Maps of Music

Under the Red Sky (1990)

Where the lyrics of Under the Red Sky take you, and where it was really made.

Four of its songs were recorded in one Los Angeles session, yet the album was largely greeted as a disappointing follow-up to Oh Mercy.

Key places

Single session in Los Angeles (1990)

Recording site The Complex — Four songs from the album were recorded in a single session at this Los Angeles studio on January 6, 1990, before Dylan's four-week tour. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Under the Red Sky: 27th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan
• Released September 10, 1990 through Columbia Records
• Produced by Don Was, David Was, and Dylan himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost
• Dedicated to "Gabby Goo Goo", now thought to be Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, Dylan's daughter by Carolyn Dennis, born January 31, 1986

Background

• Follows 1989's critically acclaimed Oh Mercy
• Unlike most of Dylan's catalog, features guest appearances by established artists
• Guests include Jimmie Vaughan, Slash, Elton John, George Harrison, David Crosby, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Bruce Hornsby
• Dylan was busy with the Traveling Wilburys at the time, which the album's shortcomings are partly attributed to

Recording

• Four songs recorded in one Los Angeles session on January 6, 1990, before a four-week tour
• Basic tracks finished in mid-March 1990, according to biographer Clinton Heylin
• New vocals added the following month; instrumental overdubs ran into May 1990
• Session musicians Al Kooper and Waddy Wachtel appear throughout
• "10,000 Men" features Stevie Ray Vaughan; the title track features a guitar solo by George Harrison
• "Born in Time" and "God Knows" are reworkings of material from the previous year's Oh Mercy sessions

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

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

• Greeted largely as a disappointing follow-up to 1989's Oh Mercy
• Criticism aimed at the slick sound of rock producer Don Was and a handful of tracks that seem rooted in children's nursery rhymes
• Patrick Humphries, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Bob Dylan, judged it harshly, describing the songs as sloppily written, lazily performed, and unimaginatively produced
• Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote that he thought it was Dylan's best album in 15 years
• Paul Nelson, writing for Musician, called the album a deliberately throwaway masterpiece
• In the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1990, the album placed at number 39

Reappraisal

• In a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan said the album's shortcomings came from hurried and unfocused recording sessions
• Dylan also said too many people worked on the album and that he was disillusioned with the recording industry at that stage of his career
• Humphries and Christgau gave opposing verdicts, with the album's reception split between harsh critics and a few supporters

Records

• Peaked at number 38 on the US charts
• Peaked at number 13 in the UK
• Sales were described as disappointing, and according to Down the Highway, they left Dylan depressed

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Slash plays on the opener "Wiggle Wiggle"; he called Dylan one of the icons of rock 'n' roll but said working on the album was a bad experience
• In 2005, Q included "Wiggle Wiggle" in a list of "Ten Terrible Records by Great Artists"
• Time also placed "Wiggle Wiggle" on its list of The 10 Worst Bob Dylan Songs
• The outtake "Shirley Temple Doesn't Live Here Anymore", co-written with Don Was and David Weiss, was later recorded by Was (Not Was) for their 2008 album Boo! as "Mr. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore"
• The outtake "Heartland" was later sung by Dylan with Willie Nelson on Nelson's 1993 album Across the Borderline
• Dylan continued the album's style with the nursery rhyme "This Old Man", released on the Disney charity album For Our Children in 1991

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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