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

My records seem ok so I'll thank my lucky stars.

 

Its been mentioned so perhaps if and when the vinyl box sells out? then a standalone with the remix. Wait, isn't the remix on a 4LP set, 2LPs are the remix? Plus you get some of the outtakes on vinyl? Seems pretty reasonable imo. But yes maybe a colored vinyl 2LP set of only the remixed album sometime in 2023?

 

Just because someone expresses a different opinion doesn’t make them a troll.

 

it's what amazon does for everything to try to make sure it's the cheapest

 

Troll was the wrong choice of a word there, I stand corrected. But to lead with that statement doesn't exactly set a tone of any sort of objectivity, and leads one to believe that the writer isn't a serious Dylan listener, and might not be the best to judge whether a set like this is "worth it". Just my opinion.

 

ROFL.
George Orwell is chuckling.

 

He does kinda say that. I have heard the entire set and I pretty much agree with his thoughts on this release. It’s a lot of money for a scant return.

 

Why do you think it’s a “scant return”?

 

seems fair enough. unlike springtime, basement, vol 1-3, witmark etc., there is not a wealth of new stuff, just variations on a theme

yeah, everyone on this forum knows he hasn't made a good recording since the buckland tapes, before he sold out and changed his name

 

I amended my comment, but you have to admit that his conclusion is kind of obvious - if alternates and unreleased stuff don't excite you or if you aren't a fan of the record, this set might not be for you. Pretty much applies to most any deep dive box set.

 

Well, it's an opinion based on personal musical preferences, but so what? People on SH.TV come out with opinions all the time that seem bizarre to me, but that's life. It doesn't make them trolls or imbeciles. Not being into Infidels or Oh Mercy (to say nothing of Knocked Out Loaded) is neither a crime nor evidence of stupidity, it just means that music doesn't resonate with them.

On the internet, the term "troll" originally (1990s) referred to someone who intentionally tries to stir up controversy by making outrageous claims that they don't even believe themselves. Over time the meaning of the word has degenerated due to people misusing it as a term of abuse for anyone who disagrees with them.

 

If you just read a few posts further, I amend the comment. I know what a troll is, I simply misused the term. Shoot me.

 

If they really wanted to make a 180-degree night-and-day difference between the new version and old, they wouldn’t have bathed the vocal in a Lanois-style echo effect on the very first song we hear — would they?

And they wouldn’t have still blended in some of the vocal distortion…. would they?

I think they’d have just taken off all the vocal processing, not added any of their own, and made a very polite, neatly spaced out mix with all the ambience of a telephone box.

In other words, it would have been boring.

Instead, for every effect that’s been dialled down, Michael Brauer adds his own sparkle.

He uses his signature layers of compression to glue the instruments together into a soundscape that, in its own way, is just as hallucinogenic and alligator-infested as the original.

So rather than setting out to exterminate every last resemblance to a Lanois-influenced sound, I think Michael Brauer mostly just did his own thing.

Sometimes he bathes the vocal in echo, sometimes he doesn’t.

Sometimes his approach crosses over with Lanois’s, sometimes it doesn’t.

 

My box finally arrived yesterday after being stuck in transit for a week. I have spent the day listening to it. I think I only have three observations and apologies if they have been made before (I haven't read every word of this thread.

1. You could make several different versions of TOOM using varying combinations of the alternate takes on this set and they would all be extraordinary.

2. The main beneficiary of the new remix is Dylan's voice. He sounded old and grizzled on the original album (and that worked perfectly well) but he sounds vital and engaged here and much more like the singer on Infidels or Oh Mercy (for example).

3. Great pictures in the book and the author makes the same point almost word for word that I have made previously in these pages about the effect of hearing TOOM for the first time if you were too young to have experienced Bob's "golden age" first hand. The writer is about 10 years younger than me but the first album I bought was Street Legal and, like him, I subsequently worked back through the catalogue without context and forward through two decades of material that we were told was often substandard. TOOM exploded out of my speakers the first time I played it and I knew it was a masterpiece, Bob's first during my record buying lifetime, as soon as I heard it and before I ever read a review.

 

I haven’t experienced this kind of immersive listen on a new release for quite some time—that experience of getting lost in the music and being totally absorbed in the songs. The fact that lyrics bounce off each other and ricochet from one song to the other only enhances this exhilarating sense of disorientation. It’s occurred to me that maybe TOOM is pretty much just one long sad song.

Sometimes I take two steps back before taking a step forward, skipping a song back, struck by some new sensation to my ears that I’ve got to go back to.

This is a genuine gift that has taken me somewhat by surprise.

 

I like the live stuff on here. I've wasted far more money "searching for a gem" seeing Mr. Dylan in person. It's been hit-or-miss, but I'll keep trying if he continues to come around.

 

Yeah can’t see my people are finding fault with the live disc. Makes me want more NET stuff that’s all

 

Yeah, the live disc is great, isn't it? I can understand why some wanted soundboards but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the performances.

 

It's inevitable to compare the mixes in a set like this. I think that's part of the point of the 2022 remix. So I'll try some again and some for the first time too.


Love Sick 22 doesn't have quite the drama and haunt for me as the original. That would be the staccato electric guitar that morhps into organ and back again to guitar like an incessant creep and a reminder of something gone amiss (in the left channel) and the accentuation of the guitar no longer has quite the impact during the choruses, in the remix. Due to it being mixed more center in the original, it has a little more of an edge and dynamic quality to it. In these respects, the remix is actually 'dreamier' than the original. But not as haunting. I think the original has a little more bite and grit to it, imo. Whatever the effects, the remix features a great vocal.


Dirt Road Blues. I like the stereo spread of the 22 remix. Quite different placement of instruments and effects. I think the 1997 album mix tries to create a world that on the surface seems old, ancient, retro, Blues at the Crossroads. It seems a bit too messy to me compared to the 22 remix.

Standin' in the Doorway 22 feels a bit slow and tired to me. It almost sounds out of time to me too. The vocals and the beat and the accompaniment. It sounds a bit too clean and the song feels like it begins to get close to cliche territory, imo. I hear the pathos in the vocal but don't feel it's in sympathetic harmony, as part of a mix. Perhaps the vocal is too isolated or alone in this mix, I dunno. By the 4:30 mark, I've lost interest in the narrative of the performance and song. The 1997 album mix, ah, even though the vocal sounds to me a little left of center, the music and tempo, everything, is more together with the music and vocal. There's a rise and fall in the music that rides with the vocal melody and cadence. This is lacking some in the 22 remix imo. The track levels and placement and the tone of feeling are not there for me in the whole piece of the '22 as they are in the 97 album mix. Made it through the end of the 97.


A Million Miles 22. I like how commanding the vocal is when it enters. Really drawn into it. The voice and lyric is coming for you, ha. Has that bass guitar loping along in the middle of it all. Struts and swings. Lots of accents and punctuation marks with the drums and guitars. Very cool. It's sassy . The 97 album mix has a seductive stew of sounds and rhythms and feels more bluesy than the 22. The 22 mix feels like it has a little more energy or rocks a little more. I like them both. I think the '22 is maybe a little more 'engaging' to me.


Tryin' to Get to Heaven 22 follows up where Million Miles 22 leaves off. Grabs me right from the start. Voice, lyrics, melody. He sounds to me like an old jazz man rather than blues man when the vocal comes back in after the solo break. The 1997 album mix balances the vocal very skillfully within the mix. The electric guitar in the right channel has a chirping quasi-reggae feel to it and recalls the Love Sick guitar attack in the left channel. I like the 97 album mix too.


Till I Fell in Love with You 22 from the start feels like the music has a groove and attack that is being tamed somewhat. There's a band of instruments going from the get-go in stereo, ready to roll, but they seem to me to not be allowed to take over the song. They balance the vocal with all of that and it feels more like a dirge as it does a romp, but it has all the makings of a romp. I'm wondering what the 97 album mix is going to sound like. Hmm. The vocal leaps out at me in the 97 album mix. Wasn't expecting that. The music is dialed back and spread out. The '22 has better balance. This is a bit of a confusing one. The album mix (vocal and electric guitar right) sound a little harsher compared to all the earlier music. I don't really like the sound of the 97 album mix. Couldn't make it to the end of it. Prefer the sound of the remix.


Not Dark Yet 22 so the albums are starting to feel like a few long songs now at this point for me. Good time to take a break after already hearing a full album's worth of performances (12) of 6 songs.

 

From today's Expecting Rain front page, song by song guide:

A Song-By-Song Guide to Bob Dylan's FRAGMENTS Outtakes (BS: 17)

 

Similar reason to the author of that article:

- the remix is, in my view, inferior to the original
- One disc has already been released as part of BS8 (deluxe)
- Inferior live cuts - average audience recordings (I had a better “Live TOOM” years ago)
- Not keen on seemingly endless repetition - does anyone need 6 (or is it eight) versions of “Mississippi”?)
- Reports of the book don’t sound encouraging (I haven’t seen it though)
- Given all that - it’s expensive - fans being ripped off. The recent Wilco box and Bert Jansch box were half that price.

 

I think that author should have at least mentioned the 2CD Fragments set, which, for about $25, gives the remix on one disc and outtakes and alternates on the other. It's not as if the choice was $100+ or nothing, which a reader of that piece might have inferred.

 

This has such a loose and free vibe and appealing sound that makes me think fondly of Basement Tapes.

 

How'd they let this take and mix get away from the album!

 

Agreed. But that 2CD set is almost £25 in the UK. I just ordered a 2 disc reissue of Family’s “Anyway” for £15 so it’s not really cheap.

Anyway, that’s it from me. Apologies for daring to say “bad things” about ol’ Bob I know it doesn’t make one popular round these parts.