"It's hot as a crotch" 4.5 stars

Planet Waves is definitely a worthy Dylan album with the Band. With awesome sweet tunes like "Hazel" and "You Angel You", you almost need this. "On a Night Like This" is almost a sequel to the New Morning opener "If Not For You", that's cool stuff. It's also cool how they carry on with "Forever Young". I don't know about buying the SACD version of this...just buy this one, unless you have SACD player or you NEED to hear a better mastering. 4.5 stars because this isn't as essential as "Blood on Tracks" or the old stuff. But it comes darn close.

A Contrarian's View of Dylan

I've got to admit, I really don't like Planet Waves. For one thing I'm not a big fan of The Band. I've not particularly liked any of the stuff they've done as a group. Robbie Robertson always seemed like a smug, condescending, pretentious rock-star (like Sting or Phil Collins). Back when they were just a band and not The Band, they were good for what Dylan was doing on tour in 1966 (namely loud), but there's a reason why he always ended up using the Nashville session players on his album. (The fact that drummer Levon helm was too chicken to endure the boos of Tour '66 is another stroke against them). Their playing has always been as subtle as a sledgehammer. But it's not entirely The Band's fault that I don't like this album. On Planet Waves, Bob finally achieves what he was aiming for on Nashville Skyline and New Morning; he becomes a completely detached, uninvolved songwriter. But where those two discs were charming in the sincere ineptitude, this one actually pulls it off slickly - much to its detriment. And as a result songs like "Tough Mama", "Hazel", "Something There Is About You", "You Angel You", and "Never Say Goodbye" are almost impossible to tell apart. It'll become a bad habit that'll pop up again and again in Bob's career. The opening number holds some promise. The Cajun Zydeco of "On A Night Like This" promises more of the weird genre experimentation of New Morning's "Winterlude" and "If Dogs Run Free", but never follows up on it. "Going Going Gone" is in fact a really good song, but you can hardly tell over The Band's showboating. (Although I like most of At Budokan, the version of "Going, Going Gone" on there proves it could be much much worse). "Forever Young" ends Bob's tradition of adding more than one version of the same song to the same album ("Alberta" and "Billy"). While the slower second version is pretty darn good (and proof that Rod Stewart is a thief), the fast version makes the song seem almost as forgettable as the rest of the album. Compare "Dirge" with the similarly arranged (just piano and acoustic guitar) "Blind Willie McTell" from The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3, and see how distracting Robbie Robertson is in comparison to Mark Knopfler. His little scratching the string thing is all over here and really annoying. Even without The Band, "The Wedding Song" sounds about as tacked on as it really was. Not that the album is painfully unlistenable or anything. With a musician as talented as Bob Dylan, even when he's coasting there's bound to be a certain amount of quality to endeavor. It's just that there's a real lack of anything interesting or risky going on here.

Great songs; horrible production.

"Planet Waves" opens with the rather trite "On a Night Like This", which, while likable enough, seems to recall the "New Morning" album in substance and style - which is not a good thing. However, just when you think, "here we go again", it kicks into gear on the next track (the heartfelt and magnificently sung, "Going, Going, Gone") and from there (in terms of the quality of the songwriting and Dylan's vocals) it never looks back. Lyrically, GGG makes the statement that Dylan has decided to refocus his life on his music once again. Finally, after the horror of "Self Portrait", the odd (though not unlikable) country departure of "Nashville Skyline" and the blandness of "New Morning", Dylan's songwriting abilities have returned. The magnificent "Heaven's Door" from the "PG & BTK" soundtrack gave a hint that he was on the way back and with "Planet Waves" he delivers a solid album of quality songs for the first time since "John Wesley Harding". (Dylan' sense of humour, however, still seems to have been left off at "Blonde on Blonde".) The theme of "Planet Waves" is generally autobiographical and personally nostaligic - a trend that would continue onto his next album, the magnificent "Blood on the Tracks". (In particular, BOTT is foreshadowed in "Wedding Song" and "Dirge"). "Planet Waves" of course, contains one of Dylan's all-time classics, "Forever Young". But there are also several other outstanding songs here that deserve a lot more attention that they have gotten: "Going, Going, Gone", "Hazel", "Something There is about You", "You Angel You" and "Never Say Goodbye".



Why this album doesn't get five stars from me is due, partially, to the innocuous opening song and the superfluous second version of "Forever Young". However, the MAIN reason is the dismal production quality. The playing by the backing musicians (The Band) is simply atrocious and best described as amateurish. Hudson's overdone organ and Helm's missed drumbeats are annoying enough but the worst part is Robertson's AWFUL guitar playing. He comes darn close to absolutely ruining several of the songs. I'd be hard pressed to think of worse guitar work on an album from a major rock artist. Seriously. Quite frankly, the tracks here sound more like rehearsals, where the musicians are trying to feel out their parts, rather than polished final recordings. The sloppy production on this album is a crying shame because the songwriting is excellent and Dylan's vocals are just fabulous. You can tell, he's really into these songs; just belting them out. Too bad. This album would have been remembered as a high in Dylan's career had it been recorded properly. Thankfully, he does a proper production job next time, on "Blood on the Tracks".

Great songs; horrible recording.

"Planet Waves" opens with the rather trite "On a Night Like This", which, while likable enough, seems to recall the "New Morning" album in substance and style - which is not a good thing. However, just when you think, "here we go again", it kicks into gear on the next track (the heartfelt and magnificently sung, "Going, Going, Gone") and from there (in terms of the quality of the songwriting and Dylan's vocals) it never looks back. Lyrically, GGG makes the statement that Dylan has decided to refocus his life on his music once again. Finally, after the horror of "Self Portrait", the odd (though not unlikable) country departure of "Nashville Skyline" and the blandness of "New Morning", Dylan's songwriting abilities have returned. The magnificent "Heaven's Door" from the "PG & BTK" soundtrack gave a hint that he was on the way back and with "Planet Waves" he delivers a solid album of quality songs for the first time since "John Wesley Harding". (Dylan' sense of humour, however, still seems to have been left off at "Blonde on Blonde".) The theme of "Planet Waves" is generally autobiographical and personally nostaligic - a trend that would continue onto his next album, the magnificent "Blood on the Tracks". (In particular, BOTT is foreshadowed in "Wedding Song" and "Dirge"). "Planet Waves" of course, contains one of Dylan's all-time classics, "Forever Young". But there are also several other outstanding songs here that deserve a lot more attention that they have gotten: "Going, Going, Gone", "Hazel", "Something There is about You", "You Angel You" and "Never Say Goodbye".



Why this album doesn't get five stars from me is due, partially, to the innocuous opening song and the superfluous second version of "Forever Young". However, the MAIN reason is the dismal production quality. The playing by the backing musicians (The Band) is simply atrocious and best described as amateurish. Hudson's overdone organ and Helm's missed drumbeats are annoying enough but the worst part is Robertson's AWFUL guitar playing. He comes darn close to absolutely ruining several of the songs. I'd be hard pressed to think of worse guitar work on an album from a major rock artist. Seriously. Quite frankly, the tracks here sound more like rehearsals, where the musicians are trying to feel out their parts, rather than polished final recordings. The sloppy production on this album is a crying shame because the songwriting is excellent and Dylan's vocals are just fabulous. You can tell, he's really into these songs; just belting them out. Too bad. This album would have been remembered as a high in Dylan's career had it been recorded properly. Thankfully, he does a proper production job next time, on "Blood on the Tracks".

If it sounds good, it is good

OK, let's get serious. Another reviewer slams this album because he doesn't like the Band. And he doesn't like the Band, first, because he thinks Robbie Robertson is a "smug, condescending, pretentious rock star." For a moment, let's grant that. Robertson has certainly had his moments. But if we're going to start trashing albums because of smug, pretentious rock stars there's going to be an awful lot of discs in the bonfire including quite a few by Bobby Zimmerman himself and a bunch by John Lennon. Seems to me smug and pretentious is an occupational hazard in a world afloat in dope and sycophancy. But are we reviewing the music or the person? The second reason this reviewer dislikes the Band is because they're "loud" and nothing else. This interests me. My grandfather told me there were people way back a long time ago who got upset when Dylan plugged in his guitar and started touring with the Band, but I didn't realize there were any of them still around. To my ear, the Band's experimentation with color and timbre is interesting, as is their attempt to graft white roots music, rock and roll, cajun and other sounds. Criticize them for a lot of things, but for loudness? I guess this would me we can't like the Stones either. I distinctly remember the instructions on (I think) "Exile on Main Street" --- "Play this album LOUD." Then the reviewer doesn't like the Band because Levon Helm had stage fright (see my comments on ad hominem criticism above --- also check out Sir Laurence Olivier's autobiography in which he describes his agonizing struggles with a similar problem). Finally, the reviewer says he doesn't like the album because of Dylan's songwriting and Robertson's scratchy guitar.. Here at last we have a discussion of the music and its presentation. Good for him for expressing his opinion. I simply disagree with him. To me, experimentation is not apostasy, and I like the way this album sounds. And, like the Duke said, "If it sounds good, it is good."



I invite people to listen for themselves and make up their own minds.

Nothing short of BRILLIANT

I'm a relatively new fan of Dylan, but I've never been as zealous to listen to the ENTIRE canon of any artist as I am with him. PLANET WAVES has become my personal favorite Dylan album, right up there with DESIRE. Both albums are sort of underdogs in the Dylan discography for some reason; this is especially true of PLANET WAVES. But why? Really. I think PLANET WAVES showcases Dylan at his finest vocally. His songwriting is as strong as ever and the music from the Band is richly diverse and aligned perfectly with the genius of Dylan. Due to its bad reputation, many fans are reluctant to give this album a try, but believe me... It's WELL worth it. I was reluctant to purchase this album because of all of the bad reviews that are posted everywhere, but it quickly became a staple in my car CD player. Believe me, take a chance on this album. It's easily right up there with Dylan's greatest; BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, BLONDE ON BLONDE, HIGHWAY 61. Don't miss it!!