Bob Dylan - Shadows In The Night (Part 2)

Great post there HR, thanks! I say there, has this alternate version of Why Try to Change Me Now turned up on any modern era CD sets that you know of.

I know Sinatra recorded the song twice: once for the 1952 Columbia B-side to the single Birth of the Blues; and again for the 1959 album No Once Cares. They are both STUNNING but I wonder if Bob hearkens back to the Columbia B-side?

BTW, thanks to "Shadows in the Night" I've bought about 6 Sinatra CDs in the last 3 weeks. God help me!

I urge anyone interested in Sinatra to seek out Bob F's MANY informative posts!

 

I asked about it in this other thread, I'm sure someone around here knows.
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/sinatra-on-columbia.270886/page-2#post-11978134

 

Yahoo news had a blurb about Daniel Lanois suggesting that Shadows in the Night is part 1 of a 2-part project. He said that Bob let him listen to 21 tracks and that the remainder of the tracks might make up a second album. I knew that he'd recorded 21 tracks, but am I correct in saying this is the first semi-official suggestion that there might be a part 2?

https://screen.yahoo.com/bob-dylan-recorded-another-album-084420831.html

 

Rolling Stone magazine had the same report (see post #197). I say - Bring it on, Bob.

 

Anyone want to guess what other Sinatra songs Dylan recorded in the sessions? I'm guessing Laura, Maybe You'll Be There and Lonely Town, among others.

 

I hope he did this one:

 

This is the best quote of this entire thread!

 

Thank you, I appreciate that very much.

 

SITN = penultimate songs "Where are You?" and "What'll I Do?"
Oh Mercy = (almost) penultimate songs = "What Good am I?' and "What is it You Wanted?"

A nice kind of almost-synchronicity.

 

Got my vinyl yesterday. Wow, what an album. I just LOVE Dylan's interpretation of these songs. Beautiful and touching atmosphere.

The pressing is also very good.

 

A prelude:

I anticipated hearing this album from the start, if only because it is Bob Dylan. As reviews started rolling in, I was a bit incredulous. Surely, it could be good, but one of his best? As I waited for my copy (bundled with the latest Led Zeppelin remaster, and thus meaning I'd not get it until a few weeks after release) I saw the reviews of members here, and I thought maybe it would be something special after all. My copy arrived on Friday, and I wanted to wait until the right time to soak it in. Waiting for the bus this cold March morning, shielding myself from the snow with my umbrella, I decided it was the perfect moment.

And so I put it on.

As I'm A Fool To Want You started, I realized what a treat I was in for. I was not even through the first song and yet I was ready to declare this one of Dylan's best albums. By the time Autumn Leaves finished, I was starting to get emotional. It was a good thread of melancholy, and even Stay With Me struck me again, even after hearing it live a few months ago. And then the mood lightened. Things turned more romantic, the music a bit smoother.

Dylan's voice sounded stronger here than in recent history. I don't want to say "better," or to discredit his singing on Tempest. But hearing him up close, breathing into the mic, it was almost surprising how good he sounded.

I thought of my father as the songs went on. These songs fall into the category of "my father's music." The funny thing is, he's not at all from the generation of them. By the time he was aware of him, Sinatra was already on Reprise. But it was not the then contemporary records that took my father in, it was the old Columbia years (Love Is A Kick being his first dive into it.) I didn't think I'd want to share Dylan's album with my father. But now I'm reconsidering it.

Finally, What'll I Do finished, and That Lucky Old Sun started. I welled up a little bit again, that yearnful feeling coming through again. All in all, this was a short album, but it was a half hour full of emotion.

Dylan really brought out something in each of these songs, and really put in something too. This wasn't simply him taking his opportunity to cover some of his favorite Sinatra numbers. When modern artists try to do this material, I usually find it cheesy. I've got no need for the Harry Connick Jr.s and Michael Buble's. Even though McCartney doing his Kisses On The Bottom was fun, it didn't resonate much with me (and I could never think to play that one for my father, as he is not at all interested in anything connected to Diana Krall.) But Dylan's does not sound like any of these. It doesn't sound like any modern interpretation I've heard of the era. It sounds like it was dug from the bowels of the 1950's, long since aged, but still powerful.

Shadows In The Night is a great album, and really and truly stands among Dylan's best.

 

Great post.

 

Excellent observation, and I'm telling you, the two albums remind me of each other in some weird way.

 

THIS is the post of the thread so far, IMO. Thanks, Rev. Those kinds of rivers can run deep.

I remember at the Sinatra 80th birthday tribute, Harry Connick Jr. (who seems like a nice guy, and is a decent piano player) "crooned" a song, but Frank didn't seem too impressed. But he appeared to like Springsteen's interpretation of Angel Eyes, and paid rapt attention to Dylan. IIRC, Frank specifically requested that he sing Restless Farewell, not exactly considered one of Dylan's greatest hits, but one that Frank evidently liked and found appropriate for the occasion. Too bad Frank never recorded it himself -- that would have been interesting.

 

Have you heard 5.1>stereo downmix of Love & Theft? A significant improvement over the CD.
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/80453

 

Supposed recorded songs:
All Or Nothing At All
All The Way
Autumn Leaves
Come Rain Or Come Shine
Didn’t He Ramble
Full Moon And Empty Arms
I’m A Fool To Want You
It Had To Be You
Maybe You’ll Be There
Melancholy Baby
On A Little Street In Singapore
Polkadots and Moonbeams
Skylark
Some Enchanted Evening
Stay With Me
Stormy Weather
That Lonely Old Sun
That Old Black Magic
The Night They Called It A Day
What’ll I Do
Why Try To Change Me Now
Young At Heart

 

For what it's worth, I recognize a lot more of the rumored titles than I did of the actual album titles. (My old man recognized everything except Stay With Me, which he listened to the Sinatra version for the first time in his life with me, off my phone. He said he recognized the album, Sinatra '65, but never owned it. He never went out of his way for the Reprise material.)

 

"Melancholy Baby" should be "MY Melancholy Baby"
"That Lonely Old Sun" should be "That LUCKY Old Sun"

Sinatra never sang these:

"Didn’t He Ramble"
"Skylark"

 

BTW,
This tribute was November 19, 1995. (THANKS TO BOB F.)

Then Bob performed the song once again in 1998.

Yeah, I can see Sinatra digging this song:

"Oh a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract, and bother me
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face
And the dust of rumors covers me.
But if the arrow is straight
And the point is slick
It can pierce through dust no matter how thick
So I’ll make my stand
And remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn."

 

The date was November 19, 1995, a few weeks before Sinatra's 80th birthday. (He died May 14, 1998.)

 

Noted, thanks Bob!

There was supposed to have been an official release of the Dylan number, but I don't believe that happened.

Interesting to hear this now -- with the perspective of Shadows in the Night.

 

It's worth mentioning that that list of songs was published on a Dylan site last OCTOBER - months before the Shadows tracklisting was published, so the source is likely quite good.

An altogether different (though often reliable) source claims that Bob did a duet with Lana Del Rey on Something Stupid - take that as you will, although initial rumors said that 23 tracks were done, and that would make a total of ... well, twenty-three.

 

Worth noting that Dylan's 1998 performance was just a week after Sinatra's passing, and was at Bob's first LA gig of that tour. I always assumed he did it there because that was Frank's home in later years - am I correct on that?

Ironically, I was at the first Dylan show following Sinatra's death and we were wondering if he might pay tribute. It would appear he held off until he was in a more appropriate place.

 

MrJinks and Bob F, Trying to remember my facts.

Dylan’s performance May 21 1998 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion was the last time Bob has played “Restless Farewell”. I was in attendance. It was the week after Sinatra had passed away. This was the tour Dylan did with Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell and Van performed, I believe. “That’s Life”.

 

Van had covered "That's Life" quite recently (1996) on one of his albums.