'Love and Theft' -- Dylan's album released on 9/11

Sep. 12—September 11 marks the 20th anniversary of one of Bob Dylan's best albums.

Yes, the album's release came on Sept. 11, 2001, the same day as the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Like the much of the rest of America, I felt shock and dismay at the attack on the Twin Towers, watching horrified as it dawned on the world what was happeing when a jet plane flew into the second tower, followed by the crash in Pennsylvania and the attack on the Pentagon.

With all of those events unfolding, we knew the world had changed forever that day.

I didn't get Dylan's then-new album "Love And Theft" until a few weeks later. At the time, I didn't realize its release date had coincided with the attack on America. When I listened though, I, wondered at how some of the lyrics — obviously written and recorded well in advance of 9/11 — seemed to encompass what America experienced that day.

Several of the songs sounded apocalyptic in way Dylan hadn't written since "A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall" on his "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" album released way back in May 1963.

Since the Cuban Missile Crisis had put the United States and the Soviet Union on the brink of a nuclear war over the placement of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, only 90 miles from mainland Florida, just eight months earlier in October, 1962, some have interpreted Dylan's "Hard Rain" as a reference to an atomic rain that could follow a nuclear holocaust.

Dylan has since denied that interpretation, maintaining he was referring to a hard rain that would include any number of hard times. Still, in the liner notes to the album, a young Dylan told journalist Nat Hentoff the Cuban missile crisis had influenced the song. Dylan said at the time almost every line could have been a different song, but he put them all into "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall."

Hentoff wrote in the liner notes of the time of "the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 when those who allowed themselves to think of the impossible results of the Kennedy-Khrushchev confrontation were chilled by the imminence of oblivion."

A young 22-year old Dylan spoke to Hentoff about the song's origins.

"Every line is actually the start of a whole song, but when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn't have enough time alive to write all these songs, so I put all I could into this one."

On "Love and Theft," Dylan sang the lines "Sky full of fire, pain pouring down" on the album's second track "Mississippi." Another song about an apocalyptic flood, titled "High Water (For Charley Patton)" included the lines, "High water rising, six inches above my head. Coffins dropping in the street, like balloons made out of lead."

His tribute to Patton, one of the early Delta blues singers, includes the lines, "It's rough out there. High water everywhere."

Those who were around then no doubt remember the sense of unity that Americans felt in the aftermath of 9/11. The political divisions that are so sharp and rancorous now disappeared in the wake of the national disaster as most of the nation stood together during that time of tragedy.

During the following months, I listened to "Love And Theft" over and over again. Sure, some of the songs were bleak, but others contained bits of humor.

What struck me about the album was how it captured the spirit of America by hearkening back to earlier musical, even pre-rock 'n' roll styles. It made me think of old jump blues, country, folk and jazz music, even torch songs of previous generations.

Dylan had already made yet another spectacular comeback in 1997, with the release of his album "Time Out of Mind," which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Even so, Dylan later spoke of how he hadn't been a fan of the sort of otherworldly sound sheen producer Daniel Lanios placed over much of the album, giving it a swampy vibe. They were recording in New Orleans, after all.

Still, I knew what Dylan meant. Lanios has also produced albums by a number of other artists, including "So" by Peter Gabriel, "Joshua Tree" by U2, "Wrecking Ball" by Emmylou Harris, "Teatro" by Willie Nelson and Robbie Robertson's self-titled debut album. He'd also produced Dylan's 1989 album, "Oh Mercy," considered yet another comeback in Dylan's long career. All of those albums are great and I own most of them — but they all do sound like Daniel Lanois albums.

For "Love And Theft," Dylan felt determined to find the sound he heard in his head, so he decided to produce himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost, working with a young engineer named Chris Shaw, who had engineered early recordings by Public Enemy.

Though Dylan often used studio musicians on his albums, this time he utilized his road band, which included guitarist Charlie Sexton and multiple instrumentalist Larry Campbell, drummer David Kemper and Dylan's musical director, Tony Garnier on bass, augmented by Augie Meyers on organ and accordion and Clay Meyers on bongos.

Together, they achieved a remarkable mix, sounding at times like everything from a 1930s dance band to a 1950s rambling roadhouse group of musicians. I had thought a couple of years earlier how rare it was to hear banjos on country music records in those days, and here was Dylan with Campbell playing banjo on one of the album's best tracks, "High Water (For Charley Patton).

They sounded like a pre-rock swing band on "Summer Days," then did Dylan's version of the Great American Songbook on "Moonlight."

Other songs, such as "Floater (Too Much to Ask), float along in their own musical space, buoyed by Campbell's light touch on the fiddle.

I'm sometimes puzzled when I hear someone say they went to Dylan concert and he didn't play enough of his 1960s hits. "Love And Theft" hit #5 on the charts and won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album — although it encompasses a myriad of musical styles.

I'll never forget Dylan and his band performing "High Water" at Drillers Stadium in Tulsa, during a concert he co-headlined with Willie Nelson. This time, Donnie Herron played banjo on "High Water," with the crowd cheering at his rolling banjo licks.

"Po' Boy" is another favorite from the album, which Dylan performed live at the then-Brady Theater in Tulsa, using a backdrop replicating hundreds of twinkling stars as he sang the lines "Po boy, neath the stars that shine, washin' them dishes, feedin' them swine."

"Love And Theft" sometimes makes me think of a couple of lines Dylan used to close out that earlier album, "Freewheelin'."

"Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking, but I'll know my song well before I start singin'," the 22-year-old Dylan sang on "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall."

"Love And Theft" showed again that Dylan not only knows his own songs well; he also knows the musical styles of the breadth of America.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.