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

Which is interesting, since others have stated they're just a dust of a rumor . . .

 

How old? Chaucer? Beowulf?

 

Yes, it is intersting, because 20 years ago in his Recording Sessions book, Heylin not only gives a recording date for the Street-Legal piano demos (Dec. 26, 1977), but claims to have heard them -- and describes several of them.

 

I emailed hdtracks about the high res files asking which tracks weren't 24-96 and they responded:


The post on the audiophile forum is incorrect. We received a replacement for the Bootleg Series shortly after the release with all of the tracks in 96kHz/24-bit.

Sincerely,
Josh
HDtracks Support Team

The Ultimate Source for Hi-Res Music Downloads

www.hdtracks.com

 

Yes, agreed, and that's exactly what I said several pages back. Toronto is utterly sublime but Earl's Court is just an average '81 show overall. Avignon and many others were better but we have the "Master of the Dylan Universe" to thank for its inclusion apparently but I won't be kissing his feet or buying his book to show my appreciation.

 

I didn't attend the show but I agree with everything you say here and for me at least, I doubt very much my opinion of it will ever change now.

 

From my diary, June 28, 1981:

"He seemed to despise the audience for wanting to hear the old songs, when he obviously got more out of the new ones, the better ones of which I enjoyed more than anything else."

 

CH: "However, at one remarkable post-rehearsal session the day after Christmas 1977 he sat at the piano and played almost the entire album to a stunned Rob Stoner, Stephen Soles, and Joel Bernstein." He lists seven songs including one named "First To Say Goodbye."

Which is interesting, because an author of a couple of books about Bob who, according to another author of a book about Bob has heard them, has told me that if s/he had heard them, as was reported, s/he would not be able to confirm to me whether s/he had heard them or not.

 

Can you confirm that?

 

If I were to confirm anything I might have said earlier I'd probably end up denying it later.

 

San Diego is proving to be a hot ticket on E**y....

Bob Dylan Live in San Diego | eBay

None of these are mine, by the way.

 

As not an enormous Dylan fan (by forum standards anyway) my first inclination was to ignore this release, or possibly buy the 2CD version.

However after reading the comments in this thread & hearing the videos posted I opted for the Blu-Spec CD2 Box Set.

I'm very glad I did. Truly stunning! THANK YOU to everyone who's written so movingly about this release.

Before making my purchase I dug out my old CD of Saved which I have never been able to get into, having found it to be bland & uninspiring. I still found it to be bland & uninspiring but I ordered the 8CD box set anyway.

Having been fired up by 8 CDs of live, passionate Bob I listened to Saved again, only this time I chose the remastered version from the Complete Album Collection.

For the first time I really enjoyed Saved. How much is due to the remaster (I normally don't like loud remasters) & how much is due to the immersion in passionate live Bob I don't yet know (I'll do some more comparisons in the near future) but now I really enjoy Saved.

 

"E-I-E-O"

 

So you cannot confirm that if you were to confirm it now that you would deny it later?
That's progress. I'll take it.

 

Off topic, but relating to Clinton Heylin who, after all, is now basically Jeff Rosen’s press give. I just read his “Anarchy in the Year Zero: The Sex Pistols, The Clash and the Class Of ‘76”. I didn’t like the book in general as it had more of his (semi) smart-ass wordplay and opinionating (gossipolarimg?) than research, but I was moved to post by his deeming of “London Calling” as a “bog standard rock record with one great song. This is who I’ve been reading about Dylan from? I swear sometimes there’s two guys writing under Heylin’s name. Some of his books have value and others are trash.

 

we are covered in blood, girl
you know our forefathers were slaves
let us hope they found mercy
in their bone filled graves

that's all i have to say

 

it's funny i don't mind his writing but the worldplay is too much past once or twice. at any rate, i gotta admit i love music and have thousands of albums, but i kinda agree about The Clash. one of the only "canon" bands i don't really care for. i like a few songs, sure but beyond that..

 

Watched the DVD last night. Started fast-forwarding through the sermons before the end. They are done well, but they aren't even Dylan's words so ...... (I do like that there is a "sermons only" choice on the DVD! How often will that get used?)

Simply fantastic stuff, right off the bat with the chugging groove of "Jesus Met The Woman At The Well". So great to see Dylan playing piano. LOVE the different angles during "When He Returns" so we can really see his hands - which we can't see much of on the Toronto boot. And the different cameras show his dancing (!) during "Solid Rock" much more. It surprised me all over again how animated he was! Was he doing that during every show?

The different "Ain't Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody" is from Buffalo? The stage set-up looks just like Toronto, so I was thinking, Wait! in addition to recording all four Massey Hall shows, they also FILMED them all? But I don't recall reading that in the recent press. I do wish they had some film of some 1979 performances to mix in (and some late 1980 for that matter). They recorded every gospel show. I would think they might have filmed some of the very early shows, say, the first one? (It was a bit historic.)

 

I'm about halfway through "Trouble in Mind". For the most part, the snottiness is toned down (not quite as toned down as it was in Judas!, but light years from the tone in the two song-by-song volumes). There's some irony in the fact that he goes to great length, as usual, to point out a Krogsgaard error in dating a "Saved" session (off by one day), while making errors of his own - both large (the misidentification of the "Slow Train" soundcheck as Nashville) and small (stating that "Serve Yourself" was REMOVED from "Double Fantasy", as if it were ever on it, or even recorded during those sessions).

I'd pick on him for all the lyric-related puns, but in my case, I have to be careful of the stones that I throw.

 

According to Heylin, there were 4 shows filmed - Toronto 4/19 and 4/20 and both Buffalo shows. Dylan was unhappy with the distant look of the Toronto footage and apparently wanted to intercut it with footage shot on stage with a handheld camera. I've only seen the DVD once, but I didn't notice any obvious breaches of continuity, so I'm guessing that the performers wore the same clothes (or I'm not good at paying attention). The audio and video go out of sync at times - particularly during "Slow Train", where I think there is Buffalo footage cut into Toronto footage with the Toronto performance used for the soundtrack. Again, this is based on one viewing and no close examination, so it's hardly the gospel. (drum fill)

 

The DVD version of When he returns is one of the most amazing thing Iv ever seen with Dylan. Absolutely stunning perfomance that almost makes me a believer.

 

Off topic, but relating to Clinton Heylin. I just read his

Damn autocorrect. I mean gossipolating, of course. And “press guy”, though “press give” has a meaning all it’s own. Anyway, back to Bob...

 

Don’t make me quote the Dude, man, but that’s just like, well, you know...

Heylin’s one of those who thinks the Clash debut is a masterpiece, but then they got too “rock.” I know Bob would give him a fight if he tried that opinion on him.

 

I have my set in hand. It's beautiful! I appreciated Penn Jillette's essay.

I noticed an, erm, interesting inconsistency. The main set lists a song as "Blessed IS The Name" while San Diego uses "Blessed BE The Name" (the latter being the title I've always known it by).

I'll be reporting back in as I start to listen to it!