Bob Dylan: "Trouble No More 1979 - 1981" - The Bootleg Series Vol. 13

What ROIOs do you recommend for this period?

 

These Bootleg Series Dylan threads never cease to amaze me.. I don't have time to ever read all of what's in them but really these kinds of threads seem to have a life of their own and the amount of information, insight, enthusiasm, and conversation is quite extraordinary. When The Christmas Album and It Must Be Santa got a mention in this BD Gospel Boot Series thread, I couldn't not smile and begin to look forward to listening to that soon too. From the recent 5 albums?!! worth of Sinatra covers back to the Gospel years it appears His Bobness truly has nusic of or in the heart. Will be looking in the other thread and hoping for a sweet deal on a Gospel download while on the way reading along here and looking forward to more audio samples

 

Very jealous of her having seen Leadbelly! She's a treasure, man.

 

She saw Lead Belly in Greenwich Village, AND he came to her college class on Folklore and sang and spoke there too! I once met a lady whose father often hosted Lead Belly at their NYC apartment, as he had a somewhat hard time getting a hotel room.

 

More obscurely, the 8-track of Saved (I don't have it myself) apparently features not one but two slightly different edits of the title track (one a bit shorter than the standard version, one a bit longer).

 

There's two versions of "Saved" on the 8-track?

 

That's my understanding. As I mentioned, I don't actually have one myself. Certainly, 8-tracks in general are notorious for those sort of bizarre variants.

 

I learned about this in Heylin's book. Here's what he wrote (in the entry for the song "Saved"):

“Note: Two versions of the same take were assigned to the eight-track master (yes, they really were still making eight-track cartridges in 1980), but with two distinctly different timings, neither an exact match with the album version (one is 3:42, the other is 4:29, spread across two of the cartridge’s four bands—the one on Saved clocks in at 4:01), making for one ofthe oddest anomalies in Dylan’s official catalog.”

Excerpt From: Heylin, Clinton. “Still On the Road.” Chicago Review Press, 2010-11-17T06:00:00+00:00. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

 

I'm sure the 8-track of Saved was in heavy rotation in many Mustangs & Camaros back in the day!

 

I have to get a copy of this! Thanks for that info.

 

It sounds like it was just part on and part two. Maybe they just repeated a section?

 

But the two parts together total more than double the usual length (8:11 v 4:01). So that's a long 'section' repeat

 

Stranger things have happened. Could be they did it to fill out the tape

 

I've been lurking in this thread for weeks now, and just wanted to say how excited I am for this release. Like may others, I am totally gutted that the sermons will be excised from the songs, and am hoping (PRAYING!) that an enterprising Dylan fan will edit them back in from existing audience (or SBD) recordings and share them in collector's circles. "Solid Rock" from Toronto just isn't the same without the intro. Same with "Carribean Wind". Fingers crossed!

 

I for one have not heard many of the sermons. The only concert I've heard from this era is Toronto. I'm really looking forward to hearing what they're going to offer but I'm really going to miss having those sermons

 

I can't believe people are complaining about not being able to hear the sermons. If someone told me as a kid that I could go to church but it would only be music and singing, and no sermon, I would have given them a giant bear hug.

 

I haven't heard the 8-track of Saved, and from his description it doesn't sound like Heylin has either. Further, the 8-track is not listed on Searching for a Gem as containing any rarities.

Here is a photo of the track listing. Looks to be split, to me, but until someone actually buys one, listens to it, then reports back, we can't say for sure.

 

For anyone missing the sermons, it's probably worth reiterating that the documentary contains actual written sermons spoken by Michael Shannon, intercut with footage of Bob's 1980 performances. This was Dylan's original idea so presumably as a current working recording artist, this is something he expressly proposed and we should respect the artistic intentions here. As some have already suggested, he probably feels a little embarrassed by the apocalyptic raps he delivered back when and felt the way the documentary deals with this is more appropriate and timely.

 

Amen! (no pun).

Kinda like going to school and not getting any homework.

 

Granted, I'm sure there are Bob sermons that are really difficult to sit through (especially for us non-religious types), but certain ones I take as part of the musical performance. Take the Toronto "Solid Rock" for example. The little guitar interjections between the lines, the call and response with the singers, to me they are part of the song. They provide context, and really explain why that song in particular was played with such PASSION. Some of these sermons are more than just stage banter. They are MUSIC.

 

I would have preferred some more actual studio outtakes, instead of those rehearsal versions of songs such as Serve Somebody and Slow Train. There are how many versions of those songs on this set? I also think it was a poor choice to leave out the so called secular material from 1980-81. It is part of the story after all and IMO makes a glaring omission. Another beef I have is I would have preferred a full concert dvd.

Having said all this, I am still thrilled for this set. I have heard very little of the unreleased songs and other tapes, so this is going to be a great listen, I'm sure.

 

Secular material from '81 is from the SOL sessions presumably - is that right? - but what is there from 1980?

 

I concur heartily...not to mention Bob's cool shout out to Jimmy Reed in that Toronto testimonial.

 

The rest of the "Musical Retrospective" tour

 

Well, Let's Keep It Between Us is one song played on the Fall 1980 tour. There may exist a demo or rehearsal version too, I can't remember.