Planet Waves

Bob Dylan

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: January 17, 1974
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000025OP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #80,714 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Dylan had been working with The Band occasionally for almost ten years by the time Planet Waves, the first official release with the group backing him, was released in 1974. It's a solid effort with a brace of great songs ("Forever Young," "Something There Is About You"), even if the playing never rises to the fire and energy of The Basement Tapes or some of the combination's legendary live bootlegs. As he wrote Planet Waves, Dylan was at the beginning of the emotional powerslide that would result in Blood on the Tracks, so the songs veer from the bitterness of "Dirge" to the sweet hope of "Wedding Song." --Michael Ruby

Product Description
Japanese remastered reissue packaged in a limited edition miniature LP sleeve. CBS/Sony. 2004. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An underrated pleasure, November 8, 2000

By	A. Hogan (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If it sounds good, it is good, February 19, 2005

By	Anthony Cuneo - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Twilight on the frozen lake..., December 2, 1999

By	John Stodder "a.k.a. Juan La Princi" (livin' just enough) - See all my reviews

...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.