Street-Legal
Encyclopedia
Street-Legal is singer-songwriter
Bob Dylan
's 18th studio album
, released by Columbia Records
in June 1978. The album was a serious musical departure for Dylan, who uses a large pop-rock band—complete with female backing vocalists—for the first time.
Following the twin successes of Blood on the Tracks
and Desire, Street-Legal was another gold record for Dylan, but it peaked at only #11 on the US Billboard charts
, making it his first studio album to miss the US Top 10 since 1964. However, it became his best-selling studio album in the UK, reaching #2 on the charts (his highest position in eight years) and achieving platinum status with 300,000 copies sold (the only other Dylan album to do this was The Essential Bob Dylan
).
In 1999, Street-Legal received a special remix
ing and remaster
ing job from engineer Don DeVito. The newer version boasted richer sound, correcting numerous issues with the original production, and has been used in all subsequent reissues.
", "No Time to Think" and "Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)". Although the Bible
(both Old
and New Testament
s) had always influenced Dylan's work, the proximity of this album to the beginning of his gospel
tour (early 1979) raises the possibility that some songs may have been written with more Christian intent than previous ones.
where Leonard Cohen
was recording a new album, Death of a Ladies Man, with Phil Spector
and Allen Ginsberg
. After one particular session where Dylan and others indulged in a substantial amount of alcohol, Dylan returned to his Malibu home with an old friend of Cohen's, a woman named Malka Marom. According to a declaration by Sara Dylan's legal representative (publicly released in March 1977), "On February 22...[Sara] came down to breakfast and found Dylan, the children, and a woman named Malka at the breakfast table. She said that it was then that Dylan struck her on the face and ordered her to leave." It is unclear how much of this statement is true, but any additional context or information was sealed by Judge Raffedie. (Judge Raffedie also sealed Dylan's response to his ex-wife's allegations; the order was given even before Dylan's response was ever filed.) The divorce was quickly settled, becoming final in June 1977, with apparently little effort at reconciliation. Sara would receive initial custody of the children.
In the meantime, Dylan was still editing Renaldo and Clara
, an ill-fated film that was shot during the fall of 1975, when Dylan was on the first leg of a tour with the now-defunct Rolling Thunder Revue. With the summer approaching, Dylan took a break from the film and returned to his farm in Minnesota
, where he was accompanied by his children and Faridi McFree, with whom Dylan had started a relationship. There he began writing a new set of songs, including "Changing of the Guards", "No Time to Think" and "Where Are You Tonight?" In fact, at least six of the nine songs ultimately included on Street-Legal were written during this time.
His work was disrupted on August 16 when news broke that Elvis Presley
had died at 3:30 p.m. at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee
. "I went over my whole life," recalled Dylan. "I went over my whole childhood. I didn't talk to anyone for a week."
Later that fall, another custody battle emerged when Sara sought permission from the court to move to Hawaii
with the children. It was a major distraction at the time, as Dylan was planning a world tour, his first in twelve years; Dylan had produced very little musical activity in the past year, and with legal costs from his divorce exacerbating his financial difficulties, he was certainly interested in generating some income. The stage was already set when Dylan signed a five-year lease to an old three-story building on the corner of Ocean and Main in Santa Monica, California
. Dubbed 'Rundown,' the building was soon converted into a rehearsal space and studio, and by September, he had already staffed it with Joel Bernstein and Arthur Rosato, two engineers who were originally part of Dylan's road crew in 1976.
Before rehearsals could begin, Dylan had to assemble a band, and he quickly contacted several musicians, including former Rolling Thunder Revue
members Steven Soles
, David Mansfield
, Rob Stoner
, and Howie Wyeth. Stoner recalls, "I thought the Hard Rain thing was the last I'd ever hear from Bob...Then suddenly I get this call—I think Bob called me up personally...and asked me to bring Howie, and a couple of other people, to L.A. to 'just try some things out.'"
Soles, Mansfield, Stoner, Wyeth, pianist Walter Davis, Jr., and percussionist Otis Smith arrived in late November and early December. Even with the players assembled, Dylan was not ready to rehearse as the custody battle over his children and the imminent release of Renaldo and Clara drew most of his attention. (He was still editing Renaldo and Clara despite the approaching deadline.) "Bob kept us sitting around for a week or two," recalls Stoner. "He just never showed up...and [when he finally] drops in, he's distracted...He was really [stressed out]. He was always bummed out. He was chain-smoking and he was really in a bad mood. He was short with people. It just wasn't working out."
Eventually, a settlement in his custody battle was reached in late December, ensuring that his children would remain in California where Dylan would have access to them, but in exchange, Dylan had to sign an agreement promising never to see McFree again. Fallout from the custody battle would keep Dylan and Sara from reaching amicable terms for several years.
Meanwhile, work on Renaldo and Clara was finally completed and with his legal matters settled, Dylan was ready to rehearse.
Sessions soon began in earnest, but on December 26, Dylan followed the day's rehearsals with a preview of his next album; playing just the piano, Dylan ran down his new batch of songs to Stoner, Soles, and Bernstein, many of which were written that summer at his farm in Minnesota.
As rehearsals went underway, it became clear that they weren't "picking up where the Rolling Thunder Revue left off," recalls Mansfield. "I brought my steel guitar and I had it in rehearsal and every time I'd go to start unpacking it, Bob would go, 'We don't need that.' All of a sudden the instrument that I played all over the place in the previous band, he didn't want to see it, let alone hear it."
One component from the Rolling Thunder Revue left by his own choice. Howie Wyeth was struggling with his own heroin addiction at the time, recalling, "I knew I couldn't get high once we'd left [for Japan]...I realized I was either gonna get busted or I'd end up being tortured to death. So I literally had to just tell Bob one night, 'I can't do it.' That was terrible. He had his own problems. He felt bad that I wasn't gonna do it, and he called me up when I got home to New York and said, 'Are you sure?'"
After auditioning a number of drummers ("maybe ten or a dozen" by Bernstein's estimates), Dylan replaced Wyeth with Denny Seiwell, who had briefly played with Wings
.
When rehearsal was held on December 30, the band now included Stoner, Mansfield, Soles, guitarist Jesse Ed Davis
, and singers Katey Sagal
, Debbie Dye Gibson, and Frannie Eisenberg. This rehearsal was mostly dedicated to rearrangements of classic Dylan compositions, many of which drew heavily on the adult-contemporary pop of the time (Wayne Newton
, Barry Manilow
, Marvin Hamlisch
). As biographer Clinton Heylin
writes, "[Dylan] began to impose a grander vision on whatever sound the Revue veterans had initially conceived. With his love of fatback R&B
, it should have come as no surprise that he hankered after a band with a saxophone player and some female singers...the band he assembled in the two months before the 1978 world tour shares many similarities with the big band he had attempted to impose on Desire. The girls/sax/keyboards combination also reflected elements of the extravagantly presented shows Presley had been playing in the 1970s."
However, by mid-January 1978, Dylan was still unsatisfied with some aspects of the band, and with the first leg of his world tour already set for February, he quickly made some last-minute changes, removing Sagal and Eisenberg and replacing them with novice singer Helena Springs and seasoned professional Jo Ann Harris. Sagal was not too surprised by her dismissal. "I remember...he'd have three girls all sing a part that was not in our range," Sagal recalls, "and we were too terrified to say anything." An aspiring actress as well as a singer, she later gained fame and fortune as Peg Bundy on the long-running sitcom Married with Children.
In the meantime, Seiwell had to be let go; during his brief stint with Wings, he and the rest of Wings were busted for drug possession in Sweden
, prompting Japanese officials to deny him an entry visa. A number of auditions were quickly arranged, and according to Stoner, they "settled" on former King Crimson
drummer Ian Wallace
. Though Wallace's drumming would become problematic ("The man had a beat like a cop," recalls Stoner), time had run out as the tour was almost upon them.
Danish-American guitarist Billy Cross was also brought in, and eventually Dylan's touring band was solidified with Cross, Wallace, keyboardist Alan Pasqua, percussionist Bobbye Hall
, and saxophonist Steve Douglas
, Mansfield, Stoner, Soles, and the back-up singers.
In the final two weeks of rehearsals, Dylan began settling on new tour arrangements for his classic, earlier recordings. Rob Stoner recalls, "a telegram arrived from the Japanese promoter, and in it he had a manifest of the songs he expected Bob to do on this tour. In other words he was a jukebox, he was playing requests. We don't want you coming here and doing like your new experimental material, or getting up there and jamming." As Heylin writes, "though the idea of a big band had always appealed to Dylan, the reality was a whole series of new arrangements, to make each song different and to highlight the band's demonstrable versatility...Often these arrangement ideas came from the band. As Stoner observes, when they put these arrangements to Dylan, 'Sometimes he'd like it and he'd use it, and other times he'd say, Forget it.'"
Around this time, Renaldo and Clara was released to some of the worst reviews of Dylan's career. The negative reaction clearly irritated Dylan, making the final days of rehearsals all the more stressful.
The band finally flew to Japan on February 16, 1978, and the tour drew considerable praise from the audience and press, in both Japan and Australia. Later documented on Bob Dylan at Budokan
, this tour was marked by bold, new arrangements of Dylan's classic recordings. During the course of these two-hour plus shows, Dylan often recast familiar songs in a more 'professional,' contemporary guise. However, some of the band members, including Stoner, were not entirely satisfied with Dylan's new sound. "He had in mind to do something like Elvis Presley
," recalls Stoner. "That size band and the uniforms...he wasn't very sure about it, which is why he opened way out of town. I mean, we didn't go any place close to Europe or England or America [for] forever, man...and I don't blame him. I think he knew, subconsciously, he was making a big mistake."
The tour ended on April 1 at the Sydney Showground in Australia
. When it was over, Stoner informed Dylan that he was leaving the band. Dylan was planning to record his next album upon returning to Los Angeles, but with Stoner gone, Dylan hired a new bass player, Jerry Scheff
. Like saxophonist Steve Douglas, Scheff was a well-known player in Presley's touring band of the early 70s.
With Scheff replacing Stoner, Dylan began recording his new material with his touring band. Sessions were held at Rundown, with Dylan renting a mobile truck to record the proceedings. (The mobile truck was equipped with 24-track capabilities, something his studio did not have.) "I didn't want to do it there," Dylan later recalled. "[I] couldn't find the right producer, but it was necessary to do it. So we just brought in the remote truck and cut it, [and] went for a live sound." Dylan would ultimately settle on Don DeVito
as his producer, even though he was dissatisfied with DeVito's work on Desire.
Dylan already had a European tour scheduled for June, but he still had enough time to record his album. Over the course of just four days Dylan would record nine of his own compositions. Dylan knew exactly which songs he wanted to record, and though three songs co-written by Helena Springs were also recorded during these sessions ("Coming from the Heart", "Walk Out in the Rain", "Stop Now"), there is no indication that these songs were ever serious contenders for the album.
Because the sessions lasted only four days, there were still a number of problems. "The biggest problem...was how it was recorded," recalls Mansfield, "with Bob getting impatient with the engineering assistants...baffling and checking levels and getting sounds in sync...and the recording crew just having to scramble to get mikes into place, and get something on tape, while we were playing the thing the few times we were gonna play it. Consequently, the music is very poorly recorded, but that stuff sounded marvelous in the room, tons better than Budokan. It really was sort of like Bob Dylan meets Phil Spector
in the best way...as if it had [just] been recorded so the instruments sounded full and well-blended."
The album is dedicated to the memory of Bob's friend Emmett Grogan
, who had been found dead on a subway car near Coney Island
, New York
on April 6th 1978.
would record "Walk Out In the Rain".
critic Jon Pareles remarked that "Dylan still needs a producer," but others found fault with both the songs and the performances. Greil Marcus
criticized the singing as "simply impossible to pay attention to for more than a couple of minutes at a time" and accused "Is Your Love in Vain?" of sexism, claiming Dylan was "speak[ing] to the woman like a sultan checking out a promising servant girl for VD."
Robert Christgau
would later call it a "horrendous product," and in his original review, he gave it a C+, writing that "inveterate rock and rollers learn to find charm in boastful, secretly girl-shy adolescents, but boozy-voiced misogynists in their late thirties are a straight drag. This divorcé sounds overripe, too in love with his own self-generated misery to break through the leaden tempos that oppress his melodies, devoid not just of humor but of lightness - unless, that is, he intends his Neil Diamond
masquerade as a joke. Because he's too shrewd to put his heart into genuine corn, and because his idea of a tricky arrangement is to add horns or chicks to simplistic verse-and-chorus abcb structures, a joke is what it is. But since he still commands remnants of authority, the joke is sour indeed."
In the UK, reviews were positive, with Michael Watts of Melody Maker
proclaiming it Dylan's "best album since John Wesley Harding
". NME
s Angus MacKinnon hailed it as Dylan's "second major album of the 70s."
When Dylan embarked on his European tour, he would be greeted by a generally warm audience reception, and his single, "Baby, Stop Crying
" (the lyrics of which were allegedly inspired by Robert Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down"), would chart in the top ten throughout Europe
, and reached #13 on the UK Singles Chart
with the album peaking at #2 on the album chart. In the US, however, the single failed to crack the top 100 and the album itself peaked at #11, ending Dylan's string of #1 albums in America. Dylan would not have a number one album until his 2006 effort, Modern Times
. When Dylan continued his tour in America, it would be derided by the American press as the Alimony Tour and later the Vegas Tour, much to Dylan's chagrin.
Many years later, even Street-Legals most ardent admirers would admit some flaws in the album, finding most fault with the production. "Street-Legal would be the first in a long line of song collections whose failure to be realized in the studio would lay a 'dust of rumors' over Dylan as an abidingly creative artist that he has never been able to fully shake," writes Heylin.
In 1999, Don DeVito revisited Street-Legal and remix
ed the album with modern, digital techniques in an attempt to improve the mix. Admirers of the album generally seemed pleased by the new mix, but many critics who dismissed the album the first time around remained unimpressed. The new mix was later used in a 2003 SACD reissue of Street-Legal.
.
Recorded by Filmways/Heider at Rundown Studios in Santa Monica
, California
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
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...
's 18th 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 June 1978. The album was a serious musical departure for Dylan, who uses a large pop-rock band—complete with female backing vocalists—for the first time.
Following the twin successes of 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....
and Desire, Street-Legal was another gold record for Dylan, but it peaked at only #11 on the US Billboard charts
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
, making it his first studio album to miss the US Top 10 since 1964. However, it became his best-selling studio album in the UK, reaching #2 on the charts (his highest position in eight years) and achieving platinum status with 300,000 copies sold (the only other Dylan album to do this was The Essential Bob Dylan
The Essential Bob Dylan
The Essential Bob Dylan is a compilation by Bob Dylan, released as a double-CD set in 2000, part of Columbia Records' "The Essential" series....
).
In 1999, Street-Legal received a special remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
ing and remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ing job from engineer Don DeVito. The newer version boasted richer sound, correcting numerous issues with the original production, and has been used in all subsequent reissues.
Themes
Themes of note are the subtly religious and somewhat apocalyptic overtones found throughout, especially in "Changing of the GuardsChanging of the Guards
"Changing of the Guards" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1978 as a single and as the first track on his album Street -Legal. As an A-side single it failed to reach the Billboard Top 100...
", "No Time to Think" and "Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)". Although the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
(both Old
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
and New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
s) had always influenced Dylan's work, the proximity of this album to the beginning of his 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....
tour (early 1979) raises the possibility that some songs may have been written with more Christian intent than previous ones.
Writing and recording Street-Legal
Before work began on Street-Legal, Dylan's personal life was undergoing a severe change. Sometime in February 1977, Dylan spent several days at Gold Star StudiosGold Star Studios
Gold Star Studios was a major independent recording studio located in Los Angeles, California, United States. For more than thirty years, from 1950 to 1984, Gold Star was one of the most influential and successful commercial recording studios in the world....
where Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
was recording a new album, Death of a Ladies Man, with Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
and Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
. After one particular session where Dylan and others indulged in a substantial amount of alcohol, Dylan returned to his Malibu home with an old friend of Cohen's, a woman named Malka Marom. According to a declaration by Sara Dylan's legal representative (publicly released in March 1977), "On February 22...[Sara] came down to breakfast and found Dylan, the children, and a woman named Malka at the breakfast table. She said that it was then that Dylan struck her on the face and ordered her to leave." It is unclear how much of this statement is true, but any additional context or information was sealed by Judge Raffedie. (Judge Raffedie also sealed Dylan's response to his ex-wife's allegations; the order was given even before Dylan's response was ever filed.) The divorce was quickly settled, becoming final in June 1977, with apparently little effort at reconciliation. Sara would receive initial custody of the children.
In the meantime, Dylan was still editing Renaldo and Clara
Renaldo and Clara
Renaldo and Clara is a surrealist movie, directed by and starring Bob Dylan. Filmed in 1975, during Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, it was released in 1978...
, an ill-fated film that was shot during the fall of 1975, when Dylan was on the first leg of a tour with the now-defunct Rolling Thunder Revue. With the summer approaching, Dylan took a break from the film and returned to his farm in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, where he was accompanied by his children and Faridi McFree, with whom Dylan had started a relationship. There he began writing a new set of songs, including "Changing of the Guards", "No Time to Think" and "Where Are You Tonight?" In fact, at least six of the nine songs ultimately included on Street-Legal were written during this time.
His work was disrupted on August 16 when news broke that Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
had died at 3:30 p.m. at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. "I went over my whole life," recalled Dylan. "I went over my whole childhood. I didn't talk to anyone for a week."
Later that fall, another custody battle emerged when Sara sought permission from the court to move to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
with the children. It was a major distraction at the time, as Dylan was planning a world tour, his first in twelve years; Dylan had produced very little musical activity in the past year, and with legal costs from his divorce exacerbating his financial difficulties, he was certainly interested in generating some income. The stage was already set when Dylan signed a five-year lease to an old three-story building on the corner of Ocean and Main in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
. Dubbed 'Rundown,' the building was soon converted into a rehearsal space and studio, and by September, he had already staffed it with Joel Bernstein and Arthur Rosato, two engineers who were originally part of Dylan's road crew in 1976.
Before rehearsals could begin, Dylan had to assemble a band, and he quickly contacted several musicians, including former Rolling Thunder Revue
Rolling Thunder Revue
The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour consisting of a traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan, that took place in late 1975 and early 1976; the prevailing theory was that the tour was named after the Native American shaman Rolling Thunder. Others maintained that tour...
members 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...
, David Mansfield
David Mansfield
David Mansfield is an American violinist, mandolin player, guitarist, pedal steel guitar player, and composer....
, Rob Stoner
Rob Stoner
Robert David Rothstein , better known as Rob Stoner, is an American multi-instrumental musician....
, and Howie Wyeth. Stoner recalls, "I thought the Hard Rain thing was the last I'd ever hear from Bob...Then suddenly I get this call—I think Bob called me up personally...and asked me to bring Howie, and a couple of other people, to L.A. to 'just try some things out.'"
Soles, Mansfield, Stoner, Wyeth, pianist Walter Davis, Jr., and percussionist Otis Smith arrived in late November and early December. Even with the players assembled, Dylan was not ready to rehearse as the custody battle over his children and the imminent release of Renaldo and Clara drew most of his attention. (He was still editing Renaldo and Clara despite the approaching deadline.) "Bob kept us sitting around for a week or two," recalls Stoner. "He just never showed up...and [when he finally] drops in, he's distracted...He was really [stressed out]. He was always bummed out. He was chain-smoking and he was really in a bad mood. He was short with people. It just wasn't working out."
Eventually, a settlement in his custody battle was reached in late December, ensuring that his children would remain in California where Dylan would have access to them, but in exchange, Dylan had to sign an agreement promising never to see McFree again. Fallout from the custody battle would keep Dylan and Sara from reaching amicable terms for several years.
Meanwhile, work on Renaldo and Clara was finally completed and with his legal matters settled, Dylan was ready to rehearse.
Sessions soon began in earnest, but on December 26, Dylan followed the day's rehearsals with a preview of his next album; playing just the piano, Dylan ran down his new batch of songs to Stoner, Soles, and Bernstein, many of which were written that summer at his farm in Minnesota.
As rehearsals went underway, it became clear that they weren't "picking up where the Rolling Thunder Revue left off," recalls Mansfield. "I brought my steel guitar and I had it in rehearsal and every time I'd go to start unpacking it, Bob would go, 'We don't need that.' All of a sudden the instrument that I played all over the place in the previous band, he didn't want to see it, let alone hear it."
One component from the Rolling Thunder Revue left by his own choice. Howie Wyeth was struggling with his own heroin addiction at the time, recalling, "I knew I couldn't get high once we'd left [for Japan]...I realized I was either gonna get busted or I'd end up being tortured to death. So I literally had to just tell Bob one night, 'I can't do it.' That was terrible. He had his own problems. He felt bad that I wasn't gonna do it, and he called me up when I got home to New York and said, 'Are you sure?'"
After auditioning a number of drummers ("maybe ten or a dozen" by Bernstein's estimates), Dylan replaced Wyeth with Denny Seiwell, who had briefly played with Wings
Wings (band)
Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....
.
When rehearsal was held on December 30, the band now included Stoner, Mansfield, Soles, guitarist Jesse Ed Davis
Jesse Ed Davis
Jesse Edwin Davis was an American guitarist. He was well regarded as a session artist. His death in 1988 is attributed to a drug overdose.-Biography:...
, and singers Katey Sagal
Katey Sagal
Catherine Louise "Katey" Sagal is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She first achieved widespread fame as Peggy Bundy on the long-running Fox comedy series Married.....
, Debbie Dye Gibson, and Frannie Eisenberg. This rehearsal was mostly dedicated to rearrangements of classic Dylan compositions, many of which drew heavily on the adult-contemporary pop of the time (Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton is an American singer and entertainer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He performed over 30,000 solo shows in Las Vegas over a period of over 40 years, earning him the nicknames The Midnight Idol, Mr. Las Vegas and Mr. Entertainment...
, Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
, Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch is an American composer. He is one of only thirteen people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony . He is also one of only two people to EGOT and also win a Pulitzer Prize...
). As biographer Clinton Heylin
Clinton Heylin
Clinton Heylin is an English author who has written extensively about popular music and the work of Bob Dylan.- Education :...
writes, "[Dylan] began to impose a grander vision on whatever sound the Revue veterans had initially conceived. With his love of fatback R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, it should have come as no surprise that he hankered after a band with a saxophone player and some female singers...the band he assembled in the two months before the 1978 world tour shares many similarities with the big band he had attempted to impose on Desire. The girls/sax/keyboards combination also reflected elements of the extravagantly presented shows Presley had been playing in the 1970s."
However, by mid-January 1978, Dylan was still unsatisfied with some aspects of the band, and with the first leg of his world tour already set for February, he quickly made some last-minute changes, removing Sagal and Eisenberg and replacing them with novice singer Helena Springs and seasoned professional Jo Ann Harris. Sagal was not too surprised by her dismissal. "I remember...he'd have three girls all sing a part that was not in our range," Sagal recalls, "and we were too terrified to say anything." An aspiring actress as well as a singer, she later gained fame and fortune as Peg Bundy on the long-running sitcom Married with Children.
In the meantime, Seiwell had to be let go; during his brief stint with Wings, he and the rest of Wings were busted for drug possession in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, prompting Japanese officials to deny him an entry visa. A number of auditions were quickly arranged, and according to Stoner, they "settled" on former King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
drummer 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...
. Though Wallace's drumming would become problematic ("The man had a beat like a cop," recalls Stoner), time had run out as the tour was almost upon them.
Danish-American guitarist Billy Cross was also brought in, and eventually Dylan's touring band was solidified with Cross, Wallace, keyboardist Alan Pasqua, percussionist 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:...
, and saxophonist 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...
, Mansfield, Stoner, Soles, and the back-up singers.
In the final two weeks of rehearsals, Dylan began settling on new tour arrangements for his classic, earlier recordings. Rob Stoner recalls, "a telegram arrived from the Japanese promoter, and in it he had a manifest of the songs he expected Bob to do on this tour. In other words he was a jukebox, he was playing requests. We don't want you coming here and doing like your new experimental material, or getting up there and jamming." As Heylin writes, "though the idea of a big band had always appealed to Dylan, the reality was a whole series of new arrangements, to make each song different and to highlight the band's demonstrable versatility...Often these arrangement ideas came from the band. As Stoner observes, when they put these arrangements to Dylan, 'Sometimes he'd like it and he'd use it, and other times he'd say, Forget it.'"
Around this time, Renaldo and Clara was released to some of the worst reviews of Dylan's career. The negative reaction clearly irritated Dylan, making the final days of rehearsals all the more stressful.
The band finally flew to Japan on February 16, 1978, and the tour drew considerable praise from the audience and press, in both Japan and Australia. Later documented on Bob Dylan at Budokan
Bob Dylan at Budokan
Bob Dylan at Budokan is a live album by Bob Dylan, released in 1979 by Columbia Records. It was recorded during his 1978 world tour and is composed mostly of the artist's "greatest hits"...
, this tour was marked by bold, new arrangements of Dylan's classic recordings. During the course of these two-hour plus shows, Dylan often recast familiar songs in a more 'professional,' contemporary guise. However, some of the band members, including Stoner, were not entirely satisfied with Dylan's new sound. "He had in mind to do something like Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
," recalls Stoner. "That size band and the uniforms...he wasn't very sure about it, which is why he opened way out of town. I mean, we didn't go any place close to Europe or England or America [for] forever, man...and I don't blame him. I think he knew, subconsciously, he was making a big mistake."
The tour ended on April 1 at the Sydney Showground in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. When it was over, Stoner informed Dylan that he was leaving the band. Dylan was planning to record his next album upon returning to Los Angeles, but with Stoner gone, Dylan hired a new bass player, Jerry Scheff
Jerry Scheff
Jerry Obern Scheff is an American bassist, perhaps best known for his work with Elvis Presley in the early 1970s as a member of his TCB Band and his work on The Doors' final recordings....
. Like saxophonist Steve Douglas, Scheff was a well-known player in Presley's touring band of the early 70s.
With Scheff replacing Stoner, Dylan began recording his new material with his touring band. Sessions were held at Rundown, with Dylan renting a mobile truck to record the proceedings. (The mobile truck was equipped with 24-track capabilities, something his studio did not have.) "I didn't want to do it there," Dylan later recalled. "[I] couldn't find the right producer, but it was necessary to do it. So we just brought in the remote truck and cut it, [and] went for a live sound." Dylan would ultimately settle on Don DeVito
Don DeVito
Don DeVito was an American record producer, music business executive and guitarist. His career was spent at Columbia Records, where his production credits included Bob Dylan's albums Blood on the Tracks, Desire and Street-Legal.-Life:He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and in his late teens began...
as his producer, even though he was dissatisfied with DeVito's work on Desire.
Dylan already had a European tour scheduled for June, but he still had enough time to record his album. Over the course of just four days Dylan would record nine of his own compositions. Dylan knew exactly which songs he wanted to record, and though three songs co-written by Helena Springs were also recorded during these sessions ("Coming from the Heart", "Walk Out in the Rain", "Stop Now"), there is no indication that these songs were ever serious contenders for the album.
Because the sessions lasted only four days, there were still a number of problems. "The biggest problem...was how it was recorded," recalls Mansfield, "with Bob getting impatient with the engineering assistants...baffling and checking levels and getting sounds in sync...and the recording crew just having to scramble to get mikes into place, and get something on tape, while we were playing the thing the few times we were gonna play it. Consequently, the music is very poorly recorded, but that stuff sounded marvelous in the room, tons better than Budokan. It really was sort of like Bob Dylan meets Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
in the best way...as if it had [just] been recorded so the instruments sounded full and well-blended."
The album is dedicated to the memory of Bob's friend Emmett Grogan
Emmett Grogan
Emmett Grogan was a founder of the Diggers, a radical community-action group of Improv actors in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California...
, who had been found dead on a subway car near Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on April 6th 1978.
Outtakes
As opposed to previous albums, the outtakes for Street-Legal are few in number. Only three additional songs were recorded for the album, of which none have seen release. There are two takes of "Stop Now", sounding very much like an additional "Street-Legal" song, in circulation. Eric ClaptonEric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
would record "Walk Out In the Rain".
- "Coming From The Heart (The Road Is Long)" (Bob Dylan & Helena Springs)
- "Stop Now" (Bob Dylan & Helena Springs)
- "Walk Out In The Rain" (Bob Dylan & Helena Springs)
Aftermath
When Street-Legal was released, it was dismissed by the American press. Crawdaddy!Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
critic Jon Pareles remarked that "Dylan still needs a producer," but others found fault with both the songs and the performances. 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...
criticized the singing as "simply impossible to pay attention to for more than a couple of minutes at a time" and accused "Is Your Love in Vain?" of sexism, claiming Dylan was "speak[ing] to the woman like a sultan checking out a promising servant girl for VD."
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...
would later call it a "horrendous product," and in his original review, he gave it a C+, writing that "inveterate rock and rollers learn to find charm in boastful, secretly girl-shy adolescents, but boozy-voiced misogynists in their late thirties are a straight drag. This divorcé sounds overripe, too in love with his own self-generated misery to break through the leaden tempos that oppress his melodies, devoid not just of humor but of lightness - unless, that is, he intends his Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
masquerade as a joke. Because he's too shrewd to put his heart into genuine corn, and because his idea of a tricky arrangement is to add horns or chicks to simplistic verse-and-chorus abcb structures, a joke is what it is. But since he still commands remnants of authority, the joke is sour indeed."
In the UK, reviews were positive, with Michael Watts of Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
proclaiming it Dylan's "best album since 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...
". NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
s Angus MacKinnon hailed it as Dylan's "second major album of the 70s."
When Dylan embarked on his European tour, he would be greeted by a generally warm audience reception, and his single, "Baby, Stop Crying
Baby, Stop Crying
"Baby, Stop Crying" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1978 as a single and on his album Street Legal. It was performed live only during his big-band world-wide tour of 1978...
" (the lyrics of which were allegedly inspired by Robert Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down"), would chart in the top ten throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and reached #13 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
with the album peaking at #2 on the album chart. In the US, however, the single failed to crack the top 100 and the album itself peaked at #11, ending Dylan's string of #1 albums in America. Dylan would not have a number one album until his 2006 effort, Modern Times
Modern Times (Bob Dylan album)
Modern Times is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 32nd studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 2006. The album was Dylan's third straight to be met with nearly universal praise from fans and critics...
. When Dylan continued his tour in America, it would be derided by the American press as the Alimony Tour and later the Vegas Tour, much to Dylan's chagrin.
Many years later, even Street-Legals most ardent admirers would admit some flaws in the album, finding most fault with the production. "Street-Legal would be the first in a long line of song collections whose failure to be realized in the studio would lay a 'dust of rumors' over Dylan as an abidingly creative artist that he has never been able to fully shake," writes Heylin.
In 1999, Don DeVito revisited Street-Legal and remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
ed the album with modern, digital techniques in an attempt to improve the mix. Admirers of the album generally seemed pleased by the new mix, but many critics who dismissed the album the first time around remained unimpressed. The new mix was later used in a 2003 SACD reissue of Street-Legal.
Track listing
All songs written by Bob DylanBob 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...
.
- "Changing of the GuardsChanging of the Guards"Changing of the Guards" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1978 as a single and as the first track on his album Street -Legal. As an A-side single it failed to reach the Billboard Top 100...
" – 7:04 - "New Pony" – 4:28
- "No Time to Think" – 8:19
- "Baby, Stop CryingBaby, Stop Crying"Baby, Stop Crying" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1978 as a single and on his album Street Legal. It was performed live only during his big-band world-wide tour of 1978...
" – 5:19 - "Is Your Love in Vain?" – 4:30
- "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)" – 5:42
- "True Love Tends to Forget" – 4:14
- "We Better Talk This Over" – 4:04
- "Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)" – 6:16
Musicians
- Bob DylanBob DylanBob 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...
– lead vocals, rhythm electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker... - Ian WallaceIan 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...
– 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 .... - Jerry ScheffJerry ScheffJerry Obern Scheff is an American bassist, perhaps best known for his work with Elvis Presley in the early 1970s as a member of his TCB Band and his work on The Doors' final recordings....
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Billy Cross – lead electric guitar
- Alan PasquaAlan PasquaAlan 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...
– 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... - Bobbye HallBobbye HallBobbye 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:...
– 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... - Steve DouglasSteve 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...
– tenorTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
and soprano saxophoneSoprano saxophoneThe soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in... - Steven SolesSteven SolesSteven 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...
– rhythm guitar, background vocals - David MansfieldDavid MansfieldDavid Mansfield is an American violinist, mandolin player, guitarist, pedal steel guitar player, and composer....
– violinViolinThe 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....
, mandolinMandolinA 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... - James Wright - wardrobe
- Carolyn DennisCarolyn DennisCarolyn Dennis , sometimes known professionally as Carol Dennis or Carol Dennis-Dylan, is an American singer and actor best known for her work with and marriage to Bob Dylan.-Early life:...
– background vocals - Jo Ann Harris – background vocals
- Helena Springs – background vocals
- Steve Madaio – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
on "Is Your Love in Vain?"
Production
- Don DeVitoDon DeVitoDon DeVito was an American record producer, music business executive and guitarist. His career was spent at Columbia Records, where his production credits included Bob Dylan's albums Blood on the Tracks, Desire and Street-Legal.-Life:He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and in his late teens began...
– "Captain in Charge" (titles as listed in album lining) - Arthur Rosato – "Second in Command"
- Mary Alice Artes – "Queen Bee"
- Ava Megna – "Secretary of Goodwill"
- Larry Kegan – "Champion of All Causes"
- Biff Dawes – engineer
- Stan Kalina – mastering engineer at CBS Recording Studios in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
- Michael H. Brauer and Ryan Hewitt – remixing engineers (1999)
Recorded by Filmways/Heider at Rundown Studios in Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...