Bob Dylan's 'Knocked Out Loaded' a tiring disappointment
By Douglas Young
The Red & Black - July 31, 1986
A review of "Knocked Out Loaded" by Bob Dylan on Columbia Records.
After outstanding back-to-back albums, Bob Dylan's 1986 LP release, "Knocked Out Loaded," is quite a disappointment. Dylan's vocals ring of fatigue and cynicism while the musicianship is usually perfunctory -- how I wish I could say most of these songs weren't done justice. And with just eight tracks spanning a bare 35 minutes of material, I'm reminded of the Woody Allen joke from "Annie Hall" wherein two women complain about a restaurant's bad food -- "and such small portions."
As a die-hard Dylan fan I want to blame his numerous collaborators on the record, for three of the songs here are covers, and of the five original cuts presented, Mr. Tambourine Man only penned two alone. But, alas, even the Dylan compositions offered are generally sub-par.
"Knocked Out Loaded" is permeated with bitterness, pessimism and self-righteous arrogance -- themes Dylan wore thin long ago. The lyrical content primarily involves broken relationships with Dylan as the betrayed, sarcastic lover. These songs are virtually devoid of the crisp, Dylanesque social commentary prevalent throughout his repertoire.
Offstage: On the road -- still
The Milwaukee Journal - Friday, August 1, 1986
The unexpected keeps happening on Bob Dylan's tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Detroit concergoers went bananas when local hero Bob Seger joined Dylan and Petty for a closing "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Willie Nelson caught the act in Austin, Texas, and Dylan dedicated the country tearjerker "We Had It All" to him. That afternoon. Dylan was spotted at a retro clothing boutique in Austin, where he reportedly bought $3,000 worth of costumes. "He got a little bit of everything," said the store manager. "Vintage clothes, some Southern-belle outfits and some over the head latex masks." In Minneapolis, Dylan gave a special dedication: "I want to say 'hi' to my mother -- if she's still here."
While on the subject of women in Bob's life, who's the mysterious Susie to whom Dylan had the Detroit crowd sing "Happy Birthday"?
Editor's Note: "There are gonna be some great bootlegs coming out of this tour, let me tell ya." Oh, if only you knew.
Dylan lives up to billing with a marathon show
By John MacKie
The Vancouver Sun - Saturday, August 2, 1986
He's still got that big bushy neo-Afro, still sings like he has a clothes-pin on his nose and, yes, still appears to have it. Bob Dylan's highly-touted appearance with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers lived up to all its advance billing Friday night with a marathon (33 songs spaced out over nearly three hours) show filled with some of Dylan's more invigorating work in years.
The concert opened up with Petty leading the band through a rollicking version of Chuck Berry's Bye Bye Johnny, then Dylan took over for a gospel-tinged reading of All Along the Watchtower. From there on, he alternated between radical reworkings of old standards (Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Ballad of a Thin Man) to charged-up renditions of his latter-day stuff, a lot of it in the religious vein. Dylan also did a three-song solo set and the Heartbreakers took over the stage for two mini-sets (four songs each) themselves, but almost all the evening's highlights came when they appeared together.
Dylan and the Heartbreakers are a fine match. With guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench leading the way, the Heartbreakers gave Dylan superb support, keeping the songs simple, with a kick. It may or may not have been their doing but one of the real pluses of the concert was that Dylan's arrangements were infinitely more direct than the last time he played Vancouver in 1978. With Petty and company he may have strayed from the original versions of his classics but at least you could still figure out what songs he was playing this time.
Off the Record
Review by Jimmy Guterman
The Boston Phoenix - August 5, 1986
★★★ Bob Dylan, KNOCKED OUT LOADED (Columbia).
No, our Bob's not "back," but he does seem to be on the verse of a rapproachment with his audience. Knocked Out Loaded retains the straightforward guitar band with gospel chorus of Dylan's recent LPs, and he avoids the nasty whine and fussy production that helped sidetrack Empire Burlesque. The first half is uneven -- his take on Kris Kristofferson's melodramatic "They Killed Him" had never be a joke -- but side two is the finest 20 minutes he's sustained in a decade. "Brownsville Girl" is a loping 11-minute collaboration with Sam Shepard that suggests that long-time Dylan fan Shepard may be able to maneuver through the twists and tight corners of the master's idiom better than Dylan himself can nowadays. To be on the safe side, though, the master talks his way through this disarming epic, which brushes aside the cynical veneer of his more recent shaggy tales; he hero is saved by an old lover who learns of his arrest for murder from a newspaper headline and then extravagantly lies to a jury to keep her ex out of jail. Next up is "Got My Mind Made Up," which Dylan cowrote with tourmate Tom Petty and recorded with the Heartbreakers; it suggests Bo Diddley leading a raunchy rockabilly band through "Mystery Train." Dylan eases the album to a close with "Under Your Spell," ending with the weary intonation "Pray I don't die of thirst/Two feet from the well" -- a nice metaphor for his latest attempts to persevere.
Dylan And Petty Stage A Triumph At The Forum
By Robert Hilburn
The Los Angeles Times - August 5, 1986
Imagine the odds against writing songs (notably "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind") that become statements of idealism and independence for one generation, and then being able to sing those songs two decades later--a virtual eternity by pop standards--with your own idealism and independence still intact.
The fact that Bob Dylan was able to pull that off in a generous three-hour concert Sunday night at the Forum underscored the triumph of his most confident tour since the '60s.
Dylan--who was joined during the closing "Knocking on Heaven's Door" by Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox of Eurythmics and Al Kooper--has made all sorts of puzzling twists in his lengthy career, but he remains--in a field that often seems to encourage self-destruction and self-caricature--a man of provocative and unbending artistic will. Yet Dylan wasn't the whole story Sunday.
Because attention was focused on him when the tour swung through Southern California earlier this summer, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers seemed like sidemen--although excellent ones. This time, Petty and company were more like co-stars, drawing ovations from the audience with both their endearing, idealistic expressions ("Straight Into Darkness") and their playful new tunes. The only sour note--aside from frequently muddy sound--was when Dylan thoughtlessly invited fans in the back of the arena to come down front, causing a rush through the aisles and potential confrontations with ushers.
Listen Up! Rock
Review by Bob Popkoff
The Milwaukee Journal - Sunday, August 10, 1986
Bob Dylan -- "Knocked Out Loaded" -- Columbia
"Knocked Out Quickly" may be an appropriate title if you wanted to be less than charitable, since the only consistent feature here is the complete disregard for consistent programming.
On the eight different songs there are eight different bands, two solo Bob Dylan compositions, three collaborations, two covers, and one tune, "Precious Memories," that is an odd but affecting reworking of a traditional gospel song that cruises along on a modified Caribbean beat with no less than three steel drum players.
If you were looking forward to a collaboration with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the one song written with Tom Petty and featuring all the Heartbreakers is "Got My Mind Made Up." With its Bo Diddley beat underpinned by acoustic slide guitars, it is like nothing either of them has ever done before.
The unqualified highlight is "Brownville Girl." Co-written over two years ago with Sam Shepard, this 11-minute opus is worth the price of admission. The rambling, half-spoken, half-sung fable unfolds across a large, surreal landscape where the plot of a western film collides with the ups and downs of the narrator's own life.
Compact Discs: Rock Solid Petty
Review by Saw Tek Meng
New Straits Times - August 30, 1986
Pop/Rock: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | Pack Up the Plantation -- Live! (MCA)
When Petty and the Heartbreakers are in form, they are one of the most exciting rock 'n' roll outfits around.
On this 1985 "live" outing, featuring 14 tracks culled from various gigs, they are mostly on song.
Yet, unless you happen to be a Tom Petty fan and possess his studio album or love "live" recordings, my recommendation would be to first explore his studio output, particularly Damn the Torpedoes, Hard Promises, and Southern Accents.
That said, Plantation does a pretty efficient job of translating the band's well-known stage energy onto disc.
The selections are diverse enough to be a mini retrospective of Petty's work, ranging from the crowd-pleasing American Girl from his debut album to It Ain't Nothing To Me and the title track from Southern Accents, his last studio set before this.
Dylan's latest lacks focus
Review by Steven Wine
Park City Daily News - September 14, 1986
"Knocked Out Loaded" (Columbia) -- Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is still rock's most enigmatic performer. His concerts with Tom Petty during the summer's most publicized tour sparked speculation that the voice of the '60s had been born again musically.
But as the tour wound down, Dylan released the kind of album one expects from a relic. "Knocked Out Loaded" has no focus, musically or thematically, and the performances are sloppy.
The biggest disappointment is that Petty and his band, who in recent months have spent a lot of time in the studio with Dylan, play on only one cut. It's a routine rocker called "Got My Mind Made Up." The musicians who back Dylan elsewhere sound as if they're playing together for the first time. The instrumental breaks are as engaging as white noise.
One redeeming feature is "Brownsville Girl," 11 minutes of soaring horns, allusions to Gregory Peck and characters only Dylan could create. The song sounds like Dylan's great "Desire" album, but he seems to have the rest of "Knocked Out Loaded" in mind when he wistfully sings, "If there's an original thought out there, I could use it right now."
Rockers go acoustic for benefit concert
The Spokesman-Review - November 10, 1986
Several of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll recently gave an offbeat benefit concert in Mountain View, Calif., sans electric guitars. The acoustic marathon offered four hours of star performances for the Bridge School, which trains physically handicapped students who cannot communicate verbally.
Apparently the rock stars weren't exactly at home without their amplifiers.
"I feel like I'm out here in a jock strap and socks," said Don Henley to the sold-out house at the Shoreline Amphitheater.
"I've never done this before in my life," said Tom Petty, who repeatedly asked the audience, "How am I doing so far?"
But the oddest moment of the evening, according to a review in Variety, was a solo spot by Bruce Springsteen. He "launched into a strange, a capella version of 'You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch')," said Variety, "which was originally an electric guitar rave-up. More than anything, Springsteen sounded like someone singing along to his Walkman. Call it shaky, but definitely very brave."