Bob Dylan - After The Empire & 1985 Rehearsals

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by soniclovenoize, Jun 19, 2016.

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  1. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    No, I'd say that this if from Bob's personal stash of archival materials being donated. Which means hopefully more to come soon...


    Bob Dylan’s Secret Archive
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/arts/music/bob-dylans-secret-archive.html

    Quite a Garage Sale: 11 Highlights From the Bob Dylan Archive
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/a...11-highlights-from-the-bob-dylan-archive.html
     
  2. smoke

    smoke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    This is sounding really good, though it just deepens the mystery of what the hell happened to him in the 2nd half of the 80's. Given how well images and ideas seem to come to him while jamming it seems like he could have sat down and finished any of these songs easily. Maybe he just couldn't make the effort, or really felt he had nothing to say. Still, it's a damn tantalizing hint at what might have been.
     
  3. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Nothing bad happened to Dylan in the 80s. Sold out concerts, wonderful albums, and good times with various bands. Only Live Aid, and two albums are spotty, the other albums are great. Oh Mercy ends the era on a very high note. Traveling Wilberys another comeback most artists would kill for after 45.
     
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  4. smoke

    smoke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    That's all true...but as far as songs go there was a slump for a couple albums there, which is what I'm talking about. Dylan selling out a concert with Petty $ The Heartbreakers or Grateful Dead as his partner and backing band isn't exactly mind-blowing, and neither were many of the performances, imo (1986 had one of my least favorite of all Dylan's voices, though that is a matter of personal taste).
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2016
  5. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    You have seen (or you actually own) the Hard to Handle film on laser disc or VHS?

    That one really shows us what 1986 was about. After that I go for the Westwood One live recordings with Petty/Heartbreakers. That is Bob's best live album IMO if you like to rock.
     
  6. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    Easy come, easy go.
    Hidee Hidee Ho.
     
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  7. smoke

    smoke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    I used to nearly cry myself to sleep at night thinking about how that was commercially available and Hard Rain wasn't. Talk about rocking!!!

    At this moment, of course, I'm listening to the companion 1985 rehearsal disc with Petty and it's making me an idiot. Which I couldn't be happier about!
     
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  8. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    Dylan was searching and a bit confused as to what he had to offer and in what direction at that point in the 80s. He has said so himself. Nothing wrong with that. He needed desert moments.

    However, Dylan at his weakest still put out some amazing songs. "Every Grain Of Sand" "Foot Of Pride", "Blind Willie McTell" "Jokerman" "Dark Eyes" "Someones Got A Hold Of My Heart" "Brownsville Girl" "Dignity"...

    Yeah, Id have loved to have been that confused and directionless in my mediocre songwriting...
     
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  9. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    And I love Empire Burlesque.
     
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  10. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    It really takes a lot of work and some luck to get Dylan out on stage and get it to sound spectacular. I always remind myself that the chemistry he goes for is not at the snap of his fingers.
     
  11. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    Seriously. An 80's "nadir" focused Bootleg Series installment could be amazing. But it would have to be exceptionally well curated to really work.
     
  12. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Opening with that b-side "Grooms Still Waiting at the Alter" if that was not one rocking 45 slab I dont know what is.
     
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  13. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    I was introduced to Shot of Love long after the song was integrated onto the album. I find it hard to imagine it otherwise (though I'm pretty sure the original version was much inferior).
     
  14. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Playing 85 Rehearsals right now. How does this sound so unbelievably good?

    Nice, nice nice, nice...
     
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  15. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Right! I've got Clinton Heylin's book that should cover the existsence of this music, but doesn't. And that just underscores what a great find this is!
     
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  16. pool_of_tears

    pool_of_tears Searching For Simplicity

    Location:
    Midwest
    Throw in a complete multi-track sourced live recording from the 1986 tour :)
     
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  17. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
     
  18. andy75

    andy75 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    Great news! "After the Empire" is a must for me as I love the "Empire Burlesque" album. It's been ages since I looked for any boot. Now I am again. Hope this gets out as a part of the bootleg series.
     
  19. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    Totally agree. This newly discovered tape is a fun listen, but I still wouldn't want it released as-is as an official product. I think the Gospel period (roughly from Street Legal through Shot Of Love) deserves a Bootleg Series, followed by a comprehensive 1983-1988 set. There's enough quality Infidels stuff that didn't make BS1-3 to anchor the set, and I'm still convinced that two or three discs of great stuff can be scraped up from the Empire, Knocked Out and Groove sessions. I might even break chronology a bit and include the Under The Red Sky sessions, since they were completely ignored by BS8, and there doesn't seem to be a 1990-1995 set on the horizon.
     
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  20. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    yep! I've only been a serious Dylan collector for a few years (actually, I consider July 3rd, 2012, to be the "official" day I became a serious Dylan collector. I remember it well because I got home from work, off for the holiday, and got to work using searchingforagem as my guiding light.) Of course, plenty of unheard stuff has been released officially during that time!
     
  21. soniclovenoize

    soniclovenoize Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
  22. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
  23. goodnitesteve

    goodnitesteve bootleger

    I posted about this when it was first announced, but the thread was deleted. I may have been a little too obvious about where they were coming from, but I have heard parts of the rehearsal tape and all of the After the Empire (at least three times). These are wonderful editions to 80's period Dylan, besides what we already have. I'm sure there's plenty more waiting in the wings of time. Britta Lee Shain wrote about her experience with Dylan during this two or three year period. It's a little frivolous, but I think it's helpful on pinpointing this time of life in Dylan's career. Most if not all the biographies don't spend a lot of time (or maybe not as much as I would like) in the 80's and I've read a many of them. Shain said Dylan was unhappy with the way Columbia treated Empire Burlesque, barely promoting it, so he scrapped this particular album. Said he was going to release bad albums ala Knocked out Loaded or Down in the Groove (which aren't all that bad), until his contract ran out. And his contract was renewed in 1988. Who knows if he was going to quit at this time or not, Chronicles certainly lean towards that, but history tells us that he released Oh Mercy afterwards, which was a great album. He was a part of the Traveling Wilbury's. Under the Red Sky is fun, depending on who you ask. Good as I Been to You and World Gone Wrong were return to roots contract fillers and then Time Out of Mind. I think Dylan gets frustrated with his career, thinks it's over, and yet the accolades keep coming in and inspiration comes. Who would have thunk when he first began in 1961-62 that he'd still be recording on Columbia Records? It's almost unheard of for an artist to be continuing this long and still churning out quality work. All previous artists seem to have had vices or death that got in the way of continuing, and Dylan is certainly one of the few that continues. Sinatra may have been another. I can't think of many others.

    Lastly, I think Find Me on After the Empire bled into Under the Spell on Knocked out Loaded, an album which has some of my favorite tracks besides Brownsville Girl (Maybe Someday, Precious Memories, and Under the Spell). This would have been an interesting album.
     
  24. warewolf95

    warewolf95 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    Ok, so here's a dumb question from yours truly - according the the tracklisting posted above, pretty much all those songs are either standard covers or already released/known Dylan songs. Mind enlightening me further? :)
     
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  25. soniclovenoize

    soniclovenoize Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
    The tracklist I posted earlier was for the 1985 rehearsals with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, which is why it's all known Dylan songs & covers ;)

    The tracklist for After The Empire are all the previously unknown material, which is:

    01 Baby Coming Back From The Dead
    02 Nothing Here Worth Dying For (I)
    03 Won't Go Back ’Til They Call Me Back Again
    04 Let Me Come Baby
    05 Bring It Home To Me
    06 I'm Ready For Love
    07 26 Stories High
    08 You Can Have Her (I)
    09 My Sweet Baby (Round and Around)
    10 Nothing Here Worth Dying For (II)
    11 You Can Have Her (II)
    12 Find Me
    13 Nothing Here Worth Dying For (III)
    14 Right Hand Road Blues
    15 That's All

    And again, it's a full-band sounding recording, all most likely played live in-the-studio. Most of the lyrics of the verses seem ad-libbed or improvised, half mumbled. The choruses tend to be thought out, but are often just the title of the track repeated, with the backing singers doubling Dylan.

    The sound is very monophonic-- everything is center-panned, except the drums which are in stereo. Reminds me of a live soundboard tape, with the drums and vocals slightly above upfront in the mix. Which suggests not a lot of thought was put into formally mixing these. Could have been a monitor mix recorded straight to DAT, who knows?

    There's also a number of false starts, note flubs and jammy bits, which really suggests Dylan was woodshopping song ideas with the band. That is very unusual for his usual writing style of having pre-written material brought in and taught to the band on the spot. The only thing that seemed pre-written are the chord sequences and the one-line lyric of the choruses. It seemed more collaborative.

    As someone stated before, I presume it would NOT have been that hard to finish up these set of songs, the arrangements are all there. I don't hear anything on the level of "Jokerman" or "Every Grain of Sand" mind you, but you never know.
     
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