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

Haven't read to the end of the thread (a sin in itself, I know) so some one may have got there before me, but Watered Down Love is a riffing off of Corinthians, so that's how I'd argue for its inclusion.

Cor. 13:7: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 

And here's why I should have carried on reading.

 

Okay. That’s pretty good.

 

Well, in this case again, as with “Caribbean Wind”, I think neither “Blind Willie” is “perfect”. I find the guitar in the piano/guitar version to be too repetitive., too programmatic. The electric version risks sounding like an unsympathetic band rolling over the song like a truck, but there are more dynamics and the “St. James Infirmary” underpinnings come through more. I like Knopfler’s guitar but I like even more what I take to be Mick Taylor’s Gibson coming under later in the song. Maybe a remix of the electric version would do the trick, but then again, there’s the cough. Two great songs, and if didn’t have any other outtakes or live versions to compare them to, maybe we’d be happier!

As for Abandoned Love, aside from Dylan’s obvious joy at having just written the song, the Other End performance is heightened by the audience interaction, they can hear the lyrics, and they are almost laughing at their sharpness.

 

Yes, that's good -- and surely accurate as to the source. But if you didn't know the Corinthians passage, "Watered-Down Love" could pass as a perfectly bland MOR love song. "Angelina," on the other hand, is dripping with apocalyptic dread (imo).

 

Yes.

 

If George Martin were still around, he'd probably be able to combine the two versions so you couldn't hear the join...

 

That's what I'm getting out of the song, given the context. I suppose I should give Angelina a spin within this context too since it's the first time I've ever been truly immersed in this period of of his career.

 

I've listened to all of disc 3 and most of disc 4. Here are some of my reactions:

The 1978 material is great. C'mon, how about volume 14 is a 1978 set, replete with a hearty serving of soundchecks.

The studio outtakes for STC and Saved are interesting to hear. I don't think I'd trade out anything on STC, but the Saved songs perhaps.

Hearing some of these songs that we knew from the boots in the best quality is always a treat. I Will Love Him is among his weakest from the period. Funnily enough, I think it sounds like what I thought the Gospel era would be, long before I ever listened. Jesus Is The One... surely he is singing "Jesus, HE'S The One," no? And then there is Thief On The Cross. My sister, nominally religious, was confirmed this past spring. I suggested she take the name of the thief on the cross, St. Dismas. She didn't use my suggestion.

The rehearsals with horns are quite a treat. It's probably for the best that they didn't have the budget for them, and surely the singers were the better choice, but I'm glad we have a sample of what could have been.

Making A Liar Out Of Me is some top-shelf writing. It's a shame he didn't do more with it, but it must be easy to lose things in the shuffle when you're writing so many songs!

Well, I hadn't heard it yet but now I have, and surely this is as good as it gets. Absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. I'll take a whole disc of Caribbean Wind's but if I can never hear another version again but for one, this is the one I'd choose.

 

Anyone who thinks they know what the Groom lyrics mean is a better man than I. They sound too personal to me to know what the heck he's on about but man, does that thing rock with a snarl.

 

I see that Stephen Deusner in Uncut gives Trouble No More a measly 7. 7!?!?! I'd have given it 11 (at least).

 

Disc 4: Caribbean Wind (Rehearsal with pedal steel) --->

Love it!

 

I haven't been able to find a copy of the December 2017 issue of Mojo with Dylan on the cover. The newsstand that I get it from said there would be a delay in getting it in the states. Anyone know why?

 

Heylin said that a couple other takes of Angelina "are very different, are equally spectacular, and have better vocals," and said he thought Angelina might be on a release someday soon. He may be exaggerating as usual, but it's a mouth-watering prospect!
It's definitely a religious, apocalyptic song, but in disguise. On the released version, Dylan sings like a timid, broken man, overwhelmed by his encounter with Angelina. Though I can't make much sense of the lyrics - it seems intentionally obscure, each verse on a different subject, perhaps the result of a wholesale cover-up rewrite like Caribbean Wind, no telling who or what Angelina is - the chorus sounds like he's calling to her with a mixture of longing, fear, and/or desperation, and gives the song an emotional focus. The singing's reserved much of the time, but sometimes the passion breaks through - I love the anguished outbreak of "just step into the arena!" It's tantalizing to think of earlier versions with different lyrics or vocal interpretations...

One critic had a problem with the odd 'Angelina' rhymes in the song, but I don't mind them:
Angelina | Untold Dylan
Dylan himself thought it was an unusual song in one 1981 interview (quoted in Still On The Road) - "There were some real long songs...that we recorded, a couple of really long songs. Like there was one I did - do you remember Visions of Johanna? There was one like that. I'd never done anything like it before... It seems to be very sensitive and gentle on one level, then on another level the lyrics aren't sensitive or gentle at all. We left that off the album."

 

To continue that interview quote, Dylan also brought up Caribbean Wind as another song he dropped:
"We left another thing off the album which is quite different to anything I wrote, that I think in just a musical kind of way you'd like to hear. And in a lyric-content way it's interesting. The way the story line changes from third person to first person and that person becomes you, then these people are there and they're not there. And then the time goes way back and then it's brought up to the present. And I thought it was really effective, but that again is a long song and when it came to putting the songs on the album we had to cut some, so we cut those. Now what we have left is an album which seems to make its kind of general statement, but it's too soon to say what that general statement is."
20 July 1981 Munich

Or in other words, 'we had to cut some songs, so we cut the best ones, now what we have left is a watered-down album...' It's still flabbergasting that Dylan managed to toss Angelina, Caribbean Wind, and Groom off the album, while including weaker takes of other songs... Did he completely lose his way in the studio? Or was he aiming for a lighter, more radio-friendly album?

 

That's fascinating, what a good spot. I don't know if Rand was all about the Union Sundown vibe was she? I didn't study her or anything but my impression was she was more the libertarian who probably would be fine with offshoring jobs, free market for everyone else right? He might have been reading Pat Buchanan.

There's something about Caribbean Wind that makes me kind of understand why Bob was so conflicted about what to do with the song. The slow version has that ugly end of every fourth line where they do the stupid duh du duh thing, the drums kicking in in the second verse reminds me of that I'll Keep It With Mine from the first Bootleg Series where someone says hey bro stop doing that and the percussion chills out, kind of wish it would go away in this one, that first verse and chorus, that's magic right there. Kind of wish he'd done it Blood On The Tracks style, bass, pedal steel, organ and acoustics. Ah if only he had me there!

 

I think I knew this once, but it's fascinating to see how Groom was too personal to release, it kind of makes him look bad too, but then Bob is kind of at his best when his spitefulness is uninhibited, that ruthless feeling. Gosh just relistening to it now, he's so hard done by, I mean he finds Jesus, but it's all still about some woman he's in love with, then as soon as that doesn't work out either it's back to screw you and everyone else you untrustworthy, whorehouse running, reprobate mind etc etc etc. Still, what an absolute belter of a rock song.

 

Can't stop playing the Massey Hall discs, personally for me they blow the other shows away. San Diego sounds flat in comparison. Maybe it was just the way it was recorded, multitrack??

 

I've offered my thoughts on this in a few of the song-by-song Dylan album threads. Besides sometimes getting so deep in the process that he would lose perspective (and be impatient to get it all over with), I think Dylan had a different scorecard for the songs he created than we, the audience, have. For us, a never-properly-realized song with all the potential in the world like "Caribbean Wind" easily trumps an obvious minor work like "Trouble". From Dylan's perspective, I think, "Trouble" was preferable for release simply because it WAS fully realized. The song lives up to its (admittedly) limited potential. It is "finished", while "CW" and (IMO) "Angelina" both aren't. I think his dissatisfaction with "Groom" was based on how far it had moved away from its starting point. Dylan seemed to feel that the changes he made to the song to make it better only made it worse, and obscured the feeling at the heart of the song. Heylin argues that he was right.

 

Yes, I'm not suggesting that Dylan's politics were aligned with Rand's (Greed definitely doesn't "get in the way" in Objectivism), just thinking that if he read Rand he'd be stimulated to write about a subject he'd never really gone near before. Perhaps there's a dog-eared copy of "Atlas Shrugged" in the Tulsa archive.

Although the "Caribbean Wind" drama plays out over a longer time span, if you play the 4 versions in a row you get that sinking "She's Your Lover Now" session feeling. That "C'mon Bob, just one more take, don't give up!" feeling.

 

I am in the apparent minority here, strongly preferring San Diego to Toronto. I agree with you, the multi-track sound quality is seducing the listeners, like the rich seduce the poor.

 

One last shot at the one that got away:

 

I don't own a scanner but I'll have a go at taking a photo of the review fairly soon. If I succeed I'll post it here.

Very briefly, in the review he doesn't rate Bob's gospel songs ("a low point in his songwriting") & doesn't rate Saved or Shot Of Love very highly ("the province of only the most committed fan") which probably explains his final score.

 

I could look this up myself, but I'm sure you know off the top of your head -- what's the writing/recording order of the four versions we have?

(1) Live
(2) GBS
(3) Biograph
(4) BS13

 

Tell him to try The Everly Brothers version from Born Yesterday. My favourite singers tackle my favourite Dylan song!!!