Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks (2 Nov 2018)*

If the speed-up happened during mastering, wouldn't the 5.1 mix run at the correct speed?

 

Good question. It's worth making comparisons to find out.

Percy's Song, the speed-up was widely discussed and written up in the early 1980s when the release of the Half-Speed Mastered drew attention to the fact. Heylin wasn't around then. I'm no expert on the matter, either, but I remember reading about it and then comparing my vinyl (which I still have, some 36 years later) to the standard LP. The difference in pitch is significant. More noticeable to the ears than the percentages suggest. Listen to the outtakes. I know you have them. That's the correct pitch.

 

Unless they were purposefully sped up to match the common speed of the album, that is.

 

Did the Mofi edition correct the speed in their mastering?

 

One could say that for the past 3/4ths of Dylan's touring years.

 

I wrote to them at the time and they replied that they were aware of the speed issues but had decided to go along with speeding them up to match the existing releases. Fair enough... The Mofi SACD certainly sounds beautiful.

My guess is that when the BOTT sessions are finally released they will be at their original speeds. Meanwhile, if you were really that bothered *cough* you could use an app like Audacity to slow down the speed of a ripped CD of the album to match the half speed mastered album.

 

Thanks for putting me right, Richard! I'm ashamed to say I got my dates wrong. Of course, the HSM was released in 1981. Clinton's book was 1995 (which was when I first came across the vinyl HSM), so obviously there would have been plenty of discussion about the speed issues much earlier than Clinton's assertion that the whole album had been deliberately speeded-up by 2% apparently on Bob's command.

Curiously, the apparently definitive book about BOTT, "A Simple Twist of Fate" by Gill and Odegard (2005), spends plenty of time delving into the recording processes in New York and Minneapolis and features interviews with many of the participants, including Phil Ramone, and also references the HSM LP as well as the 5.1 mix, but doesn't mention the pitch differences, which I agree make for a significantly altered listening experience. You'd think a deliberate act of altering of the pitch at mastering stage would be worth a paragraph or two. Likewise, even if it was a technical glitch, it might be mentioned in passing. But it isn't as far as I recall.

I suppose we'll never truly know whether Bob ordered it or not; frankly, on reflection, I've no reason to believe Glenn Berger's account any more than the past or present speculations, but what we do know for sure is that the regular BOTT runs fast, with 7 out of the 10 songs being speeded-up by approximately 2%.

You'd think so, but in "A Simple Twist of Fate" Phil Ramone, who was given the job of remastering BOTT for the 2003 hybrid SACD with the 5.1 mix, is quoted thus:-

"There were five songs missing from the multi-track. They could find the two-track but not the multi-track.... when they finally found the tapes they had been misfiled. When they showed up it was as if they'd just been put away. We had to bake the tapes for a day..."

The text in the book goes on to say: "The new 5.1 surround-sound mix, meanwhile, afforded him the opportunity to try out something new without materially affecting the original recordings. There was no attempt made to update or rerecord any of the parts, or to significantly alter the original stereo mix. "I could have but there's certain history you don't need to touch," affirms Ramone."

So, a bit vague...!

Interesting that Mofi appears to have had the option of releasing the correct pitch but chose not to, rather than being directed not to. So if Bob had ordered the speed-up in '74/'75, it appears to have been no longer an imperative in 1981 when the vinyl HSM was released (because it wasn't recalled), nor later when Mofi was given the tapes. I suppose it's the same sort of thing that happened with the mono and stereo mixes of "Rainy Day Women".

It may end up being Steve Berkowitz's choice on whether we get the right BOTT in the Bootleg Series. I'll eat my hat (which is made of chocolate, by the way) if we get a replica of the vinyl HSM release in the set, though.

 

Thanks for pulling it all together for us, Percy Song.
I'll have to pick up that book by Osgood.
I have to read the Heylin books, one of these days.

You've heard the Columbia Half-Speed, yes?

Oh, I'm not bothered by it.
I've come to prefer the natural pitch of the Half-Speed edition, in case you were wondering.
Thanks for letting us know Mofi's position on the speed.

On another front, I thought we might see a live set from the tour with Paul Simon by now. Dylan was in fine voice and had a calm, strong stage presence on that tour. I enjoyed Simon's set as well, but I thought Dylan ruled the evening each night.

 

Whatever Dylan intended, sometimes the new arrangements backfired. As in alienated listeners. "Blowin' In the Wind" especially. I remember the stage awash under a blue light during "Blowin' In the Wind." It looked luminous. He meant the song to be calm and serene. But it was misunderstood by just about everybody. The merry guitar licks in "I Shall Be Released" make no sense to me, given the tragedy the song is telling. The arrangement for "The Times They Are A-Changin'" evolved throughout the tour until it began with an austere violin solo then building up to a full-blown show-biz orchestration. It is expertly played by the musicians particularly David Mansfield and yet completely at odds with the lyrics. To be in the audience as the new arrangements unfolded was very confusing for many. People had not yet adjusted to Dylan's habit of wrapping his songs in new arrangements. He had people's heads spinning. He may have pushed them too far that year. With hindsight, I can't help liking the new arrangements from a music perspective, even though a few of them are completely wrong for the songs.

A poster named delacey at Expecting Rain says "I seem to recall Clinton Heylin saying at a Dylan convention a few years ago that not only was Blackbushe professionally recorded, but he has heard it, and it's one of Dylan's finest live performances...!" Hope it's true the concert was professionally recorded. I listen to an excellent audience tape (excellent on the analog cassette scale in which it was taped) and find it to be one of his best performances of the 1970s.

If in fact Blackbushe was professionally recorded, it would make a superior entry in The Bootleg Series.

 

Yep, I have it; it's my first choice when listening to BOTT. The remaster and the Mofi have their merits, definitely, but I much prefer the correct pitch of the Half-Speed Mastered vinyl.

 

Do you think Blood On the Tracks loses its sense of urgency at the natural (slower) pitch, Percy?

Regarding 1978, come to think of it, I would like to find an original Japanese pressing of Live at Budokan vinyl in mint condition. The one I have in the closet was played almost to death back in the day.

 

If, being the operative word here, if indeed it was pro recorded, there is absolutely no question it will be released as a BS album. The reason it is assured is that the only official representation of the 78 tour which exists to date is the largely lambasted Budokan album. The 'word' is that Dylan was phoning it in, sounded cheesy and insincere and had gone all Vegas on us. The arrangements didn't work, the musicians were not up to standard, Dylan was coasting on his past with a glam sounding 'greatest hits' show for the loyal fans. The Picnic At Blackbushe would probably ignite another extensive critical re-evaluation of one of Dylan's less than exemplary periods: the 78 tour.

I wish I had been born just 5 years earlier. Blackbushe was just 5 miles up the road from where I lived at the time; I would have been old enough and could have gone to that concert on my own! I wonder how that might have changed my appreciation for Dylan in the longer term?

 

I was at Blackbushe in 1978 with a bunch of friends. We were 17 and mostly big Dylan fans. Unfortunately I had glandular fever (mono for people in the USA) and mainly lay on the ground sweating and moaning.

It was a long day with many performers, and I enjoyed Graham Parker and Joan Armatrading.

We were far back in the field so the view was pretty limited, particularly when horizontal and pleading for your Mum. There was a second set of speakers about 100 yards from the stage, and they hadn't delayed the sound on this set, so there was a constant echo from the main stage.

I do remember a couple of guys with giant microphones (baffled against wind) pointing them at the speakers close to us. I presume these were used to produce the bootleg, which I had for many years, although I played the LA and Earls Court ones a lot more due to their better sound quality.

The Dylan show was long and and I enjoyed it as much as I could in the circumstances. Hopefully one day a release will be made of the professionally recorded tapes and I'll be able to appreciate it properly.

 

No, not really, but I do think the speeded-up versions have an unnatural pitch. That sounds like a flippant reply, but I think you know what I mean. If I didn't have (or hadn't heard) the Half-Speed Mastered version I'd be more than happy with the speeded-up BOTT and in all honesty I might not even twig that it had been speeded-up (whether due to technical malfunction or by directive).

Having said that, I might embarrass myself if someone played at random a track from one or other version and I was asked to identify it; that's a game I'd avoid...!!

 

As someone who doesn't have perfect pitch, I couldn't tell that the songs were sped up, although once or twice I've tried to play along with them for fun and certainly noticed that I had to tune up a bit to match. (Especially fun to play along to Tangled Up In Blue, for which the individual tracks are available.)

 

"If in fact Blackbushe was professionally recorded, it would make a superior entry in The Bootleg Series."

"If, being the operative word here, if indeed it was pro recorded, there is absolutely no question it will be released as a BS album."

You obviously don't know Dylan very well - nothing can be presumed. In fact, I think for many reasons there's a good chance that it won't be released anytime soon....

 

I hope for the same on the Planet Waves set with the original Quad LP (Asylum EQ-1003) which was not only slower (with a lower pitch too ofc) but also has a mix i prefer.. when stereo downmixed for comparison that is.
The stereo mix speed corrected would also be nice



and Forever Young (continued) has a longer intro too

 

This is the first I've heard that the quad Planet Waves plays slower and at lower pitch than the regular edition.
I have this LP and a CD-R clone of it. I'll check it out soon.
Thanks for this information.

I agree a special edition of Planet Waves would very welcome indeed.

A question for you vinyl collectors:
Snap crackle and pop

 

Bob gave Paul a copy of his second album. But Paul got upset that some of the songs on the album were wrong and not listed on the cover. So he gave it to John.
Cynthia ended up with John's record collection after the divorce.

 

Wow, isn't that record worth about 10 grand? and that's not taking into account that it was John's

Pbthal ripped that mispress in 2010 and it's the best sounding mono of that album IMO, i prefer it to the 2010's Original Mono Recordings lp

 

Live 1966 box-set came from Columbia Legacy in between The Bootleg Series 12 and 13. So chances are maybe possibly perhaps could be we'll get another Legacy release this year and the next entry in The Bootleg Series next year.

If it's another Columbia Legacy box-set, the obvious and most appropriate box would be the complete Live 1965 on hard media. The second and most obvious choice would be the complete 1979 tour -- complete with opening act, choir girl interludes, and sermons. Or, what else ....?

 

Somehow, I doubt either of these would be selected. I also doubt we would see another "Complete Tour" box, but I could imagine a box that would cover a batch of concerts, or something similar to the recent box - one or two concerts, selections from other concerts and a set of session outtakes.

I expect that they feel they have done 1965 and 1979, and would move on to another period altogether. As Rolling Thunder has become legendary, that is a possible candidate.

I personally would like to see something from the later years...maybe 1996 or 1999

 

Tribute, the importance of the Bootleg Series is that it document that period of time when Bob Dylan's music initiated social and cultural change. That means the 1960s and to some extent the 1970s.

Personally I would emphatically NOT "like to see something from the later years...maybe 1996 or 1999." No way no how.

 

I don't think that's the importance of it at all. It documents different period of Bob Dylan's music, full stop. Whether you want to see something from the later years or not is your preference. I think it's fine to be a fan of an artist and not like all their work or periods or whatever have you. Artists change and whatever Dylan became might no longer appeal to you. If anything, it'd be foolish to try and stubbornly stick with Dylan just because he's Dylan, even if you don't like the later stuff.

There are pockets of time where my interest wanes, World Gone Wrong and Good As I Been To You and Under The Red Sky being the period where I find very little to get excited over.

 

Your disdain for later Bob Dylan, often expressed on the forum, still surprises me. Same man, wiser and with decades more experience and accomplishments.

Bob Dylan himself would probably be hard pressed to find any "social change" that he ever initiated. Cultural change, certainly, though he would deny that.