Knocked Out Loaded

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
Production
Britt Bacon – engineering
Judy Feltus – engineering
Don Smith – engineering
George Tutko – engineering
Notes
External links
Bob Dylan Biography, biography.com
1986 albums
Albums produced by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan albums
Columbia Records albums