Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series Volume 15 (Travelin’ Thru 1967-1969 (1st November 2019) *

I forgot to mention, money burns a hole in my pocket for an official release of Blackbushe 1978. Columbia / Sony is said to have a multi-track recording. It would make a terrific box-set the other acts were included as well. If Dylan's set were released I have no doubt it would change how people view the 1978 tour.

 

'78 is my priority, but I fear that the concert tapes are lost given what one source apparently said to Rolling Stone some time ago. I would like a curation of each leg along with some representative complete shows (including Charlotte if in better quality). After that, well, I'm open to pretty much anything . . .

 

The Blackbushe audience recording is one of my favorites of 78 or any year. Would love to hear a multi-track live album. The whole, epic show.

 

LOL, this thread! A multitudinous clamouring!

 

All I wanna see re: 1975 and 1976 are live bricks. It would be against what I believe the BS series should be for an installment like Vol. 5's compilation to be completely overridden by another installment (Vol. 15, in this case) that's also not complete...just a bigger compilation.

 

I'd like to see Supper Club, but I'd also like to see a complete MTV Unplugged. The two are intertwined in that this was Bob trying to do something to catch up with the then-flaming hot "Unplugged" series that Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton had revived their careers with. Unplugged was scheduled after Supper Club just didn't hit the mark, performance-wise and too-dark filming. Why not combine the two in a set? And if you're gonna do that, why not also include his triumphant Woodstock show for a pretty cohesive 93-94 live set of audio and video that captures Bob at an interesting revival period for him. He really had his live game going on in this period.

 

Alternate proposal: A 1966 Live Recordings-type box for Rolling Thunder, either '75 or '76 or both. Not BS, but a box of just recordings, no frills. It's a TON of shows, but we know that a good chunk of it (if not everything, at least for '75) was recorded. It's ~30 shows for '75 (2 discs each for just Dylan, 3-4 for full performances), ~25 for '76 (about the same breakdown for each show).

Laying it all out, that's a lot of material...

 

The Wilbury Years! The Under The Red Sky sessions. Actually it would just be nice to have a re-issued vinyl version of this album.

After two recent BS's of 70's material I think it's very unlikely that we'll get the 70's again. Realistically my first choice would be for the Infidels sessions. We know there's a lot of good material in the vaults from this time.

 

Don Was has talked about being given some uncut session cassettes to listen to on the way home from the studio during the UTRS sessions... Yet the UTRS period was covered on Tell-Tale Signs.

 

I'll probably wait for the inevitable Rolling Stone "exclusive" about BS14 to see if there are any new clues; then I'll post the updated list...

 

In the meantime, though, I'll post my own wish list -- in no particular order:

(01) Complete Freewheelin' Sessions
(02) Coffeehouse Years & "Hotel" Recordings (including Gaslight upgrade)
(03) John Wesley Harding sessions / Dylan-Cash Highlights / Dylan-Harrison Highlights
(04) "Divorce Trilogy" with Planet Waves Sessions / BOTT Minnesota Sessions* / Desire Sessions (*They're holding them back! Kidding ... half kidding ... maybe they'll find them??)
(05) Rundown Years (Heylin has been lobbying for this)
(06) Tell Tale Signs: Knocked Down In The Infidel Groove (1982-1988 studio, with maybe 10% live highlights)
(07) Tell Tale Signs: Under A Good Sky Gone Wrong (1990-1996 studio, with smattering of live highlights)
(08) Complete Oh Mercy Sessions
(09) Complete Time Out Of Mind Sessions
(10) Complete Love & Theft Sessions
(11) Complete Live 1975 (Best of RTR 1st leg)
(12) Complete Live 1976 (Best of RTR 2nd leg)
(13) Best Of Live 1978 (better representation than Budokan)
(14) Complete Supper Club Shows (don't care about the voice; don't care that they're "out there" -- release them!)

OK, I'll stop there -- that's just off the top of my head. That would take us through 2032!

 

Probably Infidels, but Supper Club would be just fine.

 

Infidels would be may choice.

 

Yeah I'm most interested to see what they do with the 80s. As other's have said, it feels like it's time. The rehabilitation has already begun.

Ideally I'd like to see separate volumes laying out:

1) the complete sessions for Infidels
2) the complete sessions for Oh Mercy.

In my view (and I know this isn't an especially original opinion) both of those are very good albums that could have been masterpieces to sit alongside his best work if different choices had been made over the included songs and versions of songs.

And then:

3) A third set would handle the mid-80s sessions (Empire Burlesque, Knocked Out Loaded, Down in the Groove), doing an 'Another Self Portrait'-style strip-down job on them, and shining a light on the rock & roll (and occasional pop & folk) covers he was obsessing over at the time.

I can see them conflating sets 1 & 3 into a bigger mid-80s box - there is a through-line there of course, with left-over stuff from the Infidels sessions being returned to throughout the period. But I wonder if it would be too big an endeavour to do comprehensively, or rather without jeopardising a proper dig into the incredible Infidels sessions. I could live with it though!

I've long been of the view that a treatment along the lines that I've suggested above, considered alongside Tell Tale Signs, would lead to a radical reconsideration of Bob's career. Trouble No More has arguably helped to change the narrative from 'Bob had a major drop-off in quality after Street Legal' to a vaguer 'Bob had a major drop off during the 80s'. This could shake that up too, just as Another Self Portrait did for the 1968-70 period.

 

As much as I was everything, I really hope the next set centers on the 1980s. What's available of the Infidels sessions is excellent, and who knows what other goodies are unreleased from there. Hearing them in perfectly quality would be awesome. The Shot of Love Sessions would be my second choice, I simply love the funky, r&b Bob who showed up around this time. Thirdly, I'd really enjoy a set from the late 80s, and hear what great stuff Bob left in the vaults. Of course, we're probably going to get a RTR set next year and I'll be right there to get it.

 

I'd love to see John Wesley Harding Sessions, I'm not sure if there'd be enough to warrant an entire bootleg series release though.
I'd also love to see Oh Mercy sessions or maybe some Desire + Street Legal era stuff
A recent live show would be cool too, anything from the Never Ending Tour.

 

once again I say: the complete sessions with Leon Russell--the ones that produced "Watching the River Flow" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece."

 

as fine as the final product is, it really is a damn shame that another self portrait came out right before bobcorp switched gears and started putting out proper box sets. imagine an ASP: redux the size of, say, trouble no more, with perhaps JWH and pat garrett outtakes thrown in to fully cover bob's wilderness years

 

It truly could've been awesome.

 

Wasn't that Happy Traum?

 

Exactly this. I bet they kick themselves now for not doing a more comprehensive set. They still could for my money, just call it deluxe or part 2. Thought they've missed out on the EU JWH outtakes copywrite already.

 

No, both of those band versions released at the time were produced by Russell (it's Russell musician pals top to bottom) and a number of other tracks were cut, including "Rock of Ages" and (if I remember correctly) "Lucky Old Sun."

 

Ah, never knew that. Looking at Bjorner's logs it looks like Russell and pals at the first session and Happy Traum on the second.

 

I'll throw my hat in the ring for the 78 tour...........I have never understood all the fuss about those Supper Club shows the band was on form but Bob was on helium there are parts of the video floating around but it's way too dark to be of any use.