Maps of Music

Street-Legal (1978)

Where the lyrics of Street-Legal take you, and where it was really made.

The album was recorded within a week in a makeshift studio that Dylan himself had set up, and critics in the US and UK split sharply on it.

Key places

Where the album was recorded (1978)

Recording site Rundown Studios — Dylan recorded the album within a week in April 1978 at Rundown Studios, his makeshift studio in Santa Monica. Sounes described the acoustics as terrible, citing the linoleum floor and polystyrene ceiling. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Street-Legal: the eighteenth studio album by Bob Dylan
• Released 15 June 1978 through Columbia Records
• Produced by Don DeVito
• Recorded at Rundown Studios, Dylan's own makeshift recording space in Santa Monica
• A diversion from the sound of earlier albums, using a large pop rock band with backing vocalists and horns

Background

• Biographer Clinton Heylin identifies three distinct songwriting periods before the recording
• The first group was inspired by Dylan's recent divorce; only "I'm Cold" survives from it
• The only group represented on the final album was written in summer 1977 on Dylan's Minnesota farm
• The third group was co-written with backing vocalist Helena Springs in spring and summer 1978
• The album was Dylan's first under a recently renegotiated contract with Columbia
• Songs were to be registered through the newly formed publishing company Special Rider Music
• A tour was booked to start in June, and the band expected a break between recording and touring, so the album had to be made quickly

Recording

• Dylan first wanted to work again with producer Bob Johnston at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California
• Those studio dates could not be booked, so the album was recorded at Rundown instead
• Recording took place within a week in April 1978
• Dylan wanted a naturalistic approach that kept the interplay between musicians
• He was uninterested in overdubbing vocals
• Sounes described the acoustics of Rundown as terrible

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota; raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.
• Moved to New York City in January 1961 to pursue a music career.
• Signed to Columbia Records after playing harmonica on Carolyn Hester's album; debut album Bob Dylan released in 1962.

Members

• Solo artist; backed over the years by bands including the Hawks/the Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and his touring band led by bassist Tony Garnier.

Career

• Breakthrough with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963); protest songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements.
• Went electric with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), provoking controversy among folk fans.
• Motorcycle accident in 1966 led to nearly eight years without touring; Basement Tapes recorded with the Band.
• Converted to Christianity in the late 1970s and released gospel albums; won Album of the Year Grammy for Time Out of Mind (1997).
• Has toured since 1988 on the Never Ending Tour; won an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards; awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone (Greil Marcus): called much of the material "dead air, or close to it" and criticized the vocals as "utterly fake"
• Rolling Stone (Greil Marcus): dismissed "Is Your Love in Vain?" and "Baby, Stop Crying" as "wretched performances"
• Robert Christgau: gave the album C+ and dismissed its "leaden tempos"
• Record Business: called the record "a work of considerable overall strength" and a "worthy" successor to Blood on the Tracks and Desire
• Record Mirror (Barry Cain): gave four stars out of five
• NME (Angus Mackinnon): called it Dylan's second major work of the decade and praised the songwriting
• US reviews were scathing, while UK critics were more receptive

Reappraisal

• AllMusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine): dismissed the production but said the material "deserve[s] close attention"
• Paste (Paul Melis): argued the album "captures a still-fearless artist unafraid to take musical risks"
• American Songwriter (Jim Beviglia): called it an "overlooked gem"
• Jeremy Winograd: called it "perhaps the most complex and mystifying entry" in Dylan's catalog
• Tom Hull (2014 revisit): gave it B−
• Michael Gray: called it "one of Dylan's most important, complex and cohesive albums"
• Brian Hinton: praised the 1999 remix by DeVito for its punch

Records

• UK: reached number two during a 20-week chart stay
• US: stalled at number 11, breaking a streak of number-one studio albums
• "Baby, Stop Crying" was a top 15 hit in the UK but failed to chart in America
• DeVito remixed the album in 1999

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Dylan first planned to record at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, but could not book convenient dates there.
• Dylan later said he did not want to record at Rundown but had to, out of necessity.
• Arthur Rosato suspended a parachute above drummer Ian Wallace to deaden the sound of the kit.
• The last session on 1 May recorded "New Pony", "Walk Out in the Rain" and the unused "Coming from the Heart".
• Both "If I Don't Be There by Morning" and "Walk Out in the Rain" were left off the album, and Eric Clapton later recorded them for Backless (1978).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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