Product Description

Though many critics consider SHOT OF LOVE the best of Dylan's late-'70s, early-'80s "Christian albums", others find it guilty simply by association with that period. As such, it'sone of his most underrated albums. It includes "Every GrainOf Sand"--one of his finest post-'60s ballads--along with such notable album tracks as the rocking title cut and "LennyBruce", a paean to the comedian that easily could be read as a veiled paean to Dylan himself. The CD version of SHOT OFLOVE adds the B-side "The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar", a rollicking blues-rocker that earned a lot of airplay when it first came out by reminding fans of BLONDE ON BLONDE.

Track Listing

1. Shot Of Love
2. Heart Of Mine
3. Property Of Jesus
4. Lenny Bruce
5. Watered Down Love
6. Dead Man Dead Man
7. In The Summertime
8. Trouble
9. Every Grain Of Sand

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6233 in Music
• Released on: 1997-02-03
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Rather uneven collection with great highs and just so songs
Dylan's critical reputation had sort of gotten into a funk, and this album does not help any matters. Some people want to tell you its one of the great underrated masterpieces of Dylan's career. If you're were talking about STREET-LEGAL or EMPIRE BURLESQUE, I'd tend to agree, although the later seems to have a fairly good critical reputation.

As far as the Christianity goes, this is the by far the most accessible to a secular audience, although SLOW TRAIN COMING is better aesthetically. Though there are several explicit Christian songs, Dylan included secular music, allowing it to reach the secular audience more on their level, and yet retaining the fundamentals of Christianity. On it's most basic level SHOT OF LOVE is a Christian record. But instead of preaching to the choir like he did on SAVED (which had no appeal to the secular audience, thus making it not much good in terms of being an evangelical tool), this record dresses its message of freedom and Christianity in pop music, and while the idea is a good one for reaching the lost, aesthetically it only produces mixed results.

This record, although only very limited, becomes something of a return to form for Dylan, especially with "Every Grain of Sand", showing he can make his new found faith and his writing come together in a glorious result, which he also did with "Angelina", which was sadly left off this album. SAVED was something only a converted audience could appreciate. The next release, INFIDELS, is another album I consider Christian, playing almost like a concept album, but for some reason never regarded as such. (For those of you who think "Man of Peace" is an attack on Christianity, in context of the album and its outtakes it is obviously not the case. Instead, he's singing about the anti-Christ, as evidenced by several clues).

SHOT OF LOVE had the potential to be, if not a great, at least a good Dylan album. Like INFIDELS, Dylan cut some of the strongest material from the final album, which would have greatly strengthened the album. Though INFIDELS is more famous for the material it did NOT include, it still managed to be a fairly consistent, good album, though not as good as it could have been.

SHOT OF LOVE, however, to me at least, is the real "what could have been" album of Dylan's career, not INFIDELS. Dylan had the material to produce a very strong album, and instead produced a very uneven, mediocre album. At least the material he chose to release on INFIDELS was strong, even though it wasn't the best from the sessions. With SHOT, not only did Dylan not release the strongest material, he released a lot of just flat out subpar songs.

The three songs from BOOTLEG, "You Changed My Life," "Need a Woman", and "Angelina", are all quite a bit better than much of the material on the actual album, with the last track especially being one of Dylan's latter day masterpeices, on level with "Every Grain of Sand". Dylan also worked on two major new compositions, neither of which made the album. These are "Carribean Wind" and "The Groom's Still Waiting at the Alter", both of which are fantastic. A much maligned version of "Wind" was released on Biograph (there is a much better, unreleased version circulating in collector circles and the Internet). There are several other circulating outtakes. One, "Magic", was going to be released on the album as well but was deleted from the final sequence. Again, a major mistake.

This album does what no other Dylan record has done: reincorporate a stray track into the running order, and for good reason as it's one of his best. "The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar", originally a B-Side from one of the singles off this album and included since 1985, rocks as hard as anything on HIGHWAY 61 REVISTED, as does "Shot of Love".

"Lenny Bruce" is one of the most bizarre tracks here. It is strange Dylan would include a tribute to a foul mouth, obscene drug addict during his Christian trilogy, and not only that several of the lyrics are not only generic but don't have much to do with Bruce himself. Dylan writes the weird line "he never cut off any babies' heads." How did that ever stay in the song? Sounds like a place holder line that Dylan never took out, and has absolutely nothing to do with Bruce (or most other people, for that matter). It's interesting to listen to the song as a tribute to John Lennon.

Then we have one of the few tracks from the 1980s that is undeniably a masterpiece anyway you cut it: "Every Grain of Sand". It angers me that this song often is overlooked by compilers when it should be included. This, "Jokerman", "I & I", "Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?)", and "Brownsville Girl" can stand proud against any of the 1960s material.

Well, what about the other tracks? They seem, to me, rather generic and not quite up to par, and unfortunately this material constitutes half the album. "Heart of Mine" is good, but not great. Dylan admits to recording better versions of "Heart of Mine," but only chose the take issued on the album because Ronnie Wood and Ringo Starr played on it.

"Watered Down Love" is just watered down Dylanspeak "Positively Fourth Street". "Dead Man, Dead Man", "In the Summer Time", and "Trouble" are hardly better, although I do like "Trouble" quite a bit, it being rather funky. But it is still not the best song in the world. "In the Summer Time" feels much longer than it actually is because it's so monotonous.

It is just perplexing on why he left most of the best material from the sessions off the album. Had he then eliminated the dead weight it would be the other classic that people so want it be to from the 1980s, joining INFIDELS, EMPIRE BURLESQUE, and OH MERCY as the very strong albums of the 1980s, and Dylan desperately needed this.

As it stands, it is just a pop record that has its moments with some average or almost there material. It also has no material that is just absolutely terrible, like, oh, say Dylan's 1986 and 1988 releases respectively. It does have its own atmosphere, and all the songs contribute to that. But instead of excellence it just doesn't sit right with me.

Dylan needs help when it comes to track selection, botching both this and INFIDELS, ruining both releases by leaving several great songs OFF of the album that should have been included. But Dylan also proved himself rather inept at judging what should and should and should not be on an album as early as the 1960s, leaving "Farewell Angelina" off BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME and a doing a complete take of "She's Your Lover Now" and putting it on BLONDE ON BLONDE. It would have been nice had FREEWHEELIN been a double lp (he certainly had the material for it), but to be fair to Dylan, that had never been done before and that was only his second release. (A side note: BLONDE ON BLONDE was the first double rock album ever).

But then he wouldn't be Dylan

Moving & Melodic
A test of a good album is whether you come back to it in later years and rejoice...or grimace. Here I can say that, on relistening to this 1981 album recently, that rejoicing outweighed grimacing by about 8 to 2 if not 9 to 1. Even the lesser tracks seemed appealing after 24 years. Dead Man for example I always rather disliked but here I can hear things I never heard before....like Jim Keltner's thumping drumming and pretty interesting keyboards from Someone Or Other....but mostly it is Dylan's conviction in the lyrics he is singing which carries the most appeal. There were moments afterwards for sure, but here on this album we have Dylan mixing heartfelt religious lyrics, as on this song with moments of humour and self deprecation as on the piano-based Lenny Bruce and Ringo-flavoured Heart Of Mine respectively for example.

Even the title track kicks ass. Because it is Dylan saying we don't need drugs to get through Life. How often have you heard him say that on record? It is an abundant truth but we are all weak of course and so we don't like hearing it. But it's true. Love Is the answer as Lennon said in 1973 on Mind Games, but here in a different context, it rings true equally. We all need a Shot Of Love if we're honest. Property of Jesus is a little defensive, but again the sentiment is sound. Why regail at others who have found happiness, in whatever form, when it might be better to examine oneself? Maybe 'you've got a heart of stone' sounds harsh, this is precisely what the Anti-Christian Dylan brigade must have appeared to him as at the time. Faith or religion is an intensely personal thing which should be respected as such. Period.

And then we have the Hightlights here....which cross all boundaries but those of the most bigoted atheist. Every Grain Of Sand is a masterpiece of personal vulnerability if there ever was one. In The Summertime is gorgeous. Trouble is less digestable but moving all the same. Watered Down Love is sincere and pretty groovy if you ask me.

I just like the whole style of this album. It is heartfelt...without being condescending. As parts of Slow Train Coming (1979) might have been (not true for most of Saved (1980) mind you). OK so the cover was pretty awful. But no worse than Self Portrait (1970). Which also contains several hidden gems if you care to listen!

So take a leap of faith of a Non Religious kind (well, not necessarily anyway) and give this album a chance. The inclusion of the B Side Groom Still Waiting At The Altar is a welcome addition and should tip the balance for any waverers out there. Here we hear Dylan still producing the goods and caring about what he is singing about. Not too much mystery here, just heartfelt and pretty moving lyrics, with several good tunes to boot, about the only thing missing from the Saved album in my opinion. And one Bona Fide classic in anyone's book, in Every Grain Of Sand. Worth the admission price for this track alone. Even Satan must have thought Oh S*** when he heard this one.

Contains at least two masterpieces
I know this album came in for a lot of criticism upon release but in retrospect it’s not bad at all. Heart Of Mine has a great rolling rhythm and nice tempo changes, whilst Lenny Bruce is a minor masterpiece, a very moving tribute with lovely piano and organ. Every Grain Of Sand is a magnificent song when considered from a general spiritual angle, stripped of dogma. It sounds very mournful but has that transcended, hopeful quality found in most kinds of gospel and other spiritual music. I also love Emmylou Harris’ beautiful interpretation on her Wrecking Ball album, although she tweaked the lyrics a bit. In The Summertime with its nice harmonica touches reminds me a bit of some of Van Morrison’s pastoral pieces. So all in all not a bad album judged on a purely musical level, containing at least two gems and another great song in Heart Of Mine. I like it!