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Sunday, April 13, 2014

In London: Unreleased Live Recordings, 2013


In London: Royal Albert Hall Residency, 2013

 Things Have Changed - November 28
She Belongs To Me - November 28
Beyond Here Lies Nothing - November 26
Pay In Blood - November 28
Waiting For You - November 26
Duquesne Whistle - November 28
Tangled Up In Blue - November 27
Love Sick - November 27
High Water - November 26
Simple Twist Of Fate - November 26
Forgetful Heart - November 26
Spirit On The Water - November 27
Long & Wasted Years - November 28
Roll On, John - November 26
Blowin' In The Wind - November 27


Welcome,

We were blessed with an extraordinary touring year by Bob Dylan in 2013, culminating in a triumphant residency at London's Royal Albert Hall. The evenings were filled with beautiful music, both joyful and reflective. This single-CD retrospective of those cool November nights will leave the listener with a warmth only found in the finest music.

Highlights include "She Belongs To Me," in a new arrangement, "Pay In Blood," "Waiting For You," perhaps the most perfect performance of "High Water" since 2005, a meditative "Simple Twist Of Fate," the majestic "Long & Wasted Years," and the absolutely radiant "Roll On, John."

Songs not included here are "What Good Am I," which was not as strong as it was on the Spring tour, "Early Roman Kings," "Soon After Midnight" and "Scarlet Town" from 2012's Tempest, and "All Along The Watchtower." None were as strong as the fifteen songs presented here, but all have been included as bonus tracks if you would like to add them to a playlist to complete the setlist.

If you were at these shows, I have no doubt you will be talking about them for years to come. If you weren't there, I hope you can live vicariously through this collection. If one or more of the tracks stand out to you, you can check out the great recordings by Soomlos and Spot, without whom this compilation would not exist. If you like the performance but not the tape, search around - alternate recordings exist for each night, and the alternates are excellent in their own right.

Minimal work has been done on the tracks: harmonizing volume levels and adding necessary unobtrusive fades to transition between songs comprise the majority of my involvement beyond compiling.

If you enjoy these marvelous concert recordings, give a listen to the records on which they appear in their original studio incarnations:

Bringing It All Back Home
Blood On The Tracks
Time Out Of Mind
The Essential Bob Dylan
"Love & Theft"
Modern Times
Together Through Life
Tempest

And it is with this release that the chronological CDs cease. In the coming five weeks, I will be uploading five overall retrospective sets not strung together by chronology or theme. These will contain tracks found on no other compilations here, and represent the "best of the rest," as it were. Since there were years not covered on my blog (1996 - 1998) and songs which did not fit the theme (pre-Blood On The Tracks songs on my Rolling Thunder set), I had a vast catalog of great songs to pick from. Hopefully these five final CDs will fill in the gaps effectively, completing the sketch of an artist collected on this website.

Thanks,
CS

7 comments:

  1. Another five weeks worth of stuff! That is excellent news. Especially the 1996-8 stuff - that gap is still tweaking my OCD.

    Surely, though, after hearing the incredible Tokyo shows - in which most of the material from your 2013 collections is outdone by our man - you must be reconsidering your decision to stop collecting and compiling?

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    1. I am currently intending to include one Tokyo track on this 1961 - 2014 collection, but have no plan to comprehensively cover the 2014 Spring Tour. That could change, but as of now I'm pretty well finished with this (very enjoyable) work. I do not doubt that there will be an excellent compilation available by someone else's hand on the Expecting Rain website after the shows have run their course.

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    2. Have you heard the WMB#2 from Nagoya? Complete overhaul, beats the 2013 version into the dust!

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    3. Shucks, I wish he had performed it before I compiled this set, haha. Maybe it'll sneak onto one of the upcoming 5 CDs, though they're pretty well set right now. I'll give it a listen - thanks for the tip.

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  2. I was gutted to miss these shows last year. I just could not get back from Singapore.
    This will have to do instead ! Many thanks for all your hard work - 5 more weeks is good news indeed !

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