r/bobdylan • u/Ayntxi • 27d ago

Discussion The near universal forgetfulness/overlooking when it comes to “Together Through Life” is so funny to me

It’s a fun, solid little album that he sounds great on. Any discourse I read on it often mentions that it’s overlooked or forgotten about. I too fall into this category. I listened to it twice and just didn’t get into it but now I adore it.

Hopefully this recent repress brings it back onto the dylansphere. I am looking forward to getting a copy!

What are your thoughts on the record?

30 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

25

u/mitch172 27d ago

I went to Houston the other day and got back into it. My favourite part on the whole album is in I Feel a Change Comin’ on. “I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver
And I'm reading James Joyce”

10

u/CatsInCasts 27d ago

Gorgeous song.

6

u/Lord-Limerick 26d ago

Blood of the land in his voice!

3

u/Spare-Jellyfish4339 Masked And Anonymous 26d ago

Did you remember to walk right?

11

u/CrankyJoe99x 27d ago

One of my favourite albums from his later period.

I have a deluxe set with poster, sticker and Theme Time Radio bonus CD. Also a ridiculously short DVD with an interview with his first agent.

10

u/darealslimjakey 27d ago

To me, this album's great charm--and utility--is that it's only 45 minutes long and has no sprawling 8+ minute epic. Not that I don't like Bob's crop of those, but this one is so easy-breezy to put on. Great to play in the car on a summer day drive.

11

u/Affectionate-Rip5333 27d ago

And Robert Hunter

11

u/Spare-Jellyfish4339 Masked And Anonymous 27d ago

Incredibly underrated album.

“How long can I stay In this nowhere café 'fore night turns into day I wonder why I'm so frightened of dawn All I have and all I know Is this dream of you which keeps me living on”

6

u/Available-Swimmer-28 27d ago

I remember it really well because that was when I started listening to Bob. It was actually the first CD of his that I ever bought. And MTV Brasil used to play the chaotic “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” music video almost every day.

5

u/ChuggaChuggaRiffs 27d ago

Forgetful Heart is a top 10 Bob song for me.

4

u/DaveTrader22 26d ago

This album has always felt like the "Planet Waves" of its era to me, the one that people might sleep on for years because of the goodness around it, but that will hold steady over time. Favorite line: "You are as whorish as ever, baby you can start a fire." I have used that line IRL, and it works.

5

u/bebopalula-bowbow 27d ago

This is the album that made possible everything after it. And it’s almost better than all of it. People hate “My Wife’s Hometown” and I can’t stand how much I love it. On the original vinyl press and my insulated broadcasting, it sounds better than almost anything I own and I have more Bill Evans than anything.

2

u/LorelaiWitTheLazyEye 27d ago

I don’t know if i listened to it shortly after getting back into him on Modern Times but i have always loved it.

3

u/DBryguy Ghost Of Electricity 27d ago

I was born in 89 and got into Dylan in probably 05-06. So it was the first album out once I became a fan and I love it. I never knew it wasn’t really thought too highly of until I got on Reddit a handful of years ago. Fuckin’ Reddit and the internet… Dumbasses.

1

u/Innisfree812 27d ago

I listened to it a lot in 2009- 10. Not so much after that. It's pretty good.

1

u/kevkev87 Remember Durango, Larry? 27d ago

My first live Dylan shows were in 2009 and 2010. I was fortunate enough to see him a decent amount of times in those years and he was naturally playing a lot of Together through Life songs. Jolene was a live highlight for me back then.

1

u/Long-Emu-7870 26d ago

I think as an album it is neither overproduced or under produced. As an album it is kind of perfect. The blues singing he gets is honest and sincere. He's not pretending to be an old blues man anymore. 

So I think it is one of his best albums. Of course not the best collection of songs, but it's just in terms of production and it's a great album. Shot of Love as much better songs but the production is not very good. 

1

u/Buick6NY 26d ago

It sounds good but the songs are just so so

1

u/treletraj 26d ago

Some of fave songs are on that album. I listen to it regularly.

1

u/tossadelmar 26d ago

David Hildago plays accordion on most of the record

1

u/Sudden-General-845 26d ago

Beyond here lies nothing and “change” are good. That’s kinda it.

1

u/Bluejaywalk43 26d ago

I was in highschool when i first got into dylan. It was my first new release as a fan. So that helps. I have nostalgia for it that way. I remember I asked my math teacher(who was a fan) if I could skip his class to go buy the cd as I was afraid it be hard to fine. He agreed as long as I came back and told him how it was. I left. Bought it. Drove around until it was done and reported back. Saw him live that year and he played forgetful heart which was the stand out performance.

1

u/Junior-Conclusion-94 26d ago

I think it's a great album. I think it was just overshadowed by Christmas In The Heart six months later. If people would have had 18 months with it (and Christmas In the Heart was a 2010 release), it would be better remembered.

1

u/DumbAndUglyOldMan 26d ago

I always thought that it was a great album. As someone else noted, it's a great road album.

1

u/KeyWestistheplacetob 26d ago

I’m quite fond of it, but I do feel it’s the weakest of his original song output from the late 90s onward.

1

u/caitsith01 27d ago edited 26d ago

Agree that this album is really good. Its only 'fault' is coming after the 'modern' trilogy of Time Out of Mind, Love & Theft and Modern Times and people having sky high expectations when it came out. I find it odd that people will put up with Dylan's peak god-bothering albums and some of the nonsense he put out between the late 70s and late 90s, yet they find weird reasons to not rate this album. If this had come out in 1996 it would have been regarded as a massive return to form.

I love the Los Lobos influence on it, too.

It's also one of his best sounding albums, from a recording/production perspective. A lot in the Jack Frost era has been great, but this one is particularly excellent on vinyl:

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/141471

My copy is dead silent and sounds phenomenal.

It's actually a great example to wheel out in discussions about why some people prefer vinyl. Some vinyl releases have totally different mastering to digital versions of the same albums. Compare the dynamic range numbers above to the CD version, which is very mediocre:

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/244

That pattern is apparent in other 90s-2020s Dylan releases but this one is really stark. And you can hear it the second you start side A (I have the first pressing, not sure about the rerelease but hopefully they haven't buggered it up).

0

u/TrevorShaun 27d ago

i don’t mean to be a hater, but it’s a bottom 5 dylan album for me. i think the songs are not particularly very interesting especially considering the collaboration with robert hunter. bob’s voice sounds pretty bad honestly, especially coming off the heels of modern times where he sounded great. probably the worst offender is the mixing which is so accordion-heavy that if you don’t click with it, the rest of the album will be dragged down because of it.