section_path: Career/1980–1989: Career fluctuations
section_name: 1980–1989: Career fluctuations
paragraph_text: 1980–1989: Career fluctuations
  
  In late 1980, Dylan briefly played concerts billed as "A Musical Retrospective", restoring popular 1960s songs to the repertoire. His second Christian album, Saved (1980), received mixed reviews, described by Michael Gray as "the nearest thing to a follow-up album Dylan has ever made, Slow Train Coming II and inferior". His third Christian album was Shot of Love (1981). The album featured his first secular compositions in more than two years, mixed with Christian songs. The lyrics of "Every Grain of Sand" recall William Blake 's " Auguries of Innocence ". Elvis Costello wrote that " Shot of Love may not be your favorite Bob Dylan record, but it might contain his best song: 'Every Grain of Sand'."
  
  Reception of Dylan's 1980s recordings varied. Gray criticized Dylan's 1980s albums for carelessness in the studio and for failing to release his best songs. Infidels (1983) employed Knopfler again as lead guitarist and also as producer; the sessions resulted in several songs that Dylan left off the album. Best regarded of these were " Blind Willie McTell ", which was both a tribute to the eponymous blues musician and an evocation of African American history, "Foot of Pride" and " Lord Protect My Child ". These three songs were later released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.
  
  Between July 1984 and March 1985, Dylan recorded Empire Burlesque. Arthur Baker, who had remixed hits for Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper, was asked to engineer and mix the album. Baker said he felt he was hired to make Dylan's album sound "a little bit more contemporary". In 1985 Dylan sang on USA for Africa 's famine relief single " We Are the World ". He also joined Artists United Against Apartheid, providing vocals for their single " Sun City ". On July 13, 1985, he appeared at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. Backed by Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, he performed a ragged version of "Ballad of Hollis Brown", a tale of rural poverty, and then said to the worldwide audience: "I hope that some of the money... maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe... one or two million, maybe... and use it to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks". His remarks were widely criticized as inappropriate, but inspired Willie Nelson to organize a concert, Farm Aid, to benefit debt-ridden American farmers.
  
  In October 1985, Dylan released Biograph, a box set featuring 53 tracks, 18 of them previously unreleased. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "Historically, Biograph is significant not for what it did for Dylan's career, but for establishing the box set, complete with hits and rarities, as a viable part of rock history." Biograph also contained liner notes by Cameron Crowe in which Dylan discussed the origins of some of his songs.
  
  In April 1986, Dylan made a foray into rap when he added vocals to the opening verse of "Street Rock" on Kurtis Blow 's album Kingdom Blow. Dylan's next studio album, Knocked Out Loaded (1986), contained three covers (by Junior Parker, Kris Kristofferson and the gospel hymn " Precious Memories "), plus three collaborations (with Tom Petty, Sam Shepard and Carole Bayer Sager), and two solo compositions by Dylan. A reviewer wrote:
  
  the record follows too many detours to be consistently compelling, and some of those detours wind down roads that are indisputably dead ends. By 1986, such uneven records weren't entirely unexpected by Dylan, but that didn't make them any less frustrating.
  
  It was the first Dylan album since his 1962 debut to fail to make the Top 50. Some critics have called the song Dylan co-wrote with Shepard, " Brownsville Girl ", a masterpiece.
  
  In 1986 and 1987, Dylan toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, sharing vocals with Petty on several songs each night. Dylan also toured with the Grateful Dead in 1987, resulting in the live album Dylan & The Dead, which received negative reviews; Erlewine said it was "quite possibly the worst album by either Bob Dylan or the Grateful Dead". Dylan initiated what came to be called the Never Ending Tour on June 7, 1988, performing with a back-up band featuring guitarist G. E. Smith. Dylan would continue to tour with a small, changing band for the next 30 years. In 1987, Dylan starred in Richard Marquand 's movie Hearts of Fire, in which he played Billy Parker, a washed-up rock star turned chicken farmer whose teenage lover (Fiona) leaves him for a jaded English synth-pop sensation (Rupert Everett). Dylan also contributed two original songs to the soundtrack—"Night After Night", and "Had a Dream About You, Baby", as well as a cover of John Hiatt 's "The Usual". The film was a critical and commercial flop.
  
  Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1988. Bruce Springsteen, in his introduction, declared, "Bob freed your mind the way Elvis freed your body. He showed us that just because music was innately physical did not mean that it was anti-intellectual". Down in the Groove (1988) sold even more poorly than Knocked Out Loaded. Gray wrote: "The very title undercuts any idea that inspired work may lie within. Here was a further devaluing of the notion of a new Bob Dylan album as something significant." The critical and commercial disappointment of that album was swiftly followed by the success of the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup Dylan co-founded with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. In late 1988, their Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 reached number three on the US albums chart, featuring songs described as Dylan's most accessible in years. Despite Orbison's death in December 1988, the remaining four recorded a second album in May 1990, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
  
  Dylan finished the decade on a critical high note with Oh Mercy, produced by Daniel Lanois. Gray praised the album as "Attentively written, vocally distinctive, musically warm, and uncompromisingly professional, this cohesive whole is the nearest thing to a great Bob Dylan album in the 1980s." " Most of the Time ", a lost-love composition, was prominently featured in the film High Fidelity (2000), while " What Was It You Wanted " has been interpreted both as a catechism and a wry comment on the expectations of critics and fans. The religious imagery of "Ring Them Bells" struck some critics as a re-affirmation of faith.
  
  In late 1980, Dylan briefly played concerts billed as "A Musical Retrospective", restoring popular 1960s songs to the repertoire. His second Christian album, Saved (1980), received mixed reviews, described by Michael Gray as "the nearest thing to a follow-up album Dylan has ever made, Slow Train Coming II and inferior". His third Christian album was Shot of Love (1981). The album featured his first secular compositions in more than two years, mixed with Christian songs. The lyrics of "Every Grain of Sand" recall William Blake 's " Auguries of Innocence ". Elvis Costello wrote that " Shot of Love may not be your favorite Bob Dylan record, but it might contain his best song: 'Every Grain of Sand'."
  
  Reception of Dylan's 1980s recordings varied. Gray criticized Dylan's 1980s albums for carelessness in the studio and for failing to release his best songs. Infidels (1983) employed Knopfler again as lead guitarist and also as producer; the sessions resulted in several songs that Dylan left off the album. Best regarded of these were " Blind Willie McTell ", which was both a tribute to the eponymous blues musician and an evocation of African American history, "Foot of Pride" and " Lord Protect My Child ". These three songs were later released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.
  
  Between July 1984 and March 1985, Dylan recorded Empire Burlesque. Arthur Baker, who had remixed hits for Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper, was asked to engineer and mix the album. Baker said he felt he was hired to make Dylan's album sound "a little bit more contemporary". In 1985 Dylan sang on USA for Africa 's famine relief single " We Are the World ". He also joined Artists United Against Apartheid, providing vocals for their single " Sun City ". On July 13, 1985, he appeared at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. Backed by Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, he performed a ragged version of "Ballad of Hollis Brown", a tale of rural poverty, and then said to the worldwide audience: "I hope that some of the money... maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe... one or two million, maybe... and use it to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks". His remarks were widely criticized as inappropriate, but inspired Willie Nelson to organize a concert, Farm Aid, to benefit debt-ridden American farmers.
  
  In October 1985, Dylan released Biograph, a box set featuring 53 tracks, 18 of them previously unreleased. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "Historically, Biograph is significant not for what it did for Dylan's career, but for establishing the box set, complete with hits and rarities, as a viable part of rock history." Biograph also contained liner notes by Cameron Crowe in which Dylan discussed the origins of some of his songs.
  
  In April 1986, Dylan made a foray into rap when he added vocals to the opening verse of "Street Rock" on Kurtis Blow 's album Kingdom Blow. Dylan's next studio album, Knocked Out Loaded (1986), contained three covers (by Junior Parker, Kris Kristofferson and the gospel hymn " Precious Memories "), plus three collaborations (with Tom Petty, Sam Shepard and Carole Bayer Sager), and two solo compositions by Dylan. A reviewer wrote:
  
  the record follows too many detours to be consistently compelling, and some of those detours wind down roads that are indisputably dead ends. By 1986, such uneven records weren't entirely unexpected by Dylan, but that didn't make them any less frustrating.
  
  It was the first Dylan album since his 1962 debut to fail to make the Top 50. Some critics have called the song Dylan co-wrote with Shepard, " Brownsville Girl ", a masterpiece.
  
  In 1986 and 1987, Dylan toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, sharing vocals with Petty on several songs each night. Dylan also toured with the Grateful Dead in 1987, resulting in the live album Dylan & The Dead, which received negative reviews; Erlewine said it was "quite possibly the worst album by either Bob Dylan or the Grateful Dead". Dylan initiated what came to be called the Never Ending Tour on June 7, 1988, performing with a back-up band featuring guitarist G. E. Smith. Dylan would continue to tour with a small, changing band for the next 30 years. In 1987, Dylan starred in Richard Marquand 's movie Hearts of Fire, in which he played Billy Parker, a washed-up rock star turned chicken farmer whose teenage lover (Fiona) leaves him for a jaded English synth-pop sensation (Rupert Everett). Dylan also contributed two original songs to the soundtrack—"Night After Night", and "Had a Dream About You, Baby", as well as a cover of John Hiatt 's "The Usual". The film was a critical and commercial flop.
  
  Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1988. Bruce Springsteen, in his introduction, declared, "Bob freed your mind the way Elvis freed your body. He showed us that just because music was innately physical did not mean that it was anti-intellectual". Down in the Groove (1988) sold even more poorly than Knocked Out Loaded. Gray wrote: "The very title undercuts any idea that inspired work may lie within. Here was a further devaluing of the notion of a new Bob Dylan album as something significant." The critical and commercial disappointment of that album was swiftly followed by the success of the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup Dylan co-founded with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. In late 1988, their Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 reached number three on the US albums chart, featuring songs described as Dylan's most accessible in years. Despite Orbison's death in December 1988, the remaining four recorded a second album in May 1990, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
  
  Dylan finished the decade on a critical high note with Oh Mercy, produced by Daniel Lanois. Gray praised the album as "Attentively written, vocally distinctive, musically warm, and uncompromisingly professional, this cohesive whole is the nearest thing to a great Bob Dylan album in the 1980s." " Most of the Time ", a lost-love composition, was prominently featured in the film High Fidelity (2000), while " What Was It You Wanted " has been interpreted both as a catechism and a wry comment on the expectations of critics and fans. The religious imagery of "Ring Them Bells" struck some critics as a re-affirmation of faith.