The Water Is Wide: Unreleased Live Recordings, 1989

The Water Is Wide - Live 1989

Volume One

Seeing The Real You At Last - Live - Poughkeepsie - October 20, 1989

I Want You - Live - Ottawa - July 30, 1989

One Irish Rover - Live - Peoria - July 1, 1989

Dead Man, Dead Man - Live - New York City - October 12, 1989

Shelter From The Storm - Live - Milano - June 19, 1989

Queen Jane Approximately - Live - New York City - October 12, 1989

Man Of Peace - Live - New York City - October 12, 1989

House Of Gold - Live - Athens - June 28, 1989

The Water Is Wide - Live - Dublin - June 3, 1989

When You Gonna Wake Up - Live - Poughkeepsie - October 20, 1989

Trouble - Live - Atlanta - August 16, 1989

Congratulations - Live - Glasgow - June 6, 1989

Trail Of The Buffalo - Live - Atlanta - August 16, 1989

Most Of The Time - Live - Ithaca - October 29, 1989

Like A Rolling Stone - Live - The Hague - June 10, 1989

The Water Is Wide - Live 1989

Volume Two

Absolutely Sweet Marie - Live - Poughkeepsie - October 20, 1989

Tears Of Rage - Live - Patras - June 26, 1989

What Good Am I - Live - New York City - October 13, 1989

Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I Go Mine) - Live - The Hague - June 10, 1989

It Takes A Lot To Laugh - Live - New York City - October 13, 1989

John Brown - Live - Birmingham - June 7, 1989

Early Morning Rain - Live - Stanhope - July 17, 1989

Silvio - Live - Glasgow - June 6, 1989

Tomorrow Is A Long Time - Live - Rochester - July 6, 1989

I Believe In You - Live - Boston - October 24, 1989

Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Live - Milwaukee - July 3, 1989

Ring Them Bells - Live - Poughkeepsie - October 20, 1989

Just Like A Woman - Live - Glasgow - June 6, 1989

Everything Is Broken - Live - South Kingston - October 22, 1989

Peace In The Valley - Live - Frejus - June 13, 1989

 

[delisted]

Hello friends,

Welcome to the hotly anticipated 1989 installment of the Thousand Highways Collection! Settle in, because this set is a whopping two discs long.

1989 is a very weird, intense year for Bob Dylan concerts when juxtaposed with its immediate predecessor, 1988. Not only was the scope of the tour broadened to include many more countries (1988 only hit the United States) - the musical palette was expanded considerably. This was coupled with a significant increase in the gruffness of Dylan's vocals to create a tour that looked a lot like the one before but with very little musical similarity. While 1988 represented a performer playing his music with the most energy he could muster, 1989 presents a much more edgy, experimental side of the singer and band.

Due to the large number of songs on this set (30 in total!), I will not be conducting a track-by-track review. Instead, let's focus on some of the broader trends at work.

One of the primary sounds in the palette, and my favorite aspect of the year, was an emphasis on darker, minor key songs. This was more evident in the Fall Tour, as songs from Oh Mercy made their tour debut, but was present too in the summer. "What Good Am I?", "Most Of The Time," "Tears Of Rage," and "One Irish Rover" represent the more melancholy presentation of this sound. There is a bitterness that is particularly well-served by the growly delivery associated with these ballads.

The more uptempo manifestation of this sound is perhaps even more interesting. "John Brown," "Trail Of The Buffalo," "When You Gonna Wake Up," and "Dead Man, Dead Man" are all interestingly off-kilter performances. The words are not all there, but the vibe is expertly achieved. Check out that strange klezmer-esque instrumental in "Trail Of The Buffalo" or the pulsing bass of "John Brown." Even the feedback near the end of "Dead Man, Dead Man" serves to produce this environment of dark heat.

Dylan's 1960s material is given rather impressionistic treatment here as well. "Tears Of Rage" was spectacularly debuted in Greece, and "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is as inventively arranged as Paul Williams suggests in his Performing Artist series. The author Clinton Heylin singles out this performance of "Queen Jane Approximately," played at the Beacon Theater in New York, as especially praiseworthy, and it's impossible to disagree. Evident on that song, as well as a handful of others (including a blisteringly paced "I Want You"), is the second interesting trend of the year - bizarre, rambling song endings. This sounds like a negative, and indeed sometimes it was, by the effect could be entirely mesmerizing. The end of "Queen Jane Approximately," for example, plays out like a completely different beautiful song.

This presents a challenge for the compiler, since songs had a tendency to evolve directly into the next track. I avoided this by splicing in some audience applause and using careful fades. Hopefully you won't find this intrusive!

The third trend in Dylan's sound on these tours was an increased reliance on inventive cover performances. This presents a continuity with the 1986 tour, but represents a striking break with 1987 and 1988. While the acoustic set had included covers in 1988, the electric set consisted primarily of Dylan originals. As suggested by the circulating rehearsals for 1989's touring, though, there was a distinct emphasis on performing a wide, wide ranger of covers in this year.

On The Water Is Wide, you will find "Peace In The Valley," "House Of Gold," "Early Morning Rain," and an electrified rendition of "The Water Is Wide." Of these, one is a gospel song popularized by Elvis Presley, one is a moralizing Hank Williams country tune, one is a mournful lament by Dylan's contemporary, Gordon Lightfoot, and one is a traditional English song of seventeenth century origin. He had "Early Morning Rain" and "The Water Is Wide" before, on Self-Portrait and the Rolling Thunder Revue respectively, but never performed them so effectively. "The Water Is Wide," in particular, remains one of Bob Dylan's most powerful live performances, at least to this listener.

Other intriguing bits include an uptempo country arrangement of "Tomorrow Is A Long Time," apocalyptic electric blues as represented by "Man Of Peace" and "Everything Is Broken," one of the only two airings of the Traveling Wilburys' "Congratulations," and one of the most rollicking performances of "Like A Rolling Stone" this side of 1981.

These trends would continue into 1990, and is represented by the winter London / Paris residency on the Thousand Highways Collection with a CD called Town Without Pity. I'm not sure any of the following years accomplished quite the scope of 1989, however. 

The one thing you are missing on this release is representation of the singer's acoustic sets. I will be rectifying that with an all-acoustic bonus disc later this month, so keep your eyes on the blog. The sound quality of 1989's tapes is wildly inconsistent, and favored the electric tracks, so in general the acoustic songs do not have the same impact as those in the preceding year. Still, there are some truly remarkable performances, and I'd hate for them to pass you by.

Until next time, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes!

-CS

Update - August 3, 2015: Volume One was several seconds too long for a single disc, so all relevant links were re-uploaded tonight with altered versions of "Congratulations" and "Most Of The Time." Let me know if the problem persists.