Personnel includes: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, keyboards); T-Bone Burnett, Jack Sherman, Ron Wood, Ira Ingber, Dave Stewart (guitar); Al Perkins (steel guitar); Larry Meyers (mandolin); Steve Douglas (saxophone); Steve Madaio (trumpet); Al Kooper, Vince Melamed, Patrick Seymour (keyboards); James Jamerson Jr., Vito San Flippo, John Paris, Carl Sealove, John McKenzie (bass); Raymond Lee Pounds, Anton Fig, Don Heffington, Clem Burke (drums); Philip Lyn Jones (conga); Milton Gabriel, Mike Berment, Brian Parris (steel drums); Carole Dennis, Madeline Quebec, Muffy Hendrix, Annette May Thomas, Damien Turnbough, Majason Bracey, Keysha Gwin, Crystal Pounds, Lara Firestone, Tiffany Wright, Chyna Wright (background vocals).
The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty (vocals, guitar); Mike Campbell (guitar); Benmont Tench (keyboards); Howie Epstein (bass); Stan Lynch (drums).
Engineers include: Britt Bacon, George Tutko, Judy Feltus.
As with most other 1980s Bob Dylan albums, KNOCKED OUT LOADED is a piece-meal work--a combination of various sessions, performed by different groups of musicians, presenting the many sides of Bob Dylan. Touching upon juke-joint R&B ("You Wanna Ramble"), reeling Stones-like blues-rock ("Got My Mind Made Up," co-written by then touring partner Tom Petty and featuring his Heartbreakers), and a gospel arrangement of a Kris Kristofferson tune ("They Killed Him") which inevitably harkens back to Dylan's earlier spiritual explorations, the bard seems unsure where his own attention lay.
Still, much as KNOCKED OUT lacks a sense of cohesion, it doesn't exclude the mystery of Dylan's best work. "Brownsville Girl," an eleven-minute opus co-written by playwright Sam Sheppard, is vintage Zimmerman, struggling to encompass an entire worldview within the context of a mid-tempo, brassy, Tex-Mex blues-as-passage-in-a-diary. It is a rough-edged diamond that is among the most unique parts of Dylan's entire catalog, and it was delivered so effortlessly that nobody dared think Dylan had lost any of his powers.