There have definitely been some high points and low points along the way. Virtually everyone (who likes Dylan to begin with) recognizes that there are a half-dozen albums that are truly great: Freewheelin', The Times They Are A-Changin', Another Side, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde. Many of us add a seventh, Blood On The Tracks. Beyond that, it gets a little dicier, and on a lot of the albums you have to accept the fact that the gold is mixed in with the dross. My personal favorites list would also include the Basement Tapes and Nashville Skyline. And Live 1966, because it so perfectly captures a critical moment.

I saw Dylan and the Band on the big 1974 comeback tour from which Before the Flood was taken. I enjoyed the show I saw (Boston, 1/14/74, evening show) much more than I liked the album. From what I understand, the album was mostly recorded at Madison Square Garden on the last night of the tour (the one all the "celebrity guests" attended), and it sounds to me like Dylan and the Band had kind of burned out on things by that point.

I was also disappointed in Desire, although it got rave reviews at the time. I saw him around then (on the Rolling Thunder Review tour), and the show was good, but there was a lot of self-indulgence there, by both Dylan and his backing musicians and entourage (Allen Ginsburg -- get real!). I would have liked to have heard a few of the songs in more pared-back arrangements; "Isis" was a pretty effective bit of writing, but not the best rendition (much better in concert). And there were a couple of "protest songs by the numbers" on there that I thought were really lame attempts by Dylan to recover the mantle he had rejected long before ("Hurricane" and "George Jackson"), with none of the wit or insight he had previously displayed. Definitely a mixed-bag album in my opinion.

Glad to hear you're getting deeper into Dylan, Matt -- it's an enriching experience.