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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by DeeThomaz, Sep 24, 2015.

  1. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

    Besides "Covenant Woman," without doubt the extended, nightmarish "Dead Man, Dead Man." I also like the piano-based out-take of "Gotta Serve Somebody" a lot. That's a song I never took to until this collection. I really enjoy it now. Dylan seems to like it because he can hang so much on it, in terms of lyrics and rhythm.
     
  2. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I have finished listening to the 2xCD.
    I enjoyed the album.
    I liked the a lot of the songs I knew from Slow Train Coming and Shot Of Love better live.
    His band is great and Bob Dylan is the best I have heard him live.
    People who enjoyed his 'Gospel period' (like myself) will enjoy this and could make others believers.
     
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  3. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I really enjoyed the sound quality of this CD.
    According to the liner notes most of the tracks were taken from cassettes on the soundboard.
     
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  4. vegard martinsen

    vegard martinsen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo Norway
    As for the material in the Basement Tapes Box, I mostly listen to a collection called Mixin´Up The Medicine ....
     
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  5. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Here are some tracks that I think are outstanding in a very good live selection on the 2xCD

    Disc 1
    1. Slow Train (first track hits you with an amazing live version) 'but the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency'
    2. Gotta Serve Somebody
    4. When You Gonna Wake Up?
    5. When He Returns
    6. Man Gave Names To All The Animals
    7. Precious Angel
    9. Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking

    Disc2
    9. Pressing On
    10. Shot Of Love
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2018
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  6. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Also
    Disc 1
    13. Saved
     
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  7. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Ive been listening to this album everyday since I bought it 3 days ago.
    This album has really strengthened and uplifted me.
     
  8. It has some fascinating performances and there is something different about it than Dylan's other live material.
     
  9. bem

    bem Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indianapolis
    I found this song to be my go to song and one of the highlights of the disc.
     
  10. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

    You might enjoy the 6 disc version, then?

    A small niggle for me is that I find the '79 vocal is a bit reedy and wasp-like at times, like Bob has a cold. I don't know the tour well enough to know how representative the particular selections are.

    One of the few songs that I think they made bad choices on throughout is "What Can I Do For You?" which remains better on the original album. The take from Toronto is the wrong one--the widely released one (from another night) is much more moving. This is a song that has the potential to really affect me, yet all the selections here just kind of pass by.

    Anyway, you got me playing this again, which is a good thing!
     
  11. NUNZI

    NUNZI Forum Resident

    One great performance after another, all of it pure. Glad they released it. We needed it.
     
  12. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I am thinking of buying the deluxe edition.
    Which disc or show is your favourite?
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2018
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  13. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

    For me, probably the 1980 Toronto performance (discs 5 and 6), which is the same band as the 1979 shows that you like, but beautifully recorded and, for me, a warmer vocal (others prefer the '79 performances). If you really enjoy the first two discs, you are sure to love the Toronto performance.

    Discs 3 and 4 are somewhat erratic, as is to be expected from the wide mix of concert performances, rehearsals, and studio out-takes, but there are some wonderful performances. They are somewhat frustrating as there were other studio performances that should have been on there.

    I love the 1981 tour, but the selection from Earls Court is not the best. I would have preferred a more curated piece, like the Toronto selections above. That said, there are some fabulous moments.
     
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  14. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I'm glad to get you playing it again!
     
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  15. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

    I can't remember anyone transcribing the lyrics for "Dead Man, Dead Man" (nor are they available online, to my best knowledge), so I thought I would give it a shot (I might be mishearing some lines . . . ):

    Uttering idle words from a reprobate mind
    Clinging to strange promises, dying on the vine
    Never being able to separate the good from the bad
    Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it
    It's making me feel so sad

    Dead man, dead man
    When will you arise?
    Cobwebs in your mind
    Dust upon your eyes

    As a child you knew all there was to know that just could not be expressed
    Now it hurts me to see what you accept is good and one time you wouldn’t have settled for less than the best
    The race of the engine that overrules your heart
    Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it
    Pretending that you're so smart

    The glamor and the bright lights and the politics of sin
    The ghetto that you build for me is the one you’re living in
    The silver spade that waits for you to throw dirt upon your tomb
    Ooh I can’t stand it I can’t stand it you’re running out of room

    What are you trying to overpower me with, a doctrine or a gun?
    My back is already to the wall, where can I run?
    The tuxedo that you're wearing, and the flower in your lapel
    Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it
    You want to take me down to hell

    Killed his body someplace else and dumped it into a long black limousine
    They arrested him for breaking and entering into a place that he’s never seen
    The filthiest girl that they could find to make it look like a bitter queen
    Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it the way they make it look so clean


    And the verse that is in on the Shot of Love version but not on BS 13:

    Satan got you by the heel, there's a bird's nest in your hair
    Do you have any faith at all? Do you have any love to share?
    The way that you hold your head, cursing God with every move
    Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it
    What are you trying to prove?
     
  16. Crush87

    Crush87 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Dead Man, Dead Man | The Official Bob Dylan Site
     
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  17. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

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  18. Crush87

    Crush87 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    My bad - didn't read the whole post, obviously.

    Carry on
     
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  19. The Bard

    The Bard Highway 61 Revisited. That is all.

    Location:
    Singapore
    That Dead Man Dead Man outtake may be the highlight of the whole set for me. Love it! So raw and those harmonica breaks!
     
  20. Fender Relic

    Fender Relic Forum Resident

    Location:
    PennsylBama
    My deluxe version is still in the bag that I bought last Thanksgiving. Nearly a year has gone by but I'm waiting to listen when my mind, heart, and spirit are open and ready to receive.
     
  21. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

    The lyrics from BS 13, albeit awkward at times, place the song as a fairly close cousin of “Making a Liar Out of Me.” I like the way it makes good on the "zombie" premise of the title, certainly more sinisterly descriptive than the original release. As with "Making a Liar," there is the sense that those who regards themselves as "chosen," the select and the successful, are walking dead—“you must have been beautiful when you were living.” As a "child," he couldn’t express in words the truths that he knew; as a corrupted adult, “idle words” come too easy.

    The line “Killed his body someplace else and dumped it into a long black limousine” sounds a bit strange at first (“Killed his body?”) until you recognize that the guy is living-dead, zombified; the limousine (perhaps recalling the “black Mercedes” in “Angelina”) represents both the trappings (trap) of success and a hearse on its way to the passenger’s own funeral--“The silver spade that waits for you to throw dirt upon your tomb” (and, again, I like how the line contains dual images of hollow power and mortality, embodied in “silver spoon” transmogrified to a “silver spade”). It also seems that the dead man is actually set up and framed, his reputation soiled by others; those who “throw dirt” also “make it look so clean.” I quite like how “tomb” and “running out room” follow each other.

    Lyrically, it might not be top drawer Dylan, but put with the music, it’s pretty damn effective. It has that sinister, seedy, urban edge that marks the best of the Shot of Love brand, a soulful secularity. I think it is this song Dylan said was really about himself looking back at himself in a mirror (the doubled titular “Dead Man?”).
     
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  22. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    And your ears!
    Some music comes along at the right time for us.
    I have always liked his three gospel albums (1979 - 1981) so this album was easy for me. But it did come along at the right time.
     
  23. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Which disc for Dead Man, Dead Man are you referring to?
    I just have the 2CD at the moment.
     
  24. Psychedelic Sounds

    Psychedelic Sounds Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    'Dead Man, Dead Man' was a track that took me a while to like on Shot Of Love.
    I think I like the live version on Disc2 of the 2CD better. It sounds apocalyptic.
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2018
  25. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Well done. I have a few suggested corrections, mostly minor.

     
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