At Budokan

Product Description:

Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Helena Springs, Jo Ann Harris, Debi Dye (vocals); Steven Soles (acoustic guitar, vocals); Billy Cross (guitar); David Mansfield (pedal steel, violin, mandolin, guitar, dobro); Steve Douglas (saxophone, flute, recorder); Alan Pasqua (keyboards); Rob Stoner (bass, vocals); Ian Wallace (drums); Bobbye Hall (percussion).

Engineers: Tom Suzuki, Teppei Kasai, Tetsuro Tomita, G.H. Sukegawa.

Recorded at Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan on February 28 and March 1, 1978. Includes liner notes by Bob Dylan.

This live double album, recorded in Tokyo in 1978, is practically a best-of in disguise. Dylan focuses on the older material in his repertoire, reaching back to the '60s for such tunes as "Blowin' In The Wind," "All I Really Want To Do" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'." Wisely, he also includes a couple of songs from his finest '70s album, BLOOD ON THE TRACKS. These tunes, "Shelter From The Storm" and "Simple Twist of Fate," differ radically from the original recorded versions, as has always been Dylan's wont in a performance situation.

One thing that differentiates BUDOKAN from Dylan's other live albums, is the approach toward arrangements. Both earlier and later concert recordings present Dylan as the leader of a ragtag gang that blazes its way through the tunes in a spontaneous manner. Here, backed by studio vets like Ian Wallace, Alan Pasqua and Steven Soles as well as a three-woman choir, Dylan takes a much more thought-out, even "professional-sounding" approach, to the extent that this could almost pass for a studio re-recording of some of his finest compositions.