Knocked Out Loaded is the 24th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 14, 1986 by Columbia Records.
The album was received poorly upon release, and is still considered by some critics to be one of Dylan's least-engaging efforts. However, the 11-minute epic "Brownsville Girl", co-written by Sam Shepard, has been cited as one of his best songs by some critics. Sales for Knocked Out Loaded were weak, as it peaked at on U.S. charts and in the UK.
Composition
The album includes three cover songs, three collaborations with other songwriters and two solo compositions by Dylan. Most of the album was recorded in the spring of 1986, although recording or mixing work on one track, "Got My Mind Made Up", reportedly occurred in June. Several tracks from the album used overdubbing to build on instrumental tracks from 1984 and 1985 sessions.
One song, "Maybe Someday", paraphrases a line from T. S. Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi: Eliot's "And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly" becomes in Dylan "Through hostile cities and unfriendly towns".
Cover art
The cover art is a reworking of the January 1939 cover of Spicy Adventure Stories.
Reception
The album earned mostly negative reactions, with only a rewritten version of an outtake ("New Danville Girl'", retitled "Brownsville Girl") recorded during the Empire Burlesque sessions, receiving uniform praise. Robert Christgau called it "one of the greatest and most ridiculous of [Dylan's] great ridiculous epics."
"Knocked Out Loaded is ultimately a depressing affair," wrote Anthony DeCurtis in his review published in Rolling Stone magazine, "because its slipshod, patchwork nature suggests that Dylan released this LP not because he had anything in particular to say, but to cash in on his 1986 tour. Even worse, it suggests Dylan's utter lack of artistic direction." In the Howard Sounes book Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, it is reported that Dylan said "if the records I'm making only sell a certain amount anyway, then why should I take so long putting them together?"
Dylan has played few songs from this album in concert; "Driftin' Too Far from Shore", with 14 performances (all but one in 1988), is the most frequently performed. Four songs remain unplayed, while the other three have together been aired only five times.
In recent years the album has gained a cult following among some Dylan fans who believe it is one of his least-understood works, but critical consensus remains negative, with recent reviews from Salon.com to Rolling Stone calling it a "career-killer" and "the absolute bottom of the Dylan barrel" respectively.
The album was remastered and re-issued in 2013 as a part of The Complete Albums Collection, Vol. One box set.
Track listing
Personnel
Bob Dylan – guitar, harmonica, keyboards, vocals, production
Peggi Blu – background vocals
Majason Bracey – background vocals
Clem Burke, Anton Fig, Mike Berment, Milton Gabriel, Don Heffington, Bryan Parris, Stan Lynch, Raymond Lee Pounds – drums T Bone Burnett, Tom Petty, Ira Ingber, Mike Campbell, Jack Sherman, David A. Stewart, Ronnie Wood – guitar Carolyn Dennis – background vocals Steve Douglas – saxophone Howie Epstein, James Jamerson, Jr., John McKenzie, Vito Sanfilippo, Carl Sealove, Jon Paris – bass guitar Lara Firestone – background vocals Keysha Gwin – background vocals Muffy Hendrix – background vocals April Hendrix-Haberlan – background vocals Dewey B. Jones II – background vocals Phil Jones – congas Al Kooper, Vince Melamed, Patrick Seymour, Benmont Tench – keyboards Steve Madaio – trumpet Queen Esther Marrow – background vocals Larry Mayhand – background vocals Larry Meyers – mandolin Angel Newell – background vocals Herbert Newell – background vocals Al Perkins – steel guitar Crystal Pounds – background vocals Madelyn Quebec – background vocals Pamela Quinlan - background vocals Daina Smith – background vocals Maia Smith – vocals Medena Smith – background vocals Annette May Thomas – background vocals Damien Turnbough – background vocals Chyna Wright – background vocals Elesecia Wright – background vocals Tiffany Wright – background vocals