SC93
Live at the Supper Club
Ragged & Dirty - Live - New York City - November 17, 1993 (Early)
One Too Many Mornings - Live - New York City - November 16, 1993 (Late)
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight - Live - New York City - November 16, 1993 (Late)
Jim Jones - Live - New York City - November 17, 1993 (Late)
Weeping Willow - Live - New York City - November 17, 1993 (Late)
Ring Them Bells - Live - New York City - November 17, 1993 (Early)
Has Anybody Seen My Love - Live - New York City - November 17, 1993 (Late)
Disease Of Conceit - Live - New York City - November 17, 1993 (Early)
Blood In My Eyes - Live - New York City - November 16, 1993 (Early)
Delia - Live - New York City - November 17, 1993 (Early)
I Want You - Live - New York City - November 16, 1993 (Early)
Queen Jane Approximately - Live - New York City - November 17, 1993 (Early)
Jack-a-Roe - Live - New York City - November 16, 1993 (Late)
Forever Young - Live - New York City - November 16, 1993 (Late)
Bob Dylan’s performance at New York City’s Supper Club in November 1993 has gone down in legend as one of his more notable series of concerts. This is due largely to the very unique setlists, acoustic arrangements, and the circulation of excellent soundboard recordings.
I’ve collected the best of these here, and applied a bit of reverb to sweeten the sound, giving it a less harsh aural environment. The vocals are still mixed to the front, and the rhythm section is still crisp. In particular, dig the bass on “Jim Jones.” Spectacular stuff.
A handful of tracks here have appeared on previous Thousand Highways compilations, but they still represent the finest performances from this four night residency. Including them in one place presents a very pleasant listening experience from beginning to end, and I’d encourage the wine-drinking listeners to pour themselves a glass to accompany this collection.
As a word of warning, this is not the best era for Dylan’s voice, and it can come across a bit shrill. There were also a variety of digital flaws present on the soundboard tapes, which I’ve done my best to eliminate with a minimum of intrusion. I think you’ll be happy with the results, as they are an improvement on my earlier efforts with this material.
Highlights of the set include any of the unique songs - audiences of these four shows were lucky to catch the only live performances of “Ragged & Dirty,” “Blood In My Eyes,” “Jack-a-Roe,” and “Weeping Willow.” The Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong songs are noteworthy for being played in acoustic band arrangements, even though they appear as solo performances on their original recordings. The singer’s look back into his older catalog is successful as well, with moving renditions of “Ring Them Bells,” “Has Anybody Seen My Love,” “Disease of Conceit,” “Queen Jane Approximately,” and “Forever Young.” “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and “I Want You” receive light but spirited readings, and serve to quicken the tempo of the set. In one of the more interesting arrangements, “One Too Many Mornings” includes a banjo!
I hope you enjoy the collection. It’s been requested often, and I think it will live up to expectations.
Next month, we'll move on to 1995! That was an excellent year for Dylan's acoustic and electric performances, as he played to the strengths of both styles. This website previously covered only the Prague Residency from March, 1995, so December will bring a welcome expansion. Until next time, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes.
-CS
Note: The artwork incorrectly assigns "Ring Them Bells" to the late show on November 17. In fact, I believe it originates at the early show on the same day. Nothing on this compilation has been officially released. Kudos to commenter Yama for making me aware of this issue.
Thank you - once again. I have never shared the hysterical love for these shows - largely because of his master's voice, as you mention ... but a 1 CD sampler will be great!
ReplyDeleteYes. Many thanks ... again. This is a great compilation. Do wish Jeff Rosen would think about about putting out a DVD collection of Bob's appearances and the Supper Club would achieve its original aim.
ReplyDeleteWell thanks again CS! I nearly didn't bother . . . I confess I have all of these sets and yet once I got to reading your notes as is often the case this made me download and listen, this is fantastic! Really enjoyed your selection!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteThank you, once again, for your great work! Looking forward to this!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to giving this a spin. Hoping your magic will have reduced some of the ear-pain that has previously caused something of a barrier to appreciating these shows.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear that 1995 will get a further look! Do you think you'll ever give 1994 another look? Your previous comp is one of my favourites, but there are only a few takes from his 'normal' tour on that excellent disc.
It's truly astonishing the difference your tweaking has made to these - much of the shrillness has gone. Sounds much more like the warmer MTV Unplugged sound.
DeleteYou don't know how much it pleases me to hear that my work alleviated some of the harshness from these recordings. It took a looooong time, and it's good that the project was successful.
DeleteAs for 1994, it won't be getting a new compilation. I think I covered all of the more interesting bits on my 1994 collection (that includes contemporary outtakes), so I'll be moving on. Thank you for the suggestion, though!
Man, you should remaster the entire lot, and circulate them complete with one of your lovely cover designs. The folks on Expecting Rain would declare you emperor.
DeleteAs for 1994, I'll add it to the 'list of things to persistently bug Bellseb32 about once he claims to have finished A Thousand Highways', right under 1984. I'm going to send you a picture from the tour every day until you acquiesce. ;-)
I'm dead serious about this collection though - I think that if people had heard them like this the reputation of the shows would be significantly different.
DeleteI agree with Ben! The Ring Them Bells on here is 800,000 times better than the one on Tell Tale Signs. Jeff Rosen needs to employ our friend here! I'm ready to declare our friend emperor of Dylan field recordings! :-)
DeleteThank you once again for your labor of love that is enjoyed by so many of us !
ReplyDeleteThank you so much - look forward to this indeed.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the comments and your notes I couldn't resist. I have these sets but never spent much time with them. I thought they had a high reputation between Dylan fans so it's quite surprising to read that's not the case.
ReplyDeleteAs for '94 I had to pull out Andrew Muir's book to see why you are so down on '94.
He descibes Dylan's backing band from the '93 and '94 N.E.T. legs as at best sounding like a fired up garage band and at worst like a motley crew from your local bar."
Certainly your '94 comp is where I will go next after absorbing your fine work here. Many thanks for your hard work in putting these together.
I have been listening to this ALL week. We need a volume 2, and a volume 3, and... :-) This is fantastic. I dock my iPod in my alarm clock and wake up to the master every morning, and guess which collection I've been waking up to! And driving to and from work to... etc. I think my favorite song on here is the insanely good Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anyone Seen My Love). A song I've never been to wild about, but now I'm wild about this version. It's the one I keep hitting repeat on. Fantastic job!
ReplyDeleteKinda love me some '99! Caught New Haven with Phil Lesh, and it was purdee special! Either unofficial or official, the depth of setlist with Larry C. et al will need to see some light o' day!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'll take this offering ... I have already in my collection Cds of Bob's appearance at the Supper Club on November 16 and 17, 1993 ... thanks again for sharing. Great performances and the video is good, too.
ReplyDeleteHi, Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteWhat would be great is if you could do the same kind of thing for 1990 Toad's Place. It's crying out for a remastered best of set.
Keep up the good work.
Funny enough, I did make a Toad's Place compilation due to quite a number of requests. I didn't think the end result was strong enough to be included alongside my other collections, though, so it never ended up getting posted. At least one song from it is planned for my series-end wrap-up, so that's something at least :)
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ReplyDeleteHuh, this is awkward. So I did not use the one that had been officially released, specifically for that reason. Somehow I got the citation wrong, though (I don't know how I manage to mess this stuff up). I suspect that it should actually be labeled 11.17.93E, for the Early Show from the same date.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, the quality is fantastic..
ReplyDeleteGoing to head for some Rolling Thunder next..
Thank you again.
How have I not discovered this site earlier?? Take what you have discovered from coincidence indeed.
ReplyDelete