Search - Bob Dylan :: Infidels (Hybr)

ALMOST SOUNDS LIKE A BOB DYLAN RECORD...

wally gator | USA | 09/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My problem with most of Dylans output of the 1980's (beggining with 1978's Street Legal) is the fact that it doesn't sound like Dylan. For numerous reasons, I guess. Dylan himself most of the time is hidden behind a huge band, or too many backup singers, or awful eighties style production.

If 1983's INFIDELS has one problem, it would only be the eighties production. And really, this is quality work for Bob Dylan, who manages to showcase himself, even though the music industry was obviously trying to destroy him. (They did this to just about every rock and roller who was cool in the sixties and seventies- electric drums? Synth?)

DYLAN is one of history's all time Jokermen, and he busts a nut all over the place on this bit. Opening with JOKERMAN, we see that Dylan has taken an almost R&B vibe this time around, it may take some getting used to, but this tune is chock full of classic Dylan lines. SWEETHEART LIKE YOU is another R&B type song, but good. The last track DONT FALL APART ON ME TONIGHT is very R&B, and these days may be compared to a Dylan style Boy Band song..."Come over here from over there, girl..." but with a lot more Dylan depth, so be aware.. I really like that tune actually.

Dylan rocks on this peice too though. MAN OF PEACE, is an excellent song, with it's Satan metaphor in the chorus. I like. UNION SUNDOWN was one I didn't care for at first but really rocks if you just let the album play. The band he had with him in '83 was pretty ace kickin' anyway, and had they made this album before the eighties drum echo craze, it probably could have been a top shelf Dylan. Check out LIVE 1984 to see how this three peice band really tore it up. I AND I has more great lyrics about his dealings with the ladies and (I saved the best for last) LICENSE TO KILL, a very mellow, but awesome Dylan track.

Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits is very evident on this disc also. Funny that early Dire Straits stuff sounds so Dylan influenced, this Bob Dylan actually sounds Dire Staits influenced... but I've never seen that as a bad thing. Still gets five stars in my book. Any Dylan fan should be able to appreciate this album."

Dylan at his mystical best

Marc Axelrod | Potter, Wi USA | 11/07/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I like the Dylan songs where you have to work to unravel the meaning. You certainly have to do that with the songs on Infidels. This is Dylan's first secular record in five years (or maybe it's better tosay it's his first record in years that isn't overtly Christian).



The opening cut is Jokerman, and it is a mystical pop masterpiece, probably about Dylan himself. "Sweetheart Like You" is about meeting a beautiful woman in an unlikely place. It is lovely ballad, and it was recently featured in the movie "North Country." "Neighborhood Bully" seems to be about the political unrest in the Middle East. The rocking blues tune "Man of Peace" is about how Satan comes to us in many disguises, though the disturbing last verse might be a reference to Christ, and if this is true, than it fits the idea that Dylan himself is one of the infidels on this album.



"I and I" uses a Rastafarian saying to describe the Jewish Dylan's coming out of Christianity into the light of Judaism. Yet if I'm interpreting the song correctly, Dylan credits a stranger (Christianity) for teaching him to "look into Justice's beautiful face (his own Jewish tradition).



If you are a believing Christian, and you buy into these interpretations, you might find the album disturbing. Dylan has become an infidel to the Christian faith.



But if you like good musical art, this is one of Dylan's best efforts of the 1980s. I recommend it, and see if you agree with the way I interpret it."

This is where religion returned to being Dylan's foundation

Mike London | Oxford, UK | 10/10/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"INFIDELS, Bob Dylan's 22nd studio album, was released in 1983 to largely enthusiastic reviews and critical response. The album was noted both for its strong, secular (!!) songwriting, and for its production which gave the songs a nice, clean sound. Mark Knopfler and Dylan gave INFIDELS a very tasteful, rather modern production, and sounds akin to Dire Straits' music, which isn't surprising. While not a phenomenal seller, INFIDELS did sell fairly well, however, and a lot of his fans were rather glad to see him backing away from the explicit Christianity he had been spouting for the last several years. While he never publicly renounced his Christian faith, it is true that, starting with Infidels, his song writing would never again be so open and so poignant about the Christian faith.



When he converted to Christianity in 1978, the public was both shocked and dismayed. Of all people, Dylan is now a professing Christian? Though much of the music in the early 1960s used the Bible as a reference point and moral compass, still his fan base was not receptive to him becoming a Christian. Then in the early 1980s, he only sang his Christian material and went on long tirades about his faith in concert. But this would only last for a few years. By 1983, Dylan was in was a strange place, both spiritually and professionally. He had just finished recording his Christian trilogy, where he was explicitly espousing the Christian doctrine (gotta serve somebody, after all). He took up with some Hassidic Jews, had his picture taken at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and while not giving up his Christian faith, was still intent on keeping his Jewish roots alive. When the time came to record a new album, the music he wrote was no longer blatantly Christian, and ever since has distance himself from organized religion. [This however bears closer examination]



INFIDELS marks his return to (apparently) overtly secular music. This is the first secular music he had recorded since 1978's STREET LEGAL (though SHOT OF LOVE from 1981 had some secular songs as well). INFIDELS was greeted rather enthusiastically, largely because he was no longer singing Christian music, at least on the surface. Upon closer examination, however, we just see Dylan was more intent on [camouflaging his faith more.] making his faith a natural, background feature of the music, not the dominant, and sometimes overpowering, focus of his art.



Starting with "Jokerman" and ending with "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight," the album is rife with both Christian allusions and also steeped in Judaism as well. "Jokerman" has over thirty Biblical references as well. "Man of Peace" is easily the most identifiable Christian song, discussing the Anti-Christ and the End Times. "Sweetheart Like You" alludes to heaven and the streets of gold. While no longer singing only Christian songs, both Jesus, The Bible, and Jewish culture would continue to inform and be a major part of Dylan's work.





INFIDELS was also his most varied album in terms of subject matter in quite a number of years, ranging from pro-Israel foreign policy ("Neighborhood Bully"), comments on the downfall of unions ("Union Sundown"), intense, richly symbolic allegory ("Jokerman"), and gender relation comments ("I and I" and "Sweetheart like You"). The Israel song was the most explicitly political song he had written in years. Many critics were also rather surprised at the hostility Dylan displays toward space travel, almost to the point of it being an irrational fear. Some found "Neighhood Bully" rather crude and not that eloquent for getting Dylan's point across. "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight," a lover's plea, stands as one of Dylan's most heart felt moments on record.



Dylan's faith has always been a matter of interest to much of his audience. From the earliest part of his career in the early 1960s to 2006's MODERN TIMES, there's always been a strong, Jewish-Christian idea of morality running as one of the main undercurrents of his work, and INFIDELS, like JOHN WESLEY HARDING, has very strong ties to both Christainity and Jewish faith.



Naturally, the fact that INFIDELS is his secular return after three Christian albums is rather ironic. Dylan, being the musical genius that he is, rather than making his faith the most dominant thing about his music, instead went back to using it as the foundation and well-spring for his muse. Imagine his art as a forest. Christian and Jewish themes, present from the beginning in his work, come out of the forest and into a clearing, and Dylan put them on prominent display. With INFIDELS, he sends these elements of his work back into the forest of his art, still present, just not the only thing he wishes to portray.



Bob Dylan's faith is always present in his music, just not so explicitly drawn as on the Christian trilogy. Due to events as late as the recent concerts of the Neverending Tour, I personally believe Dylan still believes in Jesus, but just does not want to be pigeon holed and labelled. In 1997 when TIME came out, Dylan said in an interview that when it came to religion and philosophy, he learned his faith not from preachers and books but from the songs, and that's where he feels the most alive spiritual.



This review has dealt mostly with the religious and faith elements of Dylan's music, which is a discussion that can easily be book-length. One more thing should also be said of INFIDELS, that does not form part of that discussion.



The album is rather infamous among fans and critics for what the Dylan cut from the final sequence. The album as it stands has a nice flow and overall is a good album, but for many not a great one. Dylan deleted some of the strongest material from the sessions from the final running order, much to the horror of his fan base.



He recorded several songs that did not make the final cut. These are "Lord Protect My Child" "Tell Me", "Julius and Ethel", "Foot of Pride", "Blind Willie McTell", "Someone's Got A Hold of My Heart", "This Was My Love" (a cover), "Angel Flying to Close To The Ground" (a Willie Nelson song that was issued as a b-side on the Jokerman single), "Clean Cut Kid", "Death Is Not the End," and two instrumentals, "Dark Groove" and "Don't Fly Unless It is Safe".



Dylan would later revisit "Someone", "Clean Cut Kid", and "Death" on later albums. "Blind Wille" has become one of Dylan's most legendary outtakes, and for good reason. It's an amazing song. "Foot of Pride" is another Biblical epic that's a lyrical tour de force. "Julius and Ethel", about the Rosenbergs, is a great outtake would fit in well with INFIDELS as a protest song and has not been released to this day. "Lord Protect My Child" is a prayer, and "Tell Me" sounds like some of the more average songs that did make the album. There is also an electric version of "Blind Willie", much different than the officially issued take, that is rather fun to listen, though the BOOTLEG version is by far the most masterful and best take of that particular song.



Overall, several of these outtakes are as good, and in a few instances much better, than material that made the album. The album should have been made longer to include more of this material (it's only a little over 40 minutes), or even make it a double LP.



As for the cuts that did not make this album, I do concur that this is INFIDELS' single greatest weakness. The still unreleased "Julius and Ethel" is an excellent song, and the songs from THE BOOTLEG SERIES, especially "Foot of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell," should have been definitely included on this album. All are excellent songs, and "Foot of Pride" especially ties into the Biblical imagery that runs throughout the album. If there is any dominant theme, it is that of infidelity.



Had the songs aforementioned been included, it would definitely join the ranks of the absolutely essential Dylan records, of which there are many. Instead, it stands as a post 1960s near masterpiece.

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