Street-Legal is the eighteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on June 15, 1978, by Columbia Records. The album was a departure for Dylan, who assembled a large pop-rock band with female backing vocalists for its recording.
After receiving positive reviews on his previous album, Desire, Dylan was met with a more lukewarm critical reception for Street-Legal, though the album was still commercially successful, being certified as Gold in the US and Platinum in the UK. Many critics gave the album a more positive re-appraisal following its release in a remixed and remastered edition in 1999.
Background
Dylan spent the first half of 1977 engaged in divorce proceedings and a custody battle with his first wife, Sara Dylan, while editing Renaldo and Clara, an ill-fated film shot during the fall of 1975 on the first leg of his Rolling Thunder Revue tour. With the summer approaching, Dylan took a break from the film and returned to his farm in Minnesota, where he was accompanied by his children and Faridi McFree, with whom Dylan had started a relationship. There he began writing a new set of songs, including "Changing of the Guards", "No Time to Think", and "Where Are You Tonight?". At least six of the nine songs ultimately included on Street-Legal were written during this time.
His work was disrupted on August 16, 1977, when news broke that Elvis Presley had died at 3:30 p.m. at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "I went over my whole life," recalled Dylan. "I went over my whole childhood. I didn't talk to anyone for a week."
Before rehearsals could begin, Dylan had to assemble a band. He quickly contacted several musicians, including former Rolling Thunder Revue members Steven Soles, David Mansfield, Rob Stoner, and Howie Wyeth. Stoner recalls, "I thought the Hard Rain thing was the last I'd ever hear from Bob... Then suddenly I get this call - I think Bob called me up personally... and asked me to bring Howie, and a couple of other people, to L.A. to 'just try some things out.'"
Sessions soon began in earnest. On December 26, Dylan followed the day's rehearsals with a preview of his next album. Accompanying himself on piano, Dylan played his new batch of songs for Stoner, Soles, and Bernstein. Many of these songs had been written that summer at his farm in Minnesota. As rehearsals progressed, it soon became clear the band wasn't "picking up where the Rolling Thunder Revue left off," as Mansfield recalled. "I brought my steel guitar and I had it in rehearsal and every time I'd go to start unpacking it, Bob would go, 'We don't need that.' All of a sudden the instrument that I played all over the place in the previous band, he didn't want to see it, let alone hear it."
| rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide
| rev2score = C+
| rev3 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
| rev3score =
| rev4 = Rolling Stone
| rev4score = (unfavorable)
| rev5 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
| rev5score =
| rev6 = Tom Hull
| rev6score = B−
Following the twin successes of Blood on the Tracks and Desire, Street-Legal was another gold record for Dylan, peaking at No. 11 on the US Billboard 200, making it his first studio album to miss the US top 10 since 1964. However, it became his best-selling studio album in the UK, reaching No. 2 on the charts (his highest position in eight years) and achieving platinum status with 300,000 copies sold (the only other Dylan album to do this is The Essential Bob Dylan).
When Street-Legal was released, it was dismissed by the American press. Crawdaddy! critic Jon Pareles remarked that "Dylan still needs a producer", but others found fault with both the songs and the performances. Greil Marcus criticized the singing as "simply impossible to pay attention to for more than a couple of minutes at a time" and accused "Is Your Love in Vain?" of sexism, claiming Dylan was "speak[ing] to the woman like a sultan checking out a promising servant girl for VD."
In the UK, reviews were positive, with Michael Watts of Melody Maker proclaiming it Dylan's "best album since John Wesley Harding". NMEs Angus MacKinnon hailed it as Dylan's "second major album of the 70s". In contrast to the record's still mixed reputation, Q magazine has given the album a 5-star rating on re-release on two occasions, pointing out that the original muddiness of the production was part of the reason the record has so long been critically overlooked.
When Dylan embarked on his European tour, he would be greeted by a generally warm audience reception, and his single, "Baby, Stop Crying" (the lyrics of which were allegedly inspired by Robert Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down"), charted in the top ten throughout Europe, and reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart, with the album peaking at number 2 on the album chart. In the US, however, the single failed to crack the top 100 and the album itself peaked at number 11, ending Dylan's string of number-one albums in America until 2006's Modern Times. When Dylan continued his tour in America, it was derided by the American press as the Alimony Tour and later the Vegas Tour, much to Dylan's chagrin.
Many years later, even Street-Legals most ardent admirers would admit some flaws in the album, finding most fault with the production. "Street-Legal was the first in a long line of song collections whose failure to be realized in the studio would lay a 'dust of rumors' over Dylan as an abidingly creative artist that he has never been able to fully shake," wrote Heylin.
The original 1978 LP sleeve credits mastering to Stan Kalina at CBS Recording Studios NY; the album was produced by Don DeVito. In 1999, DeVito revisited Street-Legal and remixed the album with modern, digital techniques in an attempt to improve the mix and produce a richer overall sound. The remix was also used in a 2003 SACD reissue of Street-Legal. However, in 2013, when Street-Legal was remastered as part of The Complete Album Collection Vol. 1, the original 1978 Kalina mix was reinstated.
Track listing
Personnel
Musicians
- Bob Dylan – vocals, rhythm guitar
- Steve Douglas – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
- David Mansfield – violin, mandolin
- Alan Pasqua – keyboards
- Billy Cross – electric guitar
- Steven Soles – rhythm guitar, background vocals
- Jerry Scheff – bass guitar
- Ian Wallace – drums
- Bobbye Hall – percussion
- Carolyn Dennis, JoAnn Harris, Helena Springs – backing vocals
- Steve Madaio – trumpet <small>on "Is Your Love in Vain?"</small>
Technical personnel
- Don DeVito – "Captain in Charge"
- Biff Dawes – engineering
- Stan Kalina – mastering engineer at CBS Recording Studios in New York City
- Michael H. Brauer, Ryan Hewitt – remixing engineering <small>(1999 edition)</small>
- Filmways/Heider – recording studio
- Mary Alice Artes – "Queen Bee"
- Larry Kegan – "Champion of All Causes"
- Ava Megna – "Secretary of Goodwill"
- Arthur Rosato – "Second in Command"
- Danny Clifford – tour photographer
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
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! scope="col"| Chart (1978)
! scope="col"| Peak<br>position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
|5
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Spanish Albums (AFE)
| 2
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col" | Chart (1978)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)
| 56
|-
! scope="row" | Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 28
|-
! scope="row" | New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 24
|-
|}