Bob Dylan, explored
‹ Late Renaissance
Cover of "Love and Theft"

2001 · a landmark

"Love and Theft"

Late Renaissance · 1997–2012

Listen to the album

Why it matters

Released on September 11, 2001, it set Dylan's songs inside the sounds of prewar America: blues, rockabilly, swing and Tin Pan Alley. He produced it himself under the name Jack Frost with his touring band, and its title in quotation marks nods to a scholarly book on blackface minstrelsy.

Dylan recorded "Love and Theft" in New York in 2001 with his touring band of the time, including guitarists Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton, bassist Tony Garnier and drummer David Kemper, along with Augie Meyers on keyboards. He produced it himself under the name Jack Frost, and the sessions were quick and relaxed. The music moves freely through older American styles: jump blues, rockabilly, swing, parlor ballads and crooner numbers, played with the ease of a band that knew him well. Dylan sings with wit and menace, and the songs are packed with borrowed lines and characters from old records, films and books, a habit that drew both admiration and debate. "Mississippi", left off Time Out of Mind, appears here in a warm new version. The album came out on the day of the September 11 attacks, yet critics embraced it, and it won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

Track list · 12 songs

  1. 1Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
  2. 2Mississippi
  3. 3Summer Days
  4. 4Bye and Bye
  5. 5Lonesome Day Blues
  6. 6Floater (Too Much to Ask)
  7. 7High Water (For Charley Patton)
  8. 8Moonlight
  9. 9Honest With Me
  10. 10Po’ Boy
  11. 11Cry a While
  12. 12Sugar Baby

Where its songs lead

Mississippi · Covered byMississippiSheryl Crow · 1998Sheryl Crow released the song in 1998, three years before Dylan's own version came out.Sugar Baby · Borrowed the tune ofThe Lonesome RoadGene Austin · 1927The melody of Sugar Baby closely follows Gene Austin's The Lonesome Road.High Water (For Charley Patton) · Same theme asThe Levee’s Gonna Break2006Both draw on the Delta blues written about the great Mississippi flood of 1927.High Water (For Charley Patton) · Same theme asGoodbye Jimmy Reed2020Both name a blues hero in the title and draw on that man's music.High Water (For Charley Patton) · Same theme asHigh Water EverywhereCharley Patton · 1929Dylan dedicated his flood song to Patton, whose own blues chronicled the 1927 Mississippi flood.

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