REVIEW: Bob Dylan – Oh Mercy (Columbia)
The sessions of Oh Mercy were rough, on the recommendation of Bono of all people hot shot producer Daniel Lanois was brought in to Dylan’s rocky recording fold to capture the man without hangers on and all the trappings that a professional recording studio would usually deliver by the late 80’s. Things began well enough but as per usual Bob is Bob and wanted things done his way although on a personal level I love the production on the record. From all of Dylan’s 1980’s recorded output this one is the least 80’s sounding. The music is restrained and dignified throughout and contains a few of my favourite Dylan moments to boot. I can see why Oh Mercy is considered one of his ‘great’ records. I listen to it silly amounts to this day.
The main reason for my obsession with Oh Mercy is the track Most Of The Time, it’s heart breaking. And it’s here that some of the decade’s production tricks work. There is an ambience and lack of space on the recording. It’s as full as obsessive thought can be and its swampy textures and lazy rhythm capture the lyrical flow perfectly. The line “Don’t even remember what her lips felt like on mine, Most of the time.” kills me every time I hear it, it’s so real. I cannot think of another song ever written that captures self-pity, regret and that pain that loneliness can bring in the way this does. Nothing Compares 2 U comes close but sorry Prince and Sinead. No cigar.
Two tracks stand out as oddities here purely because of the tempo that they are played at. The opener Political World and the lone single Everything is Broken, although fine tunes in their own right are less weighty than say both Dignity and the outstanding Series Of Dreams, both of which were left of the album. It’s not like Dylan must have been feeling left in the dust by his contemporaries. The flow of the album would have shown consistency and the feel far more sombre and dare I say it mature. It could have made the album one which is regarded as one of his best, up there with say Modern Times, Blonde On Blonde or Another Side Of Bob Dylan rather than just known as the best piece of work he released in the 80’s.
As for the rest of the record all I hear are songs that grasp at the unobtainable. Wishing for an answer from God in What Good Am I? and Ring Them Bells or the overweening idea of one’s self in Disease Of Conceit. The understated pace of these songs helps mould them as a linear train of thought. It’s as if Dylan says this is where I am and this is what I am, what more can I be and why should I be anything more.
Having played a major part in the successful and solid debut Travelling Wilburys LP the previous year and then releasing this masterwork, it seems bizarre that a records as tepid Travelling Wilburys Vol. 3 and his own Under The Red Sky followed in 1990. I can’t understand it at all. It’s not like you just get lucky and release something as strong as Oh Mercy and then yo yo between joker and genius. I’m happy that I didn’t discover him until the mid 00’s. Being a Dylan devotee in the 1980’s must have been hard work.
