Infidels
Encyclopedia
Infidels is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan
's 22nd studio album
, released by Columbia Records
in October 1983.
Produced by Mark Knopfler
and Dylan himself, Infidels is seen as his return to secular music, following a conversion to Christianity
and three evangelical
, gospel
records. Though he never publicly renounced his faith or abandoned religious imagery, Infidels gained much attention for its focus on more personal themes of love and loss, in addition to commentary on the environment and geopolitics
.
The critical reaction was the strongest for Dylan in years, almost universally hailed for its songwriting and performances. The album also fared well commercially, reaching #20 in the US and going gold, and #9 in the UK. Still, many fans and critics were disappointed that several songs were inexplicably cut from the album just prior to mastering - primarily "Blind Willie McTell
", considered a career highlight by many critics, and not officially released until it appeared on The Bootleg Series Volume III eight years later.
, best known as the frontman of Dire Straits
. Dylan wanted to produce the album himself, but feeling that technology had passed him by, he approached a number of contemporary artists who were more at home in a modern recording studio. David Bowie
, Frank Zappa
, and Elvis Costello
were all approached before Dylan hired Knopfler.
Knopfler later admitted it was difficult to produce Dylan. "You see people working in different ways, and it's good for you. You have to learn to adapt to the way different people work. Yes, it was strange at times with Bob. One of the great parts about production is that it demonstrates to you that you have to be flexible. Each song has its own secret that's different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you're doing, not just who you're doing. You have to be sensitive and flexible, and it's fun. I'd say I was more disciplined. But I think Bob is much more disciplined as a writer of lyrics, as a poet. He's an absolute genius. As a singer - absolute genius. But musically, I think it’s a lot more basic. The music just tends to be a vehicle for that poetry."
Once Knopfler was aboard, the two quickly assembled a team of accomplished musicians. Knopfler's own tough and flinty guitar tone was paired with that of Mick Taylor
; former lead guitar
ist of the Blues Breakers and, more famously, the Rolling Stones, Taylor was best known for his fluid, melodic improvisations that were firmly placed in the blues tradition. Having been introduced to Mick Taylor the previous summer, Dylan had developed a friendship with him that resulted in the guitarist hearing the Infidels material first during the months leading up to the April sessions. In addition, the sessions benefited as well from Taylor's ability as a slide guitarist.
Knopfler said about the instrument he plays on Infidels: "I still haven't got a flat-top wooden acoustic, because I've never found one that was as good as the two best flat tops I ever played. One...was a hand-built Greco that Rudy Pensa, of Rudy's Music Stop lent me. I used...the Greco on Infidels."
Knopfler suggested Alan Clark
for keyboards as well as engineer Neil Dorfsman, both of whom were hired. According to Knopfler, it was Dylan's idea to recruit Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar
as the rhythm section. Best known as Sly & Robbie, Shakespeare and Dunbar were famed reggae
producers who were major recording artists in their own right. An unlikely but inspired mix, the chemistry between these players is largely responsible for the album's sweet, pop-bent while maintaining a tough, rocking core.
"Bob's musical ability is limited, in terms of being able to play a guitar or a piano," said Knopfler. "It's rudimentary, but it doesn't affect his variety, his sense of melody, his singing. It's all there. In fact, some of the things he plays on piano while he's singing are lovely, even though they're rudimentary. That all demonstrates the fact that you don't have to be a great technician. It's the same old story: If something is played with soul, that's what's important."
, "Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else...I don't adhere to rabbi
s, preacher
s, evangelist
s, all of that. I've learned more from the songs than I've learned from any of this kind of entity."
Though Infidels is often cited as a return to secular work (following a trio of albums heavily influenced by born-again Christianity), many of the songs recorded during the Infidels sessions retain Dylan's penchant for Biblical references and strong religious imagery. An explicit example of this is the opening track, "Jokerman". Along with the Biblical and religious references, however, are lyrics about populists who are too concerned with the superficial, ("Michelangelo could've carved your features") and more about action than thinking through the complexities ("fools rush in where angels fear to tread"). A number of critics have called Jokerman a sly political protest, addressed to a "manipulator of crowds...a dream twister."
The second track, "Sweetheart Like You", is sung to a fictitious woman. Oliver Trager's book, Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, mentions that some have criticized this song as sexist. Indeed, NPR
's Tim Riley makes that accusation in his book, Hard Rain: A Dylan Commentary, singling out lyrics like "...a woman like you should be at home/That's where you belong/Taking care of somebody nice/Who don't know how to do you wrong." However, Trager also cites other interpretations that dispute this claim. Some have argued that ""Sweetheart Like You"" is being sung to the Christian church ("what's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?"), claiming that Dylan is mourning the church's deviation from scriptural truth. The song was later covered by Rod Stewart on his 1995 album A Spanner in the Works
.
A few critics like Robert Christgau
and Bill Wyman
claimed that Infidels betrayed a strong, strange dislike for space travel, and it can be heard on the first few lines of "License to Kill." ("Oh, man has invented his doom/First step was touching the moon.") A harsh indictment accusing mankind of imperialism and a predilection for violence, the song deals specifically with mankind’s relationship to the environment, either on a political scale or a scientific one. A skeptical opinion toward the American space program was shared among other evangelicals of Dylan's generation.
The song "Neighborhood Bully" is often regarded as a defense of Israel
. Events in the history of the State of Israel are referenced, such as the Six-Day War
and Operation Opera
, Israel's bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad on June 7, 1981. Dylan commented extensively on the song in a 1984 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine. In 2001, the Jerusalem Post described the song as "a favorite among Dylan-loving residents of the territories
". Israeli singer Ariel Zilber
covered "Neighborhood Bully" in 2005 in a version translated to Hebrew. Others cite it as a critique of the decimation of the Palestinian population since the 1967 map was drawn (the album came out in 1983).
"Union Sundown" is a political protest song against imported consumer goods and greed. It displays Dylan's penchant and ability to take a concept and examine it from every angle in a single song, discussing the greed and power of unions and corporations ("You know capitalism is above the law,/ It don't count unless it sells./ When it costs too much to build it at home you just build it cheaper someplace else." ... "Democracy don't rule this world,/ You better get that through your head./ This world is ruled by violence..."), the hypocrisy of Americans who complain about the lack of American jobs while not paying more for American-made products ("Lots of people complainin' that there is no work./I say, 'Why you say that for? When nothin' you got is U.S.-made? They don't make nothin' here no more"), the collaboration of the unions themselves ("The unions are big business, friend'/ And they’re goin’ out like a dinosaur."), and the desperate conditions of the foreign workers who make the goods ("All the furniture, it says “Made in Brazil”'/ Where a woman, she slaved for sure'/ Bringin’ home thirty cents a day to a family of twelve'/ You know, that’s a lot of money to her." ... "And a man's going to do what he has to do,/ When he's got a hungry mouth to feed.").
"I And I", according to author/critic Tim Riley, "updates the Dylan mythos. Even though it substitutes self-pity for the [pessimism found throughout Infidels], you can't ignore it as a Dylan spyglass: 'Someone else is speakin' with my mouth, but I'm listening only to my heart/I've made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still go barefoot.'" Riley sees the song as an exploration of the distance between Dylan's "inner identity and the public face he wears".
Infidels closer, "Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight" stands out on the album as a pure love song. On past albums like John Wesley Harding
and Nashville Skyline
, Dylan closed with love songs sung to the narrator's partner, and that tradition is continued with "Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight", with a chorus that asks "Don't fall apart on me tonight, I just don't think that I could handle it./Don't fall apart on me tonight, Yesterday's just a memory, Tomorrow is never what it's supposed to be/And I need you, yeah, you tonight."
) were recorded during these sessions, but only "Foot Of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell" received serious consideration for possible inclusion.
"Blind Willie McTell" is perhaps the most heatedly discussed outtake in Dylan's catalog. "On the surface, 'Blind Willie McTell' is about the landscape of the blues," writes Tim Riley, "and the figures Dylan pays respects to on his 1962 debut. But it's also about the landscape of pop, and how an aging persona like Dylan might feel as he casts his experienced gaze over the road he's walked. Always skeptical about the quality of his own voice, he didn't release 'Blind Willie McTell' at first because he didn't feel his tribute lived up to its sources. The irony here is that his own insecurity about living up to his imagined blues ideal becomes a subject in itself. 'Nobody sings the blues like Blind Willie McTell' becomes a way of saying how Dylan feels displaced not just by the industry...but by the music he calls home." Clinton Heylin gives "Blind Willie McTell" a more ambitious interpretation, describing it as "the world's eulogy, sung by an old bluesman recast as St. John the Divine."
Both "Foot Of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell" were dropped from consideration soon after Mark Knopfler ended his involvement with the album. In later years, Knopfler claimed that "Infidels would have been a better record if I had mixed the thing, but I had to go on tour in Germany, and then Bob had a weird thing with CBS, where he had to deliver records to them at a certain time and I was away in Europe...Some of [Infidels] is like listening to roughs. Maybe Bob thought I'd rushed things because I was in a hurry to leave, but I offered to finish it after our tour. Instead, he got the engineer to do the final mix."
Dylan spent roughly a month on remixing and overdubbing, holding a number of sessions in June rerecording vocal tracks using newly rewritten lyrics. During this time, he decided to cast aside "Foot Of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell," replacing them with "Union Sundown".
Also, alternate versions of every song on Infidels are in circulation as well. None of these alternate takes have been commercially released.
, Graham Lock of New Musical Express still referred to Dylan as "culturally a spent force...a confused man trying to rekindle old fires." Rolling Stone
and The Village Voice
critic Robert Christgau was not impressed either, writing that Dylan had "turned into a hateful crackpot. Worse than his equation of Jews with Zionists with the Likud or his utterly muddled disquisition on international labor is the ital Hasidism that inspires no less than three superstitious attacks on space travel. God knows (and I use that phrase advisedly) how far off the deep end he'll go if John Glenn
becomes president." Greil Marcus
dismissed it many years later as another "bad [album] that made no sense, didn't hang together, had no point, and did not need to exist."
But even the skeptics found some merit in Infidels. In the same review, Christgau wrote, "All the wonted care Dylan has put into this album shows...His distaste for the daughters of Satan has gained complexity of tone—neither dismissive nor vituperative, he addresses women with a solicitousness that's strangely chilling, as if he knows what a self-serving hypocrite he's being, but only subliminally. At times I even feel sorry for him, just as he intends." Indeed, critics were unanimous in praising the overall sound, "one case where the streamlined production doesn't seem to work against the rugged authority he can still command as a singer," wrote Tim Riley. Music critic Bill Wyman conceded that "the songs are mature and complex" even though "melodically they are similar sounding and the affair as a whole still has echoes of his crackpot Christian days."
Infidels would place tenth on The Village Voice
s Pazz & Jop
Critics Poll for 1983, Dylan's highest placement since 1975 when The Basement Tapes
placed #1 and Blood on the Tracks
placed #4. Years later, when outtakes like "Someone's Got A Hold Of My Heart," "Blind Willie McTell," and "Foot Of Pride" began to circulate, the album's stature would in some ways grow, becoming a missed opportunity at a potential masterpiece to some critics like Rob Bowman and Clinton Heylin.
Without a tour in 1983, Infidels still generated modest sales, selling consistently through the Christmas shopping season. CBS even produced a music video for "Sweetheart Like You," Dylan's first in the MTV
era. It was followed by a second video for "Jokerman," which CBS issued as a single in February 1984.
, drummer Charlie Quintana
, and guitarist JJ Holiday. As Heylin notes, "this was Dylan's first real dalliance with third-generation American rock & rollers." These informal sessions set the stage for Dylan's first public performances since 1982.
Late Night with David Letterman
had only aired since 1982, but the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed talk show was already a hit on late night television
. After months of phone calls, Dylan agreed to appear on Late Night, and on March 22, 1984, he appeared with Quintana, Holiday (introduced by Letterman as "Justin Jesting"), and bassist Tony Marsico. Performing three songs with his band of post-punk musicians, Dylan delivered what many consider to be his most entertaining television performance ever. The poorly-prepared but energetic combo first performed an unrehearsed version of Sonny Boy Williamson
's "Don't Start Me To Talking", then a radically different arrangement of "License To Kill". The final song was a peppy, somewhat new-wave version of "Jokerman" that was to end with a harmonica solo. However, Dylan began playing before he realized the harp was in the wrong key, and the band had to riff endlessly while he stepped off-camera to retrieve the correct one. After the performance, Letterman walked onstage and congratulated Dylan, asking him if he could come back and play every Thursday. Dylan smiled and jokingly agreed.
Dylan would soon dissolve his impromptu band after their one performance on Late Night, but within a few months, Dylan would begin his first tour since 1981, and from that compile his next record.
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...
's 22nd studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
, released 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...
in October 1983.
Produced by Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
and Dylan himself, Infidels is seen as his return to secular music, following a conversion to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and three evangelical
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
, gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
records. Though he never publicly renounced his faith or abandoned religious imagery, Infidels gained much attention for its focus on more personal themes of love and loss, in addition to commentary on the environment and geopolitics
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
.
The critical reaction was the strongest for Dylan in years, almost universally hailed for its songwriting and performances. The album also fared well commercially, reaching #20 in the US and going gold, and #9 in the UK. Still, many fans and critics were disappointed that several songs were inexplicably cut from the album just prior to mastering - primarily "Blind Willie McTell
Blind Willie McTell (song)
"Blind Willie McTell" is a song by Bob Dylan, titled after the blues singer Blind Willie McTell. It was recorded in 1983 but left off Dylan's album Infidels and officially released in 1991 on the The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 1961-1991. The melody is loosely based on "St. James Infirmary Blues"...
", considered a career highlight by many critics, and not officially released until it appeared on The Bootleg Series Volume III eight years later.
The recording sessions
Critics and historians often make a note of Infidels polished, tasteful production. One of the main contributors to the album's overall sound is Mark KnopflerMark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
, best known as the frontman of Dire Straits
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...
. Dylan wanted to produce the album himself, but feeling that technology had passed him by, he approached a number of contemporary artists who were more at home in a modern recording studio. David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, and Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
were all approached before Dylan hired Knopfler.
Knopfler later admitted it was difficult to produce Dylan. "You see people working in different ways, and it's good for you. You have to learn to adapt to the way different people work. Yes, it was strange at times with Bob. One of the great parts about production is that it demonstrates to you that you have to be flexible. Each song has its own secret that's different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you're doing, not just who you're doing. You have to be sensitive and flexible, and it's fun. I'd say I was more disciplined. But I think Bob is much more disciplined as a writer of lyrics, as a poet. He's an absolute genius. As a singer - absolute genius. But musically, I think it’s a lot more basic. The music just tends to be a vehicle for that poetry."
Once Knopfler was aboard, the two quickly assembled a team of accomplished musicians. Knopfler's own tough and flinty guitar tone was paired with that of Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
; former lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
ist of the Blues Breakers and, more famously, the Rolling Stones, Taylor was best known for his fluid, melodic improvisations that were firmly placed in the blues tradition. Having been introduced to Mick Taylor the previous summer, Dylan had developed a friendship with him that resulted in the guitarist hearing the Infidels material first during the months leading up to the April sessions. In addition, the sessions benefited as well from Taylor's ability as a slide guitarist.
Knopfler said about the instrument he plays on Infidels: "I still haven't got a flat-top wooden acoustic, because I've never found one that was as good as the two best flat tops I ever played. One...was a hand-built Greco that Rudy Pensa, of Rudy's Music Stop lent me. I used...the Greco on Infidels."
Knopfler suggested Alan Clark
Alan Clark (keyboardist)
Alan Clark is an English musician who was the first and main keyboardist for the British rock band Dire Straits.- Biography :...
for keyboards as well as engineer Neil Dorfsman, both of whom were hired. According to Knopfler, it was Dylan's idea to recruit Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar
Sly Dunbar
Lowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar is a drummer.-Biography:Dunbar, whose nickname was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen...
as the rhythm section. Best known as Sly & Robbie, Shakespeare and Dunbar were famed reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
producers who were major recording artists in their own right. An unlikely but inspired mix, the chemistry between these players is largely responsible for the album's sweet, pop-bent while maintaining a tough, rocking core.
"Bob's musical ability is limited, in terms of being able to play a guitar or a piano," said Knopfler. "It's rudimentary, but it doesn't affect his variety, his sense of melody, his singing. It's all there. In fact, some of the things he plays on piano while he's singing are lovely, even though they're rudimentary. That all demonstrates the fact that you don't have to be a great technician. It's the same old story: If something is played with soul, that's what's important."
The songs
Beginning with Infidels, Dylan ceased to preach a specific religion, revealing little about his personal religious beliefs in his lyrics. In 1997, after recovering from a serious heart condition, Dylan said in an interview for NewsweekNewsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, "Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else...I don't adhere to rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s, preacher
Preacher
Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...
s, evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
s, all of that. I've learned more from the songs than I've learned from any of this kind of entity."
Though Infidels is often cited as a return to secular work (following a trio of albums heavily influenced by born-again Christianity), many of the songs recorded during the Infidels sessions retain Dylan's penchant for Biblical references and strong religious imagery. An explicit example of this is the opening track, "Jokerman". Along with the Biblical and religious references, however, are lyrics about populists who are too concerned with the superficial, ("Michelangelo could've carved your features") and more about action than thinking through the complexities ("fools rush in where angels fear to tread"). A number of critics have called Jokerman a sly political protest, addressed to a "manipulator of crowds...a dream twister."
The second track, "Sweetheart Like You", is sung to a fictitious woman. Oliver Trager's book, Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, mentions that some have criticized this song as sexist. Indeed, NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's Tim Riley makes that accusation in his book, Hard Rain: A Dylan Commentary, singling out lyrics like "...a woman like you should be at home/That's where you belong/Taking care of somebody nice/Who don't know how to do you wrong." However, Trager also cites other interpretations that dispute this claim. Some have argued that ""Sweetheart Like You"" is being sung to the Christian church ("what's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?"), claiming that Dylan is mourning the church's deviation from scriptural truth. The song was later covered by Rod Stewart on his 1995 album A Spanner in the Works
A Spanner in the Works
A Spanner in the Works is a studio album released by Rod Stewart on May 26, 1995 . It is Rod’s seventeenth studio album and ended a four-year gap since his last studio album. At the time this was the longest span between studio albums that Rod had experienced. The album was released on Warner...
.
A few critics like 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...
and Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman is an English musician best known as the bass guitarist for the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1992. Since 1997, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings...
claimed that Infidels betrayed a strong, strange dislike for space travel, and it can be heard on the first few lines of "License to Kill." ("Oh, man has invented his doom/First step was touching the moon.") A harsh indictment accusing mankind of imperialism and a predilection for violence, the song deals specifically with mankind’s relationship to the environment, either on a political scale or a scientific one. A skeptical opinion toward the American space program was shared among other evangelicals of Dylan's generation.
The song "Neighborhood Bully" is often regarded as a defense of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Events in the history of the State of Israel are referenced, such as the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
and Operation Opera
Operation Opera
Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on June 7, 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq....
, Israel's bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad on June 7, 1981. Dylan commented extensively on the song in a 1984 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine. In 2001, the Jerusalem Post described the song as "a favorite among Dylan-loving residents of the territories
Israeli-occupied territories
The Israeli-occupied territories are the territories which have been designated as occupied territory by the United Nations and other international organizations, governments and others to refer to the territory seized by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria...
". Israeli singer Ariel Zilber
Ariel Zilber
Ariel Zilber is an Israeli singer-songwriter and composer. He is considered one of the most prominent musicians and singer-songwriters in Israeli music, known for his highly literate lyrics and for his simple yet profound style.Zilber became a Baal Tshuva following the 2005 disengagement from...
covered "Neighborhood Bully" in 2005 in a version translated to Hebrew. Others cite it as a critique of the decimation of the Palestinian population since the 1967 map was drawn (the album came out in 1983).
"Union Sundown" is a political protest song against imported consumer goods and greed. It displays Dylan's penchant and ability to take a concept and examine it from every angle in a single song, discussing the greed and power of unions and corporations ("You know capitalism is above the law,/ It don't count unless it sells./ When it costs too much to build it at home you just build it cheaper someplace else." ... "Democracy don't rule this world,/ You better get that through your head./ This world is ruled by violence..."), the hypocrisy of Americans who complain about the lack of American jobs while not paying more for American-made products ("Lots of people complainin' that there is no work./I say, 'Why you say that for? When nothin' you got is U.S.-made? They don't make nothin' here no more"), the collaboration of the unions themselves ("The unions are big business, friend'/ And they’re goin’ out like a dinosaur."), and the desperate conditions of the foreign workers who make the goods ("All the furniture, it says “Made in Brazil”'/ Where a woman, she slaved for sure'/ Bringin’ home thirty cents a day to a family of twelve'/ You know, that’s a lot of money to her." ... "And a man's going to do what he has to do,/ When he's got a hungry mouth to feed.").
"I And I", according to author/critic Tim Riley, "updates the Dylan mythos. Even though it substitutes self-pity for the [pessimism found throughout Infidels], you can't ignore it as a Dylan spyglass: 'Someone else is speakin' with my mouth, but I'm listening only to my heart/I've made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still go barefoot.'" Riley sees the song as an exploration of the distance between Dylan's "inner identity and the public face he wears".
Infidels closer, "Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight" stands out on the album as a pure love song. On past albums like John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding (album)
John Wesley Harding is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's eighth studio album, released by Columbia Records in December 1967.Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan's return to acoustic music and traditional roots, after three albums of electric rock music...
and Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's ninth studio album, released by Columbia Records in April 1969.The album marked a dramatic departure for Dylan, previously known for his groundbreaking, poetic folk music and rock and roll...
, Dylan closed with love songs sung to the narrator's partner, and that tradition is continued with "Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight", with a chorus that asks "Don't fall apart on me tonight, I just don't think that I could handle it./Don't fall apart on me tonight, Yesterday's just a memory, Tomorrow is never what it's supposed to be/And I need you, yeah, you tonight."
Final sequencing and mixing
While Dylan was known to be prolific and had numerous outtakes for most of his albums, Infidels in particular garnered considerable controversy over the years regarding its final selection of songs. By June 1983, Dylan and Knopfler had set a preliminary sequence of nine songs, including two songs that were ultimately omitted: "Foot Of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell." Other notable outtakes like "Someone's Got A Hold Of My Heart" (later re-written and re-recorded for Empire BurlesqueEmpire Burlesque
Empire Burlesque is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 23rd studio album, released by Columbia Records in June 1985. The album peaked at #33 in the US and #11 in the UK....
) were recorded during these sessions, but only "Foot Of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell" received serious consideration for possible inclusion.
"Blind Willie McTell" is perhaps the most heatedly discussed outtake in Dylan's catalog. "On the surface, 'Blind Willie McTell' is about the landscape of the blues," writes Tim Riley, "and the figures Dylan pays respects to on his 1962 debut. But it's also about the landscape of pop, and how an aging persona like Dylan might feel as he casts his experienced gaze over the road he's walked. Always skeptical about the quality of his own voice, he didn't release 'Blind Willie McTell' at first because he didn't feel his tribute lived up to its sources. The irony here is that his own insecurity about living up to his imagined blues ideal becomes a subject in itself. 'Nobody sings the blues like Blind Willie McTell' becomes a way of saying how Dylan feels displaced not just by the industry...but by the music he calls home." Clinton Heylin gives "Blind Willie McTell" a more ambitious interpretation, describing it as "the world's eulogy, sung by an old bluesman recast as St. John the Divine."
Both "Foot Of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell" were dropped from consideration soon after Mark Knopfler ended his involvement with the album. In later years, Knopfler claimed that "Infidels would have been a better record if I had mixed the thing, but I had to go on tour in Germany, and then Bob had a weird thing with CBS, where he had to deliver records to them at a certain time and I was away in Europe...Some of [Infidels] is like listening to roughs. Maybe Bob thought I'd rushed things because I was in a hurry to leave, but I offered to finish it after our tour. Instead, he got the engineer to do the final mix."
Dylan spent roughly a month on remixing and overdubbing, holding a number of sessions in June rerecording vocal tracks using newly rewritten lyrics. During this time, he decided to cast aside "Foot Of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell," replacing them with "Union Sundown".
Outtakes
As with most Dylan albums, outtakes and rough mixes from Infidels were eventually bootlegged. This a partial listing of known outtakes. All titles in parentheses are "working titles".- "16 Tons" (Merle TravisMerle TravisMerle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon"...
) - "Across The Borderline" (Ry CooderRy CooderRyland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
, John HiattJohn HiattJohn Hiatt is an American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New Wave, blues and country. Hiatt has been nominated for several Grammy Awards - although he has never won- and has been awarded a variety of other...
, Jim DickinsonJim DickinsonJames Luther "Jim" Dickinson was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the Memphis based band, Mudboy & The Neutrons.- Biography :...
) - "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground" (Version 1), released as a B-side to the Infidel singles.
- "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground" (Version 2)
- "Aquarium" (Robbie Sly - Instrumental)
- "Back To The Wall"
- "Blind Willie McTell" (electric take, different from The Bootleg Series take)
- "Blind Willie McTell" (later released on The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3)
- ("Buttons + Buns")
- "Buttons" or ("Great Buttons Again")
- "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" (Horton/Darling/Gabler)
- "Christmas Song" (Mel TorméMel TorméMelvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
) - "Clean Cut Kid" (Brooklyn Anthem) (later reworked for the Empire Burlesque album)
- "Cold Cold Heart" (Hank Williams)
- "Columbus Georgia" or "Columbus Stockade Blues"
- ("Dadada") (Grateful Dead)
- "Dark As A Dungeon" (Merle Travis)
- "Dark Groove" (Instrumental)
- "Death Is Not The End" (later reworked for the Down in the Groove album)
- ("Diddling")
- "Don't Drink No Chevy" (?)
- "Don't Fly Unless It's Safe" (Instrumental)
- "Foot of Pride" (later released on The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3)
- "From Paul"
- ("Goin' Up Let It Roll")
- "Glory To The King"
- "The Green, Green Grass of HomeGreen Green Grass of Home"Green, Green Grass of Home", written by Claude "Curly" Putman, Jr., is a country song originally made popular by Porter Wagoner in 1965 and Bobby Bare in 1965. It was sung later by Tom Jones in 1966 when it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 3 December staying there for a total of seven...
" (J. Curly PutmanCurly PutmanClaude "Curly" Putman, Jr. is an American songwriter, based in Nashville. His biggest success was "Green, Green Grass of Home" , which was covered by Elvis Presley, Johnny Darrell, Gram Parsons, Joan Baez, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roberto Leal, Merle Haggard, Bobby Bare, Joe Tex, Nana...
) - "Green OnionsGreen OnionsGreen Onions is the debut album by Booker T. & the M.G.'s, released on Stax Records in October of 1962. It reached number 33 on the Pop Albums chart in the month of its release...
" (Booker T. JonesBooker T. JonesBooker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime...
, Steve CropperSteve CropperSteve Cropper , also known as Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T...
, Lewis Steinberg, Al Jackson, Jr.) - ("Half-Finished Song I")
- ("Half-Finished Song II")
- "He's Gone" (?)
- "Home, Home On The Range" (William Goodwin, B. Bigley & D.Kelly)
- "How Many Days" (?)
- "I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair" (Richard RodgersRichard RodgersRichard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
, Oscar Hammerstein IIOscar Hammerstein IIOscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
) - "I’m Movin' On" (Hank SnowHank SnowClarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...
) - ("Instrumental Jam")
- Instrumental (Blues)
- Instrumental (Bluesy Jam: Slow)
- Instrumental (Bluesy Jam: Bluesier)
- Instrumental (Bluesy Jam: Pickup Again)
- Instrumental (BLues Riff)
- Instrumental (Bob Lead Jazz)
- Instrumental (Bob Said Tape This)
- Instrumental (Boogie 1)
- Instrumental (Boogie 2)
- Instrumental (End Bob 12-String)
- Instrumental (G Boogie)
- Instrumental (Harmonico Jam 1)
- Instrumental (Harmonico Jam 2)
- Instrumental (Harmonico Jam 3)
- Instrumental (Harmonico Solo)
- Instrumental (Instrumental Jam)
- Instrumental (Jam Groove)
- Instrumental (Mark Pickin' Groove)
- Instrumental (Mark Soop Pick Up)
- Instrumental (Mark Plunks Tasty)
- Instrumental (Reggae Jam)
- "Jesus Met The Woman At The Well" (trad.)
- "Julius and Ethel" (fully realised outtake, never released)
- ("KIM")
- "Lord Protect My Child" (later released on The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3)
- ("Love You Too Jam")
- "Lovers Concerto" (Sandy Linzer & Denny Randell)
- "Prison Station Blues"
- "Oh, Babe"
- "Oh, Susannah!" (Stephen FosterStephen FosterStephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
) - "Oklahoma Kansas"
- ("Reggae Toms Toms Jam")
- "Silent NightSilent Night"Silent Night" is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber...
" (Franz Gruber, Josef MohrJosef MohrJoseph Mohr, sometimes spelt Josef was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and composer, who wrote the words to the Christmas carol "Silent Night".-Biography:...
) - "Slow Try Baby"
- "Someone's Got A Hold Of My Heart" (later reworked to "Tight Connection to My Heart)
- "Tell Me" (later released on The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3)
- "This Was My Love" (Jim Harbert) (Version 1)
- "This Was My Love" (Jim Harbert) (Version 2)
- ("4/20 Trees Hannibal Alps")
- Unidentified Song 1
- Unidentified Song 2
Also, alternate versions of every song on Infidels are in circulation as well. None of these alternate takes have been commercially released.
- "Jokerman"
- "Sweetheart Like You" (alternate version 1)
- "Sweetheart Like You" (alternate version 2)
- "Sweetheart Like You" (Several rehearsals)
- "Neighborhood Bully" (alternate version)
- "License To Kill" (alternate version)
- "Man Of Peace" (alternate version)
- "Union Sundown" (alternate version 1)
- "Union Sundown" (alternate version 2)
- "I And I" (alternate version)
- "Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight" (alternate version)
Reception
While Infidels was better received than its predecessor, Shot of LoveShot of Love
Shot of Love is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 21st studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 1981.It is generally considered to be Dylan's last of a trilogy of overtly religious, Christian albums. Also, it was his first since becoming born-again to focus on secular themes, from...
, Graham Lock of New Musical Express still referred to Dylan as "culturally a spent force...a confused man trying to rekindle old fires." 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...
and The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
critic Robert Christgau was not impressed either, writing that Dylan had "turned into a hateful crackpot. Worse than his equation of Jews with Zionists with the Likud or his utterly muddled disquisition on international labor is the ital Hasidism that inspires no less than three superstitious attacks on space travel. God knows (and I use that phrase advisedly) how far off the deep end he'll go if John Glenn
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...
becomes president." Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
dismissed it many years later as another "bad [album] that made no sense, didn't hang together, had no point, and did not need to exist."
But even the skeptics found some merit in Infidels. In the same review, Christgau wrote, "All the wonted care Dylan has put into this album shows...His distaste for the daughters of Satan has gained complexity of tone—neither dismissive nor vituperative, he addresses women with a solicitousness that's strangely chilling, as if he knows what a self-serving hypocrite he's being, but only subliminally. At times I even feel sorry for him, just as he intends." Indeed, critics were unanimous in praising the overall sound, "one case where the streamlined production doesn't seem to work against the rugged authority he can still command as a singer," wrote Tim Riley. Music critic Bill Wyman conceded that "the songs are mature and complex" even though "melodically they are similar sounding and the affair as a whole still has echoes of his crackpot Christian days."
Infidels would place tenth on The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
s Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
Critics Poll for 1983, Dylan's highest placement since 1975 when The Basement Tapes
The Basement Tapes
The Basement Tapes is a 1975 studio album by Bob Dylan and The Band. The songs featuring Dylan's vocals were recorded in 1967, eight years before the album's release, at houses in and around Woodstock, New York, where Dylan and the Band lived...
placed #1 and Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks is Bob Dylan's 15th studio album, released by Columbia Records in January 1975. The album marked Dylan's return to Columbia after a two-album stint with Asylum Records....
placed #4. Years later, when outtakes like "Someone's Got A Hold Of My Heart," "Blind Willie McTell," and "Foot Of Pride" began to circulate, the album's stature would in some ways grow, becoming a missed opportunity at a potential masterpiece to some critics like Rob Bowman and Clinton Heylin.
Without a tour in 1983, Infidels still generated modest sales, selling consistently through the Christmas shopping season. CBS even produced a music video for "Sweetheart Like You," Dylan's first in the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
era. It was followed by a second video for "Jokerman," which CBS issued as a single in February 1984.
Aftermath
Dylan spent the fall of 1983 recording demos and various songs at his home in Malibu, California. Rather than work alone, Dylan brought in a number of young musicians, including Charlie SextonCharlie Sexton
Charles Wayne Sexton is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known for the 1985 hit Beat's So Lonely and as the guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band from 1999 to 2002 and since 2009...
, drummer Charlie Quintana
Charlie Quintana
Charlie Quintana was born in 1962, in El Paso, TX. Quintana was A drummer for the old school punk band Social Distortion, who joined in 2000 as the replacement of Chuck Biscuits , following the death of the band's former guitarist Dennis Danell...
, and guitarist JJ Holiday. As Heylin notes, "this was Dylan's first real dalliance with third-generation American rock & rollers." These informal sessions set the stage for Dylan's first public performances since 1982.
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
had only aired since 1982, but the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed talk show was already a hit on late night television
Late night television
Late night television in the United States is the block of television programming airing after 11:00 pm and usually through 2:00 am. Traditionally, this type of programming airs after the late local news and is most notable for being the daypart used for a particular genre of programming that falls...
. After months of phone calls, Dylan agreed to appear on Late Night, and on March 22, 1984, he appeared with Quintana, Holiday (introduced by Letterman as "Justin Jesting"), and bassist Tony Marsico. Performing three songs with his band of post-punk musicians, Dylan delivered what many consider to be his most entertaining television performance ever. The poorly-prepared but energetic combo first performed an unrehearsed version of Sonny Boy Williamson
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Willie "Sonny Boy" Williamson was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, from Mississippi. He is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic and influential blues musicians, with considerable prowess on the harmonica and highly creative songwriting skills...
's "Don't Start Me To Talking", then a radically different arrangement of "License To Kill". The final song was a peppy, somewhat new-wave version of "Jokerman" that was to end with a harmonica solo. However, Dylan began playing before he realized the harp was in the wrong key, and the band had to riff endlessly while he stepped off-camera to retrieve the correct one. After the performance, Letterman walked onstage and congratulated Dylan, asking him if he could come back and play every Thursday. Dylan smiled and jokingly agreed.
Dylan would soon dissolve his impromptu band after their one performance on Late Night, but within a few months, Dylan would begin his first tour since 1981, and from that compile his next record.
Side one
- "Jokerman" – 6:12
- "Sweetheart Like You" – 4:31
- "Neighborhood Bully" – 4:33
- "License to Kill" – 3:31
Side two
- "Man of Peace" – 6:27
- "Union Sundown" – 5:21
- "I and I" – 5:10
- "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight" – 5:54
Personnel
- Bob Dylan – guitarGuitarThe 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...
, harmonicaHarmonicaThe 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...
, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA 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...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Sly DunbarSly DunbarLowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar is a drummer.-Biography:Dunbar, whose nickname was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen...
– drumsDrum kitA 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 ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA 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... - Robbie Shakespeare – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Mick TaylorMick TaylorMichael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
– guitar - Mark KnopflerMark KnopflerMark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
– guitar - Alan ClarkAlan Clark (keyboardist)Alan Clark is an English musician who was the first and main keyboardist for the British rock band Dire Straits.- Biography :...
– keyboards - Clydie KingClydie KingClydie Crittendon is an American singer, best known for her session work as a backing vocalist....
– vocals on "Union Sundown"
Trivia
- Infidels is Dylan's first album to be entirely recorded using digital technology, embracing then-current production techniques.