Bob Dylan – Street-Legal

I'm not sure why people hate this album so much. "Is Your Love in Vain?" and "Stop Crying Baby" are quintessential Dylan. Placing it in its appropriate period, the album is even more remarkable.

I like this album. It has some great tunes on it. My barber who is a CD collector also likes it.

Street Legal is a downright weird album, and I’m resisting calling it awful, an album filled with cranky songs regrading Dylan’s divorce, infused with a number of wordy Dylanesque epics that seem to go uninterestingly nowhere. And that’s just the concept of the music, his delivery is a total sham, sounding entirely silly.

In reality, I’ve never been able to pay attention to any of these songs for more than a couple of minutes before my mind drifts off, then is shockingly brought back to the reality that my only escape is to shut it off. There are those who would contend that the near constant touring Dylan has done since 1974 has brought forth a new and unwelcome vocal style, suggesting that the man’s timing, emotional connection to the songs, and even knowing what his fans may finding interesting has been totally destroyed from straining to be heard in such large venues. As to his lyrics, Dylan has always written throw away lines, yet here on Street Legal it becomes increasingly difficult to discern a good line from a bad one, where they meet or overlap, completely devoid of any inherent dynamics, with the only thing keeping his-Bobness floating at this stage of his career rests on the brilliant epic-ness of his mid 60’s albums. Dylan paints no surreal imagery here, he simply strings dense wordy interesting ideas and phrased (to him) together that offer the listener nothing, nor do those lyrics spirit listeners to a private place of solitude and vision, only one confounding idea and image after another, as if he were suffering from amphetamine psychosis; which at this stage is entirely possible.

There’s also no warmth found within these grooves, many come off as outtakes, as if this studio session were merely a pitstop between shows, offering little life or inspiration. Other reviewers will attempt to suggest that this was a transitional time in Zimmy’s career, representing several periods of uncertainly that all coalesced here, with the result being that in a few short months Dylan would be so shattered and internally broken that all he could think of doing was mistakenly turning his life over to god. Putting it bluntly Street Legal is a sheer mess of an album, where the good songs are bogged down by the rest, along with the soul sound of the album, one that comes off as artificial cluttered and cheesy when these songs were presented live.

Street Legal is what happens when one’s life gets so out of control that the road in front of you all but disappears and all you’re left with are gut instants, where under those circumstances, those gut instants most often prove to be entirely wrong. Over all, Street Legal is a ride on the Further Bus with far too many inherent problems hanging out the windows to be considered in any way even a good album.

*** The Fun Facts: The album art was shot on the steps of Rundown Studios, a recoding and rehearsal space owned by Dylan, named after the general look and feel of the neighborhood. Rundown Studios was located at 2501 Main Street in Santa Monica, California. Others have suggested that the actual location of the cover is the staircase near 2 Pacific Terrace, the back of the house at 26 Arcadia Terrace, Santa Monica, California.

Originally recorded at Rundown Studios, Santa Monica, CA, on the 26th thru the 28th of April and the 1st of May 1978, with overdubs on the 2nd and 3rd of May, the album was originally produced by Don DeVito. Don DeVito remixed and remastered the album in 1999, so all releases of the original 1978 album are now rarities. However, the version of Street-Legal in 2013, The Complete Album Collection Vol. I is one of the fourteen titles remastered by Steve Berkowitz. In this case Berkowitz went back to the original 1978 master tapes and remastered the original album. This means there are now two significantly different versions of the album on sale.

As to the album's title, 'Street-legal' is an American term for a hot rod car that has been modified to allow it to be driven on public roads. It has been suggested that the term refers to Bob's newly divorced single status, yet he's clearly wearing a wedding ring in the picture.

The rear photo is also by Howard Alk was taken live on stage during the Far East tour in early 1978. The two photographs on the inner sleeve of the vinyl album were taken by Joel Bernstein in a night club in Melbourne, Australia, on the same tour, and the man with Dylan on the rear of the inner sleeve is singer and guitarist George Benson.

Review by Jenell Kesler

After this album was remastered by Don DeVito in 1999 (see r29919490), it came out sounding a whole lot better. But I still prefer the swampiness, confusion and despair in this version after listening to it daily while breaking up with the first love of my life.

Very different sound to Desire, there's quite a rich heavy sound on a lot of these songs. This was made after the custody battle for his kids and while there is not one overriding theme through the whole album, most of the songs are about failed/failing relationships, and unfortunately Dylan does tend to sound like a drunken balladeer...This is no Blood on the Tracks. The band is a lot tighter than on Desire but not so sure the big band sound goes so well with all of the tunes. Changing of the Guards and New Pony are both strong tunes, the backing singers, piano and heavy guitar riff sound good; Senor is the strongest song on the album and is alone worth the entrance fee. The album ends with Where are You Tonight (which sounds like an amalgamation of many Dylan tunes) which again utilizes the band well, but other than that the rest is a bit weak. Maybe the songs would have sounded better with a different rendering.