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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by DeeThomaz, Sep 24, 2015.

  1. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    Anyone wish Dylan had retained the horn section for the initial gospel tour? The rehearsals we have are pretty fantastic, but they are clearly presented as highlights. And, in hindsight, would it be playing with fire to add another element when the tour went as well as it did (artistically, I mean. Admittedly, the commercial and critical reaction was decidedly mixed)? Especially if you consider he may have had to ditch the background singers. Usually I'm not big on Dylan having backing vocalists, but this is an instance where I think their contribution is key to the success of the shows.
     
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  2. street legal

    street legal Senior Member

    Location:
    west milford, nj
    Yes, I am enjoying the rehearsals w/ horns very much. I definitely wish there was more of it.
     
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  3. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    The rehersals are good but I don t me as them in the concert. The gospel-singer are much more than background singers-they are a gospelchoir that forms the real heart of the show.
     
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  4. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    Well, there are more of them in the vault. If we ever get a Rundown Years set, we might yet hear them....
     
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  5. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    Yeah, I agree that even after all these years, Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3 still serves as a great sampler for the rest of the series -- and I actually see Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (TTS) as the "part 2" sampler release, in that it covers a wide period of time (almost 20 years) and picks up where Vol. 3 left off. It drills down deep on two albums (Oh Mercy and TOOM), but it brushes over several other albums, sessions and aborted projects -- leaving enough gaps to imagine where future Bootleg Series sets could fit in.

    But back to Bootleg Series 13! One week later, I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. Ordinarily, I would have expected to dig in with the two studio/rehearsal discs and give the live CDs cursory listens -- but the opposite has been true. I've plowed through the whole set from beginning to end (including San Diego) 2 or 3 times, but I'm going to need to break them down into their "Old School Bootleg Series" sub-sets (Discs 1-2, Discs 3-4, Discs 5-6, etc.) so I can really retain all the sounds I'm taking in. For example, I know that I prefer a particular live "Slow Train" over the others, but I don't remember which one or what disc it was on. This is going to take awhile!

    Here are a few things I do know:

    -- At minimum, the disc 2 "Ain't Gonna Go To Hell," "Making A Liar," "Yonder Comes Sin," and the "Caribbean Wind" rehearsal immediately shot into my Bootleg Series Hall of Fame. There will be others, but those are indisputable.
    -- This may be heresy, but I think the outtake of "When He Returns" is even better than the released album version. And at least one of the live versions is better than THAT.
    -- "Ain't No Man Righteous" really DOES sound a bit like a sitcom theme song -- it's that little slide bit after the chorus -- and that makes it hard for me to take the song seriously. Still like it though.
    -- A bunch of the songs that I never thought much of before ("Covenant Woman," "Do Right To Me Baby," and "Watered Down Love" in particular) become really compelling in the live performances.
    -- It's funny how we got the title of "Cover Down, Pray Through" wrong for all these years -- after you hear it knowing what the title is, it's pretty obvious it's not "break through"!
    -- The "oldies" from Earls Court are amazing -- a little jarring amidst all the holy rolling, but just brilliant arrangements and performances. All of them.
    -- I know that they tried to keep the more secular songs outside the scope of this set, but I'm a little surprised that "(You Treat Me Like A) Stepchild" didn't make it on here somehow.
    -- I always hated the "I need ... I need ... I NEED ..." intro to "Shot Of Love" on the album, and the outtake here finally lets me hear the SONG -- and I like it more than I thought I would.

    More listening required this weekend.
     
  6. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    Fantastic post. Gotta say, "Ain't No Man Righteous" rings ever truer in light of certain current events. And I weirdly don't hate the sitcom-ey parts of the studio version. I think sitcoms were stealing from songs like this in the era (not this one, obviously), not the other way around (you didn't imply otherwise, I know).
     
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  7. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    Nice take on the box-I agree that it s been a bit overwhelming to take in. It s weird that most tracks sound so fresh given all the duplications of songs. Certanely agree that the "oldies" from Earls Court sounds extremely good and mixes effortless with the gospelmaterial. Ballad of a thin man and Girl from the North country I ecspecially like. Not to mention the gospel/hymn version of Blowin in the wind
     
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  8. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    Hoping to get a definite transcription of the "Ain't Gonna to Go To Hell" version on Disc 4. We're most of the way there (and there is a manuscript to reference in the book). Still, as as listener, I lose some of the words.
     
  9. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    As Bob emerged from his overtly "Christian" phase, the backup singers got increasingly irrelevant and annoying to me, peaking on "Brownsville Girl" in 1986. But for 1979-81, for the gospel material, I would absolutely lose the horns over the ladies. They really made those shows gospel rave-ups and were perfect for the material -- those performances don't feel like they were "missing" anything else (like horns).

    And a small note, while we're talking about the backup singers. I never had a boot DVD of Toronto 1980, and I've only watched a few clips on YouTube -- but the footage on the DVD is really well shot, with great angles and editing. There's one particular angle that just kills me, and I don't remember which song it was -- the camera is to the left (facing the stage), with Bob in the foreground and the ladies in the back to his right. When they're singing their parts, they are in focus, and when Bob sings the shot stays the same but focuses on him and they fade into the background. Just great stuff.

    Sony / Jeff Rosen -- Release a complete Toronto show on DVD (or even the full box set with CDs and DVD as mentioned above), and I promise it will sell!
     
  10. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    Post what you have and we'll do it by committee -- just like we did for "Making A Liar Out Of Me." :thumbsup:
     
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  11. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    I have something? True enough, crowdsourcing worked wonders for "Making A Liar Out of Me."
     
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  12. swedgin

    swedgin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    Sounds like Muswell era Kinks to me. Acute schizophrenia especially.
     
  13. Dave Gilmour's Cat

    Dave Gilmour's Cat Forum Resident

    Tremendous post. Thanks.
     
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  14. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    Sorry, I misunderstood -- I thought you were working on transcribing the lyrics yourself, using the book as reference, and had a partial set of lyrics. I'll try to take a crack at it this weekend, although the Disc 4 version is definitely the most haphazard version of them all, right?
     
  15. redsock

    redsock Writer, reader, grouch.

    On the first two gospel tours (November 1979 to February 1980), When He Returns was a show-stopper each and every night. On the boots, it sounds like even the detractors at any given show would shut up and let Dylan pour his heart out.

    He never mailed in a performance of this song - it is stunning every time. And the filmed version from Toronto has got to be among the top Dylan performances of all time. The only time he played the song during the first month of the third gospel tour was the night the cameras were rolling! He would play the song live only two more times: May 18, 1980 and November 4, 1981.
     
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  16. fredhammersmith

    fredhammersmith Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montreal, Quebec
    Well, TGIF.
    I'm considering buying the digital 2-CD at 7Digital to start my week-end (and a couple of tracks from the other discs at the same time).
    Anybody know if the digital release is providing the booklet? I hate it when they don't.
     
  17. OrenthalJSimspon

    OrenthalJSimspon Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Monterrey
    One week later and it finally arrived. They need to address this.
     
  18. DmitriKaramazov

    DmitriKaramazov Senior Member

    I'd love it if they'd start up a separate "Bob Dylan Concert Series", and Toronto and Earl's Court would be great places to start! From there they jump ahead to June 1988, when, I'm told, some "fabled" tour began, that has yet to end!!
     
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  19. noname74

    noname74 Allegedly Canadian

    Location:
    .
    Someone, anyone?
     
  20. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    I really like the horns on the "Slow Train" rehearsal (Disc 4, track 1) but I have to say that the San Diego concert is near perfection. I think horns would have got in the way.
     
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  21. Loving all the excitement and love here for this set cause lots of my music friends and aquantences are pretty Ho him about this one. Especially the deluxe set.
     
  22. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    Nope. I'd just heard people quote various lines, here and there. But now I kinda want to try. Not sure how well it will go.
     
  23. tededfred

    tededfred Forum Resident

    Location:
    Alabama
    Still waiting for my tracking number! I got a shipping refund; about to ask for more...
     
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  24. Krivers

    Krivers Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Finally got mine this afternoon--tracked it and it showed up sitting at my nearby Post Office. I called and went by and picked it up instead of waiting until Monday. Glad I did. Never heard any of this live Gospel era music. It is glorious, smoking live Dylan. Fred Tackett can go get 'em. And Spooner Oldham is right on point.
     
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