Every artist has a low point. For Bob Dylan, it was a hefty stretch of time between the years 1985 and 1988. Empire Burlesque provided a musician with a chance to adapt to the cultural pathway that would slaughter the long-term endurance of just about every artist that lived and died in the 1980s. For Dylan, it meant half-heartedly attempting to form his music to the synthwave washing over modern pop of the time. A complete and defiant rejection of that is found in Knocked Out Loaded, but so too is a rejection of quality and articulation. Drowning out his own lyricisms with a heavy guitar simplicity is the first of many nails in the Knocked Out Loaded coffin.
Sticking to everything that had steered his preceding works so poorly in this dark period, Dylan doubles down on production designs harmful to his musical quality. Starting off drab enough with You Wanna Ramble, it would appear Dylan is keen to do just that. A guitar riff that strikes through with nothing particular, in hindsight, is cover for completely lacking lyrical presence on the three covers throughout. They Killed Him couldn’t be any worse, though, a butchering of Kris Kristofferson’s work if there ever was one. That misfire may not entirely be the fault of Dylan, with the second track terribly offensive not for its message but for its lack of quality and clarity in the face of singing through the assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. “God Almighty,” soon follows. Not even God could salvage this record. Divine intervention could not prevent just how dreadful Knocked Out Loaded is.
Whether it is the church-like structure that served well on Saved and Shot of Love feeling completely overutilized here or if it is just the lack of lyrical observations that are so synonymous with Dylan’s work. Backing singers attempt to cover up the patchwork of Driftin’ Too Far From Shore while Precious Memories feels deflated, flat and just plain dull. Pop-oriented Maybe Someday is a cry for the pop-clad failures of Empire Burlesque, which, when compared to Knocked Out Loaded, looks like a masterclass of an album. Despite that, Brownsville Girl opens up the B-Side of this record with a clarity that would be commonplace for Dylan’s earliest works. It is not his best track, but it is bolstered as a strong highlight of Knocked Out Loaded solely by being of acceptable quality on a barren album.
In fact, Brownsville Girl sums up Knocked Out Loaded, with the best lyric of the album. “If there’s an original thought, I could use it right now.” Dylan has expired. His work on Knocked Out Loaded was a low ebb necessary for any artist hoping to bounce back with the latter days of lyrical clarity and musical guidance so thankfully picked up by Dylan years later. Knocked Out Loaded is often hushed up as a dark period for the artist at the heart, but it is not until actually listening to it that its reputation as the worst of Dylan holds up. Rock bottom has to be hit so an artist can spring back. Knocked Out Loaded sees Dylan knocked to that low rung of the ladder. If anything, Knocked Out Loaded feels like a particular misfire to try and adapt to the musical changes of the times as well as a sign of creative burnout.
