Remembering 3 of Bob Dylan’s Most Incredible Artistic Comebacks

Bob Dylan has released numerous colossal albums in his career. And he’s also released a few albums that can’t quite live up to the standard set by his classics. The good news with Dylan is that even the lesser albums are never dull.

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Dylan has risen from his artistic doldrums time and again. Here are three classic LPs that came from Bob when everyone was underestimating him.

‘Blood On The Tracks’ (1975)

Circa 1975, many wondered if Bob Dylan had lost the spark that had energized the albums from the first four years or so of his recording career. Following a 1966 motorcycle accident, he stopped touring and dialed way back on his personal appearances. The influential work he did in the late 60s, such as the Woodstock recordings with The Band, went under the radar. And albums like Self Portrait were sometimes savaged by the critics for their lack of ambition. Blood On The Tracks came after a period where he had ramped up his activity somewhat. The previous year, he went on his first major tour since the mid-60s. Although he long denied it afterward, strains in his marriage caused him to dig much deeper into his songwriting. Despite being shelved late in the game so that Dylan could reshape half the album, the LP displayed him at his incendiary best after so many years of restrained efforts.

‘Oh Mercy’

We don’t feel that it’s accurate to call the 80s a lost decade when it comes to Bob Dylan’s recorded output. He just never seemed to settle into any cohesive groove in terms of how he wanted his albums from that era to sound. And he often left some of the best material that he had written on the cutting room floor. Those are the kinds of problems that a producer with the clout to stand up to an artist can often solve. Daniel Lanois was just such a producer. He and Dylan went toe-to-toe at times when recording Oh Mercy. But the finished album at least delivered a cohesion of sound that had been lacking at times from his previous 80s efforts. More than anything, however, the LP surged thanks to Dylan’s songwriting returning to its former levels. Alas, as we’re about to find out, the resurgence was a bit short-lived.

‘Time Out Of Mind’ (1997)

Bob Dylan followed up Oh Mercy with Under The Red Sky, which seemed to cough up many of the gains the previous album had made. He started to lose his feel for writing, which is why he largely bottled that side of his art up for a while. Instead, he focused on his Never Ending Tour. To keep product on the shelves, Dylan recorded a pair of albums in the interim. Those albums contained nothing but old folk and blues chestnuts. These songs helped him reconnect to the source of his inspiration. Despite their previous friction on Oh Mercy, he hired Daniel Lanois to shepherd his first album of original material in seven years. To make it seem like even more of a comeback, Time Out Of Mind arrived after a period where Dylan suffered through a life-threatening illness. The album received raves across the board and eventually scored Dylan his first-ever Album of the Year Grammy.

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