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Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)

Where the lyrics of Rough and Rowdy Ways take you, and where it was really made.

One track on this 2020 album runs nearly 17 minutes, and the two pianists who play on it recorded their parts in a single day.

Key places

Sessions at Sound City Studios (2020)

Recording site Sound City Studios — The ten songs on the album were recorded at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, and Chris Shaw engineered and mixed the sessions. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Rough and Rowdy Ways: 39th studio album by Bob Dylan
• Released 19 June 2020 through Columbia Records
• First album of original songs since Tempest (2012)
• Followed three releases that covered traditional pop standards
• Ten songs issued as a double album
• The entire second CD and the last side of the vinyl edition are devoted to 'Murder Most Foul'

Background

• Recording followed the fall 2019 leg of the Never Ending Tour
• Matt Chamberlain replaced George Receli on drums; Bob Britt joined on guitar
• Several critics called the tour's shows Dylan's best in years
• Tony Garnier, bass player since 1989, agreed
• Singles before release: 'Murder Most Foul', 'I Contain Multitudes', 'False Prophet'

Recording

• Recorded at Sound City Studios from January to early March 2020
• Core band was the then-current Never Ending Tour lineup
• Additional musicians included Blake Mills and Fiona Apple
• Chris Shaw engineered and mixed the sessions
• Sound described by critics as Americana, folk, blues, and rhythm and blues

Cover

• Color-tinted version of a 1964 black-and-white photograph by Ian Berry
• The only text on the cover is the album title

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota; raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.
• Moved to New York City in January 1961 to pursue a music career.
• Signed to Columbia Records after playing harmonica on Carolyn Hester's album; debut album Bob Dylan released in 1962.

Members

• Solo artist; backed over the years by bands including the Hawks/the Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and his touring band led by bassist Tony Garnier.

Career

• Breakthrough with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963); protest songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements.
• Went electric with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), provoking controversy among folk fans.
• Motorcycle accident in 1966 led to nearly eight years without touring; Basement Tapes recorded with the Band.
• Converted to Christianity in the late 1970s and released gospel albums; won Album of the Year Grammy for Time Out of Mind (1997).
• Has toured since 1988 on the Never Ending Tour; won an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards; awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Praised by critics as one of Dylan's best works
• Placed high on many year-end lists, with the top spot on four lists
• The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick called it one long, magnificent ride for his most loyal fans
• Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky gave it 9.0 out of 10
• Exclaim!'s Kerry Doole gave it a perfect 10, drawing literary parallels with Don DeLillo and James Ellroy
• The New York Times' Jon Pareles labeled it a Critic's Pick
• Robert Christgau said some songs muffle the impact, but called the aged voice the album's sonic signature

Reappraisal

• Metacritic average of 95 from 25 reviews, second-highest-rated album of 2020 behind Fiona Apple's Fetch the Bolt Cutters
• Album of the Year consensus of 89 out of 100 from 31 reviews
• AnyDecentMusic? average of 8.93 out of 10 from 24 critics
• WhatCulture (2021) ranked it ninth of Dylan's 39 albums
• Irish Times critic Ian O'Riordan (2021) also placed it ninth
• Margotin and Guesdon (2022) placed it on the same level as Dylan's masterworks

Records

• Peaked at No. 1 in more than ten countries, and No. 2 in the United States and Australia
• Best-selling album in the US in its debut week with 54,700 equivalent units, charting No. 2 behind Lil Baby's My Turn
• Dylan's highest Billboard 200 placement in more than a decade
• Debuted at No. 1 on Top Rock Albums and Americana/Folk Albums
• Seventh consecutive decade of top 40 albums, a first for any artist

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Dylan agreed to only one interview to promote the album, with historian Douglas Brinkley.
• Robbie Robertson, a former collaborator, was asked in late 2019 to play on the album but had to decline due to other work.
• Fiona Apple said Dylan encouraged her when she worried about her piano parts on 'Murder Most Foul', telling her she did not need to be perfect.
• Blake Mills posted solo guitar videos of instrumental versions of seven songs from the album.
• The album title is widely believed to reference Jimmie Rodgers' 1929 song 'My Rough and Rowdy Ways'.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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