Oh Mercy

About

Bob Dylan was certainly busy during the 1980s—if not altogether successful. After a long gap in the early 1970, he went on a productive tear for nearly two decade, never taking more than two years to put out a new record. In 1979, he began his Christian-conversion trilogy; by the time he’d finished it in 1983, though, his sales had slumped, with each entry in Dylan’s subsequent string of occasionally strong records slipping further down the chart. 1985’s <i>Biograph</i>, a compelling and career-spanning box set, was his post-gospel commercial salvation. His other salvation at the close of a complicated Dylan decade? The Canadian producer in love with New Orlean, Daniel Lanoi, and the triumph they made together, 1989’s <i>Oh Mercy</i>. On a humid autumn evening after a Louisiana tour stop, Dylan rendezvoused with Lanoi, then making a Neville Brothers record down south. Bono had recommended Lanoi, and Dylan took an immediate liking to his black-clad visage, and imaginative and artistic approach to making record. Lanois set up an ad hoc studio in a Victorian mansion and assembled a band of familiar Southern ringer, including Cyril Neville and drummer “Mean” Willie Green. During the last decade, Lanois had made hits with U2, gorgeous soundscapes with Brian Eno, and Americana experiments with the Neville. He wrangled all of that for Dylan, digging into swampy surrealism for “Everything is Broken,” moody electronics for “Most of the Time,” and ecclesiastic foreboding for “Ring Them Bell.” Lanois rooted Dylan in the past, then helped him turn toward the future. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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