At Budokan

At Budokan
Live album by Bob Dylan
Publication (s)	1978
Genre (s)	skirt
Title (number)	22nd
running time	102 min 55 sec (CD)
occupation	Vocals , electric guitar , harmonica : Bob Dylan Electric guitar: Billy Cross Drums : Ian Wallace Keyboard : Alan Pasqua E-bass , vocals: Rob Stoner acoustic guitar , vocals: Steven Soles Pedal steel guitar , violin , mandolin , guitar, dobro : David Mansfield Saxophone , flute , recorder : Steve Douglas Percussion : Bobbye Hall Choir: Helena Springs, Jo Ann Harris, Debi Dye
production	Don DeVito
chronology Street Legal (1978) At Budokan Slow Train Coming (1979)

At Budokan is a live album by Bob Dylan from 1978 (partly released in 1979). It was recorded on February 28 and March 1, 1978 in the Nippon Budōkan in Tokyo . The original LP was a booklet in English and Japanese at, plus a DIN-A1 - Posters that Dylan with electric guitar during a performance in Japan shows. All the tracks are penned by Bob Dylan, with the exception of Oh, Sister , which he wrote together with Jacques Levy for the album Desire .

The album consists almost exclusively of the artist's “Greatest Hits”, which were played live, sometimes in radically different arrangements. Is Your Love in Vain (track number 10) is the only new song on the album. It was played live for the first time at the concert on February 28th and only released in the studio version six months later - on Street Legal .

The band with which Dylan was on tour consisted of the musicians with whom he recorded Street Legal that same year .

Recordings and versions

The recordings are from two different concerts on February 28 and March 1, 1978. It is the fourth and fifth of a total of eight shows at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo , Japan. Columbia Records released the double LP on August 21, 1978. The original edition was intended for the Japanese market only. Later that same year, the album was also released in Australia and New Zealand. It wasn't until April 1979 that the album was released worldwide - Columbia was reacting to the numerous imports to Europe and North America.

Criticism and success

Dylan received some of the worst reviews of his entire career for At Budokan . The album was called “smooth” and “sterile”. Music critic Jimmy Guterman even called it "one of the worst albums in rock music history". Clinton Heylin, on the other hand, apologetically spoke of a "recording from the wrong end of the tour" - the later performances in Europe would have been much better.

In Europe the album was received much more friendly. Janet Maslin , music critic for Rolling Stone , saw it as a "release of Dylan from the original versions," which, "as beautiful and enduring as they may be, were a terrible burden on the artist." Above all, she heard the songs that were newer at the time, such as Oh Sister and Shelter from the Storm, as "significantly improved", as if they "had not been properly thought out when they were first recorded".

At Budokan came in at number 13 in the US album charts and went gold . In the UK, the album made it to number 4.

Track list

• LP 1 / CD 1
  1. Mr. Tambourine Man - 5:04
  2. Shelter from the Storm - 4:39
  3. Love Minus Zero / No Limit - 3:57
  4. Ballad of a Thin Man - 4:53
  5. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - 5:01
  6. Maggie's Farm - 5:26
  7. One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below) - 3:31
  8. Like a Rolling Stone - 6:36
  9. I Shall Be Released - 4:24
  10. Is Your Love in Vain? - 4:02
  11. Going, going, gone - 4:23
• LP 2 / CD 2
  1. Blowin 'in the Wind - 4:32
  2. Just Like a Woman - 5:06
  3. Oh, Sister (Bob Dylan / Jacques Levy) - 4:50
  4. Simple Twist of Fate - 4:27
  5. All Along the Watchtower - 3:26
  6. I Want You - 2:40
  7. All I Really Want to Do - 3:45
  8. Knockin 'On Heaven's Door - 4:03
  9. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - 6:09
  10. Forever Young - 6:32
  11. The Times They Are A-Changin - 5:29

Individual evidence

1. ^ Nippon Budokan Hall (14). ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 19, 2012.  
2. ↑ Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan At Budokan. Discogs, accessed September 19, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine: At Budokan. In: Allmusic . Rovi Corporation, accessed September 19, 2012 . 
4. ↑ Jimmy Guterman, Owen O'Donnell: Slipped Discs: Worst Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Times , AwesomeBooks, USA, 1991.
5. ↑ Clinton Heylin: Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited , HarperCollins, USA, 2003.
6. ↑ Janet Maslin: Bob Dylan. Rolling Stone, accessed September 19, 2012 . 
7. ↑ SEARCHABLE DATABASE. RIAA, accessed September 19, 2012 (English, search for Dylan, Bob , page three). 
8. ↑ Chart sources: UK US
9. ^ At Budokan (Live). In: iTunes. Apple, Inc., accessed September 19, 2012 .