Every Grain Of Sand: Unreleased Recordings, 1980 - 1981

Every Grain Of Sand: Unreleased Recordings, 1980 - 1981

Wind Blowing On The Water - Outtake, 1981
Mystery Train - Outtake, 1981

Caribbean Wind - Outtake, 1980

Heart Of Mine - Outtake, 1981
Shot Of Love - Outtake, 1981
Lenny Bruce - Live at Avignon, 7/25/81

Jesus Is The One - Live at Avignon, 7/25/81
Watered-Down Love - Rough Mix, 1981
Let It Be Me - Outtake, 1981
Is It Worth It? - Outtake, 1981
Let's Begin - Live at Earl's Court, 6/29/81
Dead Man, Dead Man - Rough Mix, 1981
Magic - Outtake, 1981
Hallelujah - Outtake, 1981
Let's Keep It Between Us - Outtake, 1980
Yonder Comes Sin - Outtake, 1980
In The Summertime - Rough Mix, 1981
The Groom's Still Waiting - Rough Mix, 1981
Borrowed Time - Outtake, 1981

Note: Download links removed due to the release of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series 13: Trouble No More. A revised set of unreleased gospel era content will be published in the future. 

Welcome to a lovely and oft-overlooked corner of Bob Dylan's recording career - the sessions and concerts surrounding the release of Shot of Love. Shot of Love is a remarkably good record, whatever else you've heard, and was Dylan's last to sound like a bunch of people playing in the same room until Love & Theft in 2001. There was no sleek shine to this production, and consequently it breathed with the passion found in much of the man's best work. Unfortunately, many of the finest recordings from these sessions were not released on that album. In particular, "Yonder Comes Sin" and "Caribbean Wind" are absolutely essential, and "Heart of Mine" was recorded in a much better rendition than the one that appears on the official release.

Outside of these classics, more minor gems were recorded. No collection of Dylan outtakes would be complete without this cover of "Mystery Train," or this live performance of "Lenny Bruce" from the '81 tour. The fragmentary songs, including "Hallelujah" (not the Leonard Cohen song) and "Borrowed Time" make one wonder what could have been; "Is It Worth It" points to the reggae-influenced road ahead to Infidels, and contributes to the overall Caribbean sound of this era.

The other studio cuts are intriguing as well. "Let's Keep It Between Us" is a fairly recently unearthed prototype for a song that would become transcendant on the road in Fall, 1980. The rough mixes of "Dead Man, Dead Man," "Watered-Down Love," "In The Summertime," and "The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar" are all interesting, but "Watered-Down Love" stands above the others, retaining an extra verse not present on the official release. "In The Summertime," too, stands out for the inclusion of a mournful harmonica that has been truncated on the Shot of Love LP.

The listener familiar with Dylan's unreleased output may wonder why more of the fiery performances from 1980 and 1981 are not present here. In fact, it is because the next two volumes of this series will be dedicated exclusively to those tours; I've saved the best live material for those releases. This should act as a primer though, since you will be able to hear "Caribbean Wind" and "Let's Keep It Between Us" develop into artistic triumphs on the 1980 tour, and "In The Summertime" and "Watered-Down Love" become centerpieces of Dylan's 1981 performances. It is always fascinating to watch the progression from studio recordings to on-stage renditions, after all.

I hope you enjoy this newest compilation, and include it in your collections alongside the inimitable Shot of Love. It was a blast to put together.

If you like the songs here, I would encourage you to buy the official release, Shot of Love. You can also find many of the best outtakes from these sessions on The Bootleg Series, Volume 1-3; these include the extraordinary "You Changed My Life" and "Angelina." There's even an acoustic demo of "Every Grain Of Sand" with a dog barking in the room! To get the full picture, you will also want to purchase Biograph, as this contains a 1981 reworking of "Caribbean Wind" that is radically different from the 1980 recording on Every Grain of Sand: Unreleased Recordings, 1980-1981. Note that these links are to bobdylan.com, but these recordings are available at Amazon, iTunes, and possibly your local music store (if it still exists).

Next week we will move back onto the stage with live performances from Dylan's "Musical Retrospective" tour of Fall, 1980. These include live recordings of several of the songs found above, along with special guest appearances, rare covers, and old classics born anew. Until then, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes!

-CS