in the UK. The album's highest chart position was in Norway, where it peaked at No. 9.
Composition
[edit]The album includes three cover songs, three collaborations with other songwriters and two solo compositions by Dylan. Most of the album was recorded in the spring of 1986, although recording or mixing work on one track, "Got My Mind Made Up", reportedly occurred in June. Several tracks from the album used overdubbing to build on instrumental tracks from 1984 and 1985 sessions.
One song, "Maybe Someday", paraphrases a line from T. S. Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi: Eliot's "And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly" becomes in Dylan "Through hostile cities and unfriendly towns".
Cover art
[edit]The cover art is a reworking of the January 1939 cover of Spicy Adventure Stories.
Reception and legacy
[edit]The album earned mostly negative reactions, with only a rewritten version of an outtake ("New Danville Girl'", retitled "Brownsville Girl") recorded during the Empire Burlesque sessions, receiving uniform praise. Robert Christgau called it "one of the greatest and most ridiculous of [Dylan's] great ridiculous epics."[3]
"Knocked Out Loaded is ultimately a depressing affair," wrote Anthony DeCurtis in his review published in Rolling Stone magazine, "because its slipshod, patchwork nature suggests that Dylan released this LP not because he had anything in particular to say, but to cash in on his 1986 tour. Even worse, it suggests Dylan's utter lack of artistic direction."[8] In the Howard Sounes book Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, it is reported that Dylan said "if the records I'm making only sell a certain amount anyway, then why should I take so long putting them together?"
In a retrospective review, Michael Gray wrote "after the overblown robotic coldness of Empire Burlesque this third-rate assemblage of studio scrapings ... has a warmth and human frailty that at least lets you in. Tired r&b ("You Wanna Ramble") and rockism ("Got My Mind Made Up"); immaculately sung but shifty pop ("Under Your Spell"); a cover of Kris Kristofferson's wretched "They Killed Him"; and Dylan's fine "Maybe Someday" so badly produced that it is incomprehensible and could be sung by one of the Chipmunks. There's a tender rendition, well-produced and refreshingly arranged, of the gospel standard "Precious Memories", a robust cut of a good minor Dylan song "Drifting Too Far From Shore" (with mad drumming), and, hidden among the dross, "Brownsville Girl", co-written with Sam Shepard: a wonderful and innovative major work, intelligent and subtle, from a Bob Dylan out from behind his 1980s wall of self-contempt and wholly in command of his incomparable vocal resources."[10]
Dylan has played few songs from this album in concert; "Driftin' Too Far from Shore", with 14 performances (all but one in 1988), is the most frequently performed. Four songs remain unplayed, while the other three have together been aired only five times.
In recent years the album has gained a cult following among some Dylan fans who believe it is one of his least-understood works,[11] but critical consensus remains negative, with recent reviews from Salon.com to Rolling Stone calling it a "career-killer" and "the absolute bottom of the Dylan barrel" respectively.
The album was remastered and re-issued in 2013 as a part of The Complete Albums Collection, Vol. One box set.
Track listing
[edit]| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "You Wanna Ramble" | Little Junior Parker | 3:14 |
| 2. | "They Killed Him" | Kris Kristofferson | 4:00 |
| 3. | "Driftin' Too Far from Shore" | Dylan | 3:39 |
| 4. | "Precious Memories" | Traditional; arranged by Dylan | 3:13 |
| 5. | "Maybe Someday" | Dylan | 3:17 |
| Total length: | 17:23 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Brownsville Girl" | Dylan, Sam Shepard | 11:00 |
| 2. | "Got My Mind Made Up" | Dylan, Tom Petty | 2:53 |
| 3. | "Under Your Spell" | Dylan, Carole Bayer Sager | 3:58 |
| Total length: | 17:51 | ||
Personnel
[edit]- Bob Dylan – guitar, keyboards, vocals, production
- Peggi Blu – background vocals
- Majason Bracey – background vocals
- Clem Burke, Anton Fig, Mike Berment, Milton Gabriel, Don Heffington, Bryan Parris, Stan Lynch, Raymond Lee Pounds – drums
- T Bone Burnett, Tom Petty, Ira Ingber, Mike Campbell, Jack Sherman, David A. Stewart, Ronnie Wood – guitar
- Carolyn Dennis – background vocals
- Steve Douglas – saxophone
- Howie Epstein, James Jamerson, Jr., John McKenzie, Vito Sanfilippo, Carl Sealove (Brownsville Girl), Jon Paris – bass guitar
- Lara Firestone – background vocals
- Keysha Gwin – background vocals
- Muffy Hendrix – background vocals
- April Hendrix-Haberlan – background vocals
- Dewey B. Jones II – background vocals
- Phil Jones – congas
- Al Kooper, Vince Melamed, Patrick Seymour, Benmont Tench – keyboards
- Steve Madaio – trumpet
- Queen Esther Marrow – background vocals
- Larry Mayhand – background vocals
- Larry Meyers – mandolin
- Angel Newell – background vocals
- Herbert Newell – background vocals
- Al Perkins – steel guitar
- Crystal Pounds – background vocals
- Madelyn Quebec – background vocals
- Pamela Quinlan – background vocals
- Daina Smith – background vocals
- Maia Smith – vocals
- Medena Smith – background vocals
- Annette May Thomas – background vocals
- Damien Turnbough – background vocals
- Chyna Wright – background vocals
- Elesecia Wright – background vocals
- Tiffany Wright – background vocals
Production
[edit]- Britt Bacon – engineering
- Judy Feltus – engineering
- Don Smith – engineering
- George Tutko – engineering
Charts
[edit]| Chart (1986) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[12] | 24 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[13] | 50 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[14] | 37 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[15] | 23 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[16] | 9 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[17] | 20 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[18] | 18 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[19] | 35 |
| US Billboard 200[20] | 53 |
Notes
[edit]- ^ "Bob Dylan - Mainstream Rock Airplay". Billboard. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Knocked Out Loaded at AllMusic
- ^ a b Christgau, Robert. "Robert Christgau: CG: Artist 169". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
- ^ "Bob Dylan's discography". Ew.com. Retrieved Aug 8, 2024.
- ^ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 371. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
- ^ Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, eds. (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York, NY: Fireside. p. 262. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
- ^ a b DeCurtis, Anthony (1986-09-11). "Bob Dylan: Knocked Out Loaded : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2007-10-02. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, 95-100
- ^ Gray, Michael (2023) [2000]. Song and Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan. Vol. 1: Language and Tradition. The FM Press. p. 12. ISBN 979-8-9882887-1-8.
- ^ "Knocked Out Loaded analysis". Weebly.com.
- ^ "Austriancharts.at – Bob Dylan – Knocked Out Loaded" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Bob Dylan – Knocked Out Loaded" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Bob Dylan – Knocked Out Loaded" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Charts.nz – Bob Dylan – Knocked Out Loaded". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Bob Dylan – Knocked Out Loaded". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Bob Dylan – Knocked Out Loaded". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Swisscharts.com – Bob Dylan – Knocked Out Loaded". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Bob Dylan Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
External links
[edit]- Bob Dylan Biography, biography.com
