Under the Red Sky

Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano); Slash, Waddy Wachtel, Robben Ford, Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughan; David Lindley (slide guitar, bouzouki); George Harrison (slide guitar); David McMurray (saxophone); Rayse Biggs (trumpet); Bruce Hornsby, Ekton John (piano); Jaimie Muhoberac (organ); Al Kooper (keyboards); Randy Jackson, Don Was (bass); Kenny Aronoff (drums); Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); David Crosby, Sweet Pea Atkinson, Sir Harry Bowens, Donald Ray Mitchell, David Was (background vocals).
Producers: Don Was, David Was, Jack Frost.
UNDER THE RED SKY brought to a close the transition period that was Bob Dylan's post-Christian 1980s. Having spent most of that time looking for a voice in the rocking gospel and blues, stomping R&B and rock stylings he had long since mastered, Dylan decided to just go garage. Obviously, with Don and David Was producing, the end product carries a more professional veneer than that description may imply. But as titles like "Wiggle Wiggle" and "TV Talkin' Song" suggest (and the tunes live up to their simplistic names), the mindset of these sessions seem more geared toward getting the bard's ya-yas out than building a masterwork. Of course, in perfectly Dylanesque fashion, amidst all these second-hand pieces lies a gem like "Unbelievable," a wordy, doomsday-culture rocker in the spirit of "When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky." Afterwards though, Dylan turned his back on songwriting for six years, rightfully fearing that schoolboy rhymes were not what the world sought from him.