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Down in the Groove

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Down in the Groove is a 1988 album release by Bob Dylan. It was not especially well-received by either the critics or the fans and sold poorly upon its release, reaching only #61 in the US and #32 UK.

"Even by Dylan standards, this album has had a strange, difficult birth," wrote Rolling Stone critic David Fricke. "Its release was delayed for more than half a year, and the track listing was altered at least three times. If the musician credits are any indication, the songs that made the final cut come from half a dozen different recording sessions spread out over six years."

Like its predecessor Knocked Out Loaded, Dylan once again used more collaborators than normal, giving the public the impression that he was taking a step back from his career and that he had no clear artistic direction.

In a review published in his "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau wrote, "Where Self Portrait was at least weird, splitting the difference between horrible and hilarious, [Dylan is now] forever professional - not a single remake honors or desecrates the original. All he can do to a song is Dylanize it, and thus his Danny Kortchmar band and his Steve Jones-Paul Simonon band are indistinguishable, immersed in that patented and by now meaningless one-take sound." Christgau would later call Down in the Groove a "horrendous product."

Christgau was not alone in his disappointment regarding Dylan's collaborations. In his review for Rolling Stone Magazine, Fricke noted that "a highly anticipated – if somewhat unlikely – collaboration with Full Force, the top Brooklyn hip-hop posse, turned out to be an old Infidels outtake, 'Death Is Not the End,' newly garnished with some tasty but rather superfluous Full Force vocal harmonies."

However, one song, a Grateful Dead collaboration titled "Silvio," had some success as a single, and Dylan would regularly feature it in his subsequent tours. "Silvio" would also be included on 1994's Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3.

The Summer Tour of 1988

Soon after Down in the Groove's release, Dylan embarked on a summer tour of North America, presumably in support of Down in the Groove. The first show was on June 7th, 1988, at Concord Pavilion in Concord, California, and it was a dramatic shift from previous tours. In recent years, Dylan had relied on larger ensembles, often staffed with high-profile artists like Mick Taylor, Ian McLagan, The Grateful Dead, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. This time, Dylan organized his concerts around a small, 'garage rock'-type combo, consisting of Dylan, guitarist G.E. Smith (of Saturday Night Live fame), bassist Kenny Aaronson, and drummer Christopher Parker. (There was a notable exception in the early June shows; those concerts featured a second, lead guitarist in Neil Young, whose own career was also in a downturn at the time.)

Song selection also became more adventurous, with setlists from different nights offering little resemblance to one another. The concerts would also alternate between full-band, electric sets and smaller, acoustic sets (with Smith providing Dylan's only accompaniment); it was during the acoustic sets that Dylan incorporated an endless variety of traditional cover songs, a marked departure from previous shows that depended heavily on his own compositions.

The concerts initially received modest attention, but they would soon receive a generous amount of praise. The tour schedule was also surprising for a man of Dylan's age, as Dylan was spending most of his time on the road. Just as one leg of the tour would end, Dylan would schedule another leg soon after, and this would continue for many years to come. As a result, Dylan's shows are now often referred to as "The Never-Ending Tour." Though the supporting personnel would undergo a number of changes for years to come, the basic format begun in the summer of 1988 would continue to this day.

Track listing

  1. "Let's Stick Together" (Harrison) – 3:09
  2. "When Did You Leave Heaven?" (Bullock/Whiting) – 2:15
  3. "Sally Sue Brown" (Alexander/Montgomery/Stafford) – 2:29
  4. "Death Is Not the End" (Dylan) – 5:10
  5. "Had a Dream About You, Baby" (Dylan) – 2:53
  6. "Ugliest Girl in the World" (Dylan/Hunter) – 3:32
  7. "Silvio" (Dylan/Hunter) – 3:05
  8. "Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead End Street)" (Blair/Robertson) – 2:56
  9. "Shenandoah" (Trad. Arr. Dylan) – 3:38
  10. "Rank Strangers to Me" (Brumley) – 2:57

Personnel

 

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