bob dylan - self portrait

the cover to empire burlesque is classic, and dark eyes is also classic. empire burlesque is classic. i think the chintzy 80s production of bob dylan songs is kind of surreal in a good way, even if it mars the songs at times. i think the album we should really be talking about is "at budokan"... "blasphemous" lounge versions of all his greatest hits, it's so great.

i think if he released tastefully produced, consistent albums throughout his career his catalog would be way less interesting.

love toom but 'cold irons bound' and 'standing in the doorway' are the only tracks i think have a shot at my ballot (and i'm assuming that ballot's gonna have like a hundred slots). 'red river shore' could conceivably as well but it didn't even make the album (same w/ 'mississippi'). i think i'm at the point where i'll finally admit love and theft is a better album but it will never mean as much to me as toom.

love and theft is a less personal-sounding album in general, i think. i like it but i also prefer time out of mind.

Thanks to this topic, I sought out Oh Mercy over the weekend and I really like it!

I always thought 'Series of Dreams' was the lone standout on the latter half of disc three of the original Bootleg Series set, but I can see why it was left off the proper album. Really like the sparse, airy sound Lanois gives the album. Suits Bob well at that point. Makes him sound like a desert wanderer or something. Too early at this point to really process, but I'll just say that I didn't expect to like it as much I do.

Also picked up the Dylan album, more for completeness sake than anything, but I've been playing Oh Mercy so much that I haven't even taken it out of its jacket yet.

Oh Mercy is good. I bout a cheap copy in high school and fell in love with it before I was really interested in where it fit in in the canon. "Most of the Time" is as devastating as anything on Blood on the Tracks

Track down a copy of the Oh Mercy demos bootleg if you get a chance. It made me like the album even more.

The first Dylan I bought with my own money, Oh Mercy has sentimental value for me despite my wrinkling my nose at "Disease of Conceit" and "Ring Them Bells" when I was fifteen. If TOOM is the nadir of Lanois-Dylan, then "Man in the Long Black Coat" and "What Was It You Wanted" are the peaks imo.

xpost i'll try to do that. have a bootleg mp3 of an alternate take of "most of the time" and it's good stuff. i think dylan writes about the recording sessions of that album in chronicles, and i forget what he says but i remember thinking it was a good section.

i think if he released tastefully produced, consistent albums throughout his career his catalog would be way less interesting.

I can sort of see what you're saying here, because as much I love Bob, I've never really connected with any of the later "big three" albums (Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft and Modern Times), even though I know that, objectively, they're darn good albums. Just don't really merit repeat listens, because they sound so normal.

x-post: Yes, I was immediately very interested in checking out that Bootleg Series #8 (this guy) for anything associated with Oh Mercy. What d'ya know about that stuff?

LOVE tell-tale signs

even blonde on blonde has a bunch of filler.

a lot of filler, really?

… i don't like "rainy day women" but it's not "filler," it's clearly a statement (musical as well as social) of some kind

the only things i might characterize as "filler" is "temporary like achilles" (one of the many blues-based songs on the LP, but probably the least of them), "leopard-skin pill-box hat" (which has some great lines), and "obviously five believers" (which is probably the worst song on the record). and none of these songs are half as bad as the worst stuff dylan did in the mid-1980s.

challops, i say.

"five believers" is kind of a "she's about a mover" rip-off which makes me like it just a bit more

sorta mystifies me that in the off years when there's no new dylan that we don't get a new bootleg series, xian period is at the top of my personal wishlist but from a pure business standpoint can't figure out how the dylan/cash sessions haven't come out, that was a big seller when i worked in a record store.

the Live 1966 version of "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat" is all I need.

I love "Series of Dreams," notably when those synths crash against that line about the umbrella.

xpost "leopard skin pillbox hat" is dreadful; "rainy day woman" unlistenable. i don't like "just like a woman" but that is just me, i realize. idk. five believers is a whatever song to me as well. but the album reaches insane summits as well and contains two of my top twenty all time favorite songs

This is the Oh Mercy boot I love to pieces:

http://www.bobsboots.com/CDs/cd-d13.html

pretty sure that every dylan thread now has alfred's elaborate empire burlesque defense.
from a pure business standpoint can't figure out how the dylan/cash sessions haven't come out
tbh about 85% of this session is garbage -- it's charming to hear them stumble over every tune they try, but it's not like it's some sort of awesome piece of music.

somebody tempts me!

ASK ME WHAT I THINK ABOUT EMPIRE BURLESQUE (t-shirt)

I was blaring "Rainy Day Woman" driving down the Lakeshore today. There's no Dylan song I'd rather sing along to, no song where I'd rather imitate him. Brilliant.

ASK ME WHAT I THINK ABOUT EMPIRE BURLESQUE (t-shirt)
lol that would be a good t shirt

hm... yeah i just hate rainy day woman. different strokes. but i would wear that empire burlesque t shirt.

no EB t-shirts available!

i think i went through a phrase where i wanted to skip rainy day woman but now i'm back to loving it. i'll go on record saying that blonde on blonde is filler-less.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/cb139b0ffd34be393d6b8d54a9577969/tumblr_mmcup1KDEG1qzy30io1_500.png

Sold. I'll give you $1.50 -- the price of a used copy of EB on Amazon.

i think my favorite thing about empire burlesque is that photo

i never seek it out but i always have time for 'rainy day women' (i am a little horrified that that's what ties 'like a rolling stone' for highest charting dylan single). at this point i think i may have more time for 'she's always a woman' than 'just like a woman'.

"just like a woman" is kind of really gross.

i wish it didn't share an album with "visions of johanna", the greatest song of the 60s.

fave on that lp is stuck inside of memphis...
close 2nd i want you

btw y'all know that next bootleg series will cover self-p/new morning sessions right? or have we covered this already?

er stuck inside of MOBILE

just like a woman is heavy dumb. leopard-skin pill-box hat is GREAT, the part where the doctor steals his girl is better than when it happens to leonard cohen.

tell tale signs has all kinds of good stuff on it including the definitive version of "someday baby" from modern times.

i like "something's burning baby" too but it's definitely on the hokier end of the dylan apocalypse spectrum. (my favorite pious dylan dystopia is "foot of pride". they take all this money from sin. build BIIIIIIIIIIG universities to study in. sing amazing grace ALL the way to the swiss banks.)

he's singing about hisself from 5 years earlier maybe

I like to think that Bob is referring the Monty Python foot in "Foot of Pride".

what makes SBB hokey is the synth horn

SOMETHING'S THE MATTER BABY THERE'S SMOKE IN YOUR HAAAAAAAAAAAAAIR.

do u think it's about America

ignore that question

do u think it's about America

sure – if you're Bono

ONE HUNDRED

dylan albums without filler: highway 61, john wesley harding, uhhh live '66.

Nashville Skylines pretty solid.

nashville skyline is kind of all filler. in a good way.

incidentally I just googled "who is the girl on the back of empire burlesque" and found this thread:
http://www.expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=68556

so many completely ridiculous guesses! A lot of people are near blind, apparently.

lol at that being emmylou harris!

that's not even the worst guess!

nashville skyline is kind of all filler. in a good way.

― tylerw, Monday, May 6, 2013 2:38 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i see what you're getting at but no. "i threw it all away" is nobody's idea of filler. it's one of his very best songs IMO.