The songs collected on the Oh Mercy album were mostly written in the small painting studio Bob Dylan had set up at his Malibu, California, property in early 1988. And what songs they were! After a series of relatively minor albums that were rejected by the critics and abandoned by much of the public, the songwriter came back full force with ten gems, among the best of his repertoire, putting an end to all doubts about his future. “Most of them are stream-of-consciousness songs, the kind that come to you in the middle of the night, when you just want to go back to bed. The harder you try to do something, the more it evades you.”140
The history of this album began one night in the spring (or the summer) of 1988. Dylan had let U2 frontman Bono listen to several of his compositions. Bono was enchanted and suggested that Dylan contact Daniel Lanois, who had just produced U2’s The Joshua Tree (1987). Said Dylan, “Bono picked up the phone and dialed the man, put him on the phone with me and we spoke for a moment. Basically, what Lanois said was that he was working out of New Orleans and told me that if I was ever there, I should look him up.”1 Some weeks later, Dylan landed in Louisiana, where he met Lanois, who was then working on Yellow Moon by the Neville Brothers. The producer played him two covers of his songs that the Neville Brothers had just recorded, “With God on Our Side” and “The Ballad of Hollis Brown,” carried by the angelic voice of Aaron Neville. “That sounds like a record,”141 commented Dylan. According to Lanois, “From Bob Dylan, that’s a big compliment.” It was exactly the sound Dylan wanted, a sound that came from the depths of the Louisiana bayou.
The songs on Oh Mercy had the same poetic glow as Dylan’s masterpieces of the sixties. If “Political World” blasted the powerlessness of politics and called for a return to spirituality, “Everything Is Broken” was a reflection of this same modern society in total collapse. Spirituality was still the word that best defined “Where Teardrops Fall” and “Ring Them Bells,” which were, respectively, inspired by the Psalms and the Gospel according to Matthew. To a certain extent, so was “Man in the Long Black Coat” (even though the character in this song can also be interpreted exemplifying a person on a voyage and/or one consumed by solitude). As for “Disease of Conceit,” it was inspired by the scandal involving Jimmy Swaggart, a televangelist who was caught twice in the company of a prostitute.
The other songs on the album, while successful, were of a much more temporal order. “Most of the Time” told the story of a couple’s breakup. The same could be said for “Shooting Star”—although it contained an allusion to the three wise men and the birth of Christ. “What Good Am I?” was much more introspective: the narrator questioned himself about his love relationship, especially his behavior toward his companion (or his ex). Finally, “What Was It You Wanted?” was possibly addressed to the critics and the public, who always wanted to know much more about and analyze every detail of the artist’s life.
Although the songs of Oh Mercy reflected themes that were familiar to the songwriter, the music sounded like a rereading of Louisiana swamp blues with a hint of rockabilly. The atmosphere was wooly, wrapped up in mystery, with an instrumental eclecticism that punctuated Dylan’s deep voice. It was definitely an album of renewal.
As soon as it was released, on September 12, 1989, it was unanimously acclaimed by both the critics and the public. It was rated number 44 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Best Albums of the Eighties” and reached number 30 in the United States and number 6 in the United Kingdom on the charts—a great album to launch the new contract between Bob Dylan and Columbia.
During a motorcycle trip through the streets of New York City, Dylan discovered graffiti that he decided to use as an illustration for the cover of his new album. The couple dancing was the work of a street artist known as Trotsky. On the cover, the name Bob Dylan is written in white capital letters on a black banner above the drawing, while the title of the album is below in red letters. The back cover shows a photo of the songwriter wearing a hat, credited to Suzie-Q, who was probably his longtime clothing manager Suzie Pullen. The record cover design was done by Christopher Austopchuk, an artist who worked with many musicians, such as Aerosmith, Billy Joel, and Bruce Springsteen, and who designed the artwork for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991.
When Dylan chose Daniel Lanois to produce his new album, he was at an impasse. Mark Howard, the sound engineer, said, “He had actually recorded this whole record before it came to us. With Ron Wood. There’s a whole version of Oh Mercy that was recorded with Ron Wood already. But I think Dylan had maybe decided he didn’t like what had happened.”139 By hiring the Canadian producer, the songwriter hoped to save his record. He let Lanois choose the team. Lanois then gathered musicians he knew and liked. Apart from helping with the sound engineering, Malcolm Burn provided the bass and keyboards. By his side was Mason Ruffner, one of the best guitar players in New Orleans; he had played with Jimmy Page and Crosby, Stills & Nash. From among the musicians who were involved in recording Yellow Moon, he recruited guitar player Brian Stoltz (the Meters, Linda Ronstadt), bass player Tony Hall (Harry Connick Jr., Zachary Richard), drummer Willie Green (Brian Eno, the Grateful Dead), and Cyril Neville, percussionist and singer with the Neville Brothers. A local group also participated in the record, Rockin’ Dopsie and his Cajun band.
The sessions for the recordings and overdubs spread over four months, from the end of February until early July 1989, on roughly thirty dates. While initially based in an apartment rented on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans where the Yellow Moon album had been recorded, Dylan and Lanois decided to change work locations. Dylan wrote in Chronicles, “Lanois had set things up in one of his patented ‘pick up and move’ studios—this one in a Victorian mansion on Soniat Street not far from Lafayette Cemetery No. 1—parlor windows, louvered shutters, high gothic ceilings, walled-in courtyard, bungalows and garages in the back. Heavy blankets soundproofed the windows.”1 In these unusual settings, the producer chose to record the songwriter in a way that at first frustrated Dylan. He made Dylan sit on a stool in front of a mic with his guitar, while Lanois sat in front of him in the same position. They were both connected to a small amplifier with a simple pattern on a rhythm box as rhythm base. Only afterward would Lanois bring in different musicians to complete this recorded base. He believed that this way Dylan could better concentrate on his vocals.
The relationship between writer and producer was difficult at first. Mark Howard commented on the early sessions, “[T]here came this one point when Dan finally really lost it with him, and had a bit of a freak out. He just wanted Dylan to smarten up, and it became—not a yelling match, but it became uncomfortable in the studio. So Malcolm [Burn] and me, we walked out and let them sort it out. And then, when we got back, from then on, Dylan was just really pleasant to work with. He started calling me by my name, and I kind of hit it off with him.” It must be mentioned that Lanois, exasperated and raging, did not hesitate to smash one of the dobros on the ground.
The album was a renaissance for the songwriter. The arrangements are very reminiscent of Yellow Moon by the Neville Brothers, and Dylan eventually got familiar with this peculiar atmosphere. Lanois claimed Oh Mercy was a record you listen to at night, because it was “designed at night”: “Bob had a rule, we only recorded at night. I think he’s right about that: the body is ready to accommodate a certain tempo at nighttime. I think it’s something to do with the pushing and pulling of the moon. At nighttime we’re ready to be more mysterious and dark. Oh Mercy’s about that.”141 He added that if there was one lesson he learned from Dylan, it was working relentlessly while searching first and foremost for efficiency and speed. And he concluded, “Oh Mercy was two guys on a back porch, that kind of vibe.” As for the songwriter, he recognized “There’s something magical about this record”1 and felt sincere admiration for the work of the Canadian producer.
Lanois recorded Oh Mercy in a mobile studio set up in a blue Victorian-style manor located at 1305 Soniat Street in New Orleans. After his successful experience with the Neville Brothers, Lanois wanted Dylan to understand that this type of production highlighted feeling over technique. His philosophy was to place the singer’s vocals at the center of the recording and not let the instruments ever take over. In order to get the best out of the singer’s voice, he chose a Sony C37A microphone. Invented by the Japanese to compete with the Neumann U47, it was quickly adopted in 1958 by Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole.
Malcolm Burn was the sound engineer. Working with Lanois, he recorded Us by Peter Gabriel (1992) and Wrecking Ball by Emmylou Harris (1995). He has worked alone on many projects, but also as a producer (Iggy Pop, Patti Smith). The second engineer was the twenty-one-year-old Mark Howard. He later worked with many great artists, including U2 and Neil Young. The console on which Burn and Howard recorded Oh Mercy appears to be an API.
Dylan played a Gibson SG Standard on January 20, 1988, during the ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, held in New York City. The songwriter explained in Chronicles that he had not brought his own guitars to the studio, and borrowed an old Fender Telecaster from Lanois, which he kept afterward(!). Finally, he used his harmonicas on four songs, in E and A.