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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Dave Gilmour's Cat, Nov 2, 2016.

  1. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I always preferred the NY Sessions to the Minneapolis ones, this box set only further solidified that for me. And it's not even close.
     
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  2. Whiskeytown86

    Whiskeytown86 Well-Known Member

    I agree
     
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  3. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

    Besides the bird on the horizon, there’s that other strange bird.

    The parrot.

    It always seem to jar (the version of “Twist of Fate” on Budokan is more literal and does away with it)

    The parrot vaguely fits in with the docks scenario (and what might be described as the album’s trend towards the exotic).

    But more than that, I wonder if its talking might represent the incessant repetition of the protagonist’s own obsessions, a projection of his own inner-voice, like the singing bird in “Big Girl” or the crowing rooster in “Meet Me”?
     
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  4. Listening to disc 3, I’m struck by how well Spanish Is The Loving Tongue fits into the mythological landscape of this album. Imagine an alternate reality where this take is complete and is used as the final track on the album: “Adios, mi corazon.” Devastating.
     
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  5. AGimS

    AGimS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
    OMG the first CD is so great, worth the price of admission!!
     
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  6. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    I think that many assume that Bob is talking mainly about anyone but himself in his songs.

    "The people in my songs are all me."- Bob Dylan
     
  7. musicaner

    musicaner Forum Resident

    I think the songs were written before news of a possible divorce came out in the papers.
    It cant be about the end of the marriage since they didnt divorce until 77.
     
  8. Walking Antique

    Walking Antique Nothing is incomprehensible

    Location:
    usa
    Agreed. That always seemed cartoonish to me. I can't get an image of Jack Sparrow out of my mind. Dylan already changed it by the time of the John Hammond TV show in September of 1975.
     
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  9. Walking Antique

    Walking Antique Nothing is incomprehensible

    Location:
    usa
    I don't believe for a minute that Dylan really shot a man named Grey and took his wife to Italy. I think he just made that up for the song.
     
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  10. lschwart

    lschwart Senior Member

    Location:
    Richmond, VA
    Yes. He clearly took the woman to Cyprus.

    L.
     
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  11. bgiliberti

    bgiliberti Will You Be My Neighbor?

    Location:
    USA
    Was that before or after he married Isis 5/5?
     
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  12. lschwart

    lschwart Senior Member

    Location:
    Richmond, VA
    Well, he didn't hold onto her very long, so I think right after.

    L.
     
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  13. Tom Daniels

    Tom Daniels Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona
    I think it is often not LITERALLY about the breakup of his marriage. But emotionally I think it is. The details may be from earlier relationships, or may be made up. It is a work of fiction in that sense. But it is about relationships that didn’t work out, and loss and regret.
     
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  14. Lonson

    Lonson I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues

    Not that I think these songs were entirely autobiographical, but marriages can end quite some time before divorce.
     
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  15. dee

    dee Senior Member

    Location:
    ft. lauderdale, fl
    Maybe instead of a shot of love Bob shot him with a touch of grey, or maybe the man was depressed or past his prime - his nickname Grey. Bob finished the poor fellow off and took the man's wife to Italy, when and where he finally finished painting his masterpiece, inheriting a million bucks circa 1970s, after she suspiciously passed away... ;)
     
  16. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

    "Call Letter Blues" and "Meet Me in the Morning" are both really welcome blues-breaks each time they come around. I've grown to really enjoy both songs and the way they "cut through" so directly among the more subtle stuff. I can see why Bob would have put one or the other on the final album more clearly.

    The NY "Lily, Rosemary, and JoH" is far more enjoyable than the ultra low-fi version I heard those years ago. I think, in all its sluggish bootleg glory, it kind of put me off the NY sessions. In fact, in high fidelity it's highly engaging and enjoyable--I remember thinking, years ago, did Bob really consider releasing this version compared with the one I know and love?!

    I've been won around to the NY sessions, generally, despite some initial biases. They have a distinct vibe that I am really glad for.
     
  17. BlindWillieMcZim

    BlindWillieMcZim Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manchester
    Heh. Bob abides. Sure, it's only my opinion, but then if we accept that premise we are forced to admit that it's only our opinion that Dylan can sing, and that our work colleague who says he can't has an equally valid view.

    Subjectivity is all well and good, but Modern Times is, objectively speaking, inferior to Love and Theft by several orders of magnitude.
     
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  18. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I find it interesting that of the 12 songs in contention for a spot on "BOTT", Dylan revisited 11 of the songs in New York even after he had what appeared to be a releasable take in the can of each. The only song to avoid that fate was "Lily", with the test pressing version being the only extant multi-track take (only for the song to be revisited in Minnesota). Either he felt very confident (at least temporarily) in that take, or he figured the odds were against cutting another version without running into a lyric flub along the way.
     
  19. tyke

    tyke Forum Resident

    Location:
    leeds UK
    This is probably trite but I feel BOTT more than most albums is about the human condition. How does it feel? This is how it feels--- painful, regretful, angry, loving, confused, hurt, rueful, hopeful----add adjectives to taste. This is a thematic album, almost like a suite, coming at the theme from different angles. Lily Rosemary is the same theme but we're looking in from outside. Why did he junk the 12th verse? Perhaps a bit too explicit.

    I expect I'm in a minority of one but in relation to the theme, I don't find Idiot Wind completely convincing in either version. In some ways its a bit of a whinge.

    What led him to choose that theme at that time? Well, we can only guess, maybe there are clues in Dirge and Going Going Gone. But he did a great thing.
     
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  20. onlyconnect

    onlyconnect The prose and the passion

    Location:
    Winchester, UK
    Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts. It’s like a puzzle without a key. A tall tale that romps along - reminds me of Hurricane in some ways, though that one is based on fact - and I love it, but also find it among Dylan’s most enigmatic songs. Relationships - one of the themes of Blood on the Tracks - two women, two men, chaos predictably ensues. I always thought the Jack of Hearts was a bit of a self portrait, someone hard to pin down, who always gets his girl, who is “on the scene, missing”, a fantastic turn of phrase.

    In fact, I think we have met the Jack of Hearts before. Stuck inside of Mobile with thee.

    Tim
     
  21. BlindWillieMcZim

    BlindWillieMcZim Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manchester
    Lily, Rosemary does have something in common with Hurricane, and with Joey as well, and even Black Diamond Bay. It's cinematic and told from the inside.

    That 'on the scene, missing' I always took to mean 'the only person who you'd expect to be on the scene, the Jack of Hearts, was missing'. But the line can also be read as expressing a duality: here but not present, and 'on the scene, missing' is a very Dylan way of putting it.

    Either way, the Jack connects with the trickster figure, as seen in Jokerman, and thus with Dylan himself, obviously. The only thing we know for sure about him is that we can't be sure about him / like Henry Porter in Brownsville Girl.

    A lot of people say Lily doesn't 'fit' with the rest of the album, but I see it as just one end of a spectrum, or scale, from pure autobiography to pure fiction, that these songs slide back and forth on. Sometimes they seem pretty straightforward lifts from Dylan's life, more often they're a complex blend of fact and fiction, and Lily is at the most fictional end (though not necessarily wholly fictional).

    Another way I like to think of the song is as a story in which the characters are all taken from the 'he' and 'I' and 'them' in the other songs on the album, and have been thrown together in a classic Western scenario and left to fight it out among themselves while the rest of the album, the cabaret, is 'closed for repair'.
     
  22. posnera

    posnera Forum Resident

    I've never really tried (or cared to) figure out the exact plot of Lily.
    One thing that struck me when I first heard it as a teenager was the part about Lily taking all the dye out of her hair. And then the Jack of Hearts is missing. Was Lily really the Jack in disguise?
    Probably ridiculous but a fun idea.
     
  23. j.barleycorn

    j.barleycorn Forum Resident

    Location:
    MN, USA
    I bought the double LP version last week. FWIW my copy is flawless. I still prefer the original Blood with the fuller arrangements. I’ve lived with that since ‘75 and it’s in my DNA. I’ve got a number of Bob boots but never had one from these sessions except what came out officially. But this alternative solo version is amazing too.

    I’m also a little partisan being that I lived near Sound 80 in Mpls for years and spent time in there during the 80s. Kevin Odeagard, Oshtrouko , etc were fixtures on the folk scene. Odegard started organizing BOTT tribute shows back in the early ‘OOs. The first one was at the Orpheum Theatre in dwtn Mpls with the original session guys. Later he did annual summer shows with more varied players at the amphitheater in St Louis Park ( close to where I live) that were broader Dylan tributes.

    Of course really happy that they finally got this music released in the Bootleg series. Overdue.
     
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  24. Wright

    Wright Forum Resident

    But he does say that the album is "somewhat about" his marital situation.
     
  25. Dave Gilmour's Cat

    Dave Gilmour's Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I agree that Love and Theft is far better, but there’s nothing “objective” about that. These are just our opinions. Once again, see: Can music be objectively good? "X is better than Y." Surely not!
     
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