BOB DYLAN : AT BUDOKAN

 

Disc One (51:52)

  1. Mr. Tambourine Man
  2. Shelter from the Storm
  3. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
  4. Ballad of a Thin Man
  5. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
  6. Maggie's Farm
  7. One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
  8. Like a Rolling Stone
  9. I Shall Be Released
  10. Is Your Love in Vain?
  11. Going, Going, Gone

Disc Two (50:56)

  1. Blowin' in the Wind
  2. Just Like a Woman
  3. Oh, Sister
  4. Simple Twist of Fate
  5. All Along the Watchtower
  6. I Want You
  7. All I Really Want to Do
  8. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
  9. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
  10. Forever Young
  11. The Times They Are A-Changin'

Label : Columbia

Release Date : April 23, 1979

Recording Date : February 28, 1978 + March 1, 1978

Venue : Nippon Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Review (AllMusic) : On his third live album in a mere five years, Bob Dylan brings the big, professional showmanship of Street Legal to the stage, recasting recent and classic favorites into that album's image - and, he does that over the course of two albums, no less. It's a bit much, even for the diehards, even if moments work pretty well. Nevertheless, those moments work because of pizzazz, although those are the very moments that will make most long-term Dylan fans bristle. Which, of course, raises the question - who is this for? The dedicated aren't going to be dazzled by the slickness and the casual fans certainly aren't going to pay much attention to a live album from 1978. Interesting historically, perhaps, but only marginally.

Review (Wikipedia) : Bob Dylan at Budokan is a live album by Bob Dylan, released in 1979 (1978 in Japan) by Columbia Records. It is composed mostly of the artist's "greatest hits" performed in radically altered treatments from the originals, using the same musicians that backed Street-Legal, but the Budokan performances rely on a much larger band, and stronger use of brass and backup singers. In some respects the arrangements are more conventional than the original arrangements and the album was criticized for being so. At the same time that it was criticized for being too polished, it was criticized for being too sloppy. For many critics,[who?] the differences between the older and newer arrangements have become less important, and appreciation for the album has grown over time. The audio recording is from two different shows on February 28 and March 1, 1978. Columbia Records released this double LP on August 21, 1978; the original issue was limited to the Japanese market. Later that year, it was released in Australia. On April 23, 1979, spurred by extensive importing and at least one counterfeit European edition, Columbia released the album to worldwide markets. The shows were the fourth and fifth in an eight-show appearance at Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Bob Dylan at Budokan received some of the worst reviews of Dylan's career. Critically savaged, it was derided as "slick" and "sterile," with some, such as Rolling Stone magazine, comparing the new arrangements to Las Vegas lounge music. In a sarcastic review published in his "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau gave the album a C+ rating, writing "I believe this double LP was made available so our hero could boast of being outclassed by Cheap Trick, who had the self-control to release but a single disc from this location. Although it's amazing how many of the twenty-two songs-twelve also available on one of the other two live albums Dylan has released since 1974-hold up under slipshod treatment. And not only that, lyrics and poster are included." Critic Jimmy Guterman named it one of the worst albums ever released in the history of rock. However, the album received stronger reviews in Europe, and critic Janet Maslin (then a music critic for Rolling Stone Magazine) defended the album in her review. "However much they may offend purists, these latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals. And the originals - however lasting, however beautiful - constitute a terrible burden...this time the old songs have been recast sweetly, without that self-defeating aggression, in what sounds suspiciously like a spirit of fun...Many of the more recent ones, like 'Oh, Sister,' 'One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)' and 'Shelter from the Storm,' are vastly improved, as if, when they were first recorded, they hadn't been fully thought through. "Is Your Love in Vain?", by no means the prettiest song on Dylan's much-underrated Street-Legal, is prettier still...The method here is hit-or-miss, and the results are correspondingly spotty...The low point of the set is 'The Times They Are A-Changin"...The fire and brimstone are behind Dylan, [but] this hardly means the fight has gone out of him: Bob Dylan at Budokan is a very contentious effort-and, for the most part, a victorious one." Ironically, fire and brimstone were to again become very much a part of Dylan's music, with the release of his gospel rock album Slow Train Coming later in 1979. Also worth noting is the exclusion of the seminal track "Love Her With A Feeling" with the lyrics "The woman I'm lovin' she's nice and fat; she's got a way of lovin' it's good like that". Dylan often opened with this song on the aforementioned tour and it was generally well received by the audience, as evidenced by various bootlegs it has surfaced on. Bob Dylan at Budokan reached #13 in the US and went platinum, while simultaneously peaking at #4 in the UK. The album was collected by a talking tree in the PSN game Deathspank in 2010.