Bob Dylan – Desire

This is excellent. I'm a little shocked to see this only rates 4.4 here on Discogs. To me, this is easily a 5 star release. Of course, I don't grade based on the music, but solely on the sound quality.

There is a fairly tight focus on Dylan's voice in the middle of the soundstage. The drums are in the middle as well. The sound presentation is pretty much between the speakers, so the width of the soundstage is fairly normal. All of the instruments sound natural and true.

Overall, I am very happy with this recording.

Player: Oppo BDP-93

Just a perfect pressing all round & I love that for "Oh Sister" it has the unedited version of Oh Sister with Emmylou saying she messed up the Chorus at the end of the song - makes me laugh every time I hear it.

Doesn't sound all that great, but better than my CD - a bit more detailed, as well as more open and natural sounding.

Arrived sealed, with two copies of disc 2. Given that it was bought from the second hand market I think I'm just screwed and would have to buy the entire thing again to get disc one. Bummer. If anyone has experience with a similar situation please reach out.

Like a time capsule, Desire contains the spirit of a hopeful past. Recorded in July and October 1975 and released in January 1976, Desire is the final third of Dylan's mid-1970s trilogy, whose other parts are Planet Waves (1974) and Blood on the Tracks (1975). Although falling short of the earlier two albums' near perfection, Desire has some of Dylan's most engaging and likeable music, and his most touching love song, "Sara." In many ways, Desire resembles Planet Waves more than it does Blood on the Tracks. On Blood on the Tracks, the lyrics have primary importance, whereas on Planet Waves and Desire the music is essential in uniting these albums' diverse strands. Dylan on Blood on the Tracks is a soloist with accompaniment, but he collaborates on Planet Waves and Desire with other outstanding artists. The members of The Band join Dylan on Planet Waves in a kind of rock chamber music. On Desire, Dylan shares both songwriting and performance. Jacques Levy is co-author of all but two of the songs, and Scarlet Rivera, on violin, and Emmylou Harris and Ronee Blakley, on vocals, are notable among the musicians who help give this album its unique texture. Both Planet Waves and Desire were recorded in the aftermath of war (the Yom Kippur War for Planet Waves; the Vietnam War for Desire), and share an optimism for a better world that brackets Blood on the Tracks' tragic vision.

The trilogy's narrative progresses from first to second to third person. Dylan sings as an individual on Planet Waves, but on Blood on the Tracks he finds himself caught in a mirror play of relationships gone wrong. On Desire, Dylan adds a third party, the audience, as an integral part of the performance. Dylan pulls us into Desire by reaching outward. The songs on this album are a series of quests and adventures, all of them searches for justice or love. The stories range from a police frame-up in urban America ("Hurricane"), to a romantic idyll in Africa ("Mozambique"), to a fantastic hunt for treasure inside a frozen pyramid by the wayward husband (Dylan) of an Egyptian goddess ("Isis"). In "Black Diamond Bay," Dylan actually becomes an audience member. This song recounts the last hours in the lives of several lonely and isolated hotel guests on a sinking volcanic island. Dylan learns about the catastrophe only in the final stanza, when he hears a fragmentary report by Walter Cronkite on the television news.

The music of Desire varies with its locations and themes. In "One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)," Dylan laments his rejection by a bandit chieftain's beautiful daughter, in a style the poet Allen Ginsberg describes (in his album notes) as "Hebraic cantillation never heard before in U.S. song." The oceanic "Oh, Sister" is hymn-like in its plea for a loving partnership under the fatherhood of God. The accordion in "Joey" (Dom Cortese) evokes the Italian-American background of its real-life protagonist, Joey Gallo, a man "caught between the mob and the men in blue." "Romance in Durango" achieves its Mexican atmosphere through the sound of a Bellzouki 12-string guitar (Vincent Bell), trumpet, accordion and tambourine, as Dylan sings, partly in Spanish, about a killer's flight across the desert with his beloved Magdalena.

The eclectic nature of the album invites us to become a part of its creative process--we do not feel distanced by a single-minded vision of the artist. Hearing its songs allows us to draw our own poetic map of the world.

Two songs on Desire deserve special mention. "Hurricane" tells the true story of African-American middleweight boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, framed for a triple murder in Paterson, New Jersey. Paced like a hard-boiled crime movie, "Hurricane" is both a compelling plea for Carter's freedom and a condemnation of racial prejudice in the American judicial system, "where justice is a game." The song publicized Carter's plight (later, Dylan held two concerts to raise legal defense funds) and helped win Carter a new trial in the fall of 1976.

The jewel of this album is its last song, the inexpressibly poignant "Sara," addressed to Dylan's wife. In an unsentimental but emotional voice, Dylan sings a simple modal melody on top of Scarlet Rivera's haunting violin. The verses are a succession of flashbacks of the Dylans' life together, interspersed by a "Sara, Sara" refrain praising his wife's beauty, kindness, and mystery. Dylan recalls their children, still babies, playing on the beach; Sara in a Jamaican marketplace; himself "staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel, writing 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' for you." He concludes with the words, "don't ever leave me, don't ever go." The song feels transitory, evanescent, in contrast to "Wedding Song" on Planet Waves, where Dylan sings of the eternal verities of their marriage ("I love you more than ever, more than time and more than love").

After recording Desire, Dylan continued his deep audience connection by launching the Rolling Thunder Revue. With an all-star cast headed by Dylan and featuring Joan Baez, the Revue caravaned across the Northeastern states and neighboring parts of Canada (autumn 1975), and then through the South and Southwest (spring 1976). Its unpublicized itinerary was filled with surprise concert dates. From the Desire sessions, Rivera, Blaklee, Rob Stoner (bass), and Howard Wyeth (drums) joined this true people's tour.

But the circumstances that made Desire possible soon disappeared, as the places and people portrayed in many of its songs fell upon harder times. The new nation of Mozambique, whose freedom Desire celebrates, was devastated by a civil war. The old Mexico depicted in "Romance in Durango" became largely a memory following economic globalization and NAFTA. Rubin Carter was convicted in his second trial and not released on parole until 1988. And in 1977, Dylan's marriage to Sara ended in divorce, after which it seems he could no longer follow the same artistic path. Desire marks the completion of a grand cycle of Dylan's career, dating back to his first albums in the early 1960s. His next album, Street Legal (1978), reveals, beneath its "big band" gloss, a dark night of the soul. From Street Legal's first song, the aptly named "Changing of the Guards," we are in a new era.

To my knowledge, this brilliant Dylan gem has been 'Mastered' by Shawn R. Britton, Greg Calbi and Stan Kalina for various editions released over the years.
I am familiar with the mastering versions from Stan and Greg: both are very good and I can't decide which one I like better although Emmylou Harris vocals are more defined in the one's mastering and which I quite enjoy but I can't recall whose mastering it is...?

However, I have not yet experienced the version 'Mastered' by Shawn R. Britton.
I believe the Britton mastering exists only on this Bob Dylan - Desire Ultradisc release which I am planning to purchase.
Since this release is from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab I can only imagine the mastering will be adequate, to say the least.
In the interim can anyone confirm if this mastering is indeed up to par?
Much appreciated.

How is the quality of this pressing and is the sound full and rich? A good buy anyone can recommend?

I purchased Desire on Amazon as it was listed as MOV Transition and when it arrived it did not have the usual Music On Vinyl outer sleeve and hype sticker. However MOV was in the dead wax. So, I wrote to Music On Vinyl and they explained that the early Dylan albums they worked on they were not allowed to put their logo on the artwork, label or any of the usual places you see the Music On Vinyl brand. Since then the rights have gone back to Sony. So, that explains it. My copy is flat, quiet and sounds spectacular! Music On Vinyl has always done great work and an economical alternative to MoFi.

Haven't heard the MFSL 45, but this one is really outshining the original US Columbia pressings. Oversized running time too which makes it hard to cut without reducing the bottom end. Plenty of dynamic range. Keeping this one. Get it.

I have a copy. Feel free to contact me. Thanks.