Bob Dylan-Empire Burlesque (1985)

 

Artist: Bob Dylan

Title:  Empire Burlesque

Label: Columbia

Format: LP

Cat #: FC 40110

Year of Release: 1985

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1985 Pitman Pressing

Listed Condition: VG+/VG 3" spine damage

Sell Date: 9/27/21

Sell Price: $5.99

Discogs Last Sold: 9/9/21 $5.50 VG+/VG+

Low: $1.99

Median: $5.75

Average: $5.76

High: $13.00 M/NM

Current low price: $4.99 VG+/VG+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 110

Have/Want: 3705/225

Where Sold: Long Beach, CA

Time it took to sell: 6 years

Where and When Bought: Strawberries Worcester $5.99 new upon release

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+

Sad To See It Go: No

With the Springtime in New York compilation of 1980-1985 outtakes freshly released, it comes as no surprise that somebody has bought Empire Burlesque, whose tracks make up the brunt of the 5th volume of that set.  I've been procrastinating listening to that sprawl of music, and made a mental note to listen first pass before I wrote about this album.  Now that I've got my first listen of Springtime in the memory banks, and coupled with last weeks headphone listen of Empire vinyl and a another desktop playback in the background of both,  I am ready to make a go of this blog summary.  That’s alot to ingest in one shot for 4 paragraphs of writing!

Although I thought Empire Burlesque to be top rate upon release, it didn't get heavy play at the time.  The radio hits "Tight Connection To My Heart" and "Clean Cut Kid" were really all that made a stamp in my brain of the Arthur Baker production.  I remember "When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky" more from a boot of the '86 tour with Tom Petty.    I've been so kneejerk anti-Arthur Baker all my life (for his rock remixing, not the great "Planet Rock"), that I was shocked to hear that "Dark Eyes" was written due to his demand for an acoustic number.  I didn't really internalize "Dark Eyes" until after seeing Bob do it with Patti Smith in the mid-90's in Worcester.  

Most of the other songs on Empire I picked up from Bob's live gigs over the years.  He had a stretch where  "Seeing The Real You At Last" was a show opener, and hearing the 80's studio version now with Baker horns is a shock.  Maybe not as a big a shock as the O'Jays having a #2 Billboard R&B smash hit in 1991 with "Emotionally Yours."  Shock of course is an operative term and the pop charts are full of cradle to grave events for scribes to ponder.

The star guest of the album vocally is Madelyn Quebec,  who I could've sworn listening was Clydie King until I looked over the liner notes.  "Something's Burning Baby" fills that same duet air that Clydie and Emmylou did.  Figures Madelyn was one of Ray's Raelettes (and incidentally the mother of  Carolyn Dennis who is on "Clean Cut Kid" and "Never Gonna Be The Same").  There need not be an alternate take release of "Something's Burning Baby", and there isn't.

This was an all star studio record.  Some of the cast of characters that were on Infidels (Sly & Robbie, Mick Taylor) make it here.  You got some Stones (Taylor and Ron Wood) and some of Petty's Heartbreakers (Benmont Tench & Mike Campbell) stopping by.  Even veterans guys like Al Kooper and Jim Keltner show up on a track here and there.  Still, despite the quality of the songs and the players, the record is one of the most non-Dylan sounding productions in Dylan's catalog, outside of "Dark Eyes,” which is just Bob and an acoustic.  Springtime In New York alternate takes and mixes sometimes remedy this, particularly the dehorned "Seeing The Real You At Last" and the slow arrangement of "When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky" with a similar duet styling as "Burning."    The Never Ending Tour took care of evolving the songs that weren't hits into the live canon like "I'll Remember You" and "Never Gonna Be The Same."  The songs that were hits in the 80's stayed in the 80's.

The Empire Burlesque outtakes that show up on Springtime In New York are more interesting.  The Johnny Cash cover "Straight A's In Love" is a shockingly rocking track that would've made a great B-side in it's day.  It sounds like something out of “Mendocino” by the Sir Douglas Quintet with Farfisa organ and pummeling drums.  The early version of "Brownsville Girl" from the next years Knocked Out Loaded began as "New Danville Girl" or "Danville Girl" as it is sung in these sessions.

Empire Burlesque marks the beginning of the end of an era from Dylan being a studio artist trying to make radio hits AND acclaimed albums, to a live artist making studio records of greater critical acclaim with no radio hits. Infidels was the more revered, Knocked Out Loaded and Down In The Groove were historically reviled.  

Empire Burlesque splits the difference closer to Infidels.