Perhaps so, but with Another Self Portrait for example, the bar was considerably lower than it is with the original releases referenced here...
It's definitely an electric keyboard. At the beginning of one of the later takes McCoy hits a few individual notes and it's clearly an electric keyboard.
Happy thanksgiving everyone! I'm all sobered up and clearheaded now, and I did a lot more listening on the trip to and from grandma's house... First, Sad-Eyed Lady of The Lowlands. From the start, the song is basically there. Bob doesn't play harmonica in the intro at first. I never thought of it before, but he sure does open a lot of songs with harmonica. I didn't notice him singing Sara, but he definitely drags some syllables and tries to be clever with the lyrics after he makes some mistakes. Then, onto Stuck Inside Of Mobile. That take 1 is a beauty! Definitely a nice demo quality. Then it starts to develop with the organ riff. I've long been a fan of the take from No Direction Home. In fact, for a while it was the version I was most familiar with. It's a bit rudimentary, but it works. Dylan's singing however, well, it's good when he manages to get the words out. And they keep moving right past this arrangement. Dylan starting the song off singing, in a slower and slinkier arrangement. Nice little riffs and bits too. And it's not until the penultimate take that the album arrangement suddenly appears. Whatever happened in between takes was key to the song. And now he's opening it with harmonica! The remix is very welcome, and those drums sound nice. Certainly not "corny." Absolutely Sweet Marie is a quick session. And it ends with another unused insert?? I'm gonna make another post about this, because it's gonna get tangential. And finally for tonight the Just Like A Woman/Pledging My Time session. I never would have thunk it that these songs are so intrinsically connected, via a rocking missing link. Just Like A Woman starts off nice and pretty, not too far from the master as far as arrangement. Dylan's lyrics are very fun to trace through this whole session. He doesn't seem to have more than some dummy lyrics and a few decent ideas at the start. He can't even decide who isn't feeling any pain. And then they switch to a rock beat and cut a wonderfully out-of-left-field take. A bit harder to sing in a different time signature. He must liked the music though, and decided to pull out another song to work with. And so we get a rocking Pledging My Time. Someone, pages and pages ago, compared it to the sound of the Highway 61 album, and it certainly would have fit there. But they quickly slow it down, and turn it into a blues number, with some impressive harp work on the end, that we now get to enjoy in it's unadulterated state. And back to Just Like A Woman. Back to the waltz time. It's more and more in place, the final piece of the puzzle being the interlude between verses. Also, Dylan keeps coming back in singing after the harmonica coda, reprising the chorus. Interesting idea, but the strong ending on the master take works better. These studio cats are no slouches. Dylan seems in good spirits. And this set is both dispelling and proving a myth: that no song was played the same way twice. Once Dylan and company are onto something, they do try to hone it in, and work it out. But there is a healthy willingness (and maybe a little restlessness) that allows for changes and variations, and plenty of times working up a totally new arrangement. Only 2 hours and 14 minutes of music left, split in half right to the minute between studio and hotel. I'm almost sorry that the journey is wrapping up. Although there might be another Dylan adventure soon, if/when/(and how?) the Copy Extension is released. Sony just can't seem to credit McCoy properly! First they got him playing harmonica on Sad-Eyed Lady (the Mono box). Now they got him playing bass harmonica here. Oops!
INSERTS AND FIXES If there was ever a time that I would want a play-by-play track analysis, it would be to explain the inserts and fixes. The first one is for Love Minus Zero / No Limit. Thanks to the dialogue, we can hear that they are working for a harmonica coda. AND... they don't use it. Outlaw Blues I believe has overdubbed harmonica, although we don't get to hear the original live take. Correct me if I'm wrong here. It's Alright Ma has a vocal mistake, which I believe was determined to have been fixed by briefly muting the vocal. We get take 4 of Ballad Of A Thin Man, not listed as a insert, but of course it's a fix for the wrong chords in take 3. Take 6 of Desolation Row is Charlie McCoy overdubbing his guitar. As for take 7, I honestly don't know what it's for. Can someone explain!? Then we have a weird, short version of Tombstone Blues, where Dylan is overdubbing harmonica. I'm guessing he's using the empty track that was ear-marked for the Chambers Brothers. But this overdub doesn't even last the full song. Very odd. Fourth Time Around was fixed, after the initial release of Blonde On Blonde, with the drum/keyboard track being replaced with a new drum track. Of course, for the master we just get the new drum track. Can we assume the original track was wiped? Otherwise, they should have included both the original version and a version with the new track. For the second session of Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat, Dylan does an insert. Why, I don't know, since he didn't even seem satisfied with the take. The brief session is abortive and unenthusiastic. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands had a little vocal fix, but that's apparently in the multi track, so the original flub only exists on the originally released early mix. Absolutely Sweet Marie has an insert after take 3, for the middle eight. But it doesn't sound like the released middle eight. It's actually a bit sloppier. What's going on here? I think I Want You was worked on too, but I'm not up to that yet...
7 days till payday. I'm worried the 18 disc set will sell out before I can pay for it. Somebody tell them to save me one.
I've been keeping track. I think the most they sold in a day was about 50. At that rate, you should be OK.
You should be ok based on the rate it's selling, unless the rumored bonus download is revealed soon (and really good)
A little tangential treat, here's a few Stones and some friends doing It Hurts Me Too, and Mick has no trouble picking up the connection to Pledging My Time, and he breaks out a bit of Dylan's words.
I see Barnes and Noble has a 30% off coupon. The Cutting Edge Deluxe Edition is now $127.49 (it was $134.99). With the coupon it's $89.24 + sales tax, with free shipping, so it's a little less than $100. (the online coupon code is 30BFRIDAY ) A couple of people on Expecting Rain http://expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=85971&p=1632057#p1632057 mentioned that Bootleg Series 11 was around $85 on Amazon before and right after Christmas last year.
Thanks - yes I bought that yesterday on Itunes for £16.99. Fascinating. I have ordered the Smithsonian 'companion' CD as well (for rather more).
I think the idea of the "Tombstone Blues" harmonica overdub on top of the backing vocals overdub was to create the "busiest" track in Dylan's recorded history. I assume it didn't take them much more than a minute to figure out it was a bad idea!
I don't know if you are aware of a website run by Roger Ford called "Electric Dylan" http://www.rdf.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ If not, you should visit it asap. There you'll get useful informations galore on BIABH, H61R AND BoB. Concerning 4th Time Around you will learn that a master take with the instrument in question exists. It can be found on one of the multiple variants of the vinyl release of Blonde on Blonde. It's too complex to describe it here, but I can confirm that such an item exists, it's on my shelf. Rogers' site will give you enough informations as to matrix numbers and so on of the different LPs so that you can look if you can get a copy in secondhand stores and the likes if you are after it. The reason for not having this original master take on the box could simply be that the new drum part has been recorded on the very same tape that was used before.
I am not sure if it relates to the bonus material that Rare Cool Stuff have been teasingly promising will be coming the way of the 18CD owners but I see that their facebook page on 24th says "we will have a very cool announcement and "thank you" coming next monday!"
What RV means is that a remix of the master take with the original instrumentation is not possible any more, which is a shame for BS12. Obviously the original mix has the original instrumentation though.
Exactly And I'm VERY familiar with Roger Ford's site. It's an essential read for understanding how these three albums were released. And, especially with Blonde On Blonde, there are quite a few releases!
Ok, I am confused... Two of the 'Collector's Edition" Big Blue Box listings on eBay ended this morning for: $830 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bob-Dylan-The-Cutting-Edge-18-disc-collectors-box-set-/191739915694?redirect=mobile&nma=true&si=%2FzcMUbvyDrV6442kn3%2FziWMw0hc%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 & $745 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bob-Dylan-The-Cutting-Edge-18-disc-collectors-box-set-Bootleg-series-Vol-12-/221948375728?redirect=mobile&nma=true&si=%2FzcMUbvyDrV6442kn3%2FziWMw0hc%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 Ummmmmm... Why? Especially when getting the FLAC Downloads would probably be a major pain in the ass going this way as opposed to $660 from Bobdylan.com. Why would you choose to pay more for less, from a third party seller??? People baffle me.
That's interesting, I didn't know the 1965 version of Highway 61 Revisited was 'Second Rate' - who'd have thought?
Does anyone know what the sources were for the vinyl? Ie., was it analogue, high resolution digital, what resolution, etc? Without going through the ..... wait for it --- Yes...... 457 pages now of commentary... and stuff.... Mine is on its way....
A copy sold on eBay UK last week for £670 (plus, potentially, £30 postage). That's over $1,000. Considerably more expensive than buying direct from Sony, even taking into account import duty and fees.
