Bob Dylan at Budokan
Encyclopedia
Bob Dylan at Budokan is a live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

, released in 1979 (1978 in Japan) by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

. It was recorded during his 1978 world tour and is composed mostly of the artist's "greatest hits
Greatest hits
A greatest hits album is a music compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular artist or band...

". The performances in the album are radically altered from the originals, using the same musicians that backed Street-Legal, but relying 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 few critics such as Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...

 of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

the differences between the older and newer arrangements have become less important.

Recording and Releases

The audio recording is from two different shows on February 28 and March 1, 1978. Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 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
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Reception

Bob Dylan at Budokan received some of the worst reviews of Dylan's career. Critically savaged, it was derided as "slick" and "sterile." Rolling Stone compared the new arrangements to Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...

 lounge music

In a sarcastic review published in his "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 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
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...

, 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
Slow Train Coming
Slow Train Coming is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 19th studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 1979.It was the artist's first effort since becoming a born-again Christian, and all of the songs either express his strong personal faith, or stress the importance of Christian teachings...

later in 1979.

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.

Track listing

Musical Personnel

  • Bob Dylan - Rhythm Guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

    , Harmonica
    Harmonica
    The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

    , Vocals
  • Billy Cross - Lead Guitar
  • Ian Wallace
    Ian Wallace (drummer)
    Ian Russell Wallace was a rock and jazz drummer, most visible as a member of progressive rock band, King Crimson from 1971 to 1972; but known best in the musical community with his contributions as a session musician on his drum kit.-Early years:Wallace formed his first band, The Jaguars, at...

     - drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

  • Alan Pasqua
    Alan Pasqua
    Alan Pasqua is a jazz pianist, educator and composer who co-composed the CBS Evening News theme. He also has had an extensive career in pop and rock music, most notably as a founding member, keyboardist and songwriter of the 80s hard rock band, Giant. He studied at Indiana University and the New...

     - Keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

  • Rob Stoner
    Rob Stoner
    Robert David Rothstein , better known as Rob Stoner, is an American multi-instrumental musician....

     - Bass Guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

    , Background Vocals
  • Steven Soles
    Steven Soles
    Steven Soles is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and guitarist.Known also as J. Steven Soles, he was asked by Bob Dylan to join the band for his 1975-1976 "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour, and he also played with Dylan on Street Legal and the following tour, including the live album Bob...

     - Acoustic Rhythm Guitar, Background Vocals
  • David Mansfield
    David Mansfield
    David Mansfield is an American violinist, mandolin player, guitarist, pedal steel guitar player, and composer....

     - Pedal Steel, Violin
    Violin
    The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

    , Mandolin
    Mandolin
    A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

    , Dobro
    Dobro
    Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...

    , Guitar
  • Steve Douglas
    Steve Douglas (saxophonist)
    Steven Douglas Kreisman , better known as Steve Douglas, was an American saxophonist, flautist and clarinetist. Douglas is best known as a Los Angeles session musician, a member of The Wrecking Crew, who worked with Phil Spector, Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys...

     - Saxophone
    Saxophone
    The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

    , Flute
    Flute
    The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

    , Recorder
    Recorder
    The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...

  • Bobbye Hall
    Bobbye Hall
    Bobbye Jean Hall Porter is an American percussionist who has recorded with a variety of rock, soul, blues and jazz artists, and has appeared on 22 songs that reached the top ten in the Billboard Hot 100, six of those reaching #1.-Early career:...

     - Percussion
    Percussion instrument
    A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

  • Helena Springs - Background Vocals
  • Jo Ann Harris
    Jo Ann Harris
    Jo Ann Harris is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, she is known for her role in the film The Beguiled as the sultry 17-year-old Carol who seduces Clint Eastwood's character. Harris had a small singing role in Newsies as "Patrick's mother", the woman searching for her son in the first part...

     - Background Vocals
  • Debi Dye - Background Vocals
  • Ed Rash - Tambourine

Production Personnel

  • Don De Vito - Producer
  • Hiroshi Kanai - Production Coordinator
  • Toshiyuki Sugano|Toshiyuki "Heckel" Sugano - CBS
    CBS
    CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

    /Sony
    Sony
    , commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

    Production Director
  • Patrick Stansfield - Production Supervision
  • Ava Megna - Chief of Staff
  • Stan Miller - Sound Contractor
  • Tim Charles - Monitor Mixer
  • Val Lane - Sound Technician
  • Joel Bernstein and Alan Bartz - Equipment Technicians
  • Tony Broccoli - Production Assistant
  • Ed Rash - Best Boy
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