Bob Dylan: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 17: "Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions" [1/27/23]*

I'll be interested to watch this, but there is simply no denying it: his liner notes are by far the worst in the history of the Bootleg Series. A horrendous embarrassment. When he turned them in they should have commissioned somebody else. His whole "I'm a proud GenX-er and we understand the album better than Boomers" line is so wrong headed it's literally incredible they went with it. And he simply cannot write. Horror show!

 

Wow, I'm glad I didn't wait to jump on it yesterday.

 

The liner notes are really bad

Sorry to the author but I don’t care about your personal journey through the music of Bob Dylan. I want details about the process that were unknown to us.

 

I don't mind a modicum of 'my personal Dylan journey', if only because we all had one so we can relate to that. But you have to also have *something* sensible to say. Picture yourself and how you would have been had you been commissioned to write these liner notes: I know I would be sweating over every word, every comma, every thought, from the day I got the commission until the very last minute before I had to send them in. I'd lose sleep. I'd make myself ill. I'd alienate my family. I might not turn in a work of literature or shatteringly incisive analysis, but what I submitted would be the result of a sustained period of focus and energy, revised and revised and revised until it was as good as I could possibly make it.

And given all the great writers they could have chosen, the fact they went with this guy says a lot about their complacency and lack of respect. I guess what they want is somebody who will toe the line, perpetuate the myths, gush over everything, and apply no critical faculties to the task. Even so, they could still have found somebody who can actually write.

 

My feeling about the remix is exactly the same as yours. When I initially saw the package, with the live disc and the already released material disc, I immediately dismissed it as a ripoff. Then I listened to the remix on Amazon HD and did some A-B comps with the original mix, and was blown away at being able to really 'hear' this remarkable record. I'd always accepted the 'swampy' original as just the way Lanois makes records sound, but this is like hearing a new record. I hope at some point they make it available on vinyl as a standalone, but I'm certainly not holding my breath. But this is, as you said, the album now.

Also agree on the RS article. They have way too much invested in Dylan to leave anything that could be made into a coherent release sitting in the vault. My fear is that the gouging prices, like this one, will be the rule moving forward. Happy to have snagged it while Amazon had it discounted for a couple of days.

 

Yes of course. Always okay with some injection of a writer's personal experience. Hell, it can even enhance a work. But too much of these liner notes was exclusively that: "I first heard this when this was happening in my life" (paraphrasing). A waste.

 

So no one really commented on my assertion that maybe the control room talkback at the beginning and end of Cant Wait Ver 2 was Lanois and Howard mixing at Teatro (via walkie talkie as told by Lanois recently on the podcast). But listening again it definitely sounds like Bob saying "let's go listen"

I enjoy hearing it but it certainly sounds added after the fact. Kind of a curious inclusion on this set and makes me wonder if this take was being considered for the album and Lanois had placed the talkback there himself. Thoughts?

 

I'm listening to the interview now. It's all just the standard company line, Dylan was always great, the albums people dismiss as rubbish are great, Dylan is so so so so great, oh and of course the remix isn't about side-lining Lanois and in fact all Dylan's other producers have basically just pressed record, whereas Lanois brings that Lanois magic... It's funny because part of their conversation focuses on rejecting what they call "the narrative" but in fact the irony is that there is indeed a narrative but it's the one they're spinning. Apologies to @DPAM because hopefully we all appreciate the work you have done on the TOOM series but imho you skew too far towards supporting the standard narrative of non stop can-do-no-wrong Dylan genius etc. And this guy is a disgrace to the Bootleg Series, his notes wouldn't be good enough for most blogs never mind part of such an important release as this. But to be fair, he says Rosen wanted him to go with the "young person's perspective" which he recycled from an earlier "Dylan's albums ranked" piece, so I guess they knew what they were getting. Which is just so depressing.

 

It would be funny if the released version of Not Dark Yet was originally the "gymnasium take."

If that BD8 reel is from Oxnard, I presume that's Dylan on piano in the demo of Not Dark Yet. I love how it has a big highlighted asterisk by it, as if to alert any Bootleg Series compilers, "This take must be included!"
Well, maybe we'll hear it in the 2047 Copyright Collection....

 

Here’s a different view which probably fits better with me.

DYLAN'S FRAGMENTS BOX SET: DO YOU REALLY NEED IT? - Rhythms Music Magazine

 

Michael Goldberg's click-baiting hot blog take on Bob Dylan's 'Fragments': Do you really need to read it? Spoiler: No.

 

Sorry. Your point is intriguing. I don't know the answer. I don't know if it is Bob - if it is why is his voice so unclear? As for whether it was added afterwards to fake a sense of "in the studio", I hope not but I would not put it past them.

 

This guy disqualifies himself as a borderline troll right out of the gate with this gem:

"Time Out Of Mind was an amazing and unexpected return for Dylan – who at the time hadn’t made a good album of original material since 1976’s Desire, 20 years earlier".

 

Thanks to whoever posted the discount Amazon price. I jumped on it, and it's enroute now.

 

Bah. Missed out on Amazon.

 

Congrats, good move. WTF is this, "dynamic" pricing ?

 

Before I read this I was planning to make a comment along the lines of "none of us knows what Hyden was asked to write." They probably weren't just like, "Please just write whatever you feel like." No one's really mentioned the Brinkley notes, but frankly I don't think they're all that great, either. He refers to the "midnight train" lines in "Standing in the Doorway" as "lost verses" (p. 19 in the CD book). On the same page I believe he misquotes a line from "Tryin' to Get to Heaven."

I don't disagree that the quality of the notes this time leaves something to be desired, but I'm less inclined to blame the writers than I am the producers. One of my favorite things about buying reissues in the '90s (and I'm just a few years younger than Hyden, for what it's worth) was reading the liner notes, and Biograph and BS 1-3 had great ones that I'd go back to all the time. The standards have really fallen, and not just with the Bootleg Series, but this series in particular deserves better. Track-by-track notes, with accurate recording dates and personnel details, are honestly a higher priority for me, but the fact that they're failing to give us both those details and decent essays is depressing. At least the music is great!

 

I'm probably a little late to the party but I'm finally reading the 10-LP liner notes and there's a page missing in the "Time Out Of Mind: The Immortality Album" section. Very disappointing.

Is there anywhere I can read the next page?

 

Oh yeah, Brinkley's notes are a dead loss, too. But at least he can write. I don't know how these people get these gigs when they are so obviously unqualified. We all make mistakes, but the level of incompetence around this release is stupefying. I've seen the claim that "clouds of blood" is al alt lyric repeated at least three times. As you say, though, the producers hire the writers and they hire them with one overarching priority in mind: that they should never, ever even hint at the reality but should stick to the party line at all times. I love the Bootleg Series, it has given us (ok, sold us) so much over the years. But I don't think the people who run it have very good taste.

 

Think yourself lucky!

 

I take it there have been other issues?

 

It isn’t a page missing. There’s one line at the bottom of the page printed in white that’s barely readable

 

Thanks for that! Very bizarre.

 

Well said. I can actually do without any essays, to be honest, but having track-by-track annotation and recording personnel is invaluable. I refer back to the BS 1-3 and Biograph notes from time to time, as they provide a wealth of information.

 

Ah well if your vinyl is in good shape you truly are lucky. But I just meant missing a page of these liner notes would be a good thing because they're the worst notes that have ever disgraced a BS release, worse even than Jeff Slate's.