Maps of Music

World Gone Wrong (1993)

Where the lyrics of World Gone Wrong take you, and where it was really made.

Dylan recorded this all-traditional album alone in his home garage in a matter of days, and it sounds rawer than the album before it.

Key places

Solo sessions in the Malibu garage (1993)

Recording site Bob Dylan's garage studio (Malibu) — Dylan recorded World Gone Wrong alone at his home garage studio in Malibu, with sound engineer Micajah Ryan assisting. He produced the album himself and finished it in a matter of days. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• World Gone Wrong: 29th studio album by Bob Dylan
• Released October 1993 on Columbia Records
• Second consecutive album of only traditional folk songs
• Acoustic performances with guitar and harmonica
• Darker and more tragic themes than the previous album, Good as I Been to You

Background

• Follows Good as I Been to You, the earlier all-traditional album
• Song balance swung more toward rural blues than before
• Two songs were recorded by the Mississippi Sheiks, two by Blind Willie McTell, one by Willie Brown, and one by Frank Hutchison
• Songs popularized by Tom Paley and Doc Watson were also recorded
• Possibly influenced by the controversy over missing credits on Good as I Been to You, Dylan wrote a complete set of liner notes

Recording

• Recorded the same way as Good as I Been to You, at Dylan's Malibu home garage studio
• Recorded solo in a matter of days
• Sound engineer Micajah Ryan assisted, and Dylan served as his own producer
• Sound is rawer than Good as I Been to You, which has a full stereo guitar sound
• Listeners can hear breathing and distortion
• Dylan learned The Two Soldiers from Jerry Garcia and had performed it live since 1988

Cover

• Cover photo by Ana Maria Velez shows Dylan in a top hat seated at a table at Flukes Cradle Cafe bar in Camden Town, London
• A painting titled L'Etranger by Peter Gallagher hangs on the wall behind Dylan
• Back cover photo by Randee St. Nicholas
• Design credited to Nancy Donald

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

• Received generally positive reviews from critics
• The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau gave it an A- in his Consumer Guide column
• Christgau wrote that Dylan's second attempt to revive the folk music revival, made without writing any new songs, is eerie and enticing
• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it an exceptional set of songs given performances so fully realized that they seemed like modern protest songs
• Erlewine wrote that Dylan seems more connected to the music than in years

Reappraisal

• Spectrum Culture included Blood in My Eyes and Delia on its list of Bob Dylan's 20 Best Songs of the '90s
• A 2015 USA Today article ranking every Bob Dylan song placed Jack-A-Roe 53rd out of 359, the highest-rated song from either Good as I Been to You or World Gone Wrong to make the list
• Public Enemy referenced the album title in their 2007 Dylan tribute song Long and Whining Road
• NJArts' Jay Lustig wrote that World Gone Wrong is a little stronger overall than Good as I Been to You and cited Blood in My Eyes as its highlight

Records

• Won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album
• Peaked at number 70 in the U.S.
• Peaked at number 35 in the UK
• Placed 23rd on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1993

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Dylan wrote complete liner notes that cited all possible sources, unlike his usual surrealistic notes, and these were informative.
• Two outtakes from the sessions, Robert Johnson's 32-20 Blues and the traditional Mary and the Soldier, were released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 in 2008.
• The music video for Blood in My Eyes, directed by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, was shot on Camden High Street in North London on July 21, 1993, the same day the cover photo was taken.
• The video appears on the bonus DVD of the Limited Edition version of Dylan's 2006 album Modern Times.
• An outtake of I've Always Been a Rambler can be heard at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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