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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Dave Gilmour's Cat, Nov 2, 2016.

  1. citizensmurf

    citizensmurf Ambient postpunk will never die

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    Calgary
    I agree. If an almost universally panned album like Self-Portrait can get it's own BS release, surely Infidels is a no-brainer. And it's probably likely that Dylan will halt "Blind Willie McTell" from being included just to infuriate us all over again.
     
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  2. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

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    Exactly! Sadly, there is no live concept that could realistically fold-in John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline.
     
  3. fallbreaks

    fallbreaks Forum Resident


    The January 68 Woody Guthrie Tribute show...? Nah probably not. Although I'd love to have both sets from the show, and JWH and NS outtakes.
     
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  4. shadow blaster

    shadow blaster Forum Resident

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    No that's true. Regarding JWH, I am now losing hope that we will ever get the outtakes. Cannot really see them doing this if they don't copyright protect them this year. And that seems unlikely to happen, alas.....
     
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  5. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

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  6. shadow blaster

    shadow blaster Forum Resident

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  7. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

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    Bergenfield, NJ
    Well, I'll continue to lobby for an "Eighties Bob" set that covers 1983-1988, but certainly Infidels is one of the albums that could sustain a deep-dive BS set of its own.
     
  8. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

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    In The Felony Room
    Yep. But hard to argue it wasn't very relevant to a Self-Portrait themed set. Plus I've enjoyed listening to it for the last 4 years, so I'm glad they did it that way!
     
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  9. shadow blaster

    shadow blaster Forum Resident

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    I certainly agree! I really like that concert.
     
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  10. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

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    Testify, brother. There is gold in them hills.
     
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  11. LonesomeDayBlues

    LonesomeDayBlues Forum Resident

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    I would love this too! Eighties Bob has Bob rocking out bit more.
     
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  12. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

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    In The Felony Room
    Also seemingly a lot of undocumented studio material. It's kinda the black hole of Dylan knowledge.
     
  13. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

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    Bergenfield, NJ
    That's why we hang onto that one 1986 Rolling Stone article like it's the Dead Sea Scrolls. Here's the intro of it, for those who haven't memorized it:

    It is just past midnight, and Dylan is standing in the middle of a crowded, smoke-laden recording studio tucked deep into the remote reaches of Topanga Canyon. He is wearing brown-tinted sunglasses, a sleeveless white T-shirt, black vest, black jeans, frayed black motorcycle boots and fingerless black motorcycle gloves, and he puffs hard at a Kool while bobbing his head rhythmically to the colossal blues shuffle that is thundering from the speakers above his head. Sitting on a sofa a few feet away, also nodding their heads in rapt pleasure, are T-Bone Burnett and Al Kooper – old friends and occasional sidemen of Dylan. Several other musicians – including Los Lobos guitarist Cesar Rosas, R&B saxophonist Steve Douglas and bassist James Jamerson Jr., the son of the legendary Motown bass player – fill out the edges of the room. Like everyone else, they are smiling at this music: romping, bawdy, jolting rock & roll – the sort of indomitable music a man might conjure if he were about to lay claim to something big.

    The guitars crackle, the horns honk and wail, the drums and bass rumble and clamor wildly, and then the room returns to silence. T-Bone Burnett, turning to Kooper, seems to voice a collective sentiment. "Man," he says, "that gets it."

    "Yeah," says Kooper. "So dirty."

    Everyone watches Dylan expectantly. For a moment, he appears to be in some distant, private place. "Subterranean," is all he says, still smiling. "Positively subterranean," he adds, running his hand through his mazy brown hair, chuckling. Then he walks into an adjoining room, straps on his weatherworn Fender guitar, tears off a quick, bristling blues lick and says, "Okay, who wants to play lead on this? I broke a string."

    Dylan has been like this all week, turning out spur-of-the-moment, blues-infused rock & roll with a startling force and imagination, piling up instrumental tracks so fast that the dazed, bleary-eyed engineers who are monitoring the sessions are having trouble cataloging all the various takes – so far, well over twenty songs, including gritty R&B, Chicago-steeped blues, rambunctious gospel and raw-toned hillbilly forms. In part, Dylan is working fast merely as a practical matter: rehearsals for his American tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers start in only a couple of weeks, and though it hardly seems possible in this overmeticulous, high-tech recording era, he figures he can write, record, mix and package a new studio LP in that allotted term. "You see, I spend too much time working out the sound of my records these days," he had told me earlier. "And if the records I'm making only sell a certain amount anyway, then why should I take so long putting them together? . . . I've got a lot of different records inside me, and it's time just to start getting them out."​
     
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  14. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

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    In The Felony Room
    My first instinct was to cite "Yonder Comes Sin" to suggest Dylan doesn't care about these things anymore. But it's hard for me to explain the absence of "Let's Keep It Between Us" on BS13 except to suggest it might have been personally vetoed by him. Who knows for sure? But it would seem to have been a very natural inclusion on Trouble No More, even if the lyrics are more secular in nature. Let's hope Heylin's hope for a Rundown-themed set comes true eventually.
     
  15. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

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    Bergenfield, NJ
    Maybe it was just too "secular" for this release; after all, we're not getting any new versions of "Angelina" either -- a far superior song, imo, and a bigger omission.
     
  16. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

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    In The Felony Room
    Yep. You nailed why I think Heylin's Rundown concept might be very worthwhile.
     
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  17. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    Anyhoo, since this is back to being the "anything goes" thread for future Bootleg Series releases, I'm going to repost my speculations from the shuttered Vol. 15 thread. Someone had lamented about the lack of a "Coffeehouse Bob" collection, and I responded thusly:

    The Dylan source has only mentioned a "coffeehouse" Bootleg Series once, so we don't really know how close that one is to the top of the pile. I'd look at the ones that get mentioned more than once, like BOTT, Rolling Thunder, and the Supper Club shows. If I had to predict future releases, based on previous patterns and mixing it up marketing-wise, here's how I might proceed:

    2008: BS08 -- Tell Tale Signs -- 2nd big "career overview" set after the very first Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3; "Fan Wish List" set #1; failed prototype of a super deluxe set (1989-2005)

    2009: BS09 -- The Witmark Demos -- a "boring but necessary" set, perhaps the last of its kind (i.e., 2 CDs in a slipcase, no expanded versions) (1960s) [NOTE: A Supper Club release was bumped in favor of this one]

    2013: BS10 -- Another Self Portrait -- a new phase of Bootleg Series, "Era Revival" project #1 (Country Bob), 1st super deluxe (1969-1971)

    2014: BS11 -- The Basement Tapes -- "Fan Wish List" set #2, partly driven by Copyright concerns; 2nd (larger) super deluxe (1960s)

    2015: BS12 -- The Cutting Edge -- "Fan Wish List" set #3, partly driven by Copyright concerns; 3rd super deluxe; 1st mega deluxe of complete 1965-66 sessions (1960s)

    2016: Live 1966 -- 1st huge tour box; entirely driven by Copyright concerns (1960s) -- Fifth straight release from 1960s; will probably avoid for awhile

    2017: BS13 -- Trouble No More -- "Era Revival" set #2 (Gospel Bob), 4th (and larger) super deluxe (1979-1981)

    2018: BS14 -- Blood On The Tracks and Desire w/ Rolling Thunder -- "Fan Wish List" set #4; four CDs of outtakes and two complete shows, one from each leg; 5th super deluxe; 2nd mega deluxe of complete BOTT sessions (1970s)

    20xx: Live 1975-1976 -- 2nd huge tour box, not sure if it would be "extensive" or "complete" (1970s) -- Third straight release from the 1970s; time for a change?

    20xx: BS15 -- Coffeehouse / Folk Bob -- "smaller" in scale after several massive sets; highlights of live stuff from 1961-1963, with complete Carnegie Hall and Town Hall; official release of original cancelled live album from 1963 for RSD (1960s)

    20xx: BS16 -- Infidels / Empire / KOL / DITG -- part "Era Revival" set #3 (Eighties Bob) and part "Fan Wish List" set #5 (Infidels sessions!); a more modest 4-CD deluxe; 3rd mega deluxe of complete Infidels sessions (1980s)

    20xx: Live 1974 -- 3rd huge tour box; will need to be released by 2024 if Copyright concerns are still in effect (1970s)

    20xx: BS17 -- UTRS / Bromberg / Acoustic / Misc. / Supper Club -- part "Era Revival" set #4 (Nineties Bob) and part "Fan Wish List" set #6 (Supper Club!); 3-4 CDs of studio, two live "teaser" discs of NET, and Supper Club DVD; 6th super deluxe (1987-1996)

    20xx: Live NET -- 4th huge tour box; not sure how to handle massive era; maybe 1 CD per year of highlights; maybe 10-20 standout shows; maybe Dylan Inc. caves and sets up shop at Nugs.net or similar. Going to be massive, no matter what. (1987-2000+) -- Time for Phase Three of the Bootleg Series?

    20xx: BS18 -- Complete Freewheelin' Sessions -- Back to the '60s for one final big dig; all Freewheelin' sessions covered in chronological order (not "every second" though), interspersed with live and radio performances; 7th super deluxe (1960s)

    20xx: BS19 -- The Soundtrack Sessions -- 3rd big "career overview" set -- all of Bob's soundtrack work collected, including stuff from Don't Look Back, Eat The Document, Renaldo & Clara, Masked & Anonymous, etc.; 8th super deluxe (1965-2000+)

    20xx: BS20 -- Complete Time Out Of Mind Sessions -- "Fan Wish List" set #7; need something "big" here after a few "niche" releases; all phases of sessions covered + 3 CDs of live highlights from 1997-2000, if not already covered above; 9th super deluxe; 4th mega deluxe w/ "every second recorded" (1990s)

    OK, I stopped at Bootleg Series 20 -- but believe me, I could go on. I didn't even include stuff that's actually been teased by The Source (1978 tour, 1986 tour, Oh Mercy sessions), Clinton Heylin's wish list (Rundown era), or my own personal wish list (JWH sessions, goddammit!!). IMPORTANT NOTE: Before people start bookmarking this so they can PM me every year and say "WRONG!" -- I'm not trying to predict the future of the Bootleg Series. I'm merely saying this is how *I* might proceed -- and I purposely didn't list any years after 2018, because any number of events (including new albums, Copyright releases, the continuing decline of physical media and, inevitably and unavoidably, Bob's passing someday) can and will change plans. Jeff Rosen seems to be letting the Bootleg Series develop organically, so I don't think he has a whiteboard in his office that says, "2018: Rolling Thunder; 2019: Coffeehouse; 2020: Complete 'Wiggle Wiggle' tape," etc. And that's probably a GOOD thing -- keeping it loose gives them the freedom to take chances and do whatever inspires the passion to keep these things coming.

    So this is just me trying to make sense of it all. I'm assuming that a few "rules" are being followed -- like not lingering in one decade for too long, not issuing consecutive "Era Revival" sets, and spreading out the "Fan Wish List" sets throughout the campaign. Given those rules, and given that the Bootleg Series seems to exist on a fast track since 2013, I think that the Bootleg Series **COULD** look **SOMETHING** like this over the next 10-12 years. [Insert all caveats and pre-denials here]
     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2017
  18. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    And, for good measure, here's my collection of "official" hints, expanded since I last posted it here on page 2! These are all from Rolling Stone articles:

    COFFEEHOUSE BOB: "We've always wanted to do one of pre-album stuff where Bob is just singing songs in Greenwich Village coffeehouses," says the Dylan source. (September 2015)

    BLOOD ON THE TRACKS: "Sets for Blood on the Tracks and Blonde on Blonde will eventually come out." (July 2013)

    "We don't know exactly what the next Bootleg Series is going to be," says a source close to the Dylan camp. "There's a couple of things on our minds, but the natural next one is Blood on the Tracks." (January 2014)

    "We're thinking we'll revisit the 1975 era and Blood on the Tracks," says the source. "The unheard stuff from there is crazy. You can hear the first day of recordings before they put all that echo on. It's amazing." (August 2014)

    "We'd also love to revisit Blood on the Tracks, Infidels, Oh Mercy and the gospel albums." (September 2015)

    The only other set under major consideration is one that chronicles the 1974 Blood on the Tracks sessions. "Personally I think the gospel set is more interesting," says a source close to the Dylan camp. "Blood on the Tracks is similar to The Cutting Edge in what you're hearing is different version of the same thing. You're hearing process." (October 2016)

    There has been talk for years about a Blood on the Tracks box set that would include unheard solo acoustic demos from the first day of sessions with producer Phil Ramone, but that might get folded into the Rolling Thunder collection. "It's just a two-year period of Blood on the Tracks and Desire," says the source. "It's precipitous [at the moment] because we usually like to see how it all goes together." (September 2017)

    ROLLING THUNDER: We asked our source about the documentary of Dylan's 1975/76 Rolling Thunder Revue, which has been in development for years. "We’re still working on it," says the source. "I hope it comes out in the next couple of years." (August 2010)

    Another project that's been in the works for years is a documentary about The Rolling Thunder Revue … "We're going to keep mum on that for the time being," says the source. "We have no clue when it's going to come out. Maybe this year, but we're just hoping it happens sometime in our lifetimes." (January 2014)

    A documentary about Dylan's 1975/76 Rolling Thunder Revue tour is also in the works. Much footage was shot for the 1978 film Renaldo and Clara, and over the years, many of the surviving members of the tour have been interviewed. "You'll see that sooner rather than later," says the source. "I'm hoping in two years." (October 2016)

    Nothing is definite, but next year could finally see the release of a long-awaited documentary about the famed Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975–76 that will be paired with a box set of music from the era. "It's a great period and there's so much music that was so well-recorded," says a source close to the Dylan camp. "I think that'll be a great companion piece to the film. We have incredible, incredible stuff. Hopefully it'll all come out next year." (September 2017)

    BOOTLEG SERIES DVDs: After [a Rolling Thunder documentary] does finally come out, the Dylan camp plans on releasing a series of Bootleg Series DVDs. "We'll put out the [1976] Hard Rain TV special," the source says. "We have other TV special we'll put out after that." [NOTE: I assume they meant "specials" (plural) rather than "special."] (August 2010)

    1978 TOUR: Dylan's 1978 world tour has also been much-maligned, largely because the Live At Budokan album captured a very early show before the band really gelled. "There was so much going on with that big band that Bob didn't always need to give off that much energy," says the source. "But they kept doing the show and it got better and better. Unfortunately, somebody erased most of the tapes. It's very frustrating. We had soundboards of all of them. We do have a couple now, though." (January 2014)

    1986 TOUR: Another professionally filmed concert in the vault is a 1986 Sydney, Australia stop on Dylan's tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was broadcast on HBO and released on VHS, but it's been out of print for decades. "That's a good shows," says the source. "Though it's really 1980s Bob, with the black leather vest and whatnot. He plays 'In the Garden,' which is a very unusual song and Bob puts a lot of passion into it. Maybe we'll release that someday too." (January 2014)

    INFIDELS / OH MERCY: "We'd also love to revisit Blood on the Tracks, Infidels, Oh Mercy and the gospel albums." (September 2015)

    SUPPER CLUB: A CD/DVD set of Dylan's famous 1993 stand at New York's Supper Club was nearly released (in 2010) instead of the Witmark Demos. "I decided I liked the story of the Witmark Demos better than the Supper Club," says the source. "That will definitely come out on CD and DVD sometime soon, though." (August 2010)

    [F]uture chapters of the Bootleg Series might chronicle Dylan's 1993 acoustic shows at New York's Supper Club (which were professionally filmed) and some sort of examination of the Never Ending Tour. (September 2017)

    NEVER-ENDING TOUR: [F]uture chapters of the Bootleg Series might chronicle [...] some sort of examination of the Never Ending Tour. The latter is a particularly challenging project since it involves over 2,800 concerts between 1988 and the present day. Dylan's road crew has been recording shows dating back to the beginning of the Never Ending Tour, but the quality of them up until the mid-2000's is less than stellar. "Some of them are recorded on DAT or other formats of the moment," says the source. "Who knew they wouldn't last? For a lot of years during the 1990s, there were these two fans and they would go and each would wear recording equipment in their hats and they'd sit in different sections so that the stuff would be stereo. Those tapes sound better than our board tapes." (September 2017)

    LIVE DOWNLOADS: In recent years, many artists have started offering their fans recordings of every single concert. Nugs.net – which facilitates this service for Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Phish, Metallica and many others – have approached Dylan's team without any luck. "We're not big believers in the live download the ways those guys are doing it," says the source. "People like it and we've thought about it for a lot of years, but we just don't know." [...] "In regards to front-of-house sound, we don't have the kind of organization that Bruce Springsteen has," says the source. "They have someone doing a separate mix and they're looking at it as a profit center. We focus our energy on what the live sound sounds like. If you get a board tape that someone hasn't done a remix of, you're always disappointed in what they sound like. They're not as electric as the shows themselves. [...]" But couldn't the Dylan organization simply hire a separate sound engineer to go on tour and create a mix for downloads? "That's not where we're at," says the source. "Again, our focus is to try and present a show in the moment to the people. And also, I don't know how many downloads we want to have out there. We're more excited about curating new stuff for people. If people really want to find that stuff, it's all over the Internet." (September 2017)

    =============================

    CLINTON HEYLIN'S WISHLIST:

    RUNDOWN STUDIOS: "I would love to hear a really good set that covers the Rundown [studios] era from 1977 to the end of 1981 that completely bypasses religious material," he says." There's reams and reams of phenomenal covers that they were doing at rehearsals, songs you'd never expect him to do like [Michael Johnson's] 'This Night Won't Last Forever' or 'Sweet Caroline.' These are songs that you think, 'My God, is he really going to try and tackle something like that?' He even does 'Rainbow Connection.' I mean, Jesus ... And they're fantastic." (September 2017)

    MID-80s DEEP DIVE: "Dylan was on a relative creative high in '84 and '85, but it's not reflected in the finished album of Empire Burlesque, which I can barely listen to," he says. "They'd have to go back to the original tapes so they could restore it to something that people can actually appreciate for an Empire Burlesque Bootleg Series. Personally speaking, I wish they'd include Knocked Out Loaded with that. I know they have a very low view of that album, but I suspect there's a bunch of very good stuff there that just simply never got counted. Then there's [1983's] Infidels. Just like in the Rundown period, he recorded something like 16 or 18 covers. He's singing great and has a great band. They could go to town with that one." (September 2017)

    =============================

    BOB'S INVOLVEMENT IN THE BOOTLEG SERIES: "Bob really doesn't take his time going through the vaults," says the source. "He leaves this up to his record company. His focus is on touring, making new music and writing his memoirs." (July 2005)

    GENERAL PHILOSOPHY & DIRECTION OF THE BOOTLEG SERIES: "We're trying to put this stuff out in an intelligent way," says the source. (July 2013)

    On whether to combine a BOTT box with the Rolling Thunder project: "It's precipitous [at the moment] because we usually like to see how it all goes together." (September 2017)

    THE ROLE OF THE TULSA ARCHIVE: At some point in the future, visitors to the University of Tulsa, home to an "endless ocean" of Dylan recordings, should able to hear any recording he made throughout his entire life, both onstage and in the studio. The plan is allow visitors to access it via computer. "There will be some kind of database," says the Dylan source. "Right now, they are struggling with the enormity of what they have to deal with and how to present it." (October 2016)

    CHRONICLES VOL. 2: Simon & Schuster also plans to publish Chronicles: Volume Two, but don't expect Dylan to deliver a manuscript anytime soon. "It'd be wonderful to have it in the next few years," says Rosenthal. "But we'll get it when we get it." (March 2005)

    Less likely to see the light of day: a sequel to Dylan's acclaimed 2004 book Chronicles Vol. 1. "I hope there's another one," the source says. "That's all I can say. If it was planned I'd tell you." (August 2010)

    A question about a possible follow-up to Bob Dylan's 2004 book, Chronicles: Volume One, elicits a laugh and two words: "No comment." (August 2014)
     
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  19. bem

    bem Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indianapolis
    One problem I have with trying to predict where the bootleg series would go is how much they have expanded. Six discs for Basement Tapes, 18 or six or 2 for the Cutting Edge, and now 11 or nine or two for the gospel years.
    This is good instead of the two cds because it opens up so much more possibilities. A BoTT studio set with some live stuff seems very possible instead of just two cds of studio recording highlights. Set 14 might not be the RTR set or Bott, but I hope whatever it is, it continues to be expansive and much broader then the two cd sets.
     
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  20. rmath84

    rmath84 Forum Resident

    I'm probably alone in this but I'd like to see the Fall 2002 piano tour. Bob is an amazing interpreter when he's in the mood and he was great on this tour.

    Edit: Wow, RIP Tom Petty.
     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2017
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  21. Tom Schreck

    Tom Schreck Forum Resident

    In light of today's news, I will reiterate that a Hard to Handle-years BS would be a great addition to the canon. RIP Tom Petty. :(
     
  22. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG]
     
  23. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    Well, we can try to predict the themes of future Bootleg Series sets, but yeah there's no way to know how the scope of each set will evolve. We now have video as an important component of a Bootleg Series (unlike the toss-in DVD on BS5), so that might point the way to a new paradigm, as others have suggested. I bet that Jeff Rosen, in an unguarded moment, might admit that he wishes he could go back to most of the previous BS releases and expand them to "modern" scale.
     
  24. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    Personally, it reminds me of Michael “Gumby”Palin:

    [​IMG]
     
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  25. tstrapac

    tstrapac Forum Resident

    Is there a go-to bootleg from these shows that I should check out?
     

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