Track Listing

1. Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum
2. Mississippi
3. Summer Days
4. Bye And Bye
5. Lonesome Day Blues
6. Floater (Too Much To Ask)
7. High Water
8. Moonlight
9. Honest With Me
10. Po' Boy
11. Cry A While
12. Sugar Baby

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86347 in Music
• Released on: 2003-09-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: SACD, Original recording remastered

CD Description
'Love And Theft' is Bob Dylan's 43rd album and follows on from his 1997 release 'Time Out Of Mind'. A miriad of musicalstyles which veer from Delta blues to folk, roots, country and rockabilly. Includes 'Things Have Changed' from the 'Wonder Boys' soundtrack and 'Mississippi', an outtake from 'Time Out Of Mind' which has been re-recorded.

Customer Reviews

That late renaissance continues...
Love & Theft appears to confirm another peak in Dylan's epic career- following 1997's dark brilliant Time Out of Mind and his Oscar-winning Things Have Changed (from the soundtrack to the charming Wonder Boys). Whether it really warrants remastering in this form, being so recent is questionable- & there are no extra tracks (Things Have Changed, I Was Young When I Left Home & an alternate version of Times/Changin' could have all been added). But these twelve tracks are still wonderful- though Dylan's vocals as with Time Out of Mind are sandpaper raw: a million cigarettes over a million miles...

The album is certainly not as bleak as Time Out of Mind, though one of the standout tracks Mississippi stems from that period- this song was also recorded by Sheryl Crow on her Globe Sessions album. This version remains definitive; opening track Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum is a more fluid blues take on the territory of 1989's Political World (reviewers at the time wondered if Tweedle's Dee&Dum were in fact Dubya & Gore!).

Love & Theft is a much more 'fun' album than Time Out of Mind- Summer Days could easily have been from Good as I've Been to You or Under the Red Sky (think Cat's in the Well); while Bye and Bye sees Dylan in charming mode- the songs seem lighter, they'd have to be after the bleak territory of songs like Not Dark Yet & Standing in the Doorway. The blues riffs on Lonesome Day Blues are a wonder- Dylan fusing an infinitely electric sound with Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton: you can sense the man who riffed out I Don't Believe You and Highway61 Revisited here...

Love & Theft is a more enjoyable Dylan album- Floater (Too Much to Ask) has a gorgeous violin: the love theme is important, especially after the gruelling death, the autumn of Time Out of Mind...High Water is a tribute to Charley Patton and sees Dylan hark back to the music that influenced him- think the Harry Smith Folk Anthology; now Dylan sounds like an old man playing the kind of songs he did on those early folk-inflected albums...

Some of the songs are just fine- Moonlight is utterly charming, exposing the balladeer side of Dylan; while the epic Honest With Me advances on 1997's Dirt Road Blues- with wonderful string motifs. The highlight of this set, apart from Mississippi is Po'Boy- a gorgeous acoustic lull- & proof that Dylan can never be written off: it's as brilliant as anything he's produced...

Love & Theft remains for me one of the great albums of the 21st Century thus far- this remastered version makes those brilliant guitars and all sound even greater. It's far from a heavy Dylan album, but no less wonderful for that- while Time Out of Mind is a superior album, its themes are too bleak to listen to as often as the songs on Love & Theft. Like many Dylan albums, this one sounds greater the longer you play it: charming- along with Leonard Cohen's Ten New Songs, it's evidence that elder singer-songwriters more than still have those goods...

Dylan on SACD
I must admit that I was not a huge Bob Dylan fan,mainly because I'd never had the time in my hectic past to fit him in to my already crammed music repertoire.I own a lot of music and it was only after upgrading to SACD that I decided to investigate the great mans catalogue by way of the career defining 16 disc SACD box set(a great way to pick up a large slab of his recorded output,you get ALL of the 2003 remastered Hybrid SACD's with original artwork in Digipak format!).

I've finally reached the end of the box set and found this gem of an album.Phew that's a lot of music to get through.From "The Free Wheelin'..." to "Love And Theft" is quite a listen and as so many reviewers before me have already written,Bob is not what you would call a predictable listen.This album however is definitely a standout for a couple of reasons.

Firstly,like five other titles in the box set,this album is in 5.1 surround sound as well as high def 2.1 stereo SACD and standard CD stereo.The engineers involved in the original recording did the surround mix and have made great use of the technology giving you a sense of being in the middle of the band while the sessions were put down.This recording is a must for anyone who owns an SACD player.Awesome!

Secondly,for someone like myself that does not own every sound the great one has made,it is a good way to bookend the man after hearing him start out with not much more than his voice and an acoustic guitar,then plugging in,going electric,Traveling down "Highway 61" to find "Blood On The Tracks" left by the "Infidels"{for someone who does not really like country music,"Nashville Skyline" was a real challenge}..and ending at the pinnacle of his recent output,"Love And Theft".What a way to finish off such an epic journey!

Finally,about this album,I think it finds Bob,now inducted into the Hall Of Fame,more comfortable with his position in the galaxy of great musicians/songwriters of our time,if not all time.He playfully jumps from style to style right through the album.I never thought I'd hear Bob do lounge music or swing for that matter,but he deftly handles all genres with incredible ease that leaves the listener wondering if there is any style out of range from this great songwriter.I doubt that and honestly believe that he could give any of todays maufactured Idol's a quick left hook and drop them to the musical canvas.To top it all off,the band backing him on this album,which I believe is his current touring outfit,are all great artisans in their own right.Nothing short of total professionalism all the way!

As of this moment I consider myself a Dylan convert.I immediately bought the fantastic Martin Scorsese film's "No Direction Home" and "The Last Waltz".Awesome movies!And Bob's current release "Modern Times".

I believe this album was originaly released on 9/11 2001.I find it quite amazing that,by pure coincidence,I first listened to it on that same day,six years later which compelled me to write this appraisal.

He was always there somewhere in my collection.Bryan Ferry's version of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is one of my faves.And being a huge Beatles/George Harrison fan,I've always owned the Wilbury albums(who could ever forget "Tweeter And The Monkey Man"}and the "Concert For Bangladesh".My other music hero,Sir Elton John,believes Bob to be the best song writer EVER.High praise indeed from rock royalty.The only draw back of the aforementioned box set is it's left out a few albums that I'm now going to have to track down.Looks like Columbia Records will be getting some of my dollars over the next year or two.

Dylan Rules!

IT TOOK A TIME.!!!!!
AFTER LOVING "TIME OUT OF MIND",ITS A DIGRACE THAT IT IS NOT ON SACD,IT TOOK ME SOME TIME TO GET INTO THIS.AFTER LISTENING OVER TIME IT BEGAN TO GROW ON ME VERY MUCH...HOW SILLY AM I , THIS IS UNCLE BOB.