Planet Waves by Bob Dylan with The Band (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Planet Waves

Group name: The Band

Artist name: Bob Dylan

Year: 1974

Number of discs: one

Label: Asylum Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Who owned it: my father

Buy it on Amazon: $21.98

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not familiar with this record at all, as it’s from the mid 1970s, and I usually only listen to Dylan’s music from the 1960s. It will be the sixth by Dylan and the third by The Band that I review. The previous seven were:

The Freewheelin’ (1963): 5/5

Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits (1967): 5/5

John Wesley Harding (1967): 4/5

Nashville Skyline (1969): 4/5

The Band (1969): 3/5

Stage Fright (1970): 4/5

Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1971): 4/5

What I expected

I guess rock, folk rock and country rock.

What it was actually like

I didn’t recognize any of these songs, which mostly had a much richer guitar sound (due to recording them with a band) than most of the Dylan songs that I know, and I did not particularly like any of them, either, which I guess was to be expected. Also, I have no idea why this record included two tracks that were both called Forever Young, the last song on the first side and the first song on the second side.

Most of the record was identifiably filler, the tracks that have to be included to fill up space because an LP can hold around 46 minutes of music: Going, Going, Gone, which was slow and boring, barely even a song at all; Hazel; Forever Young (side one).

Something There Is About You was a bit better, in between filler and a real song; You Angel You was similar, but had a funk-style bass guitar part that stood out.

Tough Mama was more of a blues song, but also had that very prominent funk bass guitar. The Forever Young on side two was also bluesy and much better than on side one, with more of a melody and a stronger rhythm, and faster.

On a Night Like This was a relatively solid country rock song that was fast paced and energetic, with harmonica that sounded almost like an accordion, and I liked it.

Though I did not like the piano on Dirge and thought that it should have been an (electric) guitar instead, I did like its acoustic guitar and considered it was a decent song also. Wedding Song was the most “normal” Dylan style song on the record: all acoustic, and it sounded like it might have been just Dylan performing solo with guitar and harmonica.