Customer Reviews

Planet Waves

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's easy, in retrospect to see how this album was overlooked. Dylan had just left columbia[for this and the before the flood album],his first tour since 1966 was starting, and there were no anthems of political dissilusionment among these songs. 1974 was not 1968,and after a number of offbeat choices,word was dylan had lost his edge.Then he and the band put together this studio gem,precursor to his next studio piece and perhaps his masterpoiece,BLOOD ON THE TRACKS.I think these two albums[discs]should be taken as one.From the brilliant forever young, to dirge to the absolutely brilliant wedding song,the cracks in dylans personal life are showing.The band is, as always, excellent,dylans singing quite clear.The two versions of forever young sound like two completly different songs.The slight scraping sound in wedding song are the buttons of dylans coat on his acoustic guitar[he did this song in one take.]I hav eheard this is monor dylan, and i greatly disagree.This is dylan on the verge of another movement,poised for the tour with the band,blood on the tracks waiting to be born.Essential recording to understand the artist.

OK, let's get serious. Another reviewer slams this album because he doesn't like the Band. And he doesn't like the Band, first, because he thinks Robbie Robertson is a "smug, condescending, pretentious rock star." For a moment, let's grant that. Robertson has certainly had his moments. But if we're going to start trashing albums because of smug, pretentious rock stars there's going to be an awful lot of discs in the bonfire including quite a few by Bobby Zimmerman himself and a bunch by John Lennon. Seems to me smug and pretentious is an occupational hazard in a world afloat in dope and sycophancy. But are we reviewing the music or the person? The second reason this reviewer dislikes the Band is because they're "loud" and nothing else. This interests me. My grandfather told me there were people way back a long time ago who got upset when Dylan plugged in his guitar and started touring with the Band, but I didn't realize there were any of them still around. To my ear, the Band's experimentation with color and timbre is interesting, as is their attempt to graft white roots music, rock and roll, cajun and other sounds. Criticize them for a lot of things, but for loudness? I guess this would me we can't like the Stones either. I distinctly remember the instructions on (I think) "Exile on Main Street" --- "Play this album LOUD." Then the reviewer doesn't like the Band because Levon Helm had stage fright (see my comments on ad hominem criticism above --- also check out Sir Laurence Olivier's autobiography in which he describes his agonizing struggles with a similar problem). Finally, the reviewer says he doesn't like the album because of Dylan's songwriting and Robertson's scratchy guitar.. Here at last we have a discussion of the music and its presentation. Good for him for expressing his opinion. I simply disagree with him. To me, experimentation is not apostasy, and I like the way this album sounds. And, like the Duke said, "If it sounds good, it is good."

I invite people to listen for themselves and make up their own minds.

...the North wind about to break. Footprints in the snow/and the silence down below." This is a lyric off this album that I have never forgotten. Not only is the imagery beautiful as words on paper, but the musical setting is dramatic and evocative of the moment he is trying to describe. Okay, so if you think every album Bob Dylan did has to measure up to Blood on the Tracks, Blonde on Blonde, or Bringing it all Back Home, this one isn't as good as those. But if you already have those but haven't heard this one, it's a must. The collaboration with the Band is natural and wonderful. They rarely sounded better. This record came out in 1974. With one exception ("Blood..."), nothing he did later came out better.

"Planet Waves" seems to have slipped into black hole between Dylan's late 60s oddities ("Self Portrait," "Nashville Skyline") and his so-called return to form with "Blood on the Tracks." However, "Planet Waves" is a teriffic CD, the ONLY studio album recorded with the Band, and has a lot more to recommend it than the perennial favorite "Forever Young." Indeed, it sounds like a Band record, in the best possible way, with Dylan integrating working seamlessly with the band as they had been doing for a number years--just not on record.

The songs are also strong, from the opener, "On a Night Like This" to the "Wedding Song"--one of Dylan's most heartfelt. A true winner. If there is any detraction it's this: did he have to record "Forever Young" twice?

It's true that this does not compare to Dylan's greater works like Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, and Highway 61 Revisted, but this album is still worth listening to. The lyrics are not Dylan's best, but the music, provided by The Band, and Dylan's voice allow one to enjoy this overlooked Dylan album. The song "Hazel" in particular is an unknown Dylan classic. If you love Dylan or The Band, I say definitely pick this one up.

As these reviews pile up, they sort of cancel each other out. One person's 5-star manna is another's 1-star manure, and when you're dealing with someone like Dylan, there will always be big fans and casual disses for most every album.

I will say this: Planet Waves is my favorite Dylan album, and one of my favorite albums by anyone, ever. I love Dylan to death, I'm a hopeless rock-and-roll fan, and in all my years of listening to and being knocked out by albums, very few have ever filled me with as much sheer musical joy as this one does.

It's impossible for me to put this on and not jump around the room, flail and dance wildly, and howl along at the top of my lungs. It's been that way since I first started listening to my mom's LP back in high-school, and I love the album just as much today.

Obviously, not everyone will have the same experience. But, for me, Planet Waves is a one-of-a-kind record: a wild, inspired, off-the-cuff affirmation of the pure delight and transporting power of rock-and-roll, played by people who live and breathe it, FOR people who live and breathe it. A sweaty, rollicking musical powder-keg; light the fuse, and explode!

Ranks with 'Blood On The Tracks' as one of the great moments in C20th music. The Band burn slow as Dylan bares his soul to the world. There is everything here, a sexy number to his woman, a prayer to his child and a magical remembering of his youth. Raw and blue. Buy it. On this recording, he brought it all back home !!! He wrote it for someone else but the line sums up what Bob has meant to me ..."Something there is about you, that strikes a match in me ....' You gotta heart? You feel pain? You want someone to vocalise your twisted bitter-sweet memories? Bob, you're a bastard. You make me shiver in writing about where I've been and where I'm going. Buy this. It's one of the great works of art of our time. It's also bloody good music !!!!

I don't understand at all when people diss this album. I love it. In fact, I've bought it twice, since my first copy got old and scratched. "Hazel" is one of my favorite songs on the disc, because, call me sentimental, it is such a great love song. And with the classic "Forever Young," which I take as a strong portrait of a father's love for his son, how can this not be acknowledged as an important album? This album just transports me. I guess it's best for Dylan fans, but the man is a true poet, so anybody that wants a mellow but solid rock n' roll album should appreciate this one.

This one is full of brilliantly written, underrated classics. Forget the stuff the critics like, go with the stuff the fans tell you comes from the heart. This one is from the heart.

This is a wonderful album best enjoyed in a weary state of mind and with a bottle of wine. It swings, it chills you, it touches you. I do rank this album among Dylan's best stuff. Personal favourite song: Dirge. But Going, going, gone and Wedding Song are incredible as well. There are no bad songs on this one. If the world makes you feel cold, let this album embrace you.