A Thousand Highways: Better Days: Unreleased Recordings, 1995

Volume 1

Seeing The Real You At Last - Live - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - 1995
Tell Ol' Bill - Outtake - North Country Soundtrack Session - 2005
Things Have Changed - Live - The Oscars - 2001
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Unreleased - Expo Zaragoza Session - 2008
The Night We Called It A Day - Live - David Letterman Show - 2015
Maggie's Farm - Live - The Grammys - 2011
I'll Remember You - Outtake - Masked & Anonymous Session, 2002
Cry A While - Live - The Grammys - 2002
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - Live - With The Wynton Marsalis Band - 2004
Blind Willie McTell - Live - The Critic's Choice Awards - 2012
Forever Young - Live - Eucharistic Conference - 1997
Dirt Road Blues - Outtake - Masked & Anonymous Session - 2002

Volume 2

The Times They Are A-Changin' - Live - At The White House - 2010
Watching The River Flow - Live - Amazon.com 10th Birthday Session - 2005
A Change Is Gonna Come - Live - At The Apollo - 2004
Drifter's Escape - Outtake - Masked & Anonymous Session - 2002
Once Upon A Time - Live - Tony Bennett's 90th Birthday - 1995
Silvio - Live - Masters Of Music Concert for The Prince's Trust - 1996
Not Dark Yet - Live - Crossroads Centre Benefit Show - 1999
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Live - Rockin' in Rio - 2008
Standing In The Doorway - Outtake - Masked & Anonymous Session - 2002
Train To Cry - Live - Crossroads Centre Benefit Show - 1999
Restless Farewell - Live - Frank Sinatra's 80th Birthday - 1995
Bottleneck Polka - Unreleased - Dharma & Greg Session - 1999

Bonus Tracks

Seeing The Real You At Last - Live - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - 1995 (Alternate Mix)

Maggie's Farm - Live - The Grammys - 2011 (Alternate Mix)

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - Live - With The Wynton Marsalis Band - 2004 (Alternate Mix)

Drifter's Escape - Outtake - Masked & Anonymous Session - 2002 (Extended Version)

Things Have Changed - Live - AFI Tribute To Michael Douglas - 2009

You Win Again (With Willie Nelson) - Live - Outlaws and Angels - 2004

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For the 10th anniversary of my Down the River collection - a group of unreleased studio and professionally recorded special events from 1999 to 2012, now delisted due to the official release of "Train To Cry" on Wynton Marsalis' United We Swing record - I thought it might be nice to revisit the same concept with an expanded perspective. Consequently, I've added nine new unreleased performances from the surrounding years and improved some of the original track; I've mostly reused my old song-by-song notes while dropping in new information where it's relevant. As for the songs themselves...

Seeing The Real You At Last - Perhaps the definitive rendition of the song, this was played live by Bob Dylan and his touring band at the The Concert For The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on September 2, 1995. The recording comes from a live broadcast by HBO. I've re-equalized it to reduce some unpleasant high-end line noise, but included an alternate mix in the bonus tracks if you prefer the rawer sound.

Tell Ol' Bill #3 - This is a radically altered, slow blues outtake of "Tell Ol' Bill," which appeared on the North Country soundtrack and Dylan's own Bootleg Series Volume 8. Frankly, this is my favorite of the three, with soulful vocals pouring everything they've got into each line, along with a beautiful instrumental break at the end of the song.

Things Have Changed - Bob Dylan performed this at the 2001 Oscars, and though a verse has been excised, it is pretty faithful to the studio version. I've sourced a new recording for this re-release, which resolves an irritating splice in the old Down the River album.

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - The song was recorded for a benefit event in 2008. Dylan and his touring band created a mid-tempo, shuffle arrangement of the poetic classic. It's not the best rendition, but the organ shines out here as a driving force. The final fade is abrupt, due to the nature of the original recording, but you get to here a Theme Time-era announcement of the singer's support for the mission to make water more available for vulnerable people around the world.

The Night We Called It A Day - Bob Dylan was deep into his Sinatra crooning era when he was asked to perform during David Letterman's last week as a Late Show host, which meant that he had just the right song for the occasion. This doesn't differ significantly from the version on Shadows in the Night, but I love Dylan's approach to these old jazz standards so I had to include it here!

Maggie's Farm - This is a contentious performance from the 2011 Grammys, with accordion and backing vocals lending a unique character to the arrangement. I've used AI software to isolate and raise Dylan's vocals, producing a more listenable version that the one on Down the River, but included the old version as a bonus track for listeners who may be uncomfortable with the use of this technology.

I'll Remember You - Here's an outtake from the Masked and Anonymous sessions, which I dearly wish to see an official release someday. It offers a full acoustic rearrangement of the Empire Burlesque song and is heads above the original album take. The vocals are spellbinding. I was unable to fully remove the interfering audio from the beginning of the song, but minimized its presence through volume adjustment. It fades out rapidly, and the listener is left to hear the singer's testimony.

Cry A While - We move into much bluesier territory here, with a scathing performance of a song from the "Love and Theft" LP. It hews close to other performances of the tune from 2002, but the recording is very high quality. Unfortunately, there are serious signal issues at the end, which were present on all files I could find. I've minimized the intrusiveness through editing, but it could not be removed entirely. Regardless, it barely detracts from the outstanding song. If you get the chance, look up images or video of this event to see the very strange stage setup Dylan used for this song!

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - Here's a track from the same collaboration with Wynton Marsalis that produced the aforementioned "Train To Cry." It's a very odd arrangement, and completely unique. As with Maggie's Farm, I've used AI software to raise the vocals while not altering anything else in the original recording; my old Down the River mix is also included as a bonus track.

Blind Willie McTell - This one of the gems of the collection. Bob Dylan pulled out all the stops to deliver a powerful performance of this classic in tribute to filmmaker Martin Scorcese at the 17th Annual Critics Choice Awards. He breathes new life into the already moving song, and the last verse in particular is a stunning reminder of the lasting power of Dylan's poetry.

Forever Young - In one of the strangest events at which he's appeared, Bob Dylan and his touring band performed three songs for Pope John Paul II at the 23rd World Eucharistic Congress in Bologna. "Forever Young" is the best of the set, receiving a tender country-infused rendition with background harmonies on the chorus.

Dirt Road Blues - This is one of only two post-1997 performances of the song, which both occurred during the Masked and Anonymous sessions. While this one is more complete and lacks any dropouts or movie dialogue, it also lacks lyrics. Even so, I thought closing out each volume of this cinematic collection with an instrumental song, a la closing credits, was appropriate. Note that I re-sourced and edited this track to provide a slightly more engaging listening experience than was present on Down the River.

The Times They Are A-Changin' - Maybe my personal favorite song on Better Days, this one-off arrangement was played for President Barack Obama at an event celebrating the progress of civil rights in the United States. Virtually every word is heartbreaking, as all of the broken and fulfilled promises of the 1960s come to the surface in this brief performance. The piano sounds like raindrops, and Tony Garnier's bass weaves deftly through the song.

Watching the River Flow - Admittedly, the audio on this recording is of a slightly lower quality than other tracks on this compilation, as it came from a streaming broadcast on Amazon.com's website. The song itself is one of the best contemporary renditions of this tune, which first appeared on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II. Of particular interest is the arrangement's startling similarity to "Spirit on the Water," which would be released the following year.

A Change is Gonna Come - Wow, what can be said about this? The vocals are transcendent, and the significance of the song, a civil rights ballad inspired by Dylan's own "Blowin' in the Wind" is clear. The audio here is superior to that present on Genuine Bootleg Series 4.

Drifter's Escape - This is a Frankenstein-esque splice of a performance from the Masked & Anonymous Session. I've done my best to strip out the portions of the original recording which feature dramatically different ambience and sound quality, leaving us with a pretty rocking (if slight) result. I've included an uncut version of the song as a bonus track, but it's for completionists only.

Once Upon A Time - Here is the second jazz standard of the set, and I think it's even better than "The Night We Called It A Day." This heartbreaking song was played in a jaw-dropping rendition for Tony Bennett's 90th Birthday celebration, with Dylan and his band paying beautiful tribute to one of the nation's oldest active musical artists.

Silvio - Perhaps "Silvio" got overplayed at concerts during the 1990s, but I didn't want to hold that against this excellent performance from the Masters Of Music Concert for The Prince's Trust at Hyde Park in 1996. As a bonus, Al Kooper and Ron Wood are respectively sitting in on organ and guitar.

Not Dark Yet - Though I'm not a fan of Eric Clapton, thanks to his alarming dalliances with British right-wing causes from the 1970s to the 2020s, I can't deny that he put on an impressively star-studded event to raise funds for his Crossroads rehabilitation centre in 1999. Among the attendees was Bob Dylan, who was backed by Clapton's band on several songs drawn from his lengthy career. The best of these were "Not Dark Yet," featuring Tim Carmon on keyboards, and "Train To Cry." Interestingly, this arrangement is surprisingly similar to the "Version 1" outtake featured on The Bootleg Series Volume 17: Fragments.

Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - If you hate Bob Dylan's late 2000s organ sound, you may hate this song. It's simply an excerpt from a stop in Rio de Janeiro during his 2008 tour, but his enthusiasm and the soundboard quality recording make this worthy of inclusion. An excellent TV clip of the performance is available, and I recommend seeking it out.

Standing in the Doorway - I'm proud of the splicing here, which is more successful than my work on "Drifter's Escape." The outtake remained full of movie ambiance and dialogue, which has been carefully removed to present as complete a recording as possible. The vocals are extraordinary, though not as strong as the live renditions that would be performed in 2004. We can only hope a full version surfaces someday.

Train To Cry - This is the second of two tracks I've included from Eric Clapton's 1999 Crossroads Centre Benefit show. The vocals are a little looser than those on "Not Dark Yet," but David Sanborn's alto sax contributions make up for any lack of polish.

Restless Farewell - Finally, “Restless Farewell” concludes the main portion of the set. How could it be any other way? From the singer’s soft croon to the band’s harmonious backing, Dylan’s rarely delivered a greater performance than this. Don't miss the singer's dedication at the end of the song, which reminds us that this was played at a celebration of Frank Sinatra's 80th birthday as a special request.

Bottleneck Polka - This is an amusing instrumental ditty from Bob Dylan's appearance on Dharma & Greg in 1999, leading a band which includes T-Bone Burnett! You can read more about how this event occurred in Ray Padgett's informative Pledging My Time: Conversations With Bob Dylan Band Members. It's a fitting counterpoint to the previous disc's closing song, "Dirt Road Blues," and a fine way to wrap up the collection.

I've also included two bonus tracks that didn't quite match the standard set by the other recordings: "Things Have Changed" from 2009's AFI Tribute to Michael Douglas and "You Win Again," featuring Willie Nelson, from 2004's televised Outlaws & Angels event.

If you'd like more stray songs from one-off projects recorded during or near this time period, I recommend seeking out the following officially-released rarities:

The Ballad Of Hollis Brown (1994)

Heartland (1994)

All Along The Watchtower (1995)

My Blue-Eyed Jane (1997)

Chimes Of Freedom (1998)

Love Sick (1998)

Train Of Love (1999)

Red Cadillac & A Black Mustache (2000)

I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind (2001)

Waitin' For You (2002)

Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking (2003)

Tell Ol' Bill (2005)