Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

His voice had been getting thinner and drier in ways which led everyone to write him off as a spent force, and then I heard this album and realised oh shit, this is a whole new kind of power. So many songs are all time favourites, “Not Dark Yet”, “Highlands”, “Can’t Wait”, “Dirt Road Blues”, “Cold Irons Bound”. And then the absolute turd in the soup, “To Make You Feel My Love“.

Lanois may deserve some of the credit, I know at minimum he used the exact same mic he used for Oh Mercy, but it really helps that Oh Mercy was the first "quiet" album Dylan had done in a while where the songs are hushed and he isn't singing over a band that's completely rocking out. (It's more impressive with Time Out of Mind because they had so many people playing at once.)

I really like his voice on these two tracks from that third disc on the deluxe Tell Tale Signs that cost way too much money - a lighter mix of "Most of the Time" that I would've preferred for the final album and the same take of "Ring Them Bells" without the shimmering overdubs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdKup-Z4obQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHWp_xxnGgY

"Some of them are recorded on DAT or other formats of the moment," says the source. "Who knew they wouldn't last?

My experience may be unique and/or super lucky, but I have DATs from 1995-2006 that I recently backed up, and out of 100+ tapes there were maybe 4-5 brief (less then a second) dropouts.

Playing MORE BLOOD, MORE TRACKS, the 1CD version (all I have).

I can't really tell the difference between these versions and some others eg the Bootleg vol 3 'tangled up in blue', the original LP 'simple twist of fate'.

The different track order, presumably once intended, inevitably does make a slightly different impression.

The acoustic 'you're a big girl now' is more of a difference from the LP one I know.

'Lily, Rosemary' has always been a blur to me; today I think I heard the lyric properly, start to finish, for the first time, and understood it. Rosemary doesn't seem to get her just deserts. I note Dylan's interest in the Western genre, also arguably in 'Idiot Wind' (listened properly to that lyric also), 'New Danville Girl' (which I believe is also 'Brownsville Girl' (extraordinary lines about Gregory Peck - for the first time in my life this week I've properly listened to and appreciated that song).

I've never liked 'Idiot Wind' very much but the fact that he expands at the end to 'we're idiots' is significant, and makes the song less mean that it would otherwise be.

But my main reflection is that Dylan with this LP wrote in a way that he never did before or since. He had c.12 years of world music stardom behind him, and came up with this approach involving a different tuning (different tunings are never fathomable to me but I think I can hear it), different guitar playing (especially lots of songs that involve guitar figures sliding around, finger shapes going quickly up and down the neck), a different lyrical mood (seeming more open and vulnerable perhaps, while also very detailed and sometimes wildly fictional - 'a parrot that talks'), perhaps different kinds of tunes (tending towards these soaring vocal moments - the 'blind man at the GATE', etc) ...

and then ... he never did it again, in 50 years.

extraordinary lines about Gregory Peck

indeed hillariously excellent, sometimes he can pull off anything

p sure a few of those tracks are identical to the vol 1-3 boots?

the revelation for me was the lazy groove of the band version of ygmmlwyg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slmCQP75PEo

a beauty

I've never liked 'Idiot Wind' very much but the fact that he expands at the end to 'we're idiots' is significant, and makes the song less mean that it would otherwise be.

I love Idiot Wind, and a lot of what I love about it is that turn at the end and how he leads up to it - the way the initial venomous anger gives way to the sheer pain of "I can't even touch the books you've read," and you see that behind the anger is someone who goes through life flinching away from ordinary things, and behind this monster he's singing to is a real person with a stack of books by her bed. I think of it as a song about the stages of grief & the way we can take refuge in grandiose anger, betrayal, revenge fantasies etc. to avoid facing the reality of loss. And how coming to terms with that loss also means recognizing that the loss and the grief are mutual.

'New Danville Girl' (which I believe is also 'Brownsville Girl' (extraordinary lines about Gregory Peck - for the first time in my life this week I've properly listened to and appreciated that song).

I also overlooked that song until a couple years ago, and it became one of my pandemic listens. I think partly because "surreal and fragmented memories of a long-ago time when I stood in line to watch a movie" seemed very relevant to the moment.

My favorite thing about Brownsville Girl/New Danville Girl is the way it flattens the distinction between real life and fiction, so that it all exists together as part of the same surreal jumble of life experience - driving through the desert and having this relationship and visiting Ruby and standing in line to see a movie and watching the movie are all somehow equivalent, just as there's no real difference between watching the movie and being in the movie, and there's no real difference between Gregory Peck and the character he's playing - it's all equally a part of the narrator's past as he experiences it now.

Agree with that - it's incredible how readily he moves between talking about watching a film and being in it.

I've never owned KNOCKED OUT LOADED and have literally never even properly heard the song (in its earlier version, on SPRINGTIME IN NEW YORK) till two days ago.

re overlaps between LPs, according to the back of the CD the only previously released track is 'if you see her, say hello' which was, I think, track 1 on THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL 3.

It is an extraordinary thing how the Bootleg Series has in a sense allowed Dylan's career to happen all over again at marvellously slow-motion speed. My most played records of the last 30 years are probably these rereleases of things that weren't chosen for release 50 years ago.

it flattens the distinction between real life and fiction

i've always been the kind of person who doesn't like to trespass / but sometimes you just find yourself over the line

But my main reflection is that Dylan with this LP wrote in a way that he never did before or since(…) and then ... he never did it again, in 50 years.

Great observations in this paragraph!

FM tapes, on the Rox Vox label, but 4.5 stars, 155 votes---why hasn't the Bootleg Series had a massive '74 dump, a la 1966 and Rolling Thunder and the Jesus tour?

From Amazon:

Bob Dylan & The Band: 1974 Tour live (3-CD, Vinyl)

For Dylan's first proper tour since 1966, he was joined by his longstanding colleagues The Band. Expectations for both acts ran high, with huge venues swiftly selling out and immense media interest. It was no nostalgia act, though: whilst Dylan performed old material, he did so with considerable attack, as well as showcasing songs from his new Planet Waves LP. The Band also played alone, showing themselves to be arguably the finest group of their sort in the world. This release offers two historic shows from the early part of the tour, both originally broadcast on FM radio. They are presented here together with background notes and images.DISC ONE Bob Dylan & The Band, Boston Garden, MA. January 14th 1974 (WBCN-FM) Bob Dylan: 1. Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35 2. Lay Lady Lay 3. Just Like Tom Thumb s Blues 4. It Ain t Me Babe 5. I Don t Believe You 6. Ballad Of A Thin Man The Band: 7. Stage Fright 8. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 9. King Harvest Bob Dylan & The Band: 10. This Wheel s On Fire Bob Dylan: 11. I Shall Be Released The Band: 12. Up On Cripple Creek Bob Dylan: 13. All Along The Watchtower 14. Ballad Of Hollis Brown 15. Knockin On Heaven s Door 16. The Times They Are A-Changin 17. Don t Think Twice, It s All Right 18. Gates Of Eden 19. Just Like A Woman 20. It s Alright, Ma DISC TWO Bob Dylan & The Band, Madison Square Garden, NY, January 31st 1974 (WNEW-FM) Bob Dylan: 1. Most Likely You Go Your Way and I ll Go Mine 2. Lay Lady Lay 3. Just Like Tom Thumb s Blues 4. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 5. It Ain t Me, Babe 6. Ballad Of A Thin Man The Band: 7. Stage Fright 8. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 9. King Harvest (Has Surely Come) 10. When You Awake 11. Up On Cripple Creek Bob Dylan & The Band: 12. All Along The Watchtower 13. Ballad Of Hollis Brown 14. Knockin On Heaven s Door DISC THREE Bob Dylan & The Band, Madison Square Garden, NY, January 31st 1974 (WNEW-FM) Bob Dylan (Acoustic): 1. The Times They Are A-Changin 2. Don t Think Twice, It s All Right 3. Gates Of Eden 4. Just Like A Woman 5. It s Alright, Ma (I m Only Bleeding) The Band: 6. Rag Mama Rag 7. This Wheel s On Fire 8. The Shape I m In 9. The Weight Bob Dylan & The Band: 10. Forever Young 11. Highway 61 Revisited 12. Like A Rolling Stone Encores: Bob Dylan & The Band: 13. Most Likely You Go Your Way And I ll Go Mine 14. Blowin In The Wind

One of Rolling Stone's interviews with someone in Dylan's camp said it wasn't a priority or even a consideration for the Bootleg Series because they were pretty satisfied with Before the Flood as the sole representative of that tour, but I imagine they'll dump everything they got next year just for copyright protection. I don't know if it has to be by the end of 2024 or within 50 years of the recording date - if the latter, it'll be out one year from now, but if the former, maybe not until December 2024.

Thanks---these are described as early shows, think you said his singing was better later in the tour?

I actually prefer his singing in the earlier shows! By the end of the tour he was just singing with all out force, virtually shouting all the time. FWIW the live album was taken mostly from the very last day (evening and afternoon shows on Feb. 14, 1974) and none of those tracks came earlier than Jan. 31.

The early shows also had more interesting setlists, especially the first show (Jan. 3) which opened with "Hero Blues" of all things (an outtake from Freewheelin') and had Dylan sitting in with the Band on "Share Your Love With Me" and playing harmonica. The highlight for me was "Nobody 'Cept You" - a great performance of a great song that Dylan did during some of his solo acoustic sets, much better than the Planet Waves outtake backed by the Band. But after a few weeks, the setlist settled into something that more or less stayed the same until the end of the tour. I think the only real surprise on the back half of the tour was "Mr. Tambourine Man," which he sung at one of the Feb. 14 shows - it was Sara's favorite song and was probably done given that it was Valentine's Day and also the last day of the tour (plus Sara was there).

Thanks, that sounds a lot more promising than the setlists on this boot. I just now cancelled the order, will wait & see about xpost copyright dump.

I'm also surprised that nobody checked his claims, incl his basic bo=io ffs, until he was about to take office. Apparently if McCarthy was already in and doing business, Santos would be too.

basic bio, I meant

Can't wait for the Santos Bootleg Series

Oh, Jokerman

Interesting that, two weeks after Planet Waves comes out, he plays only one song from it as the 24th song in the set. Also, only three other songs that postdate 1966; a real nostalgia fest.

Not the way he did them, especially on Before The Flood---sounded like he was demanding comparison with the original versions, and/or saying fuck it, this is how they are now, in 1974 arena rock, under hot lights, through big amps---and to me they're even more expressive than the studio originals. Although birdistheword thinks the gain is just in hard clarity, I take it (in making his own comparison between earlier and later shows, BTF being later).

It's a bit of a tough call - as much as I prefer Dylan's vocals on the earlier shows, the Band actually improves over the course of the tour.

The highlight for me on Before the Flood is "Highway 61 Revisited" - despite my reservations about Dylan's vocals on the later shows, I actually love his singing on this cut, and it's from the very last show of the tour (evening show, Feb. 14). And the Band sounds amazing - they've always played this song well, but they never did it better on this tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlTDYzoom6M

FWIW, if I could make a not-too-greedy wish, I'd want soundboard recordings of those first two shows in Chicago - they could probably squeeze those uncut (complete with the Band's sets) on to three CD's. (I'd wish for multi-track recordings, but IIRC they didn't bother to do any until they got to Madison Square Garden.)

well, this is a surprisingly upbeat, straightforward, enjoyable version of what would turn into an impressive Lanois-dirge

bodes well for the release

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t2su8xEDEU
Bob Dylan - Not Dark Yet (Version 1)

not saying this is better obv, but it's fun

might say the song was... not dark yet

Interesting but I don't think I'd listen to that again. I mostly like the Lanois production on Time Out of Mind and Oh Mercy, even if the aesthetic feels grafted-on. Plus there are very few duds (only "Political World" comes to mind, which I like to think got remade-but-better as "Things Have Changed"). It's a better result than Wrecking Ball, say.

On first listen, it sounds like he's using something similar to what's been his standard concert arrangement for "Like a Rolling Stone" for that time. I can only speculate, but since it's take one, maybe he just needed something to put his words over, just so he can see how it plays (or if it can even play at all as a song).

Also I'll add "Disease of Conceit" and "Where Teardrops Fall" as two more that I never liked on Oh Mercy. The former does have a beautiful guitar solo though - that may be Dylan's main reason for including it, he loved it so much, he let Ruffner know as soon as the take was over and made a point to play it for Eric Clapton later on. "Where Teardrops Fall" just belongs on another album entirely. I almost want to say it would have been a better fit on Under the Red Sky.

Aw, I like "Teardrops"... I think it's one of the album's better songs.

I don't think it's bad, but I think it sticks out too much in this context, both lyrically and sonically. Even with Lanois producing, it's still a completely different band with a saxophonist that has a very distinct personality and sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_akrUZsP48E
Mississippi (Version 2)

slight but fun

Along with the three "demos" that were on Tell Tale Signs, I can see why he took the song back. At least this full-band take feels like it could have been a decent starting point, but they haven't nailed it yet, and if it was a later take, it probably gave them more reason to shelve it.

Whoever reviewed Tell Tale Signs for Rolling Stone claimed the three versions on there were better than the released one on "Love and Theft" (same with Clinton Heylin), but I could never get behind that - the first version on disc one was a great recording but it still sounded like an arrangement that needed to be fleshed out, i.e. the demo that it was. The other two got progressively worse, like they were getting further and further away from it and undermining it with bad choices.

yeah the Love and Theft "Mississippi" (far and away the definitive version) is kind of miraculous considering how they worked so much on it during the Time Out Of Mind sessions. Kind of like if Dylan tried recording "Caribbean Wind" during the Empire Burlesque sessions ... and nailed it!

I like this new version, though — interesting that losing the swampy shuffle they seemed enamored with during the TOOM sessions might've been what unlocked it during the L&T sessions.

to me, one of the biggest parts of being a dylan fan is all these alternate roads that could have been taken with songs, obviously his live show is based around that concept. it doesn't necessarily have to best the proper version, i like this version and i love listening to his process putting songs into shape.

yeah just the overall *fragility* of these songs as they get closer (or further away!) from their final form is fascinating. I mean, listening to that entire disc of "Rolling Stone" sessions is mildly terrifying as they continue to fuck up ... Dylan could have easily walked away from the song entirely. And then where would we be??

Oh, I totally agree that all three versions of “Mississippi” on Tell Tale Signs are better than the album version.

^^ crazy talk

xp haha indeed

it's def a big part of the appeal, although I do sometimes miss my early days of dylan fandom where I was just flabbergasted every time I came across a new wild tune I'd never heard before

agree love & theft mississippi is perfect, but the acoustic tell tale version was a revelation for me at the time

I mean, listening to that entire disc of "Rolling Stone" sessions is mildly terrifying as they continue to fuck up ... Dylan could have easily walked away from the song entirely. And then where would we be??

It's definitely fascinating and, in the case of "Like A Rolling Stone," kind of hilarious: take 4 is the master that we all know and love, but Dylan kept going for more takes after that, saying, "Why can't we get it right, man?!" Ha, you already did, and you didn't realize it!

yeah, even Neil Young, who obviously values spontaneity in the studio ... I think Neil still has a fairly clear idea in his head what he wants a song to sound like. With Dylan it's often like this bizarre blank slate quality where chords, vibes, instrumentation are all up for grabs.

On one of the takes, he accidentally sings “Threw the dumbs a bime, didn’t you….” Should have used that one!

LOL

Reminds me of this story from Chris Shaw:

But, the thing was, there’s a lyric on the song where Bob sings, “The leaves cast their shadows on the stones,” and, when he was singing it live, he was reading his lyrics off a piece of paper, and, I guess, for a split-second, he got dyslexic, because on the live take, he actually sang, “The leaves cast their *stadows* on the stones.” So, the only time I did any editing on that song, was when I heard this word “stadows” go by, I knew he meant shadows, because I had the lyric sheet in front of me. So, when I tried a remix, I took the vocal, and I found a “sh” from somewhere else, and I chopped the “st” out and put that in, so he was singing “shadows,” y’know. And Bob was listening to all these mixes, and he kept saying, “Nah, man, I really wanna use that rough mix.” Finally, I said, “Well, you know, on the rough mix, you don’t sing ‘shadows,’ you sing, ‘stadows.” And he took a long hit on his cigarette, and he kind of looked at me deadpan, and he went, “Well, you know:*‘stadows.’*”

Whole interview's a good read:

https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/recording-with-bob-dylan-chris-shaw-tells-all-37854/

(BTW, they wound up using the rough mix and fixed "shadows" in the mastering stage. However the downside of doing it that way means that every time the album's remastered, someone has to remember to go back and fix that word. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab didn't do that when they reissued the album, so you can hear "stadows" in all its glory there.)

ha, i knew that story but did not know that the Stadows Cut had been made available!

Of course. He's stadows in the clothes you once wore.

Isn't Sheryl Crow's the best "Mississippi" ?

I don't like Crow's version, but the Dixie Chicks made her arrangement work on their tours, with the parts transposed to their standard instrumentation at the time - the change to fiddle definitely helped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwTL0V132Ps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZEPIpTpoPs

On first listen, it sounds like he's using something similar to what's been his standard concert arrangement for "Like a Rolling Stone" for that time. I can only speculate, but since it's take one, maybe he just needed something to put his words over, just so he can see how it plays (or if it can even play at all as a song).

― birdistheword, Friday, January 13, 2023 11:42 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

John Hart's sax solo too.

I was away prefer Oh Mercy to Time