Maps of Music

Desire (1976)

Where the lyrics of Desire take you, and where it was really made.

The album's most controversial song, 'Joey', was written in a single night after Dylan and Jacques Levy heard stories about a gangster from his friends.

Key places

Studio E sessions for Desire (1975)

Recording site Studio E — Dylan returned to Studio E on July 28, 1975, with about 21 musicians. The sessions there produced most of the album, and the July 30 session with a smaller group formed its core. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Desire: seventeenth studio album by Bob Dylan
• Released 5 January 1976 on Columbia Records
• One of Dylan's most collaborative efforts
• Most of the album co-written by Jacques Levy
• Composed of lengthy story-songs
• Two songs drew controversy quickly: 'Joey' and 'Hurricane'
• Reached No. 1 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart for five weeks
• Certified double Platinum
• Among Dylan's best-selling studio albums

Background

• Released between the two legs of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour
• Same musicians as the Rolling Thunder Revue, later documented on The Bootleg Series Vol. 5
• Emmylou Harris and Ronee Blakley sang backing vocals on many songs
• Dylan saw Patti Smith and her group play at The Other End on June 26, 1975, which led to the idea of his own band
• Dylan's marriage was turbulent when he wrote 'Sara'
• Sara Dylan filed for divorce in March 1977

Recording

• First session on July 14, 1975 recorded 'Joey' and 'Rita Mae' with a loosely formed group
• That session disappointed Dylan and pushed him to form his own working band
• Dylan and Levy then worked on songs in the Hamptons and finished fourteen songs in three weeks
• Sessions at Studio E began on July 28, 1975 with about 21 musicians
• Dylan wanted to record live, while producer Don DeVito's inexperience led to instruments being stacked on the multitrack tapes
• Sessions on July 30 with a smaller group produced most of the album's core
• Eric Clapton attended one session and left after advising Dylan to use a smaller band

Cover

• Cover photography by Ruth Bernal
• Cover art credited to Ken Regan
• A drawing of Joseph Conrad appears on the back of the sleeve

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota; raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.
• Moved to New York City in January 1961 to pursue a music career.
• Signed to Columbia Records after playing harmonica on Carolyn Hester's album; debut album Bob Dylan released in 1962.

Members

• Solo artist; backed over the years by bands including the Hawks/the Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and his touring band led by bassist Tony Garnier.

Career

• Breakthrough with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963); protest songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements.
• Went electric with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), provoking controversy among folk fans.
• Motorcycle accident in 1966 led to nearly eight years without touring; Basement Tapes recorded with the Band.
• Converted to Christianity in the late 1970s and released gospel albums; won Album of the Year Grammy for Time Out of Mind (1997).
• Has toured since 1988 on the Never Ending Tour; won an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards; awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Dave Marsh called it one of the 'two best records Dylan has made since John Wesley Harding' and gave it four stars in the 1979 Rolling Stone Record Guide
• Marsh said the album differed from Dylan's other 1970s work because love songs were not its focus
• Robert Christgau was less impressed and questioned 'Joey' as a protest song
• Christgau disputed the protest-song label and suggested Dylan's songs about oppressed heroes reflected his own feelings at the time
• Despite mixed opinions, the album reached number 26 on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1976

Reappraisal

• Rolling Stone ranked it number 174 on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
• The ranking was kept in the 2012 revised list
• Clinton Heylin noted that 'Joey' remained the one song from Desire regularly performed in concert in the nineties

Records

• Reached No. 1 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart for five weeks
• Certified double Platinum
• Reached No. 3 in the UK
• Claimed the No. 1 slot on NME Album of the Year
• Voted number 761 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000)

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Dylan spotted violinist Scarlet Rivera walking with her violin in its case and invited her to his rehearsal studio, where she joined the new songs.
• 'Abandoned Love' debuted as an impromptu performance at The Other End on July 3, 1975, and was ultimately replaced by 'Joey' on the album.
• 'Hurricane' was re-recorded before release because of potentially libelous lyrics, and Ronee Blakley sang the harmony on the album version.
• 'Mozambique' allegedly started as a game to see how many rhymes for '-ique' Dylan and Levy could find.
• The album was also released in quadraphonic sound, with a different mix that collectors value for its better sound.
• Joseph Conrad's novel Victory was a major influence on 'Black Diamond Bay'.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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