Maps of Music

Fallen Angels (2016)

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

Every song on this Bob Dylan album except 'Skylark' had already been recorded by Frank Sinatra.

Key places

Recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood (2016)

Recording site Capitol Studios — The album was recorded in 2014 at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, during the same sessions as Shadows in the Night. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Fallen Angels: 37th studio album by Bob Dylan
• Released 20 May 2016 by Columbia Records
• Twelve cover versions of classic American songs
• Songs by writers including Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Sammy Cahn and Carolyn Leigh
• Companion to the predecessor Shadows in the Night
• Every song except 'Skylark' was once recorded by Frank Sinatra

Background

• Daniel Lanois told the Vancouver Sun in February 2015 that Dylan had visited him at home and played him '21 songs'
• Lanois said Dylan indicated he had made two records of this Sinatra project
• Before release, 'Melancholy Mood' became available on iTunes as an Instant Gratification track on 7 April 2016
• 'All the Way' became available on 28 April 2016, the day Dylan concluded a tour of Japan
• A 7-inch single of 'Melancholy Mood' came out on 7 April 2016, limited to 7,000 copies

Recording

• Recorded in 2014 at Capitol Studios in Hollywood
• Played by Dylan's touring band, augmented by a three-piece horn section and guitarist Dean Parks
• Recorded during the same sessions as Shadows in the Night
• Engineered and mixed by Al Schmitt
• Produced by Dylan under the pseudonym Jack Frost

Cover

• Front cover uses a cropped vintage black-and-white photo of a man holding a poker hand, originally taken in 1928
• Dylan scholar Alan Fraser identifies the playing card maker as Andrew Dougherty
• Album title set in Caslon Black
• Boxing photo on the rear inner sleeve shows the fight between Jake LaMotta and Billy Fox at Madison Square Garden, New York City, on 14 November 1947
• That fight was dramatized in Martin Scorsese's 1980 film Raging Bull
• Packaging has minimal credits and no printed lyrics

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

• Critics gave generally favorable reviews
• Metacritic average of 77 from 21 reviews, a generally favorable rating
• The Independent (Andy Gill): four-star review praising the restrained picking and pedal-steel guitar of the live band
• Entertainment Weekly (Jim Farber): praised Dylan's wry delicacy and the wistfulness of his delivery
• The Daily Telegraph (Helen Brown): five-star review praising Dylan's vocal abilities
• Now Magazine (Vish Khanna): five-star review calling it a hazy, laid-back history lesson
• Mojo (Mat Snow): four-star review framing the record as a sentimental memoir
• AllMusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine): praised the concept of tying together strands of American music
• Uncut (Andy Gill): positive review, 8 out of 10, linking it to Shadows in the Night
• PopMatters (Chris Gerard): said it is not on the same level as Shadows in the Night and feels a bit lightweight in comparison

Reappraisal

• The Big Issue listed 'Melancholy Mood' at number 56 on a list of the 80 best Bob Dylan songs that aren't greatest hits
• Critic Ray Padgett cited 'Melancholy Mood' as the album's highlight and placed it seventh on his list of the best covers from Dylan's American Songbook albums
• NJArts critic Jay Lustig did not consider the album a particularly notable addition to Dylan's catalog but named 'Melancholy Mood' his favorite track

Records

• Nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, February 2017
• Second straight year of a Best Traditional Pop Vocal nomination for Dylan, after Shadows in the Night

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• 'Melancholy Mood' is the album's lone single and its tenth track
• It was the only track from Dylan's three Great American Songbook albums to make The Big Issue's list of songs that aren't greatest hits
• The 7-inch single of 'Melancholy Mood' was limited to 7,000 copies and released on 7 April 2016, the same day the song became available to stream
• The front cover's poker hand photo dates from 1928, and the rear boxing photo shows a 1947 fight later dramatized in Raging Bull

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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