After a reaction of goodnitesteve, I promised to relisten to down in the groove and to post a blog about it. Goodnitesteve wrote: “While Down In the Groove doesn’t hold the water of Oh Mercy, it does set a trend that was done better in Good As I Been To You, World Gone Wrong and the Never Ending Tour. Down In the Groove consists of a majority of covers. Now they are a tad overproduced but the looseness in which they are played is the real reason to love them. This isn’t Dylan doing Self Portrait (where he tried to sing like they were on previous records) this is Dylan changing the method’s of the song to fit his needs. He made them his own and they work, a trend he continues to do today.” Well first of all Down in the Groove is not a tad overproduced, I think it is “underproduced”. The sound quality is sooo bad (i didn’t notice this when i bought the record then, but nowadays we are accustomed to high fi productions, this is really lo fi). Second, Down in the Groove is filled with rejects. Death is not the end (dreadful song) was rejected (rightly) from Infidels. According to Michael Gray the two Hunter songs were rejected by Grateful Dead as under par. I do think that Down in the Groove is Self Portrait II. And compared to Good as I been to you. Dylan sounds inspired on this CD. On Down in the Groove it feels like he’s having an off day at the office. It certainly was no joy to relisten to the album. I agree with the remark of Gray about Down in the Groove: “The quality of the work is so far below that of Dylan albums of the sixties that it just depresses the hell out of you.” Your turn, goodnitesteve!

1. writebeforebreakfast said: I guess you either get it or you don’t. I happen to like Self Portrait as well. By god it isn’t poetry but its goddamn good listen.
2. 3dmindmapping posted this