Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door? Not just yet, Bob Dylan tops US Billboard charts with “Modern Times”.

After calling the quality of modern recordings “atrocious” the 65-year-old Bob Dylan apparently had a lot of people supporting his contention. His recent release Modern Times debuted at number one on the US Billboard charts, selling 192,000 copies in its first week. Dylan also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.

It has been 20 years since Dylan last captured the top spot, his album Desire which featured the protest anthem “Hurricane” hit number one in 1976.

Dylan became the oldest living person to have an album debut at number one.

The man who helped define the period of the mid 1960’s thru the early 70’s grabbed some headlines recently when he said “I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years.”

Convinced that music has become “static” Dylan has complained there is an absence of definition in vocals and an overemphasis on noise. When asked about the problems facing the music industry concerning songs being downloaded for free Dylan defended the act saying, “Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway.”

His 1997 release Time Out of Mind went on to win the Grammy Award for album of the year, Dylan never clarified if his music fit into the same category he described as “static”