Hello friends!
Well, it's the last day of December 2023 and you may have noticed that there's no new CD published here yet. It's been one heck of a busy month, and I'm still hard at work on the blog. Consequently, the Thousand Highways Collection's 10th Anniversary Celebration will be continuing into early 2024. I hope you'll look forward to a handful of new compilations in coming year.
In the meantime, I hope your holiday season has been great and wish you all the best for 2024.
Things Have Changed - Live - Innsbruck - April 19, 2019
It Ain't Me, Babe - Live - Irvine - October 11, 2019
Highway 61 - Live - Palo Alto - October 14, 2019
When I Paint My Masterpiece - Live - Irvine - October 11, 2019
Can't Wait - Live - Santa Barbara - October 12, 2019
Boots Of Spanish Leather - Live - Braunschweig - July 6, 2019
Honest With Me - Live - Palo Alto - October 14, 2019
Scarlet Town - Live - Innsbruck - April 19, 2019
Early Roman Kings - Live - Irvine - October 11, 2019
Lenny Bruce - Live - St Louis - October 22, 2019
Pay In Blood - Live - New York City - December 3, 2019
Girl From The North Country - Live - Santa Barbara - October 12, 2019
Not Dark Yet - Live - Irvine - October 11, 2019
Soon After Midnight - Live - Gijon - April 28, 2019
Gotta Serve Somebody - Live - Irvine - October 11, 2019
Train To Cry - Live - Innsbruck - April 19, 2019
Bonus Tracks
Can’t Wait - Live - Stuttgart - July 10, 2019
Dignity - Live - Gijon - April 28, 2019
Long & Wasted Years - Live - Irvine - October 11, 2019
Love Sick - Live - Braunschweig - July 6, 2019
Scarlet Town - Live - Locarno - April 22, 2019
Tryin’ To Get To Heaven - Live - Milwaukee - November 26, 2019
Will The Circle Be Unbroken - Live - Kilkenny - July 14, 2019
2019 will go down in history as one of Bob Dylan’s best touring years. The proof is in the music - give a listen to “Not Dark Yet” here and just try to resist a chill. It’s almost a challenge just to write about it.
The year started out as a continuation of 2018’s shows, with “Cry A While,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” as standards every night. Over the course of the year, though, it evolved into something different. Tony Garnier’s bass got louder. Matt Chamberlain replaced George Receli on drums (after nearly 18 years on the road!). Bob Britt joined in the autumn to augment Charlie Sexton’s blazing guitar riffs. Along the way we were treated to a handful of noteworthy performances, including the first “Boots of Spanish Leather” since 2013 and the first “Dignity” since 2012, a funked-up arrangement of “Can’t Wait” in the summertime, an uptempo “Scarlet Town” in Locarno, and a duet with Neil Young on “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.” A re-written “Lenny Bruce” finally wound up back in Bob Dylan’s repertoire thanks to the singer encountering a band playing it in Amsterdam, according to Mixing Up The Medicine (2023).
Even so, the best renditions tended to be compositions that Dylan and his band knew well. “Things Have Changed” had been the opening song since 2013 and it remains a hoot and a half six years later. “It Ain’t Me, Babe” has more depth here than at any point since the early ‘90s. “Highway 61” sounds like it’s integrated elements of “Duquesne Whistle” without losing its unique swagger. “Honest With Me” features the same arrangement as the previous year, but the vocals have become more dynamic and sharp. “Early Roman Kings” is sung here with the passion of a song that’d been written the day before. “Pay In Blood” gets its definitive rendition thanks to a blistering vocal performance and some of the best playing that Charlie Sexton’s ever done. “Girl From The North Country” could make you weep. Dylan sings “Not Dark Yet” like a man possessed.
I hope you enjoy this record as much as I enjoyed compiling it. This is one of the gems in the Thousand Highways Collection, so don’t you dare miss it! Until next time, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes.
Cheers,
CS
Note: I stuck with original recordings by Soomlos, Spot, FOBSTL, zuma66, and Romeo for the most part, but found that Bennyboy's remaster of New York was a significant improvement on its source; I hope nobody will begrudge me using that one instead of the original! As ever, I'm grateful for all the hard work these folks do.
The Levee's Gonna Break - Live - Philadelphia - November 18, 2006
She Belongs To Me - Live - Birmingham - April 30, 2006
Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee - Live - Las Vegas - April 7, 2006
Mr. Tambourine Man - Live - Sun City West - April 8, 2006
'Til I Fell In Love With You - Live - Boston - November 21, 2006
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll - Live - Sun City West - April 8, 2006
High Water - Live - Stockton - April 3, 2006
Masters of War - Live - Sun City West - April 8, 2006
Workingman's Blues #2 - Live - San Francisco - October 16, 2006
Cat's in the Well - Live - Auburn Hills - November 2, 2006
Every Grain of Sand - Live - Boston - November 21, 2006
Thunder on the Mountain - Live - St. Paul - October 29, 2006
Nettie Moore - Live - Philadelphia - November 18, 2006
Bonus Tracks
Ain't Talkin' - Live - New York City - November 20, 2006
Cold Irons Bound - Live - Fairfax - November 17, 2006
Down Along The Cove - Live - Sun City West - April 8, 2006
High Water (Extended) - Live - Stockton - April 3, 2006
Joey - Live - Denver - October 24, 2006
Never Gonna Be The Same Again - Live - Reno - April 1, 2006
New Morning - Live - Gelsenkirchen - July 2, 2006
2006 is not generally a year of touring beloved by the Bob Dylan fan community. Even so, I think there are quite a few gems.
Specifically, the Modern Times LP was published in the fall and gave rise to a number of new songs that the singer had clearly been wanting to try out on the road. Most were debuted early in the subsequent tour and only grew in stature as the year continued, though a handful were still popping up for the first time at the last couple of concerts (including "The Levee's Gonna Break" on this CD).
Other warhorses were performed with semi-unique arrangements this year: note the deep resonance of the last line in each verse during "She Belongs To Me," as well as a circular "Mr. Tambourine Man" that recalls 1997's rendition of "Pretty Peggy-O." "High Water" and "Cat's In The Well" had rarely sounded better, while "Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee" gets an especially spirited rendition here.
The elephant in the room, of course, is the introduction of an electric organ. Bob Dylan had been playing a keyboard since late 2002, but fans were startled to find that he'd changed the settings between Fall 2005 and Spring 2006. Nothing on this collection is going to change your mind if you dislike it, but I think the organ is actually pretty engaging since it provides an ambient backdrop to all of the songs that fattens the sound. Though Bob Dylan is no Al Kooper or Jimmy Smith, I'm of the opinion that every track here benefits from its presence.
As ever, thanks for listening! Until next time, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes.
Cheers,
CS
Update: Lest ye be disappointed at the omission of some of the year's more surprising one-offs and setlist selections, I've added a few bonus tracks to sweeten the pot. These include the debut of "Ain't Talkin'," rare appearances of "Never Gonna Be The Same Again" and "New Morning," an arrangement of "Cold Irons Bound" played exclusively during this year's touring, and great outings for "Joey" and "Down Along The Cove." Finally, I've also included an extended recording of "High Water" from Stockton. Please look forward to an updated version of Pool of Tears: 2006-2009 next month, which will replace the 2006 tracks now shifted to this CD with additional songs from 2008, 2009, and 2010!
After a fallow period from 1985 to 1987, Bob Dylan found his muse again in 1988. As he’d done in the early 1970s, he once more taught himself to do consciously what he’d previously done unconsciously. One of the key parts of this arrangement was constant touring, as Dylan believed that intermittent years off of the road had been negatively impacting his approach to music. To that end, the so-called Never-Ending Tour kicked off with a bang in June 1988. Screaming At The Moon captures a snapshot of the first two wild years in this experimental long-form piece of performance art.
Self-Portrait II: Unreleased Recordings, 1985-1987
Trust Yourself - Live - Farm Aid 1985
Important Words - Outtake - Down in the Groove
Got Love If You Want It - Outtake - Down in the Groove
Sidewalks Fences and Walls - Outtake - Down in the Groove
A Couple More Years - Outtake - Hearts of Fire
I Shall Be Released - Live - Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration 1986
To Fall In Love With You - Outtake - Hearts of Fire
Just When I Needed You Most - Outtake - Down in the Groove
The Usual - Outtake - Hearts of Fire
Thank God - Live - Chabad Telethon 1986
Treasure Of Love - Unreleased - 1987 Studio Session
Across The Borderline - Live - Farm Aid 1986
Had A Dream About You Baby - Outtake - Hearts of Fire
Soon - Live - George Gershwin Celebration 1987
Maggie’s Farm - Live - Farm Aid 1985
Bonus Tracks
Old Five and Dimers - Outtake - Hearts of Fire
When The Ship Comes In - Live - Live Aid 1985
Lucky Old Sun - Rehearsal - Farm Aid 1985
Lossless Version | MP3 Version
Bob Dylan was not at his best in the mid 1980s - he’s told us himself in Chronicles, Volume 1, but it’s certainly evident from the albums released during this era (Real Live, Knocked Out Loaded, and Down in the Groove are particularly challenging listens). A decay had set in after Shot of Love in spite of the handful of great songs written for and either published or left off of Infidels and Empire Burlesque. There are still luminous performances from this time frame, but they became rarer and were more often associated with older songs or covers of others’ work. The writing well had more or less run dry by 1985.
With that in mind, I see this collection as something of a sequel to 1970’s Self-Portrait. That album had been produced during another relatively quiet period where the artist had been abandoned by his muse, and similarly featured a combination of covers, rearranged live songs played at a special event, and a small number of original compositions. The results are less successful here, but still worth a listen.
Two bookends, “Trust Yourself” and “Maggie’s Farm,” are drawn from Bob Dylan’s impressive Farm Aid 1985 performance and suggest an alternative to what we got on the official albums from this time. The singer is equally committed to a new song and one written twenty years earlier but updated with a rockabilly arrangement not dissimilar to the 50s covers that were prominent on the following year’s tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Rehearsals for this event, along with audience recordings of other songs not captured in the radio broadcast from which these two recordings are sourced, were considered for the CD but ultimately omitted due to poor sound quality. While the 1986 Farm Aid is essentially just a televised excerpt from one of that year’s co-headlining shows with Tom Petty, I couldn’t help including Ry Cooder’s “Across the Borderline” since it’s such an excellent capture of a good performance.
Other live recordings here include a fascinating rewrite of “I Shall Be Released” from 1986’s Stevie Wonder-organized Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Concert and a one-off rendition of Fred Rose’s “Thank God.” Though “Thank God” was recorded at a soundcheck prior to the singer’s concert at Mountain View on August 5, 1986, it was broadcast a month later during a televised anti-drug event organized by The Lubavitchers Chabad Telethon; Dylan would later contribute harmonica to a live performance of “Hava Nagila” at the organization’s 1989 telethon alongside actor Harry Dean Stanton! The final live track is a solo acoustic rendition of “Soon,” which was played at 1987’s George Gershwin Tribute Celebration. It must have seemed like an odd choice of material at the time, as the performer was then best-known for his contributions to the folk and rock genres, but modern audiences now know that Bob Dylan was exploring the American Songbook in rehearsals as early as the Infidels sessions and would eventually produce three albums of this material during the 2010s.
We also have a variety of songs recorded during the meandering studio sessions that produced Down in the Groove. Some of the covers are more effective than others, as “Sidewalk, Fences, and Walls” recalls the would-be soul voice Dylan had adopted two years earlier on Allen Toussaint’s “Freedom for the Stallion” and would rarely revisit in the decades ahead. “Important Words” and “Just When I Needed You Most” are stranger picks - the former echoes the standards Dylan would occasionally pull out on-stage during the early years of the Never-Ending Tour, while the latter resembles the pop songs that Dylan played with better results during his 1980 and 1981 concerts - but I think the arrangements are sympathetic enough to merit inclusion here. James Moore’s “Got Love If You Want It” has a particularly interesting history, as it was originally released on a promotional cassette version of Down in the Groove before being cut from the final LP’s tracklist. “Treasure of Love,” which was recorded at the home of Ted Perlman prior to Dylan’s appearance on the aforementioned Gershwin event, may or may not have been planned for Down in the Groove; it’s a baffling cover that’s not remotely in the singer’s traditional style, but serves as a fun, listenable novelty if nothing else.
Our final group of studio outtakes are drawn from sessions that produced the soundtrack to 1986’s Hearts of Fire. Though the film is an unmitigated disaster - Bob Dylan is not leading man material - the studio sessions are much more successful. Among the covers, John Hiatt’s “The Usual” is a great rocker in spite of some unpleasantly misogynist lyrics and Shel Silverstein’s “A Couple More Years” sounds very different from the big band arrangement it received on Dylan’s 1980 Musical Retrospective Tour; the background noise is a result of this capture being pulled directly from the film, where the song is performed in a barnyard setting. “Had A Dream About You Baby” is a rare original composition from this era, but it’s more of a rough set of lyrics thrown together over a pretty slick blues riff. “To Fall In Love With You” is even less complete, consisting of half-finished lines strung together between an evolving chorus in the style of 1967’s “I’m Not There”, but it’s so beautiful that it makes you wish they had tried it a few more times. In the end, it’s a reminder that Bob Dylan was facing a deficit of lyrical inspiration in the mid-1980s. We’re lucky that, with the benefit of hindsight, we now know that better times were only a couple years away.
- CS
Note: The bonus tracks here include content that I didn’t think was good enough to make it onto the CD but was still interesting. Hearts of Fire outtake “Old Five and Dimers” originally appeared on Thousand Highway’s delisted Ashes and Dust compilation, but I found that it grated upon relistening; your mileage may vary. “When The Ship Comes In” is noteworthy for being the only time that the song was played live since 1964, but its dubious quality reflects the broader lack of passion on display at Dylan’s Live Aid 1985 appearance. Finally, this rehearsal of “Lucky Old Sun” ahead of the 1985 Farm Aid show is full of vim and vigor but marred by a fairly poor recording. Give them a listen if you enjoy the main collection and are left wanting more!
Autumn In Los Angeles: Unreleased Studio Recordings, 1980-1985
Mystery Train - Rehearsal - 1980
Caribbean Wind - Outtake - Shot of Love
Magic - Outtake - Shot of Love
Heart Of Mine - Outtake - Shot of Love
Shot Of Love - Outtake - Shot of Love
Let’s Keep It Between Us - Rehearsal - 1980
Trouble - Outtake - Shot of Love
Don’t Fly Unless It’s Safe - Outtake - Infidels
Jokerman - Unreleased - David Letterman Show, 1984
Treat Her Right - Rehearsal - David Letterman Show, 1984
Dirty Lie - Rehearsal - 1984
Almost Done - Rehearsal - 1984
Don’t Start Me Talkin’ - Unreleased - David Letterman Show, 1984
Dark Groove - Outtake - Infidels
Come Together - Rehearsal - 1985
Nothing Here Worth Dying For - Rehearsal - 1985
Go ‘Way Little Boy - Unreleased - 1984 Studio Session
Freedom For The Stallion - Unreleased - 1985 Studio Session
Shake - Rehearsal - 1985
Something’s Burning Baby - Outtake - Empire Burlesque
[delisted - a new version is now available]
Fans are lucky to have access to a larger-than-average number of Bob Dylan studio recording sessions spanning 1980 to 1985, including tour rehearsals and outtakes from Shot of Love, Infidels, and Empire Burlesque. Following the publication of Columbia’s Bootleg Series 13: Trouble No More and Bootleg Series 16: Springtime in New York, a handful of these tracks remain officially unreleased. I’ve compiled the best of these into a 20-track collection structured to reveal the evolution of Bob Dylan as a recording artist over this tumultuous five-year period when he returned to secular music after two years working primarily on religious material.
The first section comprises rehearsals Fall 1980 Musical Retrospective Tour from Fall 1980 and the Shot of Love sessions in late 1980 and early 1981. The former provides us with a great cover - Junior Parker’ “Mystery Train” - and a variant of original composition “Let’s Keep It Between Us” that are distinct from the versions released on Springtime in New York; of them, I prefer the unreleased recording of “Mystery Train” even if it feels a bit less rehearsed than the officially-released take. It’s hard to love the sleepy studio takes of “Let’s Keep It Between Us” once you’ve heard the incendiary live performances from Fall 1980, but I find them to still be an engaging exercise in hearing how a song can grow from studio to stage.
The Shot of Love outtakes are more interesting, not least because they all escaped inclusion on the two Bootleg Series volumes dedicated to this period. You’ve got excellent alternate interpretations of “Caribbean Wind,” “Shot of Love,” and “Heart of Mine,” an early experiment that would later produce “Trouble,” and the otherwise-undocumented original composition “Magic.” The latter two are still in a gestational stage somewhere between rough sketches like “Wind Blowing On The Water” and completed lyrics like those that would appear on the final album.
The vast majority of completed songs from Bob Dylan’s Infidels sessions are present on Springtime in New York, but I wanted to make sure that a few lingering gems didn’t escape the notice of dedicated fans. Specifically, the instrumental tracks “Don’t Fly Unless It’s Safe” and “Dark Groove” are used to bookend other tracks recorded from 1983 to 1984. Besides these outtakes, I’ve highlighted the singer’s legendary 1984 appearance on the David Letterman show backed by The Plugz with two performed songs (Infidels’ “Jokerman” and Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Don’t Start Me Talkin’”) and a brilliant rehearsal of Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right.” For more insight on this event, I strongly recommend reading Ray Padgett’s interview with Plugz bassist Tony Marsico over at Flaggin’ Down The Double E’s. The Infidels era is rounded out with two tour rehearsals from early 1984: the respectively beautiful and eerie “Almost Done” and “Dirty Lie.” While neither would ever be performed by their writer, “Dirty Lie” was finally completed and published by The Secret Sisters at Bob Dylan’s suggestion in 2014.
Autumn In Los Angeles’ final group of songs is anchored by their association with the Empire Burlesque era. Among these, “Come Together,” “Shake,” and “Nothing Here Worth Dying For” are believed to come from rehearsals conducted as the prelude to an abandoned 1985 tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers that never happened (Dylan and Petty would reunite for tours in 1986 and 1987, as documented on the Thousand Highways Collection’s A Voice Without Restraint and Determined To Stand). “Come Together” is just a bit of fun riffing on The Beatles’ seminal Chuck Berry pastiche, original composition “Shake” sounds like an evolution on the aforementioned “Treat Her Right” and would later feature in Bob Dylan’s 1986 Farm Aid performance, and “Nothing Here Worth Dying For” is a lovely chorus in search of verses; much like “Almost Done” and “Dirty Lie,” it’s a shame that “Shake” and “Nothing Here Worth Dying For” were never properly finished. I’m sure that listeners will also enjoy a pitch-corrected version of Allen Toussaint’s “Freedom for the Stallion,” which has circulated for years as a helium-voiced sped-up version, and the Lone Justice outtake of “Go ‘Way Little Boy” featuring Bob Dylan singing a song he’d written for them. The set ends with an alternate version of Empire Burlesque’s “Something’s Burning Baby” that includes some additional lyrics.
Until next time, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes!
Cheers,
CS
Good news, folks! I've decided to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this website by publishing several new compilations throughout 2023. Among these will be revised versions of delisted collections that remove officially-published tracks and a few long-time requests; it's true, I'm finally producing sets dedicated to 1994 and 2006.
Looking forward to sharing these with you on a monthly basis as the year progresses. The first one, which covers unreleased recordings from 1980 to 1985, should be out within the coming week.
