Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol.16: Springtime In New York (1980–1985) (Content & Sound Quality)

I've heard the remix and you're completely right. Sounds like a perspective TOOM set will need a few extra discs just for the alternate mixes. Good news for Bob fans that can't get enough, the more the merrier.

 

They needed space for such gems as Watered Down Love, Lenny Bruce and Trouble in particular. Hopefully we'll get a CD of Trouble alternates.

I personally don't understand the mad clamour for Caribbean Wind outtakes as whilst I agree its a good song, the version on Biograph is more than sufficient to my mind.

 

Lanois' production on Time Out of Mind sounded muddled and heavily processed from the very moment it came out. Personally, I can't stand it. And it comes close to derailing some tracks, for me. I'd love to hear 'Love Sick' without the overly intrusive echo and reverb. It doesn't need it, and adds nothing to the song.

 

In general, maybe. But the production (and/or mix) on TOOM has long been seen as highly problematic. I'm not in the camp of virulent Lanois haters, I like the album as it is, but I do think the production is way overcooked and, particularly, I lament what they did to Dylan's voice: both the distortion and the burial.

I'm conscious that there was much clamour over the years for a de-Spector'd Let it Be and when we finally got Let It Be Naked it only served to reinforce how good the original album was. (And let's please not mention later atrocities such as Giles Martin's Pepper mix.) Still, a mix of TOOM along the lines of the Love Sick mix that's on the Vicky's Knickers EP would be wonderful to hear.

 

Maybe he will announce himself DURING the stream. Shadow Kingdom might just be a long infomercial.

 

Dirt Road Blues - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (Unreleased)
Can’t Wait - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (released on “Tell Tale Signs”, disc 1)
Mississippi - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (released on “Tell Tale Signs, disc 3)
Highlands - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (Unreleased)
All I Ever Loved Is You - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (Unreleased)
Dreamin’ Of You - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (Unreleased)
Million Miles - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (Unreleased)
Not Dark Yet - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (Unreleased)
Red River Shore - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (Unreleased)
Standing In The Doorway - recorded at Oxnard 09/10 1996. (Unreleased)

 

Speaking of Tell Tale Signs, how did I overlook this live version of High Water for so long? It smokes. Is this the Charlie/Larry era band?

 

This tracklist and what we don't know about the TOOM sessions make me want to ffwd to 2022 already!

 

lol they recorded an album in one day, multi tracked .
Cindy Cashdollar and Duke Robillard did a session in Oxnard.
anyways according to Olof its from Criteria.

 

you nailed it lol.
any word on the title?

 

Lanois main gripe was that none of the musicians brought in by Dylan could play. And Dylan kept bringing them in.
all they could play were tired blues/country licks.

 

I’ve never heard the Victoria Secret mix; I will have to look it up. I LOVE the TOOM mix though. It’s my favourite song on that album! so soupy and mysterious! I never cared for the Jack Frost productions. I find them too dry. The songbook albums we a sonic relief.

 

I'd love to hear some of the TOOM stuff without the soupy, reverb and muck myself. I really hate how Lanois just slavers that Lanois sound on top of his productions, and more often than not I don't love soupy murky reverb heavy stuff. I like natural room sound in a room appropriate for the music and the scale of the music. Sometimes unwinding the period production can be revealing. The Mosaic collection of Charles Mingus' 1959 Columbia recordings, without the stereo pushed super wide and the added chamber reverb, is really natural and revealing. Sometimes not -- Let It Be stripped of the production just sounded like demos. Personally, whether it's the Lanois reverb signature, or the giant reverb signature of ECM records of the last 30 years, I always feel that's stuff I'm working to listen around to get to the most. It's an exhausting turn off for me.

 

Does anyone know how much was recorded for Masked & Anonymous? I love those soundtrack songs so much - would love a complete version of “Dirt Road Blues” from the film, that Campbell/Sexton band was on another level - definitely felt like an extension of the Love And Theft album.

 

Man, I *love* the sound of that album. A de-Laniosed version would be a curiosity, but it's so good as it stands. Love Sick is fantastic....

 

Band Members:
Bob Dylan - piano, harp
Larry Campbell - guitar, slide guitar, pedal steel,
Freddie Koella - guitar
Tony Garnier - bass
George Recile - drums

I was at the show. It was after the 2003 SARS pandemic and was part of a concert series to encourage tourism to Canada (and Niagara Falls). Not a traditional concert venue but a beautiful amphitheatre setting. I've never been able to get an official count on capacity but it was certainly intimate and as Dylan and band were concluding the fireworks over the Falls went off in the backdrop, capping off a memorable evening.

 

I can think of cases where it might be a good idea (such as they did with Richard Lloyd's Field of Fire album) - but it would be crazy to change the work Lanois did, imo. He's so good at what he does, and it's a perfect ambience for Dylan, imo.

 

Thanks for this. Wow. Envious! What a show it must have been.

 

Time out of Mind is what it is, and I like it that way. An "alternate" version without all the Lanois-isms would be interesting, but I wouldn't want it to replace the official version. That said, I'm glad Dylan produced Love and Theft himself.

The Beatles remixes are a different thing altogether. The idea there isn't to undo over-production, but just to do a better mix from first-generation audio using the original working tapes without all the bouncing-down that had to be done at the time. The only thing I really don't like about those is the usual 21st century CD mastering -- loud and compressed. I've been experimenting with downmixing the surround mixes (which are more dynamic) to stereo; so far the results are promising, but I'm still working on the track balance. (I know there's a standard formula for downmixing to stereo, I'm just not fully satisfied with what I got from that.)

 

I would like to see “Love & Theft” remixed by Daniel Lanois.

 

That EP is a lot easier to come by in the US than in Europe. I paid abut £10 for it. It isn't radically different, it's just a fair bit less soupy.

I love the album track too. But if I could have a mix of the album, where all songs were dialled down, production-wise, to the same degree as that VS version of Love Sick, I think I would end up preferring that mix to the original album.

 

Couldn't agree more. Most of the time my all time favorite Dylan track. I'd always been a fan of the Biograph version, but the more acoustic one on one of those Genuine Bootleg Series is other worldly. According to Heylin there aren't much takes recorded, but apparently he wasn't aware of the take that ended up on Trouble No More, so who knows.

 

Right, yeah... Duke Robillard, Jim Dickinson, Jim Keltner...

 

Bob knew what Daniel Lanois was bringing to the table. If he didn’t want reverb and atmospheric Hershey squirts, then he wouldn't have hired Lanois.

I think the only misstep on "Time Out of Mind" is “Cold Irons Bound.” I had the great fortune to see Bob perform this song in concert on several occasions
and the live versions were far superior to the recorded version. Bob stretched and twisted that song inside out and it became a funky blues stomp
that was only hinted at on the album. Overall I think it's a great album that ultimately runs out of steam.

Bob and Daniel are an interesting combination and I like the albums they did together. I wish they had the inclination to hammer out a few more sessions
before I run out of time…or mind.