Bob Dylan: Good As I Been to You

Back in November 1992 when this album came out, I had been trading part-time as a self-employed consultant for five months. Customs & Excise said they wanted to visit my office to check that I was recording my VAT properly. Of course, working from my spare bedroom, I was a little nervous about this. But the inspector who called was a few years younger than me (I was 27 at the time), very polite and unconfrontational. As he stood up to leave, though, he cast his eyes round the room, and dealt me one of those Colombo parting questions,

"So this'll be a busy time for you, won't it?"

"Errmmm… how so?" I replied, wondering what I'd overlooked.

"Well, there's a new Neil Young album [Harvest Moon] and a new Bob Dylan album out."

I could have hugged him. It was the books on the shelves and the NME cover stuck to the cupboard door that had given me away.

Did you get this when it came out, though? I didn't — not for another ten years (£5.99 from Polar Bear). The press really vilified Dylan for it, mocking the "greatest songwriter of his generation" for singing Froggie Went-A-Courtin'.

It was after I read Greil Marcus's Invisible Republic and, from there, bought and was blown away by World Gone Wrong, that I had to get this album to see if there was more where that came from.

This isn't in the same league as World Gone Wrong in my book. Bob sounds tired and plodding, and the song selection isn't quite as strong as on that album. But, with hindsight, it fits well into his work — better than Down in the Groove, I imagine — because it kind of leads to where he is now.

MusicBrainz entry for this album