https://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Waves-Bob-Dylan/dp/B0001M0KFW?crid=4UQUI3SSLWFR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SNUwqr_4NU4GPpG6dJWpP1bAY93lFftNcEqIdFzfyjM.cNkAkXMz4SJD5AzjVu0jUK78hCNRb6igeJvoZsfPhEY&dib_tag=se&keywords=5099751235620&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1731322617&sprefix=5099751235620%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=mabasreofcdbl-21&linkId=74a12c0b1e3e8ed6551ba33434a0ddd5&language=en_GB&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
Overall ****
Packaging Presentation **
Audio *****
"…May You Be Forever Young…"
On a rush of advance sales - Bob Dylan's first No.1 vinyl album in the USA (which seems almost unimaginable now in the hindsight mists of late 2024) came not in 1964 or 1966 or 1968 or 1970 - but in January 1974.
Nevertheless "Planet Waves" irritated me as a teenager – I could never quite nail down why – it felt to me at the time like it was a good album trying real hard to be great. Side 1 is fab but Side 2 drops the ball. Sure, it has wonderful Dylan-mellow in "Going, Going, Gone" where Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson add telepathically classy fills and the wonderful anthemic "Forever Young" of course - but even that is faffed with a Fast Version that opens Side 2 – a silly directionless knees-up-mother-brown repeat that feels like filler instead of joy.
But what brings me back to "Planet Waves" these days (it was done with his long-time muckers The Band) is the stunning new Audio achieved when it was reissued in September 2003 - mastered by the legendary GREG CALBI. Man does this thing sound good - so musclebound that I'm hearing it anew – and even loving the faff-bits. Time to relocate Hazel and get Tough Mama…
UK re-released 29 May 2004 - "Planet Waves" by BOB DYLAN (featuring The Band) on Columbia 512356 6 (Barcode 5099751235620) is a Standard Edition Jewel Case Reissue of a SACD Hybrid Reissue first released in a Card Sleeve Digipak on 15 September 2003 (Barcode 5099751235668). It plays out as follows (42:10 minutes):
1. On A Night Like This [Side 1]
2. Going, Going, Gone
3. Tough Mama
4. Hazel
5. Something There Is About You
6. Forever Young (5:00 minutes)
7. Forever Young (2:51 minutes) [Side 2]
8. Dirge
9. You Angel You
10. Never Say Goodbye
11. Wedding Song
Tracks 1 to 11 are his fourteenth studio album "Planet Waves" – released 17 January 1974 in the US on Asylum 7E 1003 and February 1974 in the UK on Island ILPS 9261 (all songs by BD). Bob Dylan plays Guitar and Harmonica (Lead Vocals on All) whilst The Band features Robbie Robertson on Guitars, Garth Hudson on Organ and Accordion, Richard Manuel on Keyboards and Drums, Rick Danko on Bass with Levon Helm on Drums. It peaked at No.1 in the USA (his first there) and No.7 in the UK.
First Issued September 2003 as part of the Bob Dylan Revisited (The Reissue Series) – that variant was a Hybrid SACD Remaster in Card Digipak Repro Artwork with a Greg Calbi Remaster. There was a layer for standard CD players also with the Remastered Audio. What you have here is technically a reissue of that Limited Edition into an unlimited edition jewel case in May 2004. The packaging is abysmal – a gatefold slip of paper that reproduces the 'Cast Iron Songs & Torch Ballads' charcoal drawing painting scrawled Dylan liner notes artwork on the inside of the gatefold with a photo of him in the studio (sat in a chair with guitar beside him) beneath the see-through CD tray – and that's your lot. No critique – no history – no appreciation - no lyrics - it just about mentions the Stereo Remaster by GREG CALBI at Sterling Sound on the rear of the booklet. But let's get to the music…
Right from the off, the audio on the jaunty "On A Night Like This" is fantastic, Levon Helm and his Accordion now clear and contributing. Robbie Robertson makes his guitar sound like it's trying to catch a breath – drunk almost - on one of the album's undoubted highlights - "Going, Going, Gone" – Dylan sounding full-throated sincere in his tortured vocal delivery – a gem. Sisters are on the highway while papa is in the big house (his working day are through) for the rollicking Band vs. Dylan shouter song "Tough Mama" – great audio as Dylan wails on the Harmonica and Garth Hudson makes his organ sing. But again, "Tough Mama" is one of those tunes, where you want to explore the themes and wish that Columbia had gone some way to providing lyrics – giving the release something other than what they can get away with. "Hazel" has something our Bob wants – another untouchable lady within reach but so far away. I love the way that his harmonica playing on "Hazel" adds a genuine hurt to the longing rather than just being something to fill the space (it feels old and new). And again, great audio as Robbie warbles those guitar notes in the right speaker for "Something There Is About You" – the other adding layers as both talents whirlwind into each other.
I often think that our appraisal of "Planet Waves" would have been elevated had Dylan dropped that crap fast version of "Forever Young" that opens Side 2 and started instead with the bleak pain-drenched "Dirge" where Dylan is glad the curtain fell – no more daggering eyes until one breaks out the battle stare. You also must praise Robertson on zippy Acoustic and Hudson on Grand Piano where they somehow manage to make "Dirge" sound bleak and yet full too – a frantic baroness. "You Angel You" is unfortunately just another Dylan song that floats over you as he shout-sings his way through the motions. Robertson runs his guitar through a waterfall as Dylan sings of someone beautiful whose grace might just make him cry – the short three-minutes of "Never Say Goodbye" feeling like a song you should give a second-chance too. "Planet Waves" comes to an end with "Wedding Song" – an Acoustic strummer that regales how much his lady means to him. A track called "Nobody 'Cept You" (said to be a love song to his wife Sara) was replaced at the last minute with "Wedding Song" - there is also alternate versions of "Forever Young" officially out there too - first can be found on "Biograph" and then on "Bootleg Series Volumes 1 to 3".
There are BD fans who rate his 1974 platter "Planet Waves" as being up there – but I think that Seventies accolade goes hands down to "Blood On The Tracks" from 1975. 'Tracks' was a genuinely great album that moved then and does still. "Planet Waves" has never done that for me.
But in truth - I am returning to the 'Moonglow' album of 1974 (even if I do not know what he's going on about in those scrawled "Planet Waves" liner notes) – playing it again after all these decades because of the revelatory Remaster. And this time, I'm smiling from the lifeboat and not so seasick…
