Customer Reviews

Planet Waves (Hybr)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Usually a label's remastering project is an attempt to get fans to shell out the bucks one more time, but Columbia's new Dylan cds are a different proposition. In particular, "Planet Waves" is like a whole new album. I never realized how warm and relaxed Dylan's vocals are, how tight The Band locks in behind him, how perfect Richard Manuel's and Garth Hudson's piano and organ accompaniment are. This remastered version is light years better than the original, and the songs aren't too shabby either. The whole gambit of moods is explored here, from the urgent rock of "Tough Mama" through the tender prayer of "Forever Young" to the aching confusion of "Wedding Song". At the time he recorded this, Dylan was a man in conflict between his love of settled family life and his desire to hit the road again, and this album captures his dilemma perfectly. "Planet Waves" could be his most underrated album.

I love Planet Waves for its warmth, resolve in the face of uncertainty, and beautiful collaboration between Dylan and the members of The Band, who together create a kind of improvisational rock chamber music. The album's recording in November 1973 occurred precisely at a central turning point in Dylan's career--his reemergence as a touring artist after an interval of more than seven years. Dylan's decision to resume touring (with The Band) resonated with the source of his musicality, the "planet waves" underlying all of music, love, family, and history. Planet Waves is many things. It is the start of a narrative of departure into the unknown ("Going, Going, Gone") and a telegraphed message that "the prison walls are crumblin', there is no end in sight" ("Tough Mama"). It is a confession of self-hate for having loved a sinister enemy ("Dirge") and a ringing declaration that now "my hand's on the saber" ("Something There Is About You"). It is poems of winter and shared solitude ("On a Night Like This," "Never Say Goodbye") and of love anticipated and found ("Hazel," "You Angel You"). It is a blessing for Dylan's children ("Forever Young") and, above all, a letter of deepest love for his wife Sara ("Wedding Song"). In its entirety, Planet Waves is a summation of Dylan's life at the threshold of a new and better world.

In style and theme, Planet Waves and its successor, Blood on the Tracks, are near opposites. Planet Waves is photographic, with a focus on the present moment (the album's cover lists the exact recording dates). In contrast, the structure of Blood on the Tracks resembles a cubist painting. Blood on the Tracks makes time crystalline by reflecting against one another the past, present and future, the observer and the persons observed. Using this technique, Dylan tells anguished yet profoundly analytical tales of broken relationships. The lesson of Blood on the Tracks, as I understand it, is that love exists in a realm apart from, and not fully compatible with, the ordinary events of our daily lives.

Planet Waves and Blood on the Tracks each rank among Dylan's supreme achievements for their sweep, depth, and internal cohesiveness. Perhaps some day, as a culmination of his career, Dylan will harmonize the divergent visions of these two works. Even if he does not accomplish this, I will always believe in the hope offered by Planet Waves.

I never thought this got the recognition it deserved...despite the press and hype..reunited with one of the best rock bands ever, the personal feel of the songs mesh 100%..there is a live feel throughout with images of the past haunting the state the Band must have been in as success crept in...Ruminations, religious yearnings,dirges,love songs,ironic happy to be alive songs are all themes here that somehow makes me feel when listening that they are still in Big Pink playing for themselves...The SACD sound is great as is Dylan and The Band.

I discovered this album late, after devouring Bob's greatest albums for years... and must say that it's one of the most under-rated works in his canon. I don't make that assessment based on the songwriting, but on the performances. This may be The Band's finest moment... Robbie Robertson's guitar work, particularly on "Going Going Gone" is a valuable lesson in understatement, in making the instrumentation serve the song. Same with Garth Hudson's majesterial organ and Levon Helm's rock-solid drumming. And Bob's singing is at its peak of expressiveness... it initiates his greatest vocal period, stretching through Blood On the Tracks and the first Rolling Thunder tour. "Tough Mama" is just ultra-funky and drenched with sexual longing. With all the talk of Bob's lyrics and gathering of great musicians, too little attention is paid to the ATMOSPHERE he creates in a studio just by his presence and attitude. "Dirge" is an excellent example of this, as is "Forever Young." It sounds like Bob and The Band have just been touring for months and are chronicling tales of fleeting love on the road, but this wasn't the case-- they wouldn't tour until afterwards, but still manage to convey that mood. The album was recorded quickly and it sounds like it, but in a good way. I like the impulsive and laidback feel of this recording. This remastered version is a nice improvement on the original. Even if you're new to Dylan's catalog, this is a primo purchase.

PLANET WAVES is an important album in Dylan's career, thought not necessarily an essential purchase for any one but the fans of the man. While his best albums are undeniably important records in the pantheon of the rock canon, PLANET WAVES is not among that elite. But first, let's review examine Dylan's history around this time.

Dylan had been fairly quiet since the late 1960s, and while he had released three albums (one, NASHVILLE SKYLINE, with a significant hit, "Lay Lady Lay") SELF PORTRAIT was seen by most as a critical blunder, and while NEW MORNING was hailed as something of a return to form, NM did not capture the wildness and overall sound of his earlier material.

The first major event occurred in 1973, when Dylan was chosen to record a soundtrack for Sam Peckinpah's film PAT GARRET & BILLY THE KID. Not only that, he also got a part in the movie. While the soundtrack was his first recorded work to be released since 1970's NEW MORNING, the soundtrack was largely instrumental, with only four of its ten tracks featuring Dylan singing. Of those four songs, three of those tracks were different versions of the same song, a ballad about Billy the Kid. The only major song to come out of the soundtrack was "Knocking on Heaven's Door", an admittedly great song.

The second major event came when Dylan announced he would be leaving Columbia Records, his label from the beginning of his career, to go to the newly formed Asylum Records.

The third major event, announced very shortly after Dylan jumped ship for Asylum, was the announcement that Bob Dylan would be embarking on his first major tour in eight years. Not only that, Dylan would be touring with The Band, who had been his backing band (known then as The Hawks) on his legendary 1966 world tour. By 1974, The Band's star power and renown was as vital as Dylan's, and the tour was a tremendous financial success.

Columbia's response to this turn of events was swift. They quickly issued an album they simply and unimaginitevly named DYLAN (though it is known as A FOOL SUCH AS I in Europe), comprised primarily of NEW MORNING outtakes (seven songs), and two SELF PORTRAIT outtakes. Most of the material was terrible, the album was panned, and Dylan himself tried barring the record from release. DYLAN came out a mere two months before PLANET WAVES, and commonly regarded as the worst album in the Dylan oeuvre. Most regard the album as a revenge move by Columbia. The songs largely sound like warmups.

Though he had two releases since his last studio album, NEW MORNING, Dylan had not recorded a full album's worth of original material since 1970, the longest interval at that time that Dylan had gone between albums.

Dylan wanted to tour behind some new material. As he would be touring with The Band, he also decided to record a new album with The Band as his studio band. This was a major event in its own right. For one, though his 1966 live music with The Band was legendary, and together they had recorded the famous Basement Tapes songs (several of which were huge hits for other artists and remain today among Dylan's most famous work), in 1974 the only officially released music that featured Dylan backed by the band was an obscure 1966 single that had a live version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues".

Another key factor that made this album so heavily anticipated by the rock community [record buying public] was, whereas in 1967 The Band was known only as Dylan's backing band, by 1974, they were a major creative force in their own right, and was as highly regarded (their stature has since been slightly diminished) as any of the other rock artists of their day.

Knowing this history, and especially knowing the Basement Tapes (bootleg or otherwise), you may go in expecting the wild, weird, Americana vibe Greil Marcus describes in his OLD, WEIRD AMERICA (a book about the basement tapes). Naturally, The Band had been with Dylan for a good portion of his most famous music, and easily his most famous tour, and people were expecting a rather remarkable album from this legendary pairing. And do they deliver?

Sort of. The songs are loose and funky, but for such a famous pairing, especially as this is the first full album Dylan and The Band ever commercially released, some may find it rather disappointing. Rather than returning to the electric sound of the mid 1960s, or the wild, exhilarating music of Big Pink's basement, Dylan instead laid down songs that are largely explorations of domestic life. Dylan, just like the basement sessions, runs the show here. The album does not play like a Band record from that period, who were steeped in Americana, but rather follows Dylan's artistic progression up to that point.

From 1969 to 1974, Dylan changed directions musically and lyrically from where he was at in the 1960s. Dylan entered into his domestic period with NASHVILLE SKYLINE, playing music with a laid-back country-rock vibe largely concerned with family life, with this period culminating in the majestic BLOOD ON THE TRACKS in 1975. The albums from this period are individual snapshots of his homelife, or matters closely concerned with the plain, everyday living, as opposed to the high poetic output of his earlier LPs.

PLANET WAVES is a natural building block in that road. What is important about PLANET WAVES is there is an underlying tension throughout the entire album, where Dylan is torn both artistically and in his homelife.

Unlike NEW MORNING, where he seemed positively happy with his home life (which was probably just an illusion, trying to convince himself he was happy), PLANET WAVES shows the edges fraying. Dylan's no longer quite so sure he has really found happiness, but is willing to fight for it. He has the almost hymn like ode to his children (two takes of "Forever Young", the first being the most famous). But his love life, however, indicates there's trouble in Paradise, though he ends the album with a love song to his wife, "The Wedding Song."

"The Wedding Song" is the most important song on the album, and squarely shows you where Dylan's head was at during the 1969-1974 period of his career. He says it was never his intention or duty to remake the world at large, but to live a simple life and to live blessed with his wife and family. But he knows his domestic situation is unstable and fragile, and can easily far apart if not handled very carefully. "The Wedding Song" is as much Dylan convincing himself that his wife is an extremely integral part of his life and they must not part as it is a love song, and you can feel that tension of Dylan trying to maintain his family life under such intense fame and scrutiny.

PLANET WAVES signals the beginning of the end of his domestic period. Even though Dylan was trying to convince himself he needed Sara, and she was his other half, the marriage was on the rocks, and it probably didn't help he was going on tour with The Band, as rock tours are notoriously wild. Dylan's domestic period would ultimately end with BLOOD, and never again would he so openly extol and seek out a normal family life as he did in the 1969-1975 period. While not necessarily Dylan's greatest music, for those wanting to learn more about BLOOD, listen to the 1969-1974 batch of records.

Just like so much of Dylan's career output, while his records are fascinating listens in themselves, they're easier to understand when you know them in the context of his life and artistic direction at the time. PW, in this particular era of Dylan, plays like the last chapter before the climax arrives in a novel. The themes, the pain, the desperate search for resolution and peace so evident in BLOOD are all foreshadowed here on this album. While not necessarily Dylan's greatest music, for those wanting to learn more about BLOOD, listen to the 1969-1974 batch of records

Ultimately, PLANET WAVES is more interesting in context of Dylan's life and career and how he was on the road that led him to his divorce masterpiece BLOOD, than for music itself. While his best albums stand as great music in itself, PW does not hold together that well. For fans looking for more of the Basement Tapes vibe, they will be disappointed. For the average Dylan fan, he'll found some good music and a couple of great songs, but overall as an album nothing that stands up against his best records.

Bottom line: fascinating in terms of his artistic evolution, but otherwise just a middle-of-the-road album of Dylan. Not especially great, but not bad either.

This, strangely, is Bob Dylan's only studio album with The Band backing him, and it really shows what a versatile combo they were.

"Planet Waves" doesn't contain too many genuine classics, but the sublime "Forever Young" certainly is one. The jury is still out concerning the status of the swinging "Going, Going, Gone".
And the opener, "One A Night Like This", is a fine little gem as well, a really catchy piece of...well, I was going to say country & western, but it's as much folk as it is country, actually, and most of this album is equally hard to pin down stylistically.

Other highlights include the tender ballad "Hazel", the groovy "You Angel You" (excellent lead guitar by Robbie Robertson), and the blues-rocker "Tough Mama". And the Band is terrific all the way through, evne though "Planet Waves" is less hard rock than most of their collaborations with Dylan ("Live 1966" comes to mind).
"Waves" offers a mixture of slow rock, country, folk and R&B, not unlike 1970's relaxed and intimate "New Morning". It is not really one of Dylan's major albums (some of these songs are a little bit unfocused), but it is a good, enjoyable record in its own right, and a too-rare chance to listen to Bob Dylan working with his greatest ever backing band.

This is certainly one of Dylan's more underrated albums, along with Nashville Skyline and New Morning. The Band are terrific and it's a great little set of songs as well. To be honest, there are a couple of songs here that don't do much for me, i.e. Dirge and You Angel You, but songs like Never Say Goodbye and Wedding Song (which end the album on a great note) make up for the occasional flat spot. Tough Mama and On A Night Like This are also terrific but best of all is Hazel, which features one of Bob's prettiest melodies (in fact, it kind of reminded me of an Elton John type of melody). Hazel would be in my top 5 Dylan songs except for the fact that Bob hits a couple of really awful notes (even for him) vocally on this one which I have to say kind of spoils it for me. Still a great listen though, highly recommended if you can't get enough of Dylan.

Bob Dylan's throw-aways are as good as most songwriters ever write. I enjoy Planet Waves more than I did thirty years ago. Some classics, "Forever Young", "Hazel". The Band's playing is complex and interesting. The storm clouds gather for Blood On The Tracks.

This is another great Dylan album. I would catagorize it as medium level as it doesn't have any greatest hits except for Forever Young which was made famous in a different way by Rod Stewart. It's got some great driving stuff and a real twangy sound provided by The Band. In "Something There is About You" you can hear the rolling sound of Idiot Wind and get a sense of where Blood On the Tracks was born. These songs are concerned love songs hinting at a last attempt before it's over.

Just remember, this album is a great stepping stone from the collection of greatest hits and legendary albums, to the next layer of Dylan's genius.

The remaster sounds great. It's nice to be able to pick out the instruments.

I always thought Planet Waves was supposed to be one of Bobs low points until I heard this disc in my car and was very surprised how fresh and alive this disc is.

Not a dud track plus a classic 'Wedding Song' worth getting this disc just for this song alone.

Great disc and well worth getting.
Shame no bonus tracks are included.