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27/03/2006

Desire: encore

Thanks to Martin Cowan for his response to Mary Wogan’s call for views on Desire:

“Interesting to read Mary Wogan's comments. As someone who has lived with ‘Desire’ since its release, I've just picked up the reissue on CD and was listening to it today! It struck me what a good album it is, songwriting at a consistently high level, unusual sound textures for a Dylan album - the violin, Emmylou Harris' harmony vocals - along with cavern-like drums and wonderfully sinuous bass playing from Rob Stoner.

“What is even more incredible is that six of the nine songs were recorded in one day! It is probably true to say that this album would be more highly regarded had it not come out immediately after ‘Blood on the Tracks’. And, in many ways, the releases of ‘Planet Waves’, ‘Blood....’ and ‘Desire’, along with the live Rolling Thunder and Hard Rain stuff, show that Dylan was operating at a creative peak comparable with his work from the mid-1960s.

“I was surprised how well it stood up. I know plenty of people knocked Dylan for ‘Joey’ but, listening to it again, it struck me that it wasn't necessarily Dylan's opinion in this song - it could easily have been a character's voice rather than his.

“‘Black Diamond Bay’ and ‘Romance in Durango’ are story songs of a similar calibre to ‘Lily, Rosemary...’ , and ‘Sara’ manages to be intensely personal without being mawkish.

“A very strong album, in my opinion.”

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