The audio recording is from two different shows on and , . released this double LP on , ; the original issue was limited to the Japanese market. Later that year it was released in Australia.
On , , spurred by extensive importing and at least one counterfeit European edition, Columbia released the album to worldwide markets. The shows were the fourth and fifth in an eight-show appearance at in , .
Bob Dylan At Budokan received some of the worst reviews of Dylan's career.
Critically savaged, it was derided as "slick" and "sterile," with some comparing the new arrangements to lounge music.
In a sarcastic review published in his "Consumer Guide" column, gave the album a C+ rating, writing "I believe this double LP was made available so our hero could boast of being outclassed by , who had the self-control to release but a single disc from this location. Although it's amazing how many of the twenty-two songs--twelve also available on one of the other two live albums Dylan has released since 1974--hold up under slipshod treatment.
And not only that, lyrics and poster are included." Critic Jimmy Guterman named it one of the worst albums ever released in the history of rock.
However, the album received stronger reviews in Europe, and critic Janet Maslin (then a music critic for ) defended the album in her review.
"However much they may offend purists, these latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals. And the originals - however lasting, however beautiful - constitute a terrible burden..
.this time the old songs have been recast sweetly, without that self-defeating aggression, in what sounds suspiciously like a spirit of fun..
.Many of the more recent ones, like 'Oh, Sister,' 'One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)' and 'Shelter from the Storm,' are vastly improved, as if, when they were first recorded, they hadn't been fully thought through. "Is Your Love in Vain?
", by no means the prettiest song on Dylan's much-underrated Street-Legal, is prettier still...
The method here is hit-or-miss, and the results are correspondingly spotty...
The low point of the set is 'The Times They Are A-Changin"...
The fire and brimstone are behind Dylan, [but] this hardly means the fight has gone out of him: Bob Dylan at Budokan is a very contentious effort -- and, for the most part, a victorious one."
Bob Dylan At Budokan reached #13 in the US and went platinum, while simultaneously peaking at #4 in the UK.
All songs by Bob Dylan.
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