World Gone Wrong
Encyclopedia
World Gone Wrong is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan
's 29th studio album
, released by Columbia Records
in October 1993.
It was Dylan's second consecutive collection of only traditional folk songs, performed acoustically with guitar
and harmonica
. The songs tend to deal with darker and more tragic themes than the previous outing, Good as I Been to You
.
The album received a warm, if not excited, reception from critics. Despite earning a Grammy award for Best Traditional Folk Album, it peaked at a modest #70 in the US, and at #35 in the UK.
In May 1993, Dylan once again held sessions at his Malibu home inside his garage studio. Recorded solo in a matter of days, a total of 14 songs were recorded without a single change in guitar strings. Marked by distortion, the recording quality was very primitive by modern standards, with very casual microphone placement and very little tuning. There were some rumors that Dylan had mastered the album from cassette tapes, as Bruce Springsteen
had done with Nebraska
, but those rumors have been as difficult to prove as they have been to dismiss.
Possibly influenced by the controversy surrounding Good as I Been to You, Dylan wrote a complete set of liner notes to World Gone Wrong, citing all possible sources. It had been decades since Dylan had written his own liner notes, and they were always surrealistic; these notes, while still playfully written, were actually informative.
, two more by Blind Willie McTell
, one by Willie Brown
, and another by Frank Hutchison
. Songs popularized by Tom Paley
and Doc Watson
were also recorded.
In the case of "The Two Soldiers", Dylan had been performing it live since 1988. As Clinton Heylin writes, on World Gone Wrong Dylan invested it "with that classic impersonality the true traditionalist seeks."
.
Robert Christgau
gave it an A- in his Consumer Guide column published in The Village Voice
. "Dylan's second attempt to revive the folk music revival while laying down a new record without writing any new songs is eerie and enticing," wrote Christgau. "He cherishes the non sequiturs, sudden changes of heart, and received or obscure blank spots in these buried songs--all usages he's long since absorbed into his own writing because he believes they evoke a world that defies rationalization. Me, I'm not so sure it doesn't just seem that way because there's no way we can be intimate with their worlds anymore."
Ira Robbins wrote in Newsday
that "the record expresses as much about Bob Dylan's art as any collection of originals." Even music critic Bill Wyman, who dismissed Good as I Been to You
, wrote that "it's a testament to his unpredictability that [Good as I Been to You] is tedious and World Gone Wrong is a signal document, a mesmerizing and sanguinary walk down the blood-soaked history of folk and blues. It also has his best liner notes since the 1960s."
Wyman was not the only critic enamored with the liner notes, which are written in strange, verbose prose. Andy Gill of The Independent
wrote, "it's the liner notes that offer the most interesting aspect of the album...[With] the songs steeped in deceit, treachery, venality and despair - not to mention his sometimes slightly berserk annotations - the picture builds up of the Blues as Bible Study, a series of lessons to be interpreted." Christgau, Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune, and many others expressed their enjoyment in reading the liner notes.
World Gone Wrong went on to place at #23 on The Village Voice
s Pazz & Jop
Critics Poll for 1993.
Following its release, Dylan was temporarily a freelance artist. As possible promotion for World Gone Wrong, Dylan arranged for an acoustic television special to be accompanied by a live album release. Scheduled for mid-November at Manhattan's Supper Club, Dylan was accompanied by his current touring band, pedal steel and slide guitarist Bucky Baxter, guitarist John Jackson, bassist Tony Garnier, and drummer Winston Watson. After a series of rehearsals, Dylan performed four shows in front of a live audience, "invest[ing] 'Jack-A-Roe,' 'Delia,' and Blind Boy Fuller
's 'Weeping Willow' with a power and passion that had been missing from a whole year of lackluster performances," wrote Clinton Heylin. In addition to songs from his two most recent albums, the group performed acoustic renditions of "Ring Them Bells" and "Queen Jane Approximately" "that spoke with all the hurt that inner voice felt when left crying to be heard."
For reasons never explained, the TV broadcast and CD planned from these performances were all scrapped. It was an expensive decision, as Dylan had paid all expenses out of his own pocket, including those for a film crew and a multitrack digital console. Everything was filmed and recorded, but the results were shelved indefinitely (and are now widely bootlegged.)
At the end of 1993, Sony signed Dylan to another contract good for ten albums. A compilation and a live album would follow, but Dylan would take four years before releasing his next studio album, Time Out of Mind
, a collection of originals that won far more media attention than World Gone Wrong.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's 29th studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
, released by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
in October 1993.
It was Dylan's second consecutive collection of only traditional folk songs, performed acoustically with guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
. The songs tend to deal with darker and more tragic themes than the previous outing, Good as I Been to You
Good as I Been to You
Good as I Been to You is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 28th studio album, released by Columbia Records in November 1992.It is composed entirely of traditional folk songs and covers, and is Dylan's first entirely solo, acoustic album since Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964...
.
The album received a warm, if not excited, reception from critics. Despite earning a Grammy award for Best Traditional Folk Album, it peaked at a modest #70 in the US, and at #35 in the UK.
The recording sessions
Like its predecessor Good as I Been to You, World Gone Wrong was recorded to fulfill the terms of his January 18, 1988 contract. It would be the final album released under that contract.In May 1993, Dylan once again held sessions at his Malibu home inside his garage studio. Recorded solo in a matter of days, a total of 14 songs were recorded without a single change in guitar strings. Marked by distortion, the recording quality was very primitive by modern standards, with very casual microphone placement and very little tuning. There were some rumors that Dylan had mastered the album from cassette tapes, as Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
had done with Nebraska
Nebraska (album)
-Themes:The album begins with "Nebraska", a first-person narrative based on the true story of 19-year-old spree killer Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, and ends with "Reason to Believe", a complex narrative that renders its title phrase into contemptuous sarcasm...
, but those rumors have been as difficult to prove as they have been to dismiss.
Possibly influenced by the controversy surrounding Good as I Been to You, Dylan wrote a complete set of liner notes to World Gone Wrong, citing all possible sources. It had been decades since Dylan had written his own liner notes, and they were always surrealistic; these notes, while still playfully written, were actually informative.
The songs
The balance of songs in World Gone Wrong swung more towards rural blues. Two had been recorded by the Mississippi SheiksMississippi Sheiks
The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues, but were adept at many styles of United States popular music of the time, and their records were bought by both black and white audiences.In 2004, they...
, two more by Blind Willie McTell
Blind Willie McTell
Blind Willie McTell , was an influential Piedmont and ragtime blues singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues, although, unlike his contemporaries, he used exclusively a twelve-string guitar...
, one by Willie Brown
Willie Brown (musician)
Willie Brown was an American delta blues guitarist and singer.- Life and career :Born Willie Lee Brown in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Brown played with such notables as Charley Patton, and Robert Johnson. He was not known to be a self-promoting frontman, preferring to "second" other musicians...
, and another by Frank Hutchison
Frank Hutchison
Frank Hutchison was an early country blues and piedmont blues musician.-Biography:...
. Songs popularized by Tom Paley
Tom Paley
Tom Paley is an American guitarist, banjo and fiddle player. He is best known for his work with the New Lost City Ramblers in the 1950s and 1960s.-Biography:Paley was born and raised in New York City, United States...
and Doc Watson
Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...
were also recorded.
In the case of "The Two Soldiers", Dylan had been performing it live since 1988. As Clinton Heylin writes, on World Gone Wrong Dylan invested it "with that classic impersonality the true traditionalist seeks."
Outtakes
Five songs were leftover from the sessions, including versions of "Goodnight My Love," "Twenty-One Years," Robert Johnson's "32-20 Blues," and The Carter Family's "Hello Stranger." In 2008, "32-20 Blues" and another outtake from these sessions, "Mary and the Soldier" were released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale SignsThe Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs
The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 is a compilation album by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in his official "bootleg series" of rare and unissued recordings. It was originally released as a double, and triple album. It was later released as a single album,...
.
Aftermath
The response to World Gone Wrong was very positive, with many regarding it as superior to Good as I Been to You.Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave it an A- in his Consumer Guide column published in The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
. "Dylan's second attempt to revive the folk music revival while laying down a new record without writing any new songs is eerie and enticing," wrote Christgau. "He cherishes the non sequiturs, sudden changes of heart, and received or obscure blank spots in these buried songs--all usages he's long since absorbed into his own writing because he believes they evoke a world that defies rationalization. Me, I'm not so sure it doesn't just seem that way because there's no way we can be intimate with their worlds anymore."
Ira Robbins wrote in Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
that "the record expresses as much about Bob Dylan's art as any collection of originals." Even music critic Bill Wyman, who dismissed Good as I Been to You
Good as I Been to You
Good as I Been to You is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 28th studio album, released by Columbia Records in November 1992.It is composed entirely of traditional folk songs and covers, and is Dylan's first entirely solo, acoustic album since Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964...
, wrote that "it's a testament to his unpredictability that [Good as I Been to You] is tedious and World Gone Wrong is a signal document, a mesmerizing and sanguinary walk down the blood-soaked history of folk and blues. It also has his best liner notes since the 1960s."
Wyman was not the only critic enamored with the liner notes, which are written in strange, verbose prose. Andy Gill of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
wrote, "it's the liner notes that offer the most interesting aspect of the album...[With] the songs steeped in deceit, treachery, venality and despair - not to mention his sometimes slightly berserk annotations - the picture builds up of the Blues as Bible Study, a series of lessons to be interpreted." Christgau, Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune, and many others expressed their enjoyment in reading the liner notes.
World Gone Wrong went on to place at #23 on The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
s Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
Critics Poll for 1993.
Following its release, Dylan was temporarily a freelance artist. As possible promotion for World Gone Wrong, Dylan arranged for an acoustic television special to be accompanied by a live album release. Scheduled for mid-November at Manhattan's Supper Club, Dylan was accompanied by his current touring band, pedal steel and slide guitarist Bucky Baxter, guitarist John Jackson, bassist Tony Garnier, and drummer Winston Watson. After a series of rehearsals, Dylan performed four shows in front of a live audience, "invest[ing] 'Jack-A-Roe,' 'Delia,' and Blind Boy Fuller
Blind Boy Fuller
Blind Boy Fuller was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. He was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont blues artists with rural Black Americans, a group that also included Blind Blake, Josh White, and Buddy Moss.-Life and career:Fulton Allen was born in Wadesboro, North Carolina,...
's 'Weeping Willow' with a power and passion that had been missing from a whole year of lackluster performances," wrote Clinton Heylin. In addition to songs from his two most recent albums, the group performed acoustic renditions of "Ring Them Bells" and "Queen Jane Approximately" "that spoke with all the hurt that inner voice felt when left crying to be heard."
For reasons never explained, the TV broadcast and CD planned from these performances were all scrapped. It was an expensive decision, as Dylan had paid all expenses out of his own pocket, including those for a film crew and a multitrack digital console. Everything was filmed and recorded, but the results were shelved indefinitely (and are now widely bootlegged.)
At the end of 1993, Sony signed Dylan to another contract good for ten albums. A compilation and a live album would follow, but Dylan would take four years before releasing his next studio album, Time Out of Mind
Time out of Mind
Time Out of Mind is the 30th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 30, 1997 on Columbia Records. It is his first double studio album since 1970's Self Portrait...
, a collection of originals that won far more media attention than World Gone Wrong.
Track listing
All songs are Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan, except where noted.- "World Gone Wrong" – 3:57
- "Love Henry" – 4:24
- "Ragged & Dirty" – 4:09
- "Blood in My Eyes" – 5:04
- "Broke Down Engine" (William Samuel McTierBlind Willie McTellBlind Willie McTell , was an influential Piedmont and ragtime blues singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues, although, unlike his contemporaries, he used exclusively a twelve-string guitar...
) - 3:22 - "DeliaDelia GreenDelia Green , a fourteen-year-old African-American murder victim, has been identified as the likely inspiration for several well-known traditional American songs, usually known by the titles "Delia" and "Delia's Gone."...
" – 5:41 - "Stack A LeeStagger Lee (song)"Stagger Lee", also known as "Stagolee", "Stackerlee", "Stack O'Lee", "Stack-a-Lee" and several other variants, is a popular folk song based on the murder of William "Billy" Lyons by Stagger Lee Shelton...
" (arr. Frank HutchisonFrank HutchisonFrank Hutchison was an early country blues and piedmont blues musician.-Biography:...
) - 3:50 - "Two Soldiers" – 5:45
- "Jack-A-Roe" – 4:56
- "Lone Pilgrim" (B.F. WhiteBenjamin Franklin WhiteBenjamin Franklin White was a shape note "singing master", and compiler of the shape note tunebook known as The Sacred Harp. He was born near Cross Keys in Union County, South Carolina, the twelfth child of Robert and Mildred White.-Musical career:White and Elisha J...
, Adger M. Pace) – 2:43