Bob Dylan fans believe one album gets a bad reputation as it’s ‘nowhere near as abysmal’ as first thought

A lesser-known album by Bob Dylan has been defended by some fans who say it’s “nowhere near as abysmal” as people first thought.

Though nobody is rushing out to listen to Dylan and The Dead, a live album released by Dylan and Grateful Dead in the late 1980s, it has some defenders. A post to the r/BobDylan subreddit saw listeners share their thoughts on the album, which came at a time when everyone was “generally critical” of Dylan’s output, according to one listener. They seem to believe Dylan and The Dead doesn’t deserve its reputation as one of the worst releases in his discography, arguing it was “at worst… unremarkable.”

Their post reads: “This is just nowhere as abysmal as it’s made out to be. I mean, yeah, if you were trying to convince someone of the greatness of Bob Dylan it certainly wouldn’t be the first thing you’d reach for, but God as someone who is generally critical of ’80s Bob Dylan barring the odd obvious exception like Blind Willie McTell going into it I was expecting to find it almost unlistenable but I found it to be nothing of the sort. 

“I will also say ,as someone who finds Dylan’s voice from ’85 to ’88 to be pretty dreadful, I actually thought it sounded better here than a lot of other recordings from that time period. The drunken train wreck of a rendition of Blowin’ in The Wind at Live Aid springs to mind. His vocals are worse there than here by a distance.

“At worst, you’d say it’s a bit unremarkable and doesn’t really insist on being relistened to, but in no way does it warrant how universally panned it was with one-star reviews. I found the whole thing a lot easier to listen to than I expected.” Fans were split on whether Dylan and the Dead warranted reappraisal, with one suggesting it was “also worse than expected.”

Another wrote: “Dylan mumbles a bunch all over these songs, but the Dead barely bite on anything besides Joey and All Along the Watchtower. For the most part, it just sounds like a random collection of live songs and kind of poorly chosen songs for a live album, too. Dylan and the Dead doing a thoughtful live album of John Wesley Harding, New Morning, Desire, and Infidels would have been pretty cool.”

A third added: “It always seemed to me like a bunch of tracks taken and shuffled in a random sequence, and not really a cohesive listening experience. I preferred Real Live.”

But some believe Dylan and The Dead is deserving of a touch-up from The Bootleg Series. Alternative takes and other live performances from Dylan and Grateful Dead’s on-stage collaborations were praised by fans, who believe an official release would vindicate this live album.

One person wrote: “The rehearsals from this tour that circulate are pretty great.” Another added: “Agree. Not even close. I REALLY wish it would get the full bootleg treatment.” A third added: “Yes! I would love to have a Bootleg Series of this tour, just to set the record straight.”