Bob Dylan: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 17: "Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions" [1/27/23]*

I'd heard nothing from Import CDs, so I emailed them, only to have them tell me that they are out of stock and will (maybe) fulfil the order in the next 45 days, assuming they get more stock. Otherwise, they will just cancel the order.

Great customer service all around

 

I have made myself a chronological order folder and so far it's my favorite. It also makes easier to integrate the TTS tracks. You can hear how the pieces of the puzzle fall together and the album gains its identity over the sessions.

 

I’d love to see the list

 

Hi, it comes from a list made by another forum member (I forget the name, but they did a great job, apologies for not crediting them appropriately here), based on the published dates. It should be noted that some dates may be wrong (a case has been made for the two Tryin' to get to heaven versions being switched around). According to the track sheets some of the tracks do include some overdubs, some of them at Criteria (going up to as late as the 26th of January) and some of them at Oxnard. For example there is a Mississippi Track Sheet that includes many Dylan guitar overdubs made in March 97 at the Teatro. I have the suspicion that it is Mississippi 2 from TTS, because it has these little repetitive guitar riffs that are very typical of his style.

I want to progressively complete this list by noting known line up changes (departure of David Kemper, arrival of Keltner/Blade, arrival of Jim Dickinson) and summarising the information from the different track sheets used in the packaging, as well as notating the likely recording dates for the album tracks. I think this should be doable except for Million miles, because for most album versions there is a Fragments alternate that sounds like the previous evolutionary step and it's likely that they were recorded in sequence. So, for example, I would bet that Love Sick was recorded on the 14th of January, etc.

Fragments 2 - 1 - THE WATER IS WIDE (8/19/96, TEATRO) - 1996 - 8 - 19 – studio
Fragments 2 - 3 - RED RIVER SHORE – VERSION 1 (9/26/96, TEATRO) - 1996 - 9 - 26 - studio
Fragments 5 - 4 - MISSISSIPPI – TELL TALE SIGNS, VERSION 1 (9/96, TEATRO - 1996 - 9 - - studio
Fragments 2 - 2 - DREAMIN' OF YOU (10/1/96, TEATRO) - 1996 - 10 - 1 - studio
Fragments 5 - 1 - DREAMIN' OF YOU – TELL TALE SIGNS (10/1/96, TEATRO) - 1996 - 10 - 1 - studio
Fragments 5 - 9 - CAN'T WAIT – TELL TALE SIGNS, VERSION 1 (10/1/96, TEATRO) - 1996 - 10 - 1 - studio
Fragments 2 - 5 - 'TIL I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU – VERSION 1 (10/3/96, TEATRO) - 1996 - 10 - 3 – studio

Fragments 3 - 5 - MARCHIN' TO THE CITY (1/5/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 5 - studio
Fragments 3 - 6 - MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE – TAKE 1 (1/5/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 5 - studio
Fragments 5 - 7 - MARCHIN' TO THE CITY – TELL TALE SIGNS, VERSION 1 (1/5/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 5 - studio
Fragments 5 - 10 - CAN'T WAIT – TELL TALE SIGNS, VERSION 2 (1/5/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 5 - studio
Fragments 5 - 8 - MARCHIN' TO THE CITY – TELL TALE SIGNS, VERSION 2 (1/6/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 6 - studio
Fragments 5 - 3 - RED RIVER SHORE – TELL TALE SIGNS, VERSION 2 (1/8/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 8 - studio
Fragments 2 - 13 - COLD IRONS BOUND (1/9/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 9 - studio
Fragments 2 - 6 - NOT DARK YET – VERSION 1 (1/11/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 11 - studio
Fragments 2 - 9 - MISSISSIPPI – VERSION 1 (1/11/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 11 - studio
Fragments 3 - 7 - MISSISSIPPI – VERSION 2 (1/11/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 11 - studio
Fragments 2 - 8 - DIRT ROAD BLUES – VERSION 1 (1/12/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 12 - studio
Fragments 3 - 11 - TRYIN' TO GET TO HEAVEN – VERSION 2 (1/12/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 12 - studio
Fragments 2 - 11 - STANDING IN THE DOORWAY – VERSION 1 (1/13/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 13 - studio
Fragments 3 - 8 - STANDING IN THE DOORWAY – VERSION 2 (1/13/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 13 - studio
Fragments 2 - 4 - LOVE SICK – VERSION 1 (1/14/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 14 - studio
Fragments 3 - 1 - LOVE SICK – VERSION 2 (1/14/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 14 - studio
Fragments 3 - 3 - CAN'T WAIT – VERSION 2 (1/14/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 14 - studio
Fragments 2 - 10 - 'TIL I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU – VERSION 2 (1/16/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 16 - studio
Fragments 3 - 9 - 'TIL I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU – VERSION 3 (1/16/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 16 - studio
Fragments 3 - 12 - HIGHLANDS (1/16/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 16 - studio
Fragments 5 - 5 - MISSISSIPPI – TELL TALE SIGNS, VERSION 3 (1/17/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 17 - studio
Fragments 5 - 6 - MISSISSIPPI – TELL TALE SIGNS, VERSION 2 (1/17/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 17 - studio
Fragments 2 - 12 - TRYIN' TO GET TO HEAVEN – VERSION 1 (1/18/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 18 - studio
Fragments 3 - 10 - NOT DARK YET – VERSION 2 (1/18/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 18 - studio
Fragments 3 - 4 - RED RIVER SHORE – VERSION 2 (1/19/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 19 - studio
Fragments 5 - 2 - RED RIVER SHORE – TELL TALE SIGNS, VERSION 1 (1/19/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 19 - studio
Fragments 3 - 2 - DIRT ROAD BLUES – VERSION 2 (1/20/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 20 - studio
Fragments 2 - 7 - CAN'T WAIT – VERSION 1 (1/21/97, CRITERIA STUDIOS) - 1997 - 1 - 21 - studio

 

Loving the live tracks on the 10lp set.

 

Thanks, that’s great. I usually create my own CD length albums based on how they sound, how much I like the song etc but this is really interesting and, as you say, great to track the evolution of songs. I guess you need to forget about the overdubs to avoid insanity (smashing up against your soul).

 

Yes, exactly. Also, the overdubs in this album and sessions were relatively minimal, so they did not change the essence of a take, rather they tried to enhance it. So they are still fairly truthful to what was recorded on the day.

 

Lyrically Highlands has some great verses and lines. The above verse is great and as a 64 year old sat in a loud cafe on my own it is perfect! So TOOM is 25 and a bit and could have been written yesterday in it's view of a modern disintegrating world.
I have gone through the whole set now. Re disc 5 am I right in thinking the Mississippi's are in order of Tell Tale Signs ie disc 1, 2, 3 ?

 

When you look at those dates, it’s even more curious how few tracks we have from Teatro. Do we know how many of the 45 days between The Water Is Wide and Till I Fell In Love With You were actually spent recording?

 

I still think it the band on the second Dreamin’ of You sound more like the beginning of Criteria than Teatro…

 

I think in the Mark Howard book he says something like Dylan would pop in from time to time. Eventually the frequency of his visits increased. We know for sure we are lacking the Not dark yet demo, but otherwise most tracks have been accounted for.

Other people have said that too. It was always going to sound different from the other Teatro tracks because it has the most postproduction. I would say it's most likely that it was initiated at the Teatro because of the loop-based style, but it's likely that at least the Tony Garnier upright bass overdub was performed at Criteria, together with maybe more overdubs (that is the one song in which the overdubs are significant, as opposed to the more minimal overdubs on the Criteria tracks).

The track sheet would help, but we only have an incomplete one, the best version of which is in the CD version of TTS. Perhaps it could be on the 10-LP set for Fragments, because the box that holds the discs has what look like very complete version of the tracksheets...

 

From Teatro, we know there was a take of Not Dark Yet that Lanois kept wanting to get back to. I also recall somebody involved mentioning an early try at Tryin' to Get to Heaven. If they are withholding Teatro takes it's a crime, why would they do that?

 

I guess the overdubs on Dreamin’ of You make it make more sense with the chronology. I’m away from home atm but will take some pictures of the slipcase inlay when I’m back.

 

For kicks?

 

Kicking Lanois?

 

... Or Dylan not liking it. After all, his art, his name, his album.

 

I think Dreamin Of You is a Tony M creation, thats why it was abandoned, the lyrics cannibalized and placed in other
songs.

 

Are we sure that Lanois's preferred version/arrangement of Not Dark Yet isn't just the same one that was released as a single a few weeks ago?

Maybe he just misremembered where it was recorded?

 

If you're on the fence about this set--and you shouldn't be!--it's now $74 at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0BKR6V1ZV/expectingrain-20 Get it now for goodness sake!

 

I've got the American 2- and 5-disc sets waiting for me back in Canada (along with the 4- and 10-LP boxes), BUT... I won't be back there until at least the summer. So the only obvious differences I can attest to at this point are:

the extra obi sleeve, which wraps all the way around the back of the 2-disc set and, as a thicker card stock, completely all the way around the 5-disc box,

an extra black-and-white booklet (66 pages in the 2-disc, 42 pages in the 5-disc) with both the Brinkley and Hyden liner notes translated into Japanese by 菅野ヘッケル (Toshiyuki "Heckel" Sugano); a timeline of the album's creation by Sugano, beginning with Jerry Garcia's death on August 9, 1995 and ending with some live performances of "Love Sick" in England circa early October 1997; a track-by-track analysis of the album and its outtakes by 萩原健太 (Kenta Hagiwara); and all the lyrics in English and translated into Japanese by 中川五郎 (Goro Nakagawa). The 5-disc booklet also includes an index chart showing where the songs appear across the set, which is not included in the 2-disc. The booklets are all text, with the only images being the front cover, which replicates the front cover of the box set but in black-and-white, and a small ad on the last inner page for the Blu-spec CD2 mini-LP replica version of Time Out Of Mind, (SICP30584), which came out in 2014. The 5-disc booklet has one additional photo on the back, replicating the box's back cover minus the track listing. The back of the 2-disc booklet is promotional info about the Blu-spec CD2 format, which is included on the last inner page of the 5-disc along with the aforementioned ad,

and the discs themselves having been lovingly slipped into rice paper sleeves before being jammed into their respective slots in both sets.

 

If you can swing it, I would definitely recommend it. I love the Japanese attention to detail. As I often say to those who ask why I spend so much time overseas, Japan is the last place on Earth where it's still awesome to be a CD collector.

 

Wish I could help you with a lyrical concordance, but all I have is this chart from the Japanese edition of the 5-disc Fragments, indexing where all the songs appear over the set. Probably not nearly as useful, but maybe still cool to look at?

 

Awesome, thanks. I have most of the album Blu Spec Mini LP CDs and the Japanese Mono box as I also appreciate the attention to detail.

 

nah, screw Amazon.

Recently they accidentally sent me a copy of the new Animals remaster instead of the Miles Davis bootleg series, and I wanted it cause I wasn’t going to buy it for myself. They insisted on me returning the item (it was actually their second mistake in a month so I amplified my anger), so I sent back a record I was gifted once I had no interest in and put it inside a Music on Vinyl sleeve, looked like brand new. They processed the refund and I got Animals for free.

 

My 10lp box arrived today - Box 0037. Delighted to have taken the plunge on this after initially hesitating (purely because I'd just picked up the new Rolling Stones Mono). A lovely set and good to see a super deluxe LP set for this BS, hopefully sounds as good as it looks! Can't wait to get stuck in, it has been difficult to resist streaming whilst keeping pace with this thread.

What a legend Bob is - a beautiful opportunity to dive deep into a great album/time. Enjoy the art.