Desire

Desire is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s 17th studio album, released by Columbia Records in 1976.

It is one of Dylan’s most collaborative efforts, featuring the same caravan of musicians from the acclaimed rolling thunder revue tours the previous year (later documented on The Bootleg Series Vol. 5). Most of the album was co-written by Jacques Levy, and is composed of lengthy story-songs, two of which quickly generated controversy: the over 11-minute long “Joey” … , which is seen as glorifying the violent gangster joey gallo, and “Hurricane”, the opening track that tells a passionate account of the murder case against boxer rubin carter, whom the song asserts was framed. Carter was later released - but not exonerated - on appeal more than twenty years later.

A well-received follow-up to Blood on the Tracks, Desire reached #1 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart for 5 weeks, becoming one of Dylan’s top-selling studio albums (currently certified double platinum), while reaching #3 in the UK.