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

Well, it was the first of the special editions. I can't imagine they sold well, I got mine from fopp for £20 or thereabouts. Was surprised they carried on with them, but content was much improved!

 

Just out of curiosity, how limited are the deluxe sets? I know The Cutting Edge 18 disk set is probably gone, and wasn't planning on getting that anyway. But as far as the rest, what's the consensus on their continued availability for now?

 

In some ways, this might, surprisingly, be my favourite BS collection. It's like a fine wine or distinguished port.

Of the BS, it is the most coherent and uniform in sound and lexical field.

It reveals its pleasures slowly and delicately, and there's a mantra-like quality to hearing songs repeat and concepts re-emerge.

 

Excellent post.

 

Listening to disc 3 now, and forgot how enjoyable this is, even with so many takes of the same songs. Nice stretch starting with Spanish is the Loving Tongue, which is so random as a one-off amongst the other songs we so strongly associate with BOTT and the fact it keeps popping up throughout his 70's sessions. I love the first slightly ramshackle rehearsal of Call Letter Blues, then into a nice refresh of You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome, followed by a near flawless first take of Shelter From The Storm, great first try of Buckets, and a debatable best version of Tangled Up In Blue. Gift that keeps giving for my favorite album.

 

Ian W is still around and writing for ISIS magazine and, less frequently, for THE BRIDGE.

 

Legendary journalist and writer Pete Hamill dead at 85 after fall

 

Used to read him in the NY Daily News and later, The NY Post.

Last of a dying breed.

 

Pete Hamill essay

 

Dang, we lost a literary giant. As far as music writing goes, I highly recommend Pete's book, Why Sinatra Matters. He and Frank were buddies. He's also featured in the fantastic HBO All or Nothing Sinatra documentary that's now on Netflix.

Rest easy, sir!

 

I have to admit the vinyl edition is one of the strongest and most hypnotic
albums Dylan has released in his career. Sweet, dark, hyper-tense and edgy.
Exquisitely writ, sung and performed. The box-set revealing creative process
is a treasure and one of my most cherished music possessions. As much as I
love More Blood More Tracks I have invested nearly 40 years into Columbia's
Half-Speed Master, and it remains my favorite version, or edition, of the
album. To my ear it's perfect, Dylan's masterpiece achieved. This is me
holding up the Mint copy I never play because the Near-Mint copy plays just fine.

 

Also, the Pete Hamill essay on the Half-peed Master is white on burgundy - much easier to read than the black on burgundy of the original LP. (Shame about the bar code though....)

 

Surgical gloves?

 

It is an excellent post. I said nearly the exact same thing about The Shaggs Philosophy of the World LP.

 

I don't like getting blood on my hands when I listen.

Yeah that barcode is annoying. It ruins the aesthetics. The Half-Speed
Mastered restored the intended color of the album jacket. Subsequent
printings had strayed toward different hues. I hadn't realized the color
of the font had changed but you're right it's easier to read.

 

It could be that I miss 1974 and 1975 and 1976 when I was going
to school in NYC and discovering Dylan for the first time.

As you know Hamill passed away recently. He was a New Yorker's
New Yorker, and as a born and raised New Yorker, I should know
he was a New Yorker's New Yorker. Anyhow ... his essay on the
back cover is memorable and must be the most famous liner note
of all time. It was written back in the 1970s before all the albums
that came later, when Dylan was still a troubadour, blood brother
of Villon, son of Provence, as he walked across the flagstones of the
courtyard strumming a guitar and singing about the idiot wind that
blows a circle around our skulls from the Grand Coulee Dam to the
capitol ....

 

It's a pentimento.

The only thing that prevents More Blood More Tracks from being
perfect -- no, not the title or the cover art which are disappointing --
is the imbalance between vocal and instrument. Either Dylan's voice
is too up front or his guitar, especially on the solo tracks, is mixed too
far down. One can't correct it with an equalizer, either. The 2-LP is an
exquisite album except for the imbalance, wouldn't you agree.

 

The single CD / 2 LP has become a favorite and I firmly believe one of
Dylan's finest achievements.

 

On 18 September 1974, the day Buddy Cage came into A-1 at 799 and overdubbed his steel on "Meet Me In The Morning", "Call Letter Blues" and "You're A Big Girl Now", Bob selected eight songs for mixing and then headed over to the Bottom Line to watch Little Feat . One of the songs they played was "Two Trains". The whole show is available in the Internet Archive Digital Library but I'd better not post a link in case it's forbidden.

The opening act was The Deadly Nightshades. David Bromberg sat in with them.

 

If I ever did get around to doing this I've long forgotten.


Bob seems to have made a quick decision that he needed to embellish several songs recorded on 9/16 and 9/17 with a steel guitar. Buddy Cage bounced into A-1 bright and early at about 4 p.m. on 18 September. Four hours later he was out of there, leaving behind overdubs for three songs. It isn't clear to mere mortals like us how many attempts he made on two of the songs but it wouldn't be controversial to say there was more than one. The overdub used on this boxed set for the only take of "Meet Me In The Morning" isn't the one on the original LP, for example, and there is a story often told that Buddy himself claims to have done "...six or seven..." overdubs for this one song with Bob giving him a hard time for continuously not doing it the way he, Bob, wanted it done. Whether Bob had actually told Buddy how he wanted it done until just before the last attempt is debatable.

Buddy recorded at least one overdub for Take 2 of "Call Letter Blues", with the final flourish of steel taking the place of the harmonica coda that Bob had used on Take 1, and that's about all we know. The performance, like Take 1, probably comes to an unresolved end after the "convent bells" verse and so is subject to a hasty fade, much as it was when it first appeared on "The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3".

Things are a little clearer for "You're A Big Girl Now".

The second take on 9/17 features the maestro keyboardist Paul Griffin, brought in to play alongside Tony Brown after the rest of the Deliverance band had been put out to pasture after the 9/16 session. The last time Griffin had contributed to a Bob-session was in this very building when he played piano on "One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)" in January, 1966. This time around he was doing his thing on the organ.




As we can see from the above sheet, tape tracks 6, 7, 8 and 9 were allocated in the same way as they would be on 19 September.

The "Bob Safety" track - the room mic described by Steve Berkowitz in that radio interview with Michael Fremer - was allocated to track 10 (it was on track 5 on 9/19), and Paul Griffin's organ was assigned to tracks 4 and 5.

https://www.analogplanet.com/images/Steve Berkowitz.mp3

The steel overdub(s), in the order of recording, can be seen on tracks 13, 14, and 15; and on tracks 1, 2, and 3. In other words, six attempts with the last being labelled "Good" and (possibly) "Bold". I'm not saying anything definitive here, but it is possible that these overdubs might have been the "...six or seven..." attempts that Buddy remembered a few years later.

Overdubs 2 and 3 are noted as "Noisey". Anyone's guess, really. An unwanted hum or crackle or some such might not be too far off the mark. Maybe Buddy had eaten beans for lunch....

Either way, done and dusted, Buddy had made his mark on "Blood On The Tracks" and was gone.

The finished product made it to the 9/25/74 acetate and beyond to the Test Pressing but was ditched for the released LP. In 1985, the song was remixed by Thom Panunzio and released on "Biograph"; I think a little bit of Griffin's magic was lost in the remix, others may disagree.

It wasn't until a few days ago that I realised that the erroneous recording date for the song, quoted on the "Biograph" track listing, may not have been some random, finger-in-the-wind-no-one-really-knows-so-we'll-throw-a-dart-at-it date. It may well have been the date written on the sheet accompanying the multi-track source for the remix. It could've been the 9/25/74 First Acetate 16-track master.

(Although all the A&R recordings for "Blood On The Tracks" was done in Studio A-1 at 799 7th Avenue at 52nd Street, the sharp of eye will notice that the track sheet above has a different address. "322" is where A&R Studios R-1 and R-2 were located. All studio paperwork I've seen has this address whereas the acetate disc labels use the "779" address.)

It is said that Buddy Cage was given a Test Pressing...

 

Oh dear: now I have to listen to that particular MBMT session all over again. (Sigh.)

 

Just listening to the Berkowitz interview with Michael Fremer of Analog Planet again, he does confirm that it was the "Booker T More Tasteful" overdub that was used on MBMT. But it is still not nailed-on that this was overdub #2. The "More Laid Back Again" overdub is still in the vaults although parts of it may have been used to create the "Bounce" Organ Master on tape tracks 15 & 16.

https://www.analogplanet.com/images/Steve Berkowitz.mp3

 

I'm far too modest to post this link to the not-too-shabby Searching For A Gem website which is hosting a 6,000 word essay by someone calling himself "Percy Song". I mean, what a liberty! It's easy to see without looking too far that not much is really sacred.

I'm told it was going to be called "First Blood, Fewer Tracks, More Footnotes"

"Searching For A Gem" home page

 

Downloaded it last night, just haven’t had the time to read it yet. Looking forward to it.

 

I haven’t heard the CD but I own the vinyl. It sounds fantastic. On the back it says it was remastered and remixed from the original session tapes. I wonder if it is AAA?