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

Any solid info yet about a release date -- November 2nd, or November 9th?

 

It's probably proof, yeah.....

 

I've ordered it. It's a steep price, especially for anyone outside UK, but I'm hoping it will include some images of "paperwork" that might not feature in the box set or on the single CD or on the LP package. Although the TID sheet image on the Route Blog web page is familiar, the Y**T**e video, as you indicated, has several tantalising glimpses of "paperwork" I haven't seen before and there were a couple of pages like that in the last book. I'll report back.

 

Has this been linked yet? If so my apologies (it's a long thread!):

The CAT Club and route present ‘BLOOD ON THE TRACKS’ by BOB DYLAN.

The CAT Club and route present ‘BLOOD ON THE TRACKS’ by BOB DYLAN.
October 13 @ 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm

THE NEW YORK VERSION

To mark the inaugural National Album Day, The CAT Club will be holding a Saturday matinee event with a rare version of a classic album, a book launch and a very special guest.

We welcome leading Dylan authority CLINTON HEYLIN for the worldwide launch of his new monograph NO ONE ELSE COULD PLAY THAT TUNE – THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF DYLAN’S 1974 MASTERPIECE and the playing of the New York version of Bob Dylan’s seminal album, Blood on the Tracks.

Bob Dylan originally recorded Blood on the Tracks mainly acoustically in New York but, as the release of the album was imminent, he rerecorded 5 of the songs with a band in a studio in Minneapolis that had a very different feel. Not for the first time there are many who think the man himself made the wrong decision. We will be playing the original New York version.

The record will play after a presentation from Clinton. In synchronicity with other National Album Day events taking place across the country, needle drop time is 3:33pm.

Entrance to the launch is £15 and includes a free copy of the book.

 

This language:

"Not for the first time there are many who think the man himself made the wrong decision."

pushes my buttons. The language provokes me. What an arrogant and inappropriate thing to say.

It's not Clinton Heylin's album. The album he would make is not the right album. It's Bob Dylan's album, and if Bob Dylan thinks he should rerecord some songs or try them a different way, it's his creative process and it's the right decision. That doesn't mean the album couldn't have g0ne in a different direction or in a number of different direction, but Dylan chose his direction for his music, and therefore, it's right.

The Dylan organization should tell their legal team to prevent Heylin from playing Dylan's album before release to help sell his book. They should stop him. People should listen to the music free of the perverse context into which Heylin places it. Never, never listen to Bob Dylan in Heylin's contexts.

I advise everybody to ignore this event. Don't go.

 

I see.

 

For people who think Heylin is irrelevant (and by Heylin, I mean Clinton. Heylin. Clinton Heylin), you sure spend a lot of time talking about him.

"If you want people to read a book, tell them it is overrated" - Nassim Taleb.

 

I wanted to respond to that thread but the forum is not open to new registrations. Art thou a member there, and dos't thou post?

 

According to Amazon, it looks like 2 November then? Sorry if this has been pointed out way back, I may have missed it in the thread.

 

The UK links don't work. Updating pages maybe?

 

We never said Clinton was irrelevant -- often infuriating, insulting, misguided, and judgemental, yes, but as a dedicated researcher, he's definitely one of the best. He deserves our attention, but his observations, thematic overviews and conclusions should not be taken as the Final Word on anything Dylan-related. That's one of the reasons this forum is so great -- we get to take him to task when he's off the mark in some way or another.

 

I agree absolutely with your comments - but not everyone has been as even-handed as yourself.

 

Despite the fact that he owes me £20, to be fair I quite enjoy Clinton Heylin’s stuff probably more than any other Dylan author. The books are quite fun and often have a bit of new information. I don’t know him that well but I’ve obviously had some personal dealings with him in the past over the years. He’s really not a bad guy.

I also like his ‘Bootleg’ book quite a lot and still sometimes go back to ‘Rain Unravelled Tales’ from back in the day.

 

There is some truth to that sentence, some do prefer the fully NY versions. I'm not sure Heylin made that comment either. It might not be a quote from the book.

Relax and float down stream.

 

I think he made the wrong choice, personally.
I think the New York performances are better and the changes break up the flow of the album for me. I’d rather it were all New York or all Minnesota. If I want to listen to ‘Blood On The Tracks’, then Scorpio’s ‘New York Sessions’ bootleg from 1998 is my go-to. It might still be after the forthcoming release.

 

I can't get too worked up over him. When it comes to his opinions, or the opinions of most authors/researchers for that matter, I'm just not that interested. I'm genuinely interested in what my fellow forum dwellers have to say, perhaps because we're all at the table together, reading and reacting to one another, all on equal footing.

 

I think Heylin's book about the Gospel years needed a good edit. There were huge swathes of text that were just verbatim stage raps from Dylan that were finally not all that enlightening - very repetitive. But lots of good stuff in the book too.

I like my music writers to take strong positions on material. It's why I like Greil Marcus so much.

 

That or the "Blood on the Tapes" (earlier boot) release will get you the NY acetate.

There is something about the way the Minn version of "Tangled" skips along that says several things, and those thing are: hit single, lead track on a major hit album, and the promise of more melodic type content. I'm not going to say why that is so important, but it is. Well, I will anyway. Like the way "There Goes Rhymin" begins, and states New Hit Album!!! It's A&R work, and promotional work done for them by these changes. It still would have been a major Dylan album, perhaps a slow burner, rather than slammed right outta the gate and onto national radio. It's a slightly more commercial sound. Nothing wrong with that imo.

 

I needed to comment again, sorry.
The changes make the album fully realized in a way, more breath, more textures and dynamics. You can call that breaking the flow. You can also say Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark has it's flow chopped up by bringing in full band rather than sticking to demos - which would have been more like Blue, also a stunning album. "Court" has those musical textures, melodic sensibilities that pushed it up to be Joni's best selling album. See what adding color and variations to the over-all feel can do.

Dylan really needed that smash hit career changing lifetime event of an album at this time. Those additions helped that happen.

 

Strong words. I personally don't like Heylin at all but I respect his right to write anything about Dylan and sell books on it if people want to read it. It's also not a critic's job to endorse or agree with any artists' work. The job of a critic is to put an artist's work into some context and hopefully to evaluate the work, as objectively as possible, within that context and against other artists' similar work. If Heylin insists Dylan got it wrong, then Heylin is right as a critic to say this. We might not always agree with the artists or the critics. One case (album) in point for the critics judgement over the artist might be "Infidels". Few critics believe Dylan chose the "right" songs for the released album. I wholeheartedly agree with the dissenting voices.

 

I wholeheartedly disagree with the dissenting voices. The artist is his own context. No one has the right to re-contextualize the artist's art out of existence. Nothing strangles creativity more effectively than everybody telling an artist how to conduct his art.

If Dylan did what his critics told him to do there'd be no Blood On the Tracks in the first place.

All I can say is, in November we'll have it both ways. Dylan's earlier sessions to go along with the classic and profoundly influential album. There will be no reason for anyone to condemn his muse and his choices. He's giving us his all, once again.

 

When the set arrives, I'll dig out my late father's AKAI cassette deck and a C90 tape. Pick out the best version of each song and reconstruct the album, with some analogue warmth. Actually I might do this with the BS11 Basements too.

 

I also wholeheartedly agree and disagree. I think ...

Blood on the Tracks is perfection. The New York version is a different kind of perfection.

Do you like my new avatar? Mighty Quinn by Manfred Mann.

 

you can't wholeheartedly agree AND disagree. You could halfheartedly do each, though!

 

Not keen on that album either.

Peoples is different, innit fam?