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9 <title>Down In The Groove (
1988)
</title>
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15 <h1><img alt=
"Down in the Groove" src=
"../graphics/down.jpg" width=
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"150" />
16 Down In The Groove (
1988)
</h1>
18 <p class=
"recdate">Recorded: Aug
1986 to May
1987<br />
19 Released: May
31,
1988</p>
22 <li><a href=
"lets_stick_together.htm">Let's Stick Together
</a> </li>
23 <li><a href=
"whendid.htm">When Did You Leave Heaven?
</a> </li>
24 <li><a href=
"sallysue.htm">Sally Sue Brown
</a> </li>
25 <li><a href=
"deathis.htm">Death Is Not The End
</a> </li>
26 <li><a href=
"hadadream.htm">Had A Dream About You Baby
</a> </li>
27 <li><a href=
"ugliest.htm">Ugliest Girl In The World
</a> </li>
28 <li><a href=
"silvio.htm">Silvio
</a> </li>
29 <li><a href=
"ninetymiles.htm">Ninety Miles An Hour (Down A Dead End Street)
</a> </li>
30 <li><a href=
"shenando.htm">Shenandoah
</a> </li>
31 <li><a href=
"rank_strangers.htm">Rank Strangers To Me
</a> </li>
34 <li><a href=
"../00_misc/important_words.htm">Important Words
</a> </li>
38 <h2>Introductory Remarks
</h2>
39 <h3>Eyolf
Østrem
</h3>
41 <p><em>Down in the Groove
</em>came at a time when Dylan wasn't exactly
42 at the zenith of his powers as a recording artist. His struggles with
43 the modern recording techniques (at the time mostly resulting in lost
44 battles), as well as a steadily decreasing audience since his religious
45 trilogy, hadn't been good for his reputation. And
<em>Down in the
46 Groove
</em>didn't make things much better.
</p>
48 <p>It is probably one of the last albums people buy. And in my most
49 critical moments I'm inclined to say:
“And for good reason.
”
50 But still: the album has qualities, not only compared with
<em>Knocked out
51 Loaded
</em>, which only has
<em>one
</em> quality (
“Brownsville
54 <p>I'll return to the qualities in a moment. First a general overview:
55 The six first songs, and eight out of ten songs on the album as a
56 whole, are in the key of A major, most of them are fairly standard
57 12-bar blues, with slight variations (such as the F#m in
<a
58 href=
"hadadream.htm">Had a Dream About You Baby
</a>, which in this
59 case is counterbalanced by the rather monotonous singing)(I didn't say
60 it was bad, though). The main difference between
<a
61 href=
"lets_stick_together.htm">Let's Stick Together
</a>,
<a
62 href=
"sallysue.htm">Sally Sue Brown
</a>,
<a
63 href=
"hadadream.htm">Had A Dream About You Baby
</a> and
<a
64 href=
"ugliest.htm">Ugliest Girl In The World
</a> is the titles.
</p>
66 <p><a href=
"deathis.htm">Death is Not the End
</a> is, I think, the only
67 Dylan song that has left a really bad taste in my mouth. It was a general
68 joking subject around here, until someone wanted to borrow the album to
69 play this song in his wife's funeral. They had heard it on the radio a few
70 days before she died, probably the only time it was ever played on the
71 radio. I pass her gravestone every day on my way to work. It hasn't changed
72 my opinion about the song, I just don't laugh about it anymore.
</p>
74 <p><a href=
"silvio.htm">Silvio
</a> is a strange song in many ways. The
75 lyrics by Grateful Dead-lyricist Robert Hunter are often referred to as
76 typical Dylan-wannabe-writing. Be that as it may
– on this album
77 it compares favourably not only to the non-Dylan songs. For a very long
78 time it was the regular ending of the first electric set of just about
79 every show, which added to its strangeness: a song that for
80 tape-collectors was a nuisance and a drag, as the eternal song no.
5,
81 but which most others had never heard
– who had got
<em>Down in
82 the Groove
</em> apart from the collectors (the song request of all
83 times: in Stockholm, June
9 1998 someone yelled out
84 “SILVIO
” after song nr.
4)?
</p>
86 <p>Musically it is a carbon copy of
<em>Isis
</em>. That's perhaps not
87 where the real genious of
<em>Isis
</em> lies, but it's a persistent
88 little bugger of a riff.
</p>
90 <p>The songs that are neither square rock'n'roll in A or
“Death
91 is not the end
”, go to the other opposite
– three of them
92 are played in a very loose rhythm (
<a href=
"whendid.htm">When Did You
93 Leave Heaven?
</a>,
<a href=
"shenando.htm">Shenandoah
</a>,
<a
94 href=
"ninetymiles.htm">Ninety Miles an Hour
</a>). These are not
95 only standing out, they are really outstanding. Sure enough, the
96 drumming on
“When did you leave heaven
” is a bit strange,
97 but that's forgiveable.
“Ninety miles
” is a perfect example
98 of how to create an intensive pulse (quite fitting the lyrics) without
99 a drum or even a fixed rhythm.
</p>
101 <p>One song left, one performance, and what a performance!
<a
102 href=
"rank_strangers.htm">Rank Strangers To Me
</a> is one of the
103 reasons to have this one on CD
– not because of the sound, but
104 because of the repeat button.
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