Bob Dylan - "Abandoned Love" Live

This one-off, solo, live performance is (IMO) one the best vocals Dylan ever delivered. He tried the song again in the studio with lesser results, and The Everly Brothers and George Harrison both recorded covers of the song, with lesser results. Is it just me or is this a transcendent performance?

 

The studio version for comparison sake:

 

The Everly Brothers:

 

It really doesn't get any better than that.

 

George Harrison:

 

I always thought the live version was the best. I can't remember his name now, but there's another guy playing guitar at the beginning of the live version, then he stops playing because he didn't know the song or what Bob was going to play next... He's a well-known musician too....Oh, what is his name...darn it, it'll come to me sometime tomorrow probably...anyway, that's why it sounds like two guitars playing in the beginning of the live track - it is. He's one of those folk/country guys...someone will know....

 

I've been saying the same things about this song for the past decades. A truly magical performance, right up there in my top five Dylan songs.

 

The thing that I find hard to reconcile is that yes, the studio version pales next to the majestic live rendition. But, ya know, the studio version is also pretty good in its own right. The knowledge of how transcendent it could have been makes it's REALLY hard to fully embrace the final product on its own merits.

 

Is it Ramblin' Jack Elliott on that second guitar, heard ever-so briefly at the beginning of the live version?

 

It's Ramblin' Jack Elliott. This was recorded at the end of HIS set.

 

Look at that, I just remembered as you were posting it.

 

Abandon Love is just about my favorite Dylan song. You're a big Girl Now on biograph is right up there.

 

I think this is one of those cases that confound the Dylan faithful but I feel like I finally have a grip on. Dylan tended not to judge tracks for album inclusion based on merit vs. merit, he seemed to base it on "degree of realization". He knew that he didn't get this great song, or "Caribbean Wind" to name another, to where they could have gone. So he rejected them outright, even if they were still better than other tracks he chose to include (that WERE realized, but had less potential to begin with).

 

You nailed the Rosetta Stone of Dylan here.

 

Yes!

 

This (whether studio or live) is on my short list of favorite Dylan songs. Thanks for posting this.

 

I prefer the studio version by a mile, despite the akward drums.

 

Would you care to expand on why?

 

The first time I discovered this song, I was totally captivated. I played it endlessly.
It's a great performance - too bad Bob Dylan and his people pretend like it doesn't exist.

 

Great song (left off Desire) and a performance for the ages...............

Abandoned Love

G D/f# Em

I can hear the turning of the key

C G D/f#

I've been deceived by the clown inside of me.

Bm C

I thought that he was righteous but he's vain

G G7th D5th Em' D C G . . C/g-G

Oh, something's telling me I wear a ball and chain.

My patron saint is fighting with a ghost

He's always off somewhere when I need him most.

The Spanish moon is rising on the hill

But my heart is telling me I love ya still.


I come back to the town from the flaming moon

I see you in the street, I begin to swoon.

I love to see you dress before the mirror

Won't you let me in your room one time before I disappear?


Everybody's wearing a disguise

To hide what they've got left behind their eyes.

But me, I can't cover what I am

Wherever the children go I'll follow them.


I can't play the game no more, I can't abide

By their stupid rules which kept me sick inside

They've been made by men who've given up the search

Whose gods are dead and whose queens are in the church.


I march in the parade of liberty

But as long as I love you I'm not free.

How long must I suffer such abuse?

Won't you let me see you smile before I cut you loose?


Send out for Saint John the Evangelist

All my friends are drunk, they can be dismissed.

My head says that it's time to make a change

But my heart is telling me I love ya but you're strange.


So step lightly, darling, near the wall

Put on your heavy make-up, wear your shawl.

Won't you descend from the throne, from where you sit?

Let me feel your love one more time before I abandon it.

Copyright © 1975 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2003 by Ram’s Horn Music

 

I just think "Abandoned Love" wouldn't have fit on "Desire." It's a great stand-out track, a lot like "Blind Willie McTell" is, but that one wouldn't have fit with the other songs on "Infidels" either. It's amazing that we, as fans, experience all these different visions from Bob as an artist. We could have as easily gotten a gospel album from him, instead of "Tempest." But that's where his artistic vision led him, in a specific moment, and that's what we got... an album is "just what you were doing that day," didn't Bob say something like that? Now I'm quoting Neil Young: "Bob Dylan said that, something like that." I best double-up on the Gingko.

 

Sure, I love the violin, I think it adds a whole lot of depth to the song. Dylan also stumbles once in the live version. I also don't think that this version approaches the best vocal performances by Dylan. Nevertheless it is great, although I wish for better sound quality.

 

I agree.

 

I agree that the violin certainly adds something to the track. I just don't feel like Dylan fully inhabits the vocal on the studio performance, as he does on the solo version. I suspect that we'll never have better sound quality - we're probably lucky that someone was recording Ramblin' Jack's set that evening at all!

 

Thematically, "Abandoned Love" is probably a better fit for either "Blood on the Tracks" (written too late for) or "Street Legal" (surely long since forgotten by). Perhaps the long-awaited "Blood on the Tracks" Bootleg Series release sneaks forward a bit to include the solo performance, audience tape or not?