Under the Red Sky

Infobox Album
Name = Under the Red Sky
Type = studio
Artist = Bob Dylan


Released = September 10, 1990
Recorded = Spring 1990
Genre = Rock
Length = 35:21
Label = Columbia
Producer = Don Was, David Was, nowrap|Jack Frost (Bob Dylan)
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|2|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wyk9kebt7q7b link]
*Review-Christgau|A-|artist=169
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|2|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/bobdylan/albums/album/99588/review/5944172/under_the_red_sky link]
Last album = "Oh Mercy"
(1989)
This album = "Under the Red Sky"
(1990)
Next album = "The Bootleg Series"
(1991)

"Under the Red Sky" is Bob Dylan's 27th studio album, released by Columbia Records in 1990.

The album was largely greeted as a strange and disappointing follow-up to 1989's critically-acclaimed "Oh Mercy". Most of the criticism was directed at the slick sound of pop producer Don Was, as well as a handful of tracks that seem rooted in children's nursery rhymes. It is a rarity in Dylan's catalog for its inclusion of celebrity cameos, by Slash, Elton John, George Harrison, David Crosby, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bruce Hornsby.

Dedication

The album is dedicated to "Gabby Goo Goo", later explained to be a nickname for Dylan's four-year-old daughter. This has led to the popular assumption that the album's more childlike songs were for her entertainment, something that has never been confirmed or denied by Dylan.

Reception

Dylan has echoed most critics' complaints, telling "Rolling Stone" in a 2006 interview that the album's shortcomings resulted from hurried and unfocused recording sessions, due in part to his activity with the Traveling Wilburys at the time. He also claimed that there were too many people working on the album, and that he was very disillusioned with the recording industry during this period of his career.

The album still had some critical support, particularly from Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice", who wrote, "To my astonishment, I think "Under the Red Sky" is Dylan's best album in 15 years, a record that may even signal a ridiculously belated if not totally meaningless return to form...It's fabulistic, biblical...the tempos are postpunk like it oughta be, with [Kenny] Aronoff's sprints and shuffles grooving ahead like '60s folk-rock never did." And Paul Nelson (critic), writing for "Musician (magazine)", called the album "a deliberately throwaway masterpiece." When the "Voice" held its Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1990, "Under the Red Sky" placed at #39.

In the end, album sales were disappointing, peaking at #38 on the US charts and #13 in the UK.

Miscellanea

* Two songs, "Born in Time" and "God Knows", are reworkings of material originally recorded at the previous year's "Oh Mercy" sessions. Dylan would not put out another new studio album of original material until 1997's "Time Out of Mind", and is not known to have recorded any significant original material before beginning work on that album. However, it is known that when recording his acoustic album "Good as I Been to You", he recorded an entire album's worth of material that has never been released. Whether or not this album was composed of original material is not known.

* In 2005, "Q" magazine included the lead-off track "Wiggle Wiggle" in a list of "Ten Terrible Records by Great Artists".

* Dylan recorded and released the nursery rhyme song, This Old Man, on the Disney charity album, For Our Children, in 1991, a year after this album was released. This album includes other major artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Barbra Streisand.

Track listing

All songs by Bob Dylan.

#"Wiggle Wiggle" – 2:09
#"Under the Red Sky" – 4:09
#"Unbelievable" – 4:06
#"Born in Time" – 3:39
#"T.V. Talkin' Song" – 3:02
#"10,000 Men" – 4:21
#"2 X 2" – 3:36
#"God Knows" – 3:02
#"Handy Dandy" – 4:03
#"Cat's in the Well" – 3:21

Personnel

*Kenny Aronoff – drums
*Sweet Pea Atkinson – backing vocals
*Rayse Biggs – trumpet
*Dan Bosworth – assistant engineer
*Sir Harry Bowens – backing vocals
*Marsha Burns – production coordination
*Ed Cherney – engineer, mixing
*David Crosby – backing vocals
*Paulinho Da Costa – percussion
*Steve Deutsch – assistant engineer
*Bob Dylan – acoustic guitar, guitar, piano, accordion, harp, vocals, producer
*Robben Ford – guitar
*George Harrison – slide guitar
*Bruce Hornsby – piano
*Randy "The Emperor" Jackson – bass
*Elton John – piano
*Judy Kirshner – assistant engineer
*Al Kooper – organ, keyboards
*David Lindley – bouzouki, guitar, slide guitar
*David McMurray – saxophone
*Donald Ray Mitchell – backing vocals
*Jim Mitchell – assistant engineer
*Jamie Muhoberac – organ
*Slash – guitar
*Brett Swain – assistant engineer
*Jimmie Vaughan – guitar
*Stevie Ray Vaughan – guitar
*Waddy Wachtel – guitar
*David Was – backing vocals, producer
*Don Was – bass, producer