Still The Same Man - Volume Two: Unreleased Live Recordings, 1981

Still The Same Man - Volume Two

World Tour, 1981

Gotta Serve Somebody - June 29

Girl Of The North Country - June 27

Like A Rolling Stone - June 28

I Want You - November 10

Man Gave Names To All The Animals - November 12

Maggie's Farm - June 29

Solid Rock - November 12

Watered-Down Love - November 10

In The Summertime - July 25

Shot Of Love - July 25

Simple Twist Of Fate - November 10
Barbara Allen - July 4
Mr. Tambourine Man - July 9
When You Gonna Wake Up - June 29
Thief On The Cross - November 10
Dead Man, Dead Man - July 4
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - November 12

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.

It’s a great thing that Bob Dylan’s 1981 European and American tours were so well documented, because they just sound so great. The band was on fire, the vocals were among the consistent of his career, and the selection of songs is fabulous. When else could you have heard songs from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s all played like they’d just been written?

Every song here has a unique arrangement, similar to the technique of 1978. “Gotta Serve Somebody” has cascading drums, “Girl of the North Country” has a delicate piano accompaniment (which reminds this listener of Dylan’s trio performances in 1987 performances), “Like A Rolling Stone” has a Caribbean feel, and the list goes on. “Man Gave Names To All The Animals” and “Solid Rock” are especially improved by the laid-back readings they get here, while the building crescendo of “Mr. Tambourine Man” would not be repeated again. You’ve also got the only recording of “Thief On The Cross” known to exist, along with an intriguing introduction to “Dead Man, Dead Man,” a song always better on tour than in the studio.

Editing has been minimal, though the beginning of “Gotta Serve Somebody” is spliced to remove some distracting feedback, and most of the songs from Houston and New Orleans have had audience noise added to the beginning and ends, since the tapes include some fairly abrupt transitions. It is worth noting that all tracks here are sourced lossless, with the possible exception of Houston (11-12); the best quality recording of that show, as far as I know, is said to be derived from a lossy original source, but you couldn’t tell by hearing it!

Though the collector will undoubtedly want the best shows of this tour in his or her possession, as they represent quite a variety of performance and song selection, I believe that this compilation represents the finest songs and sources available as of Fall, 2013. Hopefully you will agree!

If you like these songs, I would encourage you to check out the official releases from this period. Though there remains no significant documentation of Dylan's 1981 tour, you can find an exquisite "Heart Of Mine" from the New Orleans show (November 10) on Biograph. In addition, a performance of "Dead Man, Dead Man" from the same night is available for purchase somewhere, though I could not find it for this blog post. It was remixed by Daniel Lanois at the time of Oh Mercy's release in 1989.

This compilation includes unreleased live recordings of songs which were originally recorded for the following studio records:

The Freewheelin Bob Dylan

Bringing It All Back Home 

Highway 61 Revisited

Blonde On Blonde

Blood On The Tracks

Slow Train Coming

Saved

Shot Of Love

And now, a very important announcement: this will be the last entry until November 4, 2013. I am getting married in October, and will be away from the blog until the end of the month. This will be the perfect opportunity for you to catch up on some of the older posts! When I return, we will continue moving on into the 1980s, beginning with an exploration of the unreleased songs from Infidels. Until then, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes.

Enjoy,

CS