Description
Shot of Love is the third and final album in the gospel trilogy of the American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan, released on Columbia Records in August 1981. The album was recorded by Toby Scott assisted by at Clover Recorders in Hollywood, California; with Chuck Plotkin and Bob Dylan producing (except the title track which was recorded at Peacock Records Studios with Bumps Blackwell, Plotkin, and Dylan producing). All songs written by Bob Dylan.
Featuring Bob Dylan on guitar, piano, harmonica, percussion, and vocals, backed by a session band consisting of Fred Tackett on guitar, Tim Drummond on bass, and Jim Keltner on drums. Backing vocals provided by Carolyn Dennis, Clydie King, Madelyn Quebec, and Regina McCrary. As well featuring Steve Ripley on guitar, Carl Pickhardt on piano, Benmont Tench on keyboards, Steve Douglas on saxophone, and Danny Kortchmar on electric guitar. “Heart of Mine” features William “Smitty” Smith on organ, Ron Wood on guitar, Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass, and Ringo Starr on drums and tom tom.
Shot of Love was included in the Editors’ Choice 1981 list of CCM Magazine, a list featuring 15 albums released during 1981, before the end of November.
Shot Of Love (2007 Reissue)
The final instalment of Dylan’s famous trilogy of Christian albums (alongside ‘Slow Train Coming‘ and ‘Saved‘), ‘Shot Of Love’ is a patchy, somewhat unsatisfying affair. Sure, there are some good songs such as «Property Of Jesus», «Dead Man, Dead Man» and «Heart Of Mine» but then again there are some which are truly disappointing – especially by the standards one would expect from one of the 20th century’s finest songwriters. A case in point is the eulogy, «Lenny Bruce». The piano and voice arrangement comes across more as a demo than a finished track and the lyrics are often little more than doggerel or notebook jottings. “He never robbed any churches, Nor cut off any babies’ heads, He just took the folks in high places, And he shined a light in their bed.” This and other tracks also hint at an annoying characteristic which infested much of his ’80s and ’90s output – a novel approach to little musical conventions like bothering to have a melody or singing with intelligible diction. Where the album is most effective is were Dylan takes the straight-ahead gospel meets AOR rock approach adopted on ‘Slow Train Coming’ or ‘Saved’. The blues-based tracks like «In The Summer Time», «Trouble» or «The Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar» (a B-side bonus track, shoehorned into the middle of the album) are somewhat less successful. All in all, a proverbial curate’s egg only sporadically shot through with expected brilliance. [Trevor Raggatt, Cross Rhythms, July 2007]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/shot-of-love/192691216)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Shot of Love” – 4:18
A2. “Heart of Mine” – 4:32
A3. “Property of Jesus” – 4:33
A4. “Lenny Bruce” – 4:31
A5. “Watered-Down Love” – 4:13
Side Two
B1. “Dead Man, Dead Man” – 3:58
B2. “In the Summertime” – 3:32
B3. “Trouble” – 4:33
B4. “Every Grain of Sand” – 6:11
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Columbia Records. “The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar,” originally the B-side to the single “Heart of Mine” (as well included on the cassette release), was later inserted as track six to the ten-track compact disc in 1985, and has been present in all subsequent pressings.
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CBS Records announced their new gospel label Priority Records by a double-page advertisement in the October 3, 1981 issue of Billboard Magazine, featuring Bob Dylan’s album Shot of Love on the second page. Other “Christians dedicated to fine Christian music” highlighted in the ad were Carman, Bob Bennett, James Felix and the Street Band, Kerry Livgren, Ben Moore, Mighty Clouds of Joy, Johnny Cash, James Vincent, The Oak Ridge Boys, Mahalia Jackson, and The Statler Brothers. The same edition of Billboard Magazine as well featured a large section dedicated to gospel music, entitled A Billboard Spotlight, Gospel Music – The Spirit of the 80s.
A full-page advertisement for various new releases on CBS Records’ gospel label Priority was featured in the January 1982 issue of Campus Life, the magazine’s annual music issue.
Over at CBS, the winter of 1980 saw plans to create Priority, a new label and publishing company to deal entirely with gospel, and in May, 1981, Buddy Huey was appointed to the position of vice president/general manager of the label, which is now based in Nashville. Prior to his appointment, Huey was vice president of A&R with Word Records for six years. Priority handles production, sales, distribution, marketing, promotion and publishing of approximately 11 artists today, and Huey plans to keep the roster of talent to about 15 recording acts. This January, the label released its debut outing, an album by R&B artist Ben Moore, and February saw the release of its second endeavor, a disc by contemporary Christian singer Carman. Two other albums – “Country Gospel” by the Statler Brothers and a country gospel anthology – have also been released under the Priority logo. Much of CBS’s past catalog, including religiously oriented material by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and the Oak Ridge Boys, will be distributed to Christian Booksellers Assn. (CBA) stores in hopes that the well-known performers will become viable attractions in the bible store marketplace. [Excerpt from an article by Jeffrey Ressner entitled “Major Labels Intensify Involvement in Gospel Music”, published in the March 6, 1982 issue of CashBox Magazine]
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