Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks (2 Nov 2018)*

Thanks for this info... I have finally ripped my CDs yesterday and will need to make these changes.

 

If Clinton is right about the Take 1 performance being, "Five and a half minutes long, it is punctuated by no fewer than four harmonica breaks.", this apparent editing of the very first take of the New York sessions is probably the most ridiculous decision made by Bob Inc. in the compilation of the BS 14 box.

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I have been following this thread on and off. Not sure which is harder work - this , or getting through the box set. I admire the endurance of many of the posters here.

I went for the box because I wasn't sure I could rely on the compilers to select the tracks I'd like best for the single disc edition. Here I am 6 weeks after purchasing and still wading through! I guess we asked for it. Can't help sensing the teasing hand of Dylan himself on this one - misleading booklet notes, multiple incomplete takes not listed as such etc. Almost like we are being tested.

There is magic on here, but next time I'll settle for a 2 disc version without original album tracks and just 1-2 complete alternate takes per song.

 

It's because the original take 6 was recorded over, you can hear the tape being rewinded at the end. I think this performance only survives on the back up tape. They recorded another take 6 over the original. That's why CH & MK list only 8 takes because the first take 6 don't exist on the multis.

I wonder if this is the case also with Idiot Wind take 1 and take 1 remake.

 

I agree with some other members. This release will try your patience. It's a lot to get through. I usually listen to this in small doses. This question may have been asked and answered. But if you were to compile an alternate BOTT from this release, what would you choose?

 

For me personally, the idea of selecting the "best" tracks from the 6-CD set appears more and more futile the more I listen to it.

We need to find another way of listening that doesn't detract from the experience of the sessions. Along the lines of Big Blue.

 

I played the NY version (pieced together from the bootlegged test pressing and MFSL's SACD where appropriate) and then sampled a version pieced together from the newly mixed box set.

It's a damn shame that the original mixes of those five NY master takes may be permanently MIA. The bootlegged test pressing doesn't sound bad, but it's quite a difference to hear the other tracks that were mastered from the original tape. Not that many pops on the bootleg, but the surface noise is clearly audible, especially during the between-song gaps where it's a rumbling white noise. And whenever the master/mix gets really saturated, usually when Dylan is playing the harmonica, there is quite a bit distortion on the bootleg whereas the other five tracks taken from the MFSL disc are quite clean.

The new mixes don't sound much like vintage mixes, especially after hearing the originals. Really hard and crisp, and so much of the ambience is stripped away with Dylan's vocal pushed way up. (Listen to the original mix for "If You See Her, Say Hello," massive difference in the way they mix the vocal.) But again, as mentioned elsewhere, it's meant to be a "fly-on-the-wall" type mix, which is fine when I listen to the choice alternate takes, but for the master takes, I still have to go with the original mixes where it sounds like a finished album.

 

We were warned that the box set might be a bit trying by Dylan's own people. It came from an unnamed source in one of Rolling Stone's speculations about future bootleg installments, but they said these sessions would be far more repetitive and less interesting than you would think, and they're right. There's no radical re-workings of a song, not until Minneapolis. Once he figured out the instrumentation (which meant stripping down the number of players), the arrangements weren't that hard to find, and in the end a lot of this feels like fine-tuning and just trying to get the best take. So it's pretty boring, even when played in the background.

For that reason, cherry-picking really is better, and the single-disc distillation is actually pretty good. I used that as a starting point and basically added the other takes that were in the running to be master takes, and I also added the slow version of "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" from that NPR preview sampler. Some stuff I left out because I designed this to be a companion to the NY sessions disc I already made awhile back.

The NY sessions disc I made a few years ago:

1 Tangled Up In Blue 06:53
2 Simple Twist Of Fate 04:18
3 You're A Big Girl Now 04:24
4 Idiot Wind 08:55
5 You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go 02:56
6 Meet Me In The Morning 04:21
7 Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts 09:53
8 If You See Her, Say Hello 03:26
9 Shelter From The Storm 05:01
10 Buckets Of Rain 03:26
11 Up To Me 06:18
12 Call Letter Blues 04:27
13 Shelter From The Storm [Take 1 - without bass or piano in mix] 06:02

And what I picked from the box set:

1 Tangled Up In Blue [Take 3, Remake from 9/17/74] 06:43
2 Simple Twist Of Fate [Take 1 from 9/16/74] 04:41
3 You're A Big Girl Now [Take 2 from 9/16/74] 04:41
4 Idiot Wind [Take 6 from 9/16/74] 08:51
5 You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go [Take 5 from 9/16/74] 05:16
6 Meet Me In The Morning (Take 1, Remake from 9/19/74) 04:56
7 If You See Her, Say Hello [Take 2 from 9/16/74] 03:43
8 Shelter From The Storm [Take 2 from 9/17/74] 04:38
9 Buckets Of Rain [Take 2, Remake from 9/18/74] 03:02
10 Up To Me [Take 2, Remake from 9/19/74] 06:47
11 If You See Her, Say Hello [Take 1 from 9/16/74] 03:58
12 You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go [Take 1, Remake from 9/17/74] 03:11
13 Idiot Wind [Take 4, Remake from 9/19/74] 09:14
14 Tangled Up In Blue [Take 3, Remake 3 from 9/19/74] 06:31

 

Thank you

 

An alt. BOTT is the goal I'm slowly working towards. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks!

I'm deliberately avoiding checking out the single disc version, so I won't be unduly influenced. But what's the betting I'll end up with exactly the same choices?

 

Thanks for this. I'm going to make my own playlist before I scrutinize yours too closely, then I'll compare them to see how close we are. I'm willing to bet that, despite the volume of material, most of us will end up with the same 10-15 tracks.

 

I'd bet otherwise.

It may be close, but there's enough subtle disparity and nuance amid the presentations that personal preference will come into play in at least a couple of instances.

Or not.

 

"a bit trying"

My brain must be seeing this phrase in a foreign language because it makes absolutely no sense to me. I cannot comprehend it. ... I wish there were six more discs of sessions!

 

I agree that this set is not a chore at all for me to listen to.

 

For me, the most "trying" part is the run of Buckets Of Rain. And even that is still enjoyable (if not as interesting as the rest of the set).

 

I've tried to listen to the six disc set. It's too much of a chore, for me. Not enjoyable enough. I made up my mind, years ago, not to force myself to finish a book if I was truly bored or didn't like it. I'm taking the same approach, here. Maybe I'm giving up too quickly, but I'd rather listen to the vinyl release, which I enjoy immensely.

 

Well I got through it, but it took the best part of 3 non-working days. That's entirely my look-out of course. No one forced me to buy the box. As a result I've got a couple of playlists of great music. But I hear what you're saying (I made similar decision with books when I turned 50). It was a laborious process. For some of us, the "mid-way" option of a 2 disc set would've suited better. Lesson learned. I'm also happy for the people who have been wanting this for many years and are now immersing themselves in it.

 

Shame you're not in Europe - I'm be looking to buy this set soon.

 

i don't know--these sessions definitely don't have have the "let's try another approach entirely" aspect that was so...endearing on the '65 sessions etc, but i was surprised how much i enjoyed the (perhaps self-invented) image of a still-young dylan, in the studio for the first time in years with SUCH a strong set of songs, trying to lay them down in a natural way that would still connect with listeners. it's almost like he KNEW this would be a great record, and so he stuck even MORE to his stubborn ways as far as his age-old recording techniques. and (i feel like) you can almost hear him accept defeat a few times, only to rally, whether with a better performance, or a subtle re-write, or whatever.

he LIKED these tunes.

and i like listening to that.

smitquest

 

It's a big difference when compared to his last few albums of originals. I think there are a lot of songs from his post-TOOM years where the album version is basically take 1, and the progression and evolution occurs on the stage. I know I'd recommend a more recent live version of Early Roman Kings over the album version.

Hell, he still managed to continue working on the BOTT songs after the album came out, and arguably improved them, as evidenced on Hard Rain. But I think he cared more about making records back then. Nowadays? He seems far and away primarily concerned with being a performer. And given the high quality of his concerts, that seems to be working out just fine.

 

Just chipping in because Early Roman Kings was my least favourite track on Tempest. I saw it in concert a couple of times in 2015 (and since then, too) and certainly at one of the 2015 Royal Albert Hall shows and Southampton, it was a highlight for me and has remained so ever since. Completely changed my mind about it and I'm totally behind the idea of knocking out a few takes of each song in the studio and refining things on tour.

That said, I think I'd say post-L&T rather than TOOM, just because I felt there were fewer changes to the L&T songs and the changes made to TOOM songs from 1998 to 2000/2001 seemed to push those songs into a stylistic place from which L&T sprang. Anyway, those Tell Old Bill sessions support your idea - there are many takes, but after one or two in the same style it's abandoned in favour of another approach.

 

I picked Love And Theft just because it was recorded in a short amount of time and self produced, whereas TOOM evolved and grew in the studio, as can be heard on Vol 8. You're right though. I mean, I've seen him do half of Love And Theft and none of the changes are as radical as what I've seen him do with Early Roman Kings and now Pay In Blood.

 

Pay In Blood is excellent performance art, for my money!

 

I am seeing Blood on the Tracks listed for Record Store Day, is this the test pressing?

If it is, there are two questions to answer:

a) Sourced from master tape or remix or (perish the thought) needle drop?

b) Was the omission of spooky organ Idiot Wind a ploy to sell the RSD release?

Or am I barking up the wrong bush and this is some other variant of Blood on the Tracks, purple vinyl or something?

Tim

 

Can you post the link? exciting news