Bob Dylan-Saved (1980)

Artist: Bob Dylan

Title: Saved

Label: Columbia

Format: LP 

Cat #: FC-36553

Year of Release: 1980

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1980, Original Cover

Sold Price: $5.99

Listed Condition: VG+/VG (with inner sleeve, spine, ring wear)

Sell Date: 10/15/20

Discogs Last Sold: 6/29/20 VG+/VG $8.99

Low: $3.00

Median: $5.50

High: $8.99 

Current low price: $5.50 VG/VG+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 19

Have/Want: 515/47

Where Sold: Andelanto, CA

Time it took to sell: 3 years

Where and When Bought: Al Bums Worcester $3.99 around 1983 used

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go?: Yes

1980 was a weird time for Dylan, with Saved being the second and most "Christian" of this period.  This was the first Dylan album my parents didn't buy in the time of release in many many years--maybe since Planet Waves.  Street Legal & Slow Train Coming were played in my household relentlessly in the late 70's.  I was used to Bob with background singers from this period, though it was jarring initially even as a child.  I finally got around to getting Saved used shortly after his "secular" comeback with Infidels (although some say Shot of Love was indeed his return to the other side).  Perhaps even Bob thought the original cover was heavy handed, as it was reissued with a different cover even before the CD era.

In my opinion, this is the best sounding of those three period albums, and on this he has legendary session players like Jim Keltner on drums and Spooner Oldham on keyboards.  Musically, this is a rocking affair, especially when compared to his albums from the rest of the decade which swap out various mainstream producers like bastard stepchildren.  That this material was hated at the time by fans and reviled by critics has become irrelevant today, particularly after the Trouble No More volume of the bootleg series issued a few years back offers up hours of live and unreleased material. 

What struck me listening to this start to finish in God Knows how long, perhaps when I bought it, was that material that once seemed inaccessible is now super familiar to me, either from live shows over the years, or Trouble In Mind, or just hearing cuts over the years.  They also seem way less of a theological hammer indoctrination than they once did.  Like Gospel records of old, they express what they express, but in view of his catalog as a whole, they become just another kind of song.  If the intent was indoctrination, this might be considered a failure.  Some might say the Greatest Modern Songbook Of All Time should not be reduced in this cavalier fashion.  Who am I to question these sacred laws?

Maybe Saved shouldn't be pondered for what it should be, just enjoyed for what it is.  Or rejected bitterly, if you like.