Bob Dylan released a live record in 1984, the year after Infidels came out, then returned with an original album — Empire Burlesque — in 1985.
Empire Burlesque is another of Dylan’s most polarizing albums… I’m amused by how many of his releases are described as both his best and his worst by different fans. This is the last of the albums I bought to prepare for this series, and once again I’m glad I did.
I don’t rank it on either extreme — it’s a strong collection of songs hampered by some very dated production techniques, but for the most part the quality shines through.
What was it about the 80s that even some of our best artists — Dylan, Elvis Costello and Elton John, to name a few — felt the need to succumb to the glossy production and synth-heavy instrumentation that was popular at the time? How could it have seemed like a good idea? It’s one thing to hear that sound on songs by Soft Cell or Duran Duran, but these guys are supposed to be above fleeting fashions.
I suppose these albums are the equivalent of old photographs that have us wincing at the memory of a certain wardrobe, a certain haircut. But the embarrassing trappings mask some really good songs.
Oddly enough, one of the most egregious examples of 80s dance production on Empire Burlesque winds up being one of my favorite tracks on the album. ‘When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky’ has compelling lyrics and a groove that, once you give yourself over to its cheesiness, is actually quite enjoyable.
Smoke is in your eye, you draw a smile
From the fireplace where my letters to you are burning
You’ve had time to think about it for a while
Well, I’ve walked two hundred miles, now look me over
It’s the end of the chase and the moon is high
It won’t matter who loves who
You’ll love me or I’ll love you
When the night comes falling from the sky
I can see through your walls and I know you’re hurting
Sorrow covers you up like a cape
Only yesterday I know that you’ve been flirting
With disaster that you managed to escape
I can’t provide for you no easy answers
Who are you that I should have to lie?
You’ll know all about it, love
It’ll fit you like a glove
When the night comes falling from the sky
I can hear your trembling heart beat like a river
You must have been protecting someone last time I called.
I’ve never asked you for nothing you couldn’t deliver
I’ve never asked you to set yourself up for a fall
I saw thousands who could have overcome the darkness
For the love of a lousy buck, I’ve watched them die
Stick around, baby, we’re not through
Don’t look for me, I’ll see you
When the night comes falling from the sky
In your teardrops, I can see my own reflection
It was on the northern border of Texas where I crossed the line
I don’t want to be a fool starving for affection
I don’t want to drown in someone else’s wine
For all eternity I think I will remember
That icy wind that’s howling in your eye
You will seek me and you’ll find me
In the wasteland of your mind
When the night comes falling from the sky
Well, I sent you my feelings in a letter
But you were gambling for support
This time tomorrow I’ll know you better
When my memory is not so short
This time I’m asking for freedom
Freedom from a world which you deny
And you’ll give it to me now
I’ll take it anyhow
When the night comes falling from the sky
Meet Me In Montauk 
The old photograph analogy is an effective one. Did we think at the time that we were succumbing to fleeting fashions? Or were we just affected by the styles and choices around us? If those who were producing music in the 80’s gravitated towards this sort of production style, it was likely because it seemed like the way production was now being done rather than a style that would wind up being strongly associated with a particular decade.
Think about how many people held on to their reel to reel, convinced 8 tracks were a fleeting fashion. Or their 8 tracks rather than these new fangled cassette players. Or their cassettes instead of these crazy compact discs. And today’s newspaper features a story about how the best selling CD’s (Susan Boyle, Barbra Streisand, Sade) appeal to adults who prefer buying discs to downloading digital music.
My belabored point? How do you know if you’re supposed to jump on the proverbial bandwagon so as not to be left behind, a relic of another age? Or if you’re to remain true to your internal sense of what sounds right to you?
I write all of this, as the SOTD plays in the background, and I have to say that I sure as hell wish Dylan had opted for the latter. Sheesh – I really hate this song! Yeah, someone like Dylan should have the good sense to never make a song like this, regardless of whether at the time it seems to be the only way to remain relevant. Relevance be damned. Make good music, man!!!
Well, that’s a rather harsh assessment!
As with many of his 80s album material, Dylan later released another version of this song on the Bootleg Series that I suspect you’d like a lot better.
I like the album. The song is so so. The alternate version on the Bootleg Series is just ok too. The novality of it is – Dylan is backed by the E-Street Band.
I liked the lyrics and instrumentation from first listening. I found it to be dark and mysterious, and it could be the perfect theme song for Paris, Texas. Dylan’s use of specifics, simile, and metaphor are outstanding. Definitely an under-rated and unfairly maligned song – in my book.
I have to admit, I like the whole album.
I’m with Amy on this one–this is just awful.
This seems like it could be from an SNL parody twenty years ago of what would happen if the legendary folk artist, Bob Dylan, finally succumbed to 80’s pop banality. The shit (sorry meant to type skit, but either word applies) would, of course, come complete with a video of Dylan driving around the wet streets of some generic city at night, with smoke rising from the sewer drains, chasing after some hot girl dressed in leather who keeps toying with him by walking around every corner and than mysteriously disappearing. Of course, the parody would be complete if Dylan started sipping a Miller Light and, at the end, the slogan came on “When the Night Comes Falling, give in to the smooth taste of Miller Light”
Sorry Clay, this song is just flat out bad, and if this is the best you can feature on the album, I think we need to simply admit that, by and large, Dylan was lost in the 80’s, and didn’t find his way again until Oh Mercy.
This song and era of Dylan’s career also lends credence to the recent controversial statement by Joni Mitchell where she accuses Dylan of being a fraud and a fake. The argument can be made (and was made by Mitchell) that Dylan has rarely been true to his inner muse or that he staked out original ground going against the popular grain. He took folk from Guthrie, went electric during the rise of Hendrix, went with the whole backup singer/R&B thing during the 70’s, went pop in the 80’s and went unplugged when those like Clapton and others flocked to the medium of adult acoustic. Indeed, perhaps the only time he followed his muse against the prevailing winds might have been his gospel phase–and we saw how that turned out.
Now, having said that, I feel the need to also say that I think Dylan is an incredibly talented songwriter and his chameleon tendencies do not take that away from him. I suspect Dylan would be the first to admit how big a fan of music and other legendary musicians he is, and that he has drawn inspiration from others. So, following the trends isn’t always a bad or wrong thing….unless you find yourself singing a bad 80’s song and doing a Miller Lite commercial:)
I share your criticism of the song’s production, but I think it’s absurd to dismiss the lyrics as awful, or even the melody. I think a song is more than just the treatment it is given in one place and time.
I think Dylan may be genetically incapable of creating a bad lyric so, yes, the lyrics are fine. The music, not so much. Granted, Dylan has never been one to make complicated music with complicated rhythms or chord structures–but this music is particularly uninspired.
The Bootleg version of this is incredible. The energy that is built up by about 2/3 of the way thru the song is crazy! Did Bob ever rock this hard again?
What isn’t is, what’s up is down. I can feel it in the wind and it’s upside down.
Are you saying, prepared to admit, you had not heard these albums until recently? If so, by admission or default, this is ironically in inverse proportion to your postings on expectingrain. If, as it seems, you were only born in the 80s, you seem to have an extensive knowledge of its “production values”.
The “key” to the album is the title. Even the “experts” have failed to look into this sufficiently. It’s simple ABC; no genius required. And on this note, the lady commentator, in saying Dylan was wanting, implicitly desperate, to remain relevant so as not to be left behind, flies in the face of the predominant “expert” view that out-of-synch-80s Dylan didn’t give a damn about being in step. And indeed Dylan’s preoccupation even then, so “late”, over who will see who left behind at the falling of the night from the sky was hardly “relevant” to typical Eighties concerns.
As for being damned, well quite. Dylan clearly doesn’t and didn’t give a damn about the fact that it’s the detractors who, failing to see it for how it was intended, a “big joke” albeit with a dark twist, are the ones who got left behind – by taking it, a mocking album with a mocking title, way too seriously. Dylan, who was in fact mocking the 80s, has the last laugh. On you. Dylan said a long time ago that the key to a song is in the title. Same, by logical extension, applies to the album title. Who’s got the key? Well, I figure that the bitchers about Dylan’s 80s work were, being so busy being knocked-out loaded, not good enough for 80s Dylan.
Clearly the Dylan world cannot agree among itself, or even within the same person, whether Dylan’s true originality consists in going against the grain or pissing against it. Nor for that matter which of these Dylan was doing in the 80s.
You can’t have it both ways.
Was Dylan’s “protest period”, which I decades ago saw described as “simplistic marketable propaganda”, protesting against the rising tide of conformity/non-conformity or going against it?
And you can’t have the backup singers and “r&b” period, supposed, as both going with the tide AND against it.
Clapton said, correctly, that he started out “impersonating woodie guthrie”. Then, in ’70 or so, Bowie correctly sang, ‘now you’re paintings are all your own”, which would imply he previous “protest” ones of “truth and vengeance” weren’t.
And altho I am not really into Hendrix or up on his career, the suggestion that Dylan was going electric in imitation of or in tandem with Hendrix appears to be an anachronism. Having just referred to wikipedia, I think, it seems, Hendrix was only going big, small-time, some months later in ’65 than Dylan had already recorded Highway61. Furthermore, it seems to me that Hendrix was at his electric height precisely during the period, late 60s, Dylan had, in characteristic paradox, stayed out of Woodstock by withdrawing to it. Or withdrawn to it by staying out of it. As a post-electric country bumpkin. Corrections, GENUINE, welcome.
If this song and, by extension, the album, was intended by Dylan to be a parody of the 80’s, then well done him. it still doesn’t make it something I want to hear. Give me Blood on the Tracks all day long and twice on Sunday, or any number of other great Dylan albums, before I would ever reach for this.
Corrections:
Clearly the Dylan world cannot agree among itself, or even within the same person, whether Dylan’s true originality consists in PISSING against the grain/wind or pissing WITH it. Nor for that matter which of these Dylan was doing in the 80s.
You can’t have it both ways.
Was Dylan’s “protest period”, which I decades ago saw described as “simplistic marketable propaganda”, protesting against the rising tide of conformity/non-conformity or going WITH it?
And you can’t have the backup singers and “r&b” period, supposed, as both going with the tide AND against it – unless you mean musically with but gospel-wise against. But even that has problems: people refer(red) to Dylan having gone “all gospelly” and so on. Are they talking about the style or the content? Had Dylan been evangelizing with heavy metal, would it have been classified as not being gospel?
Dear Dana, please learn your facts before you condemn. Hendrix would not have been able to exsist if it wasn’t for Bob. Not the other way round like you say. Bob has been playing what you call adult acoustic since 1959, maybe longer. He sure don’t need to follow Eric Clapton.I was around for most of it, so you’ll have to take my word.
And as for his being fake…who cares? Joni’s retired; Bobby’s still on the road, and still the most interesting artist we have. Maybe we need some more fakes.
While I dispute the notion that Hendrix would not exist bot for Dylan, I will stand corrected that Dylan went electric based upon Hendrix. Apparently, Dylan may have been influenced to go electric by John Lennon and the Beatles.
Anyway, I am not condemning Dylan. Still, I don’t think being a fan of Dylan (or anyone) means that you must praise every song and every album. If a great artist takes a misstep, as many including Dylan have done, it is not sacrilegious to call him on it.
To me, this song, and probably a fair amount of what Dylan did in the 80’s was a misstep. But, hey, that’s just this commenter’s humble opinion.
I agree that every artist has missteps, and Dylan’s most egregious ones came in the 80s. However, I also believe that the missteps of great artists are often as revealing and interesting as their successes.
Since I have a photograph of Bobby playing a two pick up Danelectro on the day of his Senior Prom ( 1959) I’d say he was playing good old rock n roll well before he ever heard of the Beatles. Famous story of him breaking the pedal on the piano in the Hibbing Auditorium doing Tutti Frutti – long before his folk days. 1958.
Clay your right if it wasn’t for Knocked out Loaded, we might never have had Love n Theft. Art ain’t got too many straight lines. You can always come back, but you can’t come back all the way.
Has anyone forgoten the geat live version from the video “Hard to handle”,
together with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ( plus the great ladies in the background ) ?