Customer Reviews

Street Legal (Hybr)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For over forty years, Dylan has blessed this planet with his music - a special gift. It's amazing how one man can constantly reinvent himself, his music, and change so much just with his vocal inflection. Say what you will about Bob's voice - he's the only guy I've ever heard who can reinterpret a song (his own) and change everything based on his emphasis. Side commentary aside, this is about Street Legal - the hybrid SACD.

I've never listened to Street Legal in its previous incarnations - my first listen occurred with this new version. Some people have said the sound in previous versions was muddy - not the case here. The instrumentation makes the record a bit crowded (or you could call it a full sound) - but the CD and SACD layers both are very clear. They sound excellent (the SACD versions of all the Dylan works sound magnificent, by the way). Technically, a superb recording that sounds very, very good. Great remastering job.

As for the record, I really wish I hadn't taken so long to get it. It's one of the last Dylan records I've listened to (have yet to hear Knocked Out Loaded, Down in the Groove, or all of Empire Burlesque). I could say its one of the best - but the problem is that most all of Dylan's records can be one of his best for one reason or another. Each has a different sound and something very different to offer.

In 1978, Dylan was in the midst of a recording period that, I believe, is greatly underrated. As far as I'm concerned, the period that began with Planet Waves in 1974 and ended with Infidels in 1983 contains output that is better than what he did in the 60s (Bob Dylan to Nashville Skyline - Self-Portrait and New Morning were 1970, the latter was pretty good and the former had its moments). The 70s-early 80s period was a time of great pain and rebirth for Dylan. Street Legal is the last of his pain records, preceding his Chrisitian Quadrology (I include Infidels in his Christian phase - and would argue that Oh Mercy and Under the Red Sky also fit in - those are several other reviews).

There are a lot of great tracks here featuring the fullest sound Dylan has ever recorded (Though Oh Mercy, Time Out of Mind, and Love and Theft are close for fullness). It begins with "Changing of the Guards" - one of the best openers Dylan has ever recorded (and that says a lot for a man who's started albums with "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Like a Rolling Stone", and "Rainy Day Women..."). The album is engaging from the get-go and is very dense lyrically. There's a lot to pick up here, and it will take many, many listens to put things together.

New Pony is a great - and nasty - blues take. The rhyming schemes on No Time to Think are just amazing to listen to, and they keep your attention for over eight minutes. Baby Stop Crying is tender and catchy in the chorus. Is Your Love in Vain is a personal favorite - very sad and somewhat hopeless. Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) is yet another Dylan masterpiece (not the only on this album - Guards, In Vain, and Where Are You Tonight? all qualify on this record).

It's hard to figure out what to say for every song - but this album is very sad and depressing, yet powerful because of it. There's not a bad track and Dylan's voice is in fine form. His expressiveness his in full force her and all the arrangements are interesting to listen to - especially since they often try to cover up the songs a bit (and I think this was intentional, putting on a false face).

In short, get this record. You won't be disappointed. Heck, just buy all of Dylan's records. There've been a lot of great artists in the last 50 years - but none of them can equal Dylan. His musical, lyrical, and vocal power is amazing - Street Legal puts it all on display.

"Another Side of Bob Dylan", "Bringing It All Back Home", "Nashville Skyline", "Self-Portrait", "Street Legal"... what do these Dylan albums have in common? They've all been brickbatted by some fans and critics as "trash", "unsophisticated", "sellout", or simply met with a "What was he thinking?!?!?" Truth is, "Street Legal" carries on the oft-praised and oft-maligned Dylan tradition of reinvention as well as any of the other albums listed above. Dylan does reinvent himself. He's done it for 40 years, and he's still doing it. "Street Legal" represents just one more of these events in Dylan's repertoire.

In 1978 Dylan brought out the big, really big band ("Bob and his Large Band" would have been a good sub-title presaging Lyle Lovett by a decade or two). Gospel-esque backup singers, saxophones, a BIG production, and long songs with sometimes cryptic almost mythical sounding lyrics about embittered love or abuses of power. Once again, "Street Legal" sounds unlike anything Dylan recorded before or since. Why did he go in this direction? The theories abound: Dylan wanted to emulate Neil Diamond's stage act; Dylan wanted a cozy career in Las Vegas next to the Rat Pack; Dylan found inspiration from Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. The real reasons were likely more prosaic. Dylan's "Chronicles, Volume 1" hints that the 1970s and 1980s were extremely rough times for him musically. The scene just didn't seem to inspire him anymore. So perhaps he was just trying out new things, as he's done his entire career. Whatever the reason, the results made for a very unique Dylan album.

"Street Legal" contains undeniable energy. Not to mention some great songs. "Changing of the Guards" and "Señor(Tales of Yankee Power)" belong in the Dylan Hall of Great Songs. Still, the arrangement can at times sound sloppy (the drums sometimes plod along and the backing vocalists go out of synch, etc), and some have complained that Dylan wasn't into this album, or too coked up to notice its flaws. But Dylan, like Neil Young, has always been at his best and most passionate with a warts and all approach to recording and performance. Who could imagine a completely "slick" Dylan album where every note gets placed perfectly? Part of his legacy is the unprocessed sincerity that comes through in his voice and instrumentation. His earlier "great" albums (from the 1960s) contained spontaneous moments of laughter, hissing sibilance, microphone pops, missed timing, the occassional fretted note, etc. No one complains about the "flaws" on those albums. But for some reason critics find similar imperfections on "Street Legal" unforgivable. Dylan never really wavered from his one or two take philosophy for a reason. And it's part of what makes Dylan's music what it is. And once again, "Street Legal" showcases this unforgettable side of Dylan. The flaws are more than forgivable considering the energy this album puts out.

In some ways the remaster may have redeemed this album. Many early reviews complained about the muddy and incomprehensible sound of the original 1978 release. Muddled sound can destroy any great music. In any case, someone performed some great clean up, because this CD release sounds crisp with well-separated instrumentation. In fact, it sounds incredible.

So just ignore the bizarre photo of Dylan on the back cover (the one where he actually looks ready for Vegas stardom). And don't let the road-weary alley-inhabiting unkept Dylan on the cover make you think this album is full of raw acousticly-jaded music. This one's different. Just like all of the other ones.

Buried on this weird semi-schlocky album is the closer, the epic "Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)." I'm gonna go out on a big limb here and say this may be Bobby's finest performance. The song is a tour of the living hell the man seemed to be living in c.1978; unlimited wealth, drugs everywhere, mansion in Malibu, surrounded by sycophants, a mere Rock Star haunted by memories of his heroic '60's past, making terrible music, coasting on his legend, as he lost the family he'd put ahead of his career since '67 (threw them away, really). For years I thought the despairing tone derived from the recent break-up of his marriage; now listening to the mixture of anguish and elation when he sings the final lines,
"I can't believe it, I can't believe I'm alive/But without You it just don't seem right/O where are You tonight?"
it is clear he's singing about God, looking for an elusive salvation, and his embrace of Jesus is just around the corner. I'm no believer, but the sheer bereft agony in Dylan's voice on this song is so real, the imagery so searing ("If you don't believe there's a price/For this sweet paradise/Just remind me to show ya the scars")("I fought with my twin/That enemy within/Till both of us fell by the way/Horseplay and disease is killin' me by degrees/While the law looks the other way")I'm happy he found some sort of peace in religion, at least for a while. On the other hand, "Where are You Tonight" is living proof that misery probably breeds better art than solace. Great song to play when you feel like you're looking at the world from the bottom of a shot glass. There is real catharsis goin' on, a rare thing in a rock 'n roll song.

I bought this album when it came out in 1978, the summer before my senior year in high school, and listened to it over and over and over and over again. I recently picked up the CD, not having listened to the album for about 25 years. Wow. With the perspective of all those years and album-listening behind me, it sounds better than ever. And I'm not just talking about the remastered CD. People can nitpick all they want, but Dylan's voice sounds great and the songs are fantastic. OK, this isn't one of those super technical reviews, it's just a fan who's thrilled at rediscovering a great album. I loved it at 17 and really, really love it at 45. Rock on Bob!

This album is extremely challenging. Dylan wrote here what I consider his greatest material until maybe `Time Out of Mind.' Unfortunately, it was released in the midst of a music world dominated by The Sex Pistols, Devo, and Disco. I always maintained that if he had released this material as an accoustical album instead of whatever this is, then he would have blown everyone's mind royally. But instead, at the time no one could stand to listen to the music long enough to mine out the brilliant lyrics. It was severely panned by the critics and he went away wounded and wrote `Slow Train Coming' Too bad. There's is at least four songs here that sent chills down my spine: `Changing of the Guards', `No Time to Think', `Senor' and `Where Are You Tonight?' Read the lyrics to the first.

CHANGING OF THE GUARDS. Sixteen years. Sixteen banners united over the field where the good shepherd grieves. Desperate men, desperate women divided spreading their wings beneath the falling leaves. Fortune calls. I stepped forth from the shadows to the marketplace. Merchants and thieves hungry for power. My last deal gone down. She's smelling sweet like the meadows where she was born on a midsummer's eve, near the tower.
The cold-blooded moon. The captain waits above the celebration sending his thoughts to a beloved maid whose ebony face is beyond communication. The captain is down but still believing that his love will be repaid. They shaved her head. She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo. A messenger arrived with a black nightingale. I seen her on the stairs and I couldn't help but follow... follow her down past the fountain where they lifted her veil.
I stumbled to my feet. I rode past destruction in the ditches with the stitches still mending 'neath a heart-shaped tattoo. Renegade priests and treacherous young witches were handing out the flowers that I'd given to you. The palace of mirrors where dog soldiers are reflected, the endless road and the wailing of chimes, the empty rooms where her memory is protected, where the angels' voices whisper to the souls of previous times.
She wakes him up. Forty-eight hours later, the sun is breaking near broken chains, mountain laurel and rolling rocks. She's begging to know what measures he now will be taking. He's pulling her down and she's clutching on to his long golden locks.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I don't need your organization. I've shined your shoes, I've moved your mountains and marked your cards, but Eden is burning! Either brace yourself for elimination or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards.
"Peace will come with tranquility and splendor on the wheels of fire, but will bring us no reward when her false idols fall and cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating between the King and the Queen of Swords."

In the fall of 2005, WXPN (88.5 FM), the public radio station from the University of Pennsylvania, did a Greatest 885 Albums of All Time countdown, based on listeners votes. We voted for our 10 favorite albums. My #1? Street Legal. To put this into context - I've been a huge fan of Dylan's since the fall of 1964 when I first heard Bringing it All Back Home in a college dorm room. Among my other favorites - Blood on the Tracks, Love and Theft, Another Side Of, Blonde on Blonde, New Morning, Saved, lately a lot of the live ones...well, most all of them are great. So, what is it that makes Street Legal special? Since favorites choices are just about what you like, in this case what you find yourself wanting to listen to again more than anything else, I could just say "Don't really know" and get out of here. But how much fun would that be?

On the surface of things, the musical choices I love - the horns and backup singers (from the echoed "sixteen years" at the start, to the "hey, hey, heys" at the end) are great. Dylan can express amazing stuff with his voice alone, but adding this fullness to the mix is like watching Picasso go from blue to the full palette. As to the whole Dylan's trying to go Las Vegas Revue theory - its pretty clear that whatever resemblances to that form are there (including that funny photo on the back) are satirical, a Dylan staple from the get go. And the music is hardly smooth Vegas big band stuff - its funky, bluesy, gospely, loose Dylan music.

One of the patterns I see over the course of Dylan's career is kind of a slow orbit (to allude to the line "drifting, like a satellite") from close to the sun of the mainstream, where he makes an album targeted for commercial success and a new shot of "critics grace", maybe putting himself in the hands of a producer with a distinctive sound (Mark Knopfler or Daniel Lanois), getting serious, so to speak, then moving out into the deep space of his own instincts, exploring, and letting his own natural reactions to the times and the stage of his career guide him. Moving from the structure of folkie political songs on The Times They Are a Changin' to the inner poetry on Another Side; from the end of the epoch defining, symbolist poetry spewing, early rock star period of Blonde on Blonde to the spare, biblical, apocalyptic feel of John Wesley Harding; from the clean folk blues stories of personal struggle on Blood on the Tracks, through Desire to ... whatever it is that is Street Legal.

That's as close as I can come, and why I love it. To me, its the hardest to put your finger on, with the most fully "Dylan-realized" batch of songs he's ever put together. I still wouldn't know how to classify Changing of the Guards and No Time to Think as types of songs. The latter flirts with being "classical". I wonder if the relative failure of the album with the critics and the public turned Dylan away from further attempts at these longer, more complex melody phrases. If so, too bad, cause he mastered the form like he did all of the others he tried over the years. And, as someone else pointed out in one of these reviews, this is the last album before the Christian trilogy - when perhaps the inner life was most inchoate, when the need to stretch to make the music organize the chaos the greatest. To my ear, that's great art lurking within that Vegas lounge act.

OK, this is long enough, and I need to do some work. Just wanted to say something about my favorite album. Last thought - what might be next? If history holds then the Time Out of Mind period should be about over, with Modern Times. I say to Bob, go back to Street Legal and do your Love and Theft thing on your own roots - lets have some more of that big band, quasi-classical, who knows what it is stuff for the new millenium.

It's nice to see some positive reviews for "Street-Legal," which has often been dismissed in the flurry of transitions Dylan was undergoing in the late 70s. After the one-two punch of "Blood on the Tracks" and "Desire," "Street-Legal" seemed like something of a wimpy little jab; plus, released the same year as his dull, forgettable "Live at Budokan" set, it seemed that 1978 was just a bad year for Bob. Furthermore, given Bob's much-publicised conversion to Christianity that spawned three of the most controversial records he's ever released, "Street-Legal" tended to get lost in the shuffle.

More's the pity, because there's a lot to like on this disc. Several of the songs hearken back to his mid-60s obscure-wordplay songs ("Changing of the Guard," "No Time to Think,") while most of the songs on what was Side Two worry the pain of a relationship's end as powerfully as anything on "Blood on the Tracks" (particularly the closer, "Where Are You Tonight," a harrowing journey through the "dark heat" of the singer's personal Hell.) The "big band" sound, while it killed most of the old standards on "Budokan" (let's face it, "Ballad of a Thin Man" just sounds awful with a gospel choir) doesn't get in the way of the words here--only "Baby Stop Crying" is really dispensible, with a big chorus that goes on far too long and ends up saying little. Perhaps because it's sandwiched between the grandiose, Tarot-soaked imagery of "No Time to Think" and the powerful directness of "Is Your Love in Vain," "Baby Stop Crying" just seems like marking time to get to the next good song.

I can only mention, too, the hilarious "New Pony," with it's clever nudge-wink sex metaphors ("Come over here, pony/I wanna climb up on top of you," indeed!) and the striking "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)," one of Bob's best political songs in years.

While this album is hardly essential, and while perhaps Dylan covered many of the themes here already in greater works, "Street Legal" is still a fine disc, and is essential for any Dylan fan. Perhaps time has been kinder to it and it will now get the attention it deserves.

Not having previously owned everything Dylan ever recorded instead opting to selectively purchase various acclaimed CD's over the years, I took the plunge to purchase all Dylan SACD's when they became available. As others have noted the overall sound quality is mostly good with a few minor exceptions.

Street Legal would most likely qualify as one of Dylan's lesser appreciated efforts over the years and is part of the reason it was one of the last of his SACD's I purchased. The 2 channel stereo SACD hybrid sound is near perfect. That I expected. What I didn't expect was how much I love the songs on this release! Yes, it is a highly polished production as numerous reviews have noted over the years. And, no I don't think this detracts from the brilliance of the songs one bit. I've never understood why the expectations for certain artists such as Dylan seems to be the songs must be presented in a certain stripped down, bare bones production style. I love the brassy all out ballsy approach to these songs and their heavy reliance on background singers. Yes it is a very polished heavily produced sound, but that in itself gives it a totally different feel than anything he previously recorded.

There truly is not a bad song in the bunch. From Changing of the Guards to the closer, Where are you Tonight it truly rocks out in an agressive manner people were not quite expecting. 1978 was the beginning of the end to disco, the emergence of punk and Dylan doesn't quite seem to know where he fits in, but I doubt he really cared. It remains a sharp deviation from the Rolling Thunder days and Blood on the Tracks. Dylan has never been afraid of confounding critics and purposely moving away from expectations. He may have accomplished both with Street Legal, but count me as one music lover who has belatedly jumped on this wagon for a ride.

An unappreciated masterpiece from the bard. Let's come back to the Las Vegas arrangement later. To begin, Changing of the Guards, New Pony, Senor, Where are You Tonight... perhaps the most captivating set of work since, (the constant point of Dylan reference), Blood on the Tracks... Since Blood on the Tracks, all of Dylan's releases have been a mix of genius and mediocrity, and Street Legal is no exception. That said, Changing of the Guards anticipates Jokerman, and is a far superior version thereof. The other aforementioned tracks contain some of the most melancholically enchanting and imagistic work that Dylan's done, and anticipate Masked and Anonymous. As for the musical arrangement... don't be too quick to knock it. Have you ever been to Vegas? A place so tacky it's beautiful.

STREET-LEGAL has a rather curious history among Dylan fans. Released in 1978, the album met rather mixed reviews, and the actual mix of the album displayed some real sound problems to the point of being very distracting. A lot of people at the time noticed, however, that Dylan was back to writing songs as dense lyrically as anything he wrote in the 1960s. Some critics felt he dressed the songs up in arrangements that worked against the lyrical structures of the song, and the songs would have been much better served had they not been recorded in "Las Vegas" arrangements. The overall critical consensus of the work, STREET LEGAL is a mixed bag, with the big band arrangements, backing vocals, and horn section working in opposition to the very dense lyrics that this album portrays. The critics have a heyday with Dylan's later output, and while some of it is dreck, a lot of it is underrated, even the generally panned 1980s output (mostly EMPIRE BURLESQUE), and this is no exception.

First thing's first, however. When STREET LEGAL was first issued, due to bad recording techniques, the mix was horrible. SL was mixed so badly it didn't even sound like a professional release. Then Don DeVito in 1999 remixed it using digital technology, which greatly enhanced the album. When Columbia remastered and released much of the Dylan catalogue in 2003 on the SACD CDs, STREET LEGAL benefitted the most of all, and now the initial mix problems have all been resolved. It sounds much better. The SACD technology is really amazing.

Second, STREET-LEGAL sports a strong selection of songs. I think had the arrangements been simplified and recorded more in the line of BLOOD, STREET-LEGAL would be considered an unqualified masterpiece. As it stands, there's as many people who think it's great and love the sound (I'm in that camp), as there are people who think it's a missed opportunity and find Dylan's Las Vegas style rather embarrassing. Just like DESIRE, STREET-LEGAL has a sound unlike any other studio album in Dylan's career, and I personally wouldn't have it anyway. The critically panned, generally forgotten or ignored LIVE AT BUDOKAN is he closest cousin in his canon tooSTREET-LEGAL, and was released around the same time.

Lyrically, the album foreshadows Dylan's conversion to Christianity. The lyrics are wild and searching, and though dense, it is clear Dylan is in a rather precarious position in his life, desiring peace and having none, and overall just searching for whatever meaning he can find. The last track is especially evident of Dylan's desire to be at peace with himself. Like most other musical artists worth studying, Dylan's music is an evolution, and it's quite enlightening to trace that evolution, for professionally and personally. The Christian Trilogy is a natural extension of the themes and questions Dylan is asking here, and feel very much like a continuation of this album.

The biggest problem with this album comes in the form of Dylan himself. When you've had a forty year career, as one other reviewer pointed out, lesser albums which would be studied had they been in another band's discography is pushed to the wayside to get to the real meat (with Dylan his 1960s output and his recent renaissance material). You could listen to all the officially released Dylan albums and not get finished in a day. With a body of work it tends to obscure the lesser gems, which is a shame because this is a particularly pleasing album.

Dylan's biggest pet peeve, or one of them anyway, is being pigeon holed. Every album has its own atmosphere, and this is no exception. AMG says that "Coming off the twin peaks of BLOOD ON THE TRACKS and DESIRE," this album proved to be something of a disappointment. But I disagree. Personally, I prefer this over DESIRE. Although DESIRE may have hit bigger highs it also hit some really LOW lows, especially "Romance in Durango". It has the weirdest atmosphere of ANY Dylan album, and then this transform the world music style of DESIRE into a very professional sounding big band release. While the album has been unfavorably compared to the worst elements in Neil Diamond and Elvis Presley's music, it is a very unique sound for Dylan, and not found on any of his other studio work (though breifly entertained on the double live album "Live at Budokan", which is, admittedly, an unmitigated disaster).

With this album, it starts out with one of his better latter songs, "Changing of the Guards". For this listener, it stands as the favorite Dylan song to sing along too, trying to reach the highs the backup vocals do. Although Dylan has often criticised for the female backup vocals, here it works. "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" is another track often cited as the best on here, and it does have a very enticing power too it, creating a very interesting atmosphere, moody and distant, with his lyrics transforming his voice into a snake like monster, creating a spell for you. "Senor" is notable for being one of the few songs from the STREET LEGAL and DESIRE era that Dylan would still perform in concert in recent years.

"New Pony", "True Love Tends to Forget", and "Is Your Love in Vain" tends to drag the record down just a bit, but they're still strong tracks in their own right. I think they are just average songs, not great songs, and don't match the high that the other songs achieve. But after you listen to them again, you soon realise these tracks fit into the atmosphere Dylan wanted to create on this record. Taken out of this context, they seem somewhat strange, but with this it fits perfectly into the mood, although I'm not a real big fan of them. The best line is "I had a pony, her name is Lucifer, how much longer?", and "Is Your Love in Vain", which Mark Prindle follower George Starastin (who has since become a good reviewer in his own right), says this is the best track on here, though I tend to disagree. For all you blues fans and Led Zeppelin fans, Dylan sings about the juice running down his leg on "Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)", singing about the forbidden fruit.

For my money, the four key songs are "Changing of the Guard," "No Time to Think", "Senor", and "Where Are You Tonight (Journey Through the Dark Heat)?", and match anything else he's written in his post 1960s canon, and lyrically and thematically related to the Christian trilogy, especially the last song.

Overall, the album, like SLOW TRAIN COMING, has some great songs and then some just so-so songs. And while the so-so STREET-LEGAL songs are much better and work in the context of their prospective album than the average songs of SLC, STREET LEGAL started a trend of somewhat uneven albums from Dylan. But STREET LEGAL is still a great album, and very underrated. Any Dylan fan should have it in their collection. New people should probably start with some of his other records first, but this is a fine album in its own right.


After 1978, Dylan would convert to Christianity, and this was the last overtly secular recording he would do for six years. While it surprised a lot of fans, listening to STREET-LEGAL, the sign posts were there that he was searching, and given how much the Christian faith and Biblical morality informs so much of his work, it's not that surprising he turned to Christianity for answers.