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

That's not a very good incentive!

 

Yeah, the Nashville disinfo stuck out like a sore thumb, and then I, too, was scratching my head when he said that Tea For the Tillerman was done at Sound 80. Seems like a nice guy, though.

Also, I think I found the Bob Plays Mandolin story that I was trying to remember earlier, after DeeThomaz raised the issue; quoting from an Uncut magazine article (is this taken from the Gill/Odegard book?:

Almost the final touch was a high mandolin part Dylan wanted to add to “If You See Her…” for a sound “like birds’ wings flapping”. The mandolin player, Peter Ostroushko, refused to play so high up its neck, claiming such notes wouldn’t ring true. Dylan snatched it from him and played it perfectly himself.

In a closed thread, member @David Powell added another quote from the Gill/Odegard book about Buddy Cage's experience overdubbing the steel guitar during the NY sessions (which I'm still trying to untangle and get straight in my mind)

Dylan's ''Meet Me In The Morning'' an underappreciated gem.


In Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard's book A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks pedal steel guitarist Buddy Cage revealed that Dylan used a little intimidation trick on him when he was brought in to overdub his part on "Meet Me in the Morning". After six or seven interruptered takes, Cage was having trouble trying to figure out what Dylan wanted him to play. As he recounted:

"Then finally the door to the control room opened, and Dylan comes striding out, walks straight up to my steel, and sticks the toes of his cowboy boots under my pedal bar. I don't know why he did that -- maybe for emphasis. Anyway, he does that and says, 'The first five verses is singin' -- you don't play; the last verse is playin' -- you play!' plunks his toes out from under my pedal steel bar, turns, and strides back into the control room."

Cage was embarrassed and angry at that point by Dylan's humiliating treatment of him in front of Phil Ramone, Mick Jagger and John Hammond Sr., who were in the control room. So Cage followed Dylan's instructions on the next take, and when it came time to turn it up on the last verse, fired up, he cranked out an agressive solo. Knowing he'd nailed it, he went to the control room ready to confront Dylan, only to find:

"When I busted into the control room, he [Dylan] was laughin' his a** off! I looked at Ramone, and he was shakin' his head, sayin', 'That was beautiful!' John Hammond said, 'Man, that was unbelievable!' I just looked at Dylan and said, ' **** you!' and he just laughed -- he said, 'Well, we got it!'"

As the authors added: "The whole thing had been a performance, on both sides of the control room window, Dylan's attitude simply a ruse designed to bring the best out of Cage. A risk, maybe, but one he could afford to take."

 

Ugh. Dylan sounds like Doyle from Sling Blade.

 

You've been away far too long, @HominyRhodes !!

(Although, ahem, I did report this incident back on page 56 as part of the ongoing "Percy's Pictorial Guide to BOTT".). More to come.

 

In July, 2002 Andrew Muir published the second issue of "Judas! magazine" (later to be called "Judas!"). In it was Clinton's lengthy interview with Ellen Bernstein. He prefaces the interview in the magazine thus:-

"...I met Ellen at her LA office on a bright spring day...."

Andy has since made most of the "Judas!" articles available online. Here is the interview (it starts on page 31). If it is included in the liner notes for "More Blood, More Tracks" I'll eat my cowboy hat..


http://www.a-muir.co.uk/Dylan/Judas/J2.pdf






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I guess that must be the case then, though it just sounds so simple...

So does this look right for the keyboard parts?

Tangled Up In Blue: Inhofer - organ (I think, it's very faint)
You're A Big Girl Now: Inhofer - piano
Idiot Wind: Inhofer - piano, Dylan - organ overdub
Lily, Rosemary & The Jack Of Hearts: Inhofer - organ
If You See Her, Say Hello: Inhofer - organ

If there are two mandolin parts on If You See Her, then they are panned to the same place in the stereo spectrum so are not discernible individually. The above quote suggests Dylan maybe only overdubbed the ending.

One problem I have with this story is that I don't think any of the mandolin parts are played 'so high up its neck'. Mandolin sounds very high even at the normal chord positions. I'll get my mandolin out later and try to determine what/where the parts are played. It sounds to me though that it doesn't go above the 5th fret.

 

Great stuff.

One little titbit from the interview:

"He would take mandolin lessons, with David Grisman, when he was up there."

 

I'd also like to hear the two and a half minute edited version of the song where everything happens far more quickly and it's all over and dusted before it really starts; I really think the album version, as recorded, is the weakest "long story song" on a Dylan album the other side of Brownsville Girl. Oh, wait, there's Hurricane.......Joey......the 70's weren't so good for these type of Dylan songs, were they?

 

There often seems to be memory mis-steps in this business we all like so much. It'll be interesting (if not enlightening) to read the (new) memories of the players in this book when it is published in October:-

 

I like 'em all

Lily is one that I've come to like a lot more. Maybe slightly out of place on BOTT, but great nonetheless.

 

I'm hoping we get to hear the long version of "Highlands" someday.

 

I'm listening to it right now. Well, to tell the truth, I actually started it on October 14th 1997 and it's still playing. It's stunning in so many ways; so many verses though. He apparently started writing it in 1962. No wonder it took another 35 years to finish!

 

Don't you think "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue" has a certain......no, no, you're right, there's no incentive there.

 

Ooops, a glaring lack of due diligence on my part, very sorry! That older thread actually came up during a Go_gle search. (I should probably get a copy of the Gill/Odegard book.)

The subjects of Buddy Cage's overdubs and Paul Griffin's organ parts, and why they were included in some of the mixes, but eliminated from others, still has me baffled. I think both players added some beautiful touches -- maybe Dylan thought they might distract listeners, and lessen the impact of his own searing performances?

 

If the new Bootleg Series is indeed BOTT, then I think it should be called Tale Of Two Cities or even Tracks Between Two Cities

 

I feel the exact same. The new York version of idiot wind is one of the greatest performances of all time in my opinion . Such an intense performance . It's one of the songs that turned me on to how amazing dylan is

tell tale signs is one of my all time favorite sets. I removed being blown away by the quality of the material . I could not get enough of it and listened to it every day for months . I would kill for something like an 8 or 10 ten disk set . I love the never sending tour with 97 to 2003 being one of my favorite live dylan periods . A disk of covers from the never ending tour is an amazing idea. His performance of end of the innocence on s official release is high on my wish list. London calling is another one.

 

Bootleg Series Vol. 14: Sins Of The Yakuza - The Complete "Love & Theft" Sessions.

I'd take this before any Bromberg, Supper Club (Helium Phase), UTRS outs, AGAIBTY / WGW outs, further Oh Mercy / TOOM outs.

I'd probably take a deep Infidels outtake set before anything else though!

 

My current wishlist (assuming BS14 is what we think it will be):

1. Infidels Sessions (including other mid-80's unreleased highlights)
2. Rundown Tapes
3. The Bromberg Sessions
4. 1978 Tour Revisited
5. More Tales, More Signs: TTS 2
7. The Complete Oh Mercy Sessions/The Complete Time Out Of Mind Sessions (completely on the fence as to which I'd prefer, and they might pair together nicely as The Lanois Collaboration).
8. The Folk Years (Complete 61-64 studio sessions, NY Carnegie Hall '63 & Town Hall '63 at the very least)
9. The Rolling Thunder Revue 75&76
10. The Never Ending Tour
11. Pre-Columbia "Coffee House Years" 60-61 Collection.
12. Supper Club

Obviously some of these concepts could easily be combined together (Supper Club could be folded into Bromberg, TTS2, or NET for instance). Can't lose really, as even the concepts towards the bottom of my list seem worthwhile to me.

 

This is a fantastic list and looks very similar to my own wish list.

I could also see a great Nashville Skyline and John Wesley Harding set. At one time, Nashville Skyline was considered to be John Wesley Harding part 2. I think the old Wild West vibe of JWH would pair nicely with the Hank Williams inspired tales of NS. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid could also be included. 2019 is the 50th year and I would think the Dylan camp would very much want to protect these as many of the master tapes where in the Clark Eslin collection for years.

 

Can’t believe I forgot JWH! I’d definitely bity be up for your NS/JWH concept! I’ll have to revise my list!

 

You're singin' my song -- all of the material you mention would be very, very important to me, and I would hate to see any of it fall off the radar. The JWH sessions, the full Skyline/Cash/Portrait sessions, incl. "Running" & "My Previous Life," plus "Blowin' In The Wind" from 1970, etc. etc.

And copies of all these Tulsa documents, reproduced in hardbound volumes, would look nice in some floor-to-ceiling bookcases in my living room...


Bob Dylan Archive | Finding Aid | Bob Dylan Papers
(revised March 2017)

Series VII: Recording Session Paperwork
Box 30 Folders 01.01-01.09
– CBS Records Recording Studios Tape Data Sheets, 1961-70, master tape boxes 1-177. Annotated pages listing CBS’ holdings of Dylan’s “master tapes”. Each box is given its own separate sheet with information pertaining to song title(s), box number, identifying matrix numbers, track numbers, etc.

Box 31 Folders 01.01-01.10
–CBS Records Recording Studios TapeData Sheets, 1961-70, master tape boxes 178-396. Annotated pages listing CBS’ holdings of Dylan’s “master tapes”. Each box is given its own separate sheet with information pertaining to song title(s), box number, identifying matrix numbers, track numbers, etc.

Box 45 Folders 01.01-01.05
-Session reports, artist contract cards, American Federation of Musician phonograph recording contracts, and related correspondence, c. 1960-1976.

Box 45 Folder 02.01 –Box 47 Folder 01.10
-American Federation of Musicians union session reports, related documents, and correspondence.
These reports document recording dates, song(s) recorded, and the musicians, studios, engineers,
and producers present at the sessions that produced Dylan’s albums and singles.

 

Personally, I'd like those two bodies of work to be released separately, with Oh Mercy released first. A double-package would be fine, too, I suppose, but something tells me that Dylan wouldn't want Lanois to steal any of the spotlight away from him.

 

On the contrary, my sincere apologies for a somewhat crass follow-up comment; it wasn't meant in the way it reads. I would have removed the post this morning, but it timed out. As penance I've spent the afternoon standing on my head in the garden...

 

Seriously, to have these upon my shelf would be almost as important as having the music from the sessions they document. I think it was a travesty that Big Blue didn't have these included in a formal book; I'd have paid double to have them.

As posted earlier, this is the only AFM sheet I know of for BOTT:-

 

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