Reborn In Time: Unreleased Recordings, 1989-1994

Volume 1
Political World - Outtake - Oh Mercy Sessions - 1989
2X2 - Outtake - Under The Red Sky Sessions - 1990
Everything Is Broken - Outtake - MTV Unplugged Sessions - 1994
Polly Vaughn - Unreleased - Bromberg Sessions - 1992
I Want You - Outtake - MTV Unplugged Sessions - 1994
God Knows - Outtake - Oh Mercy Sessions - 1989
Tomorrow Night - Live - The Rhythm, Country & Blues Concert - 1994
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - Unreleased - Studio Session - 1994
Unbelievable - Outtake - Under The Red Sky Sessions - 1990
Born In Time - Outtake - Oh Mercy Sessions - 1989
Love Minus Zero/No Limit - Rehearsal - MTV Unplugged Sessions - 1994
Under The Red Sky - Outtake - Under The Red Sky Sessions - 1990
Kaatskill Serenade - Unreleased - Bromberg Sessions - 1992
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright - Outtake - MTV Unplugged Sessions - 1994
Hard Times - Live - Willie Nelson’s Big 6-0 - 1993

Volume 2
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You - Outtake - MTV Unplugged Sessions - 1994
Anyway You Want Me - Unreleased - Studio Session - 1994
Dignity - Outtake - Oh Mercy Sessions - 1989
Born In Time - Outtake - Under The Red Sky Sessions - 1990
Money Honey - Unreleased - Studio Session - 1994
Most Of The Time - Outtake - Oh Mercy Sessions - 1989
TV Talkin' Song - Outtake - Under The Red Sky Sessions - 1990
Hazel - Outtake - MTV Unplugged Sessions - 1994
Handy Dandy - Outtake - Under The Red Sky Sessions - 1990
Sloppy Drunk - Unreleased - Bromberg Sessions - 1992
Blue-Eyed Jane - Unreleased - Jimmie Rodgers Tribute Sessions - 1994
Wiggle Wiggle - Outtake - Under The Red Sky Sessions - 1990
Shooting Star - Outtake - Oh Mercy Sessions - 1989
Absolutely Sweet Marie - Outtake - MTV Unplugged Sessions - 1994
Ring Them Bells - Live - The Great Music Experience - 1994

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Bob Dylan kicked off the Never-Ending Tour with a show in Concord on June 7, 1988. Given the performer’s renewed sense of purpose after several years in the wilderness, fans must have been eager to hear what he might create when he got off the road and back into the studio. On September 12, 1989 they’d find out - with the aid of producer Daniel Lanois, Bob Dylan had found his way down to New Orleans and recorded a swampy, electric set of new compositions called Oh Mercy. The following years were less successful, as we’d receive a nursery rhyme-inspired song cycle called Under the Red Sky in 1990 and an inconsistent interpretation of past classics with MTV Unplugged in 1994. But this is only part of the story.

Behind the scenes and mostly off-stage, Bob Dylan was creating myriad works that would never see the light of day. Many of these are documented on The Bootleg Series Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs, but many others remained in the vault. Mercifully, quite a few of the recordings from these years have surfaced unofficially via bootleg tapes. I’ve compiled the cleanest versions of these recordings - using CaptainAcid’s Oh Mercy and Under the Red Sky outtake remasters as well as McG’s brilliant sonic improvements on 1992’s Bromberg Session recordings - into Reborn In Time.

The Oh Mercy tracks sounds here are overall pretty similar to those on Tell Tale Signs, presenting a slightly different look at songs like “God Knows,” “Born In Time,” and “Dignity,” but there are two exceptions: “Political World” and “Shooting Star” both include numerous lyrics omitted from the version on the final album. 1990 is where the most interesting outtakes start to appear, as the outtakes from this year are stripped of the celebrity overdubs that crowd Under the Red Sky. “TV Talkin’ Song” fares best, offering an alternate narrative with numerous lyrical variations and a menacing vocal take, while others like “Handy Dandy” and “Unbelievable” call to mind producer Don Was’ recollection that he and the musicians were trying to create a new Highway 61 Revisited.

1992 saw Dylan abandon a collaboration with songwriter David Bromberg at Chicago’s Acme Studios in favor of traditional songs recorded on acoustic guitar in his garage. The latter was ultimately published as Good As I Been To You in November 1992, while the former has only been officially acknowledged through the inclusion of two tracks - “Miss the Mississippi” and “Duncan and Brady” - on Tell Tale Signs. The three remaining circulating songs from these sessions are included here and are among the most interesting work that the singer produced in the 1990s. It’s a shame we haven’t heard more, but Dylan seems to have been thoroughly disappointed with the results.

In 1994, a duet with Emmylou Harris on Jimmie Rodgers’ “My Blue-Eyed Jane,” was recorded during the sessions that produced “Boogie Woogie Country Girl,” Dylan’s contribution to Till The Night Is Gone: A Tribute To Doc Pomus; this track wouldn’t be entirely abandoned, however, as it later resurfaced with a new vocal overdub on The Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers - A Tribute in 1997. An afternoon spent at Sony Music Studios in New York between touring legs in September 1994 would similarly result in three Elvis covers - “Anyway You Want Me,” “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” and “Money Honey” - never published on an official album.

Finally, Dylan’s appearance on the MTV Unplugged television show also left behind more than a few discarded gems. “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” is presented with the jaunty arrangement that would characterize its appearance throughout the 1990s and 2000s, “Hazel” is played for the first time since 1976 and the last time until 2004, and “Everything Is Broken” represents the only time this song has been performed on acoustic instruments. “I Want You” is the standout, slowed down to a crawl that recalls its 1978 arrangement, while a rehearsal of “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” impresses with the interplay between Bob Dylan’s voice and Bucky Baxter’s steel guitar.

In the midst of these studio sessions and a heavy touring schedule, Dylan also found time to appear at several one-off events. I’ve documented the best of those here, including an accordion-heavy acoustic performance of Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times,” a duet with Trisha Yearwood at the Rhythm, Country & Blues Concert, and a performance of “Ring Them Bells” backed by Michael Kamen and the Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra at The Great Music Experience in 1994. I wanted to include the “Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” that was also played in Nara with orchestral backing, but it was actually released by Sony as the b-side to “Dignity (MTV Unplugged)” in 1995! This extraordinary performance is worth tracking down if you can.

I hope you enjoy this new, more finely-tuned collection of (mostly) studio tracks from 1989 to 1994. It replaces Series of Dreams and Ring Them Bells - two previous Thousand Highways releases - since those included quite a few live tracks that either have been or will be presented more holistically elsewhere in the Thousand Highways Collection. Hopefully we’ll get to hear even more lost recordings from this era someday.

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

Cheers,
CS

PS: I discovered a typo in the notes after initial publication, so new versions of the files have been uploaded to Mediafire as of August 1, 2023.

Screaming At The Moon: Live, 1988-1989

 

Volume 1 - Electric Set, 1988

Subterranean Homesick Blues - Live - Sacramento - June 9, 1988
Pretty Peggy-O - Live - Mansfield - July 2, 1988
My Back Pages - Live - Mountain View - June 11, 1988
License To Kill - Live - Salt Lake City - June 13, 1988
Gotta Serve Somebody - Live - Salt Lake City - June 13, 1988
In The Garden - Live - Wantaugh - July 1, 1988
Big River - Live - Santa Barbara - June 9, 1988
Train To Cry - Live - Berkeley - June 10, 1988
Masters Of War - Live - Upper Darby - October 13, 1988
Hallelujah - Live - Montreal - July 8, 1988
Frankie Lee & Judas Priest - Live - Old Orchard Beach - July 3, 1988
Visions Of Johanna - Live - Manchester - September 3, 1988
Gates Of Eden - Live - East Troy - June 18, 1988

Volume 2 - Acoustic Set, 1988 - 1989

Wagoner's Lad - Live - New York - October 16, 1988
She Belongs To Me - Live - Rochester - July 6, 1989
San Francisco Bay Blues - Live - Canandaigua - June 28, 1988
In The Pines - Live - Old Orchard Beach - July 3, 1988
Mama You Been On My Mind - Live - East Troy - June 18, 1988
Every Grain Of Sand - Live - Athens - June 28, 1989
Lakes Of Ponchartrain - Live - Madrid - June 15, 1989
Eileen Aroon - Live - Denver - June 15, 1988
Give My Love To Rose - Live - Canandaigua - June 28, 1988
Pretty Boy Floyd - Live - Oakland - December 4, 1988
Baby Let Me Follow You Down - Live - Berkeley - September 3, 1989
Love Minus Zero - No Limit - Live - Chicago - October 31, 1989
Barbara Allen - Live - Syracuse - August 31, 1988

Volume 3 - Electric Set, 1989

 Seeing The Real You At Last - Live - Poughkeepsie - October 20, 1989
Tears Of Rage - Live - Patras - June 26, 1989
One Irish Rover - Live - Peoria - July 1, 1989
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Live - Milwaukee - July 3, 1989
When You Gonna Wake Up - Live - Poughkeepsie - October 20, 1989
John Brown - Live - Birmingham - June 7, 1989
Ring Them Bells - Live - Poughkeepsie - October 20, 1989
Congratulations - Live - Glasgow - June 6, 1989
Pancho & Lefty - Live - Cava de'Tirreni - June 21, 1989
Queen Jane Approximately - Live - New York City - October 12, 1989
Trail Of The Buffalo - Live - Atlanta - August 16, 1989
Trouble - Live - Atlanta - August 16, 1989
The Water Is Wide - Live - Dublin - June 3, 1989

 

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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.

Volume 1 covers 1988, when Bob Dylan attacked his work with the ferocity of a punk singer. Few of the songs are word-perfect - especially impressionistic half-remembered anthems like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and a rambling “Frankie Lee & Judas Priest” - but all feature performances unrivaled in pure energy since the Rolling Thunder Revue. I’m especially partial to this thoroughly on-the-edge take on “My Back Pages,” an impassioned “Hallalujah,” the only up-tempo performance of “Visions of Johanna” delivered live, and a blistering “Gates Of Eden.” The rewrites in “Gotta Serve Somebody” are a lot of fun too.

Volume 2 leads us through Dylan’s contemporary acoustic sets, which included covers alongside originals primarily pulled from his 1960s oeuvre. Among the former, “In The Pines” and “Give My Love To Rose” are rare one-offs while others - like “Eileen Aroon” and “Lakes Of Ponchartrain” - are just strong performances of frequently played gems. “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” gets one of its only post-1966 airings, and “Pretty Boy Floyd” and “San Francisco Bay Blues” recall the artist’s earliest days playing in New York coffee shops. We close with one of Dylan’s best renditions of “Barbara Allen,” a very old ballad he’d last played with electric backing in 1981.

Volume 3 is perhaps the most experimental portion of this collection. Following a year of relatively straight blues and rock in 1988, Dylan branched out into stranger arrangements seemingly influenced by Neil Young’s more avant-garde work. In an effort to capture this unique period of the Never-Ending Tour, I’ve opted to primarily include songs that contribute to a sense of place - a dark bar at the end of the night - rather than presenting the singer’s 1989 shows “as they were,” so to speak. No actual show included this many strange, brooding songs, but I like to think this approach offers a better understanding of what was unique in Dylan’s ‘89 performances. And it is unique! Just give a listen to this sinister “When You Gonna Wake Up” or the urgent plea of “The Water Is Wide.” Alternately, dig into the sharp guitar breaks in “Trail Of The Buffalo” and “One Irish Rover.” Bob Dylan’s rarely sung “Pancho & Lefty” so carelessly, but he’s also rarely sung it so meaningfully.

Longtime followers of the Thousand Highways collection will notice that most of these tracks are repurposed from previous releases: Renaissance (1988), The Water Is Wide (1989), Beneath A Diamond Sky (1989), and Series Of Dreams (1989-1993). The purpose of my effort here is to present the recordings more holistically and with a greater sense of unity, as I’ve often found myself disappointed when returning to those original CDs. Don’t worry, though - all tracks cut from The Water Is Wide and Beneath A Diamond Sky are included as bonus tracks so you can still assemble compilations that match the old versions if you prefer those.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy it. Until next time, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes!

- CS