Only one year after the triumphal release of “Oh Mercy,” Dylan came out with 1990’s “Under the Red Sky.” The album is known for its all-star musicians—George Harrison, Slash, David Crosby, Bruce Hornsby, Al Kooper, David Lindley, and others—and was produced by Don Was. It is filled with the language and structure of children’s songs and music—which is befitting an album dedicated to “Gabby Goo-Goo,” likely Dylan’s then-toddler daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan. There are counting songs, fairytales, and echoes of nursery rhymes. But the songs often sport an ominous feel that is hard to shake, which, if we are being fair, is not too different from traditional children’s folk literature.
For instance, “The Cat’s in the Well” is based on an old nursery rhyme about—you guessed it—a cat in a well. The weirdest aspect of Dylan’s take, though, is the driving blues melody that backs the lyrics. It’s a rockin’ number that belies the quaintness of its verses.
Some songs, such as “Born in Time,” are stellar, while others are the targets of endless knee-jerk derision. No song falls more into that latter category than the album’s opening track, “Wiggle Wiggle.” Personally I’ve always seen “Wiggle Wiggle” as a harmless bit of fun, like “Country Pie” or “Every Grain of Sand,” but others have pegged it as a sign of the coming apocalypse. Perhaps if it weren’t the very first song on the album people would lighten up a bit, but there you have it.
We also see Dylan return to satiric form in several songs, most notably the romping “TV Talkin’ Song,” which is both hopelessly dated and sweetly naive in this Internet Age. As a satire, the song is clever, though. It’s a narrative about a man holding forth in Hyde Park—ranting about the evils of television. Most of the lyrics are simply a transcript of what he says with the narrator serving as mere reporter. This structure allows Dylan some ironic distance from the message. At the end of the song, a riot breaks out, and Dylan concludes with this amusing irony: “Later on that evening, I watched it on T.V.”
One oddity: This is the rare Dylan album to include the lyrics in the liner notes.
“Under the Red Sky” is a short album, 35 and a half minutes long, but in some ways it is too long. “Handy Dandy” would make a fine finish to the album, but instead we get one more number, the uninspired “The Cat’s in the Well.” Most Dylan albums start and end strong. Under the Red Sky does the opposite, which may be one reason—along with its uncharacteristically slick production and slap-dash performances—the album has never been well received.
But here’s the good news! Today we have a full house on Million $ Bash.
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