Bob Dylan - The next Bootleg Series announced

This partial tracklisting comes from an Dutch article.
Check out the discussion on the Expecting Rain forum for more
details and some mouthwatering quotes!

"Girl From The Red River Shore could be the strongest song Dylan has written in years. The ghost ballad is an epic number where Duke Robillard's guitar and Jim Dickinsons piano is drawn towards Dylans halucinatory and ghostlike voice."


http://www.expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?t=27553&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=40

 

I totally agree with YOU; in a perfect world, Sony and/or Bob would release an "odds and ends" CD with all those great tracks ("Boogie Woogie Country Girl," "My Blue Eyed Jane," etc. etc. etc.), but I don't see it happening. Also, the studio Bootleg Series CDs are called "Rare and Unreleased" for this reason -- most tracks are unreleased, but some are merely "rare." But I hear you: I want as much unreleased stuff as possible -- this should be a THREE disc set, not TWO (as rumored)!

Let me amend my wish: I hope they release OUTTAKES from those one-off sessions, because there have been reports of Dylan doing multiple songs and only using one of them. Also, we know from the "Tell Ol Bill" session tape that there could be some radically different alternate takes in the vaults as well.

 

Here's a translation of that article, courtesy of a participant of the Expecting Rain discussion forum:


Pearls from Dylan secret chamber

In the eight episode of Bob Dylan ‘Bootleg series’, the fans will finally get access to the archivematerial from the last seven albums.
The release of the Bootleg series vol. 8 is appromately at the time of the 20th anniversary of Bob Dylans Never ending tour. In this period Dylan was allmost constanly on tour, yet he still found time to make some of his best albums. Although cd’s like Oh mercy (1989) and Time out of mind (1997) were considered masterpieces, there remained a whole lot of great songs in the ‘basement’ [archives]. Some of these outtakes (songs that were never released on cd) were on the first instalment of the Bootleg series (1991), but listeners still had to wait for the real pearls that only a handfull of ‘Dylanwatchers’ knew of.
Jeff Rosen, Dylans manager, gave Sony (his recordcompany from his debute form 1962 [till present]) the right to select from no less than over fifty songs and compile these to the chronicalordered dubble-cd. The result is amazing: more that 15 brandnew songs, four sound in their alternitive version stronger than the originals and some obscure covers tell a lot about Dylan as a folksurvivar.
The Bootleg series volume 8 starts with five outtakes from the Oh Mercy-sessions. Dylan recorded the album in an old chapel on the border of New Orleans, with producer Daniel Lanois. What we didn’t here on the original cd, was the solopianoversions of the unreleased songs, such as ‘Dignity’ and ‘God knows’. Dylan sounds in these songs extremely focused and relaxed.
The followup from this album, Under the red sky (1990), was ‘butchered’ [made uglie] by the cold production of Don Was, but it was Dylan himself who told Was to withhold some of the better takes from well known material. The original version from ‘TV talking song’ sounds like a biting protestsong.
More fascinating is a never released full studioalbum from 1992. Dylan hired David Bromberg as his producer, but he could not make peace with his way of working, that’s why the project was abandoned after a few sessions. Still, the gospel-like songs as ‘Polly Vaughn’ and ‘Rise again’ show an enthousiastic [?] performer who finds – free from the [cold] production from his last album – new musical routes.
A dissatisfied Dylan locked himself up in his homestudio to record – in a few weeks time – an acoustic album of covers, ‘Good as I been to you’ (1992). A year later came the even faster recorded second part ‘World gone wrong’. There will be some outtakes (unbelievable they we’re left off) from these two albums on the new Bootleg series, among them a heartbreaking version of Robert Johnsons ’32.20 Blues’.
But the ‘masterpieces’ [great work] from this Bootleg series will be on the second cd. It starts with the legendary Time out of mind-sessions. Dylan recorded this album just before his illness of the heart in the spring of 1997, again with Daniel Lanois. This time he invited his own favoriete musicians and he gave Lanois less space to ‘do magic to’ the arrangements.
‘Girl from the red river shore’ is probably the best Dylan wrote for many years. The ghost ballad is an [ epic] song wherein Jim Dickinson and Duke Robillard try to play against Dylan hallucinatic ghostvoice. During rehearsals played Dylan a ‘trimmed down’ version of Elisabeth Cottons ‘Shake sugaree’. This Bootleg series brings for the first time the original and much better version from ‘Mississippi’, that was officially released after five years on ‘Love and Theft’(2001).
Who wants to hear Dylan the master-storyteller gets all eight verses of the long version of ‘Cross the green mountain’, which Dylan wrote for the soundtrack of the movie ‘Gods and generals’ in 2003. Finaly, there will be two demo’s from ‘Modern times’ (2006), that prove how driven and accurate Dylan works in the studio these days.
The Bootleg series volume 8 is not only a treasure full of never released material for Dylanfans. Also the large and young listeners that discovered him with the release of Time out of mind, will find, within this 2cdset, a whole different side of the mostly silent [not talking] songwriter. The side of a tired studiopurist [?] who didn’t always know what the value of his own songs was. But also the side of the much praised performer who, tired of the endless touring, sporadic his muse found in the studio and at times has impressed himself.

The Bootleg series vol. 8: release end of september.

 

Well, that about sums up most of the songs that have been lusted after from Oh Mercy onwards, and then some. Thanks for posting that.

Interesting that they say the Bromberg lp was never close to being finished.....

 

Assuming the article that this article that this tracklisting is based upon is credible, we now have a framework to speculate as to some of the contents of this set.

Disc one seems to already have a shape to it (I'm putting "confirmed" tracks in bold, and my guesses in italics):

The following two tracks are confirmed:
Dignity (piano demo): hopefully this will be more complete than the version included on the CHRONICLES CD. It's awesome as is, but frustratingly brief. Major lyrical differences from the released version (BTW, if you've only heard the version on GH3, seek out the original version which has since been released in a few places-- you won't regret it!)
God Knows (piano demo): this recording is mentioned in Clinton Heylin's "Recording Sessions" book, and sounds enticing. I will admit that all the versions I've heard of this song to date (OH MERCY outtake; UNDER THE RED SKY; live) have left me underwhelmed.

Which leaves us three OH MERCY outtakes (the article specifically mentioned five tracks from this period). If I had my druthers, they will include:

Born in Time: an early version that absolutely smokes the UTRS take.
Broken Days: this is a terrific early version of "Everything is Broken" that is actually available on I-Tunes as "Everything is Broken" (alternate mix). It's far more than an alternate mix, however. It's a completely different vocal take, with a much better lyric. I hope it qualifies as "rare and unreleased".
Series of Dreams (early version): I would love a version of this track without the extraneous overdubs (not to mention the annoying fade-in) that marred the version heard on the first BOOTLEG SERIES.

However, with the other two piano demos being included, perhaps we'll hear more from that session, including the very good "Ring Them Bells" that circulates among fans. The studio sheets indicate a vocal overdub of "Dignity" that's given the subtitle "Woman Version". Don't know anything else about it, but it certainly sounds intriguing!

Which brings us to the UNDER THE RED SKY era (a criminally underrated album, BTW):

TV Talkin' Song (early version) This really delivers the goods, with Dylan in full street corner, fire'n'brimstone preacher mode railing against the evils of television. Has to be heard to be believed.
Handy Dandy (alternate version): the version that circulates has a lot of playful guitar and a gently mocking vocal. A definate improvement over the comparably sedate released version.
Most of The Time (re-recording): A stunning track that was released previously only a promo CD, so it would surely qualify for inclusion.

Several early vocal takes of songs from this album circulate, including "2X2", "Born in Time", "Wiggle Wiggle", "TV Talkin' Song", "Unbelievable"; "Under The Red Sky". Most have an edge on their released counterparts. There is also evidentally a session in which Dylan recorded with NRBQ, but sadly little is known about what was recorded (though a version of "Some Enchanted Evening" is believed to be among the songs). It's unclear if "Shirley Temple Doesn't Live Here Anymore" was recorded at this time (a co-write with Don Was, that was just recently released as "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" on the new Was Not Was album).

Which brings us to the Bromberg sessions:

Polly Vaughn: stunning. Dark and mysterious, like so many of the best covers that Dylan has performed on the NET.
Rise Again: This could be very interesting. Clinton Heylin's book suggests an entire 25 person choir was brought in to perform with him on this track.

There are disputes as to how many other tracks were recorded during these sessions, but the number is certainly sizable (15 or more). Some of the tracks are said to include horns and others a full rock band. Even without drawing upon the GOOD AS I BEEN TO YOU/WORLD GONE WRONG archives, I'm sure the remainder of disc one could be filled with Bromberg recordings. The three other ones that have been heard by fans are certainly good enough to warrent inclusion, but not so good that I'd want them to shove aside original material from the previous few years.

32/20 Blues: Having never heard this or any other unreleased outtakes from these sessions (at this point in his recording career, Dylan's vaults suddenly became much more secure!), it becomes hard to speculate. Another three songs are mentioned in Heylin's books from the WRONG GONE WRONG sessions. With Dylan, any throwaway cover has the potential to be a lost masterpiece, so there is certain real potential here (then again, as much as I enjoy both albums, they are strangely bereft of such masterpieces-- you really have to look to live performances to back up my claim there).

So little is known about the unreleaded material from Dylan's TooM and later era, it's probably not worth speculating too much beyond what has already been mentioned. I will add that although I would not want this collection to focus overmuch on previously released material, it's worth observing that around the time of LOVE AND THEFT, Dylan became increasingly prone to provide original songs for movie soundtracks (perhaps inspired by the Academy Award he won for "Things Have Changed"). It might be worthwhile to collect these together here, especially if compelling alternate versions (the unedited "Cross the Green Mountain" certainly sounds promising!) are in the vaults. They would include: "Tell Ol' Bill" (alternates of which do circulate"); "Huck's Tune"; "Waiting For You"; and probably something else that I'm overlooking.

Anyone else have ideas as to what might find a place on this set?

 

Great post

I love GOOD AS I BEEN TO YOU and WORLD GONE WRONG.
Hope we get 'You Belong To Me' from the GAIBTY sessions (without the
movie overdubs from 'Natural Born Killers'!)

The other 3 WGW outtakes would also be great to hear, 'Goodnight My Love'
'Twenty-One Years' and 'Hello Stranger'

I also hope we get the third outtake from TOOM, 'No Turning Back'
And also any alternate takes would be great from this album.

As you say not much is know about the 'Love & Theft' and 'Modern Times'
session, so there are no known outtakes. Hope we are in for some nice
surprises.

And about the great 'Cross The Green Mountain'. The article says we'll get all 8 verses.

The version from the soundtrack album is 8 minutes long and has the
following verse/bridge structure: AABABAAABAAA
No regular pattern, maybe it's been edited?

 

I don't recall hearing about "No Turning Back" before-- cool!

As for alternates, I seem to remember an interview with Lanois in which he mentioned a "civil war ballad" version of "Not Dark Yet" that sounded spectacular.

 

The great Searching For A Gem site has a brief news update on BS8

http://www.searchingforagem.com/GemNews.htm

 

I, too, would really like to see a live show from the born-again era get the same treatment as the Rolling Thunder bootleg series set.

I'm excited about the possible release of the original version of "Mississippi" and "Girl from the Red River Shore," or whatever it's called, which I seem to recall Edna Gunderson of USA Today discussing around the time of release of Time Out of Mind. There's a five-star album lurking inside Time Out of Mind with the addition of "Things Have Changed" and just one or two more great songs in the place of "To Make You Feel My Love" and "Highlands," which run a great record into the ground. I can see how some would like "Highlands," but it just doesn't work for me - too long, too rambling lyrically, too repetitive musically.

 

I agree, and LOVE to play the "re-arrange the album" game myself...

 

I'm looking forward to this release. I'll definitely grab it on release date.

I'm also in favor of a closet-cleaining effort that rounded up his soundtrack/tribute/charity work over the past couple decades. I'm not motivated enough to buy a couple dozen albums to get at one or two tracks each.

 

A release gathering his soundtrack & tribute album contributions would definetly be welcomed by myself but I don't think they could fit them all onto a 2 disc set....

There's quite a few strays out there!

 

I finally got a chance to hear the soundtrack version of "I'm Not There." The two bootleg versions I've heard (Tree with Roots and Genuine Basement Tapes) were both mono and this is stereo. You're right that the keyboards seem more prominent on this new version. The stereo placement has keyboards and bass on the left and Dylan's vocal and guitar on the right. I'm assuming the soundtrack version is how the raw tapes sound. I'm not sure how the mono mix on the bootleg was made, since it has the keyboards much more in the background but not the bass, and they are together there in the left channel. I don't know how they could dimish one and not the other. Confusing.

 

Was "Things Have Changed" from the TOOM sessions?

 

No, it was recorded after TOOM had been released.

 

Not only was "Things Have Changed" recorded after Time Out Of Mind, it was essentially the production template for Love & Theft. According to the new (in the UK) Uncut article, when Bob and the band went into a NYC studio to cut the one-off soundtrack song, he only brought an engineer (Chris Shaw) with them. After all the tension of the TOOM sessions, they recorded the song in just two takes, and Bob was obviously very pleased. "I guess I can produce myself," he said, and when L&T came around, it was just Bob, the band and Shaw, in the same studio, cutting a song a day.

 

Cool story!

 

Yeah, there's LOTS of cool stories in the November Uncut -- look for it when it hits the stands in the States. I've only seen scans of it on the Net, but I'll be picking it up for sure. They cover every album from Oh Mercy to Modern Times, interviewing producers, engineers and musicians about Bob's mysterious ways. One of my favorites is how, during the Oh Mercy sessions, some of the musicians didn't even know who he WAS, because he was in his "hoodie" phase, where he'd go everywhere in a hooded sweatshirt, with the hood pulled up over his head. During one session, one of the guys said out loud, "When is Dylan going to show up?" and someone said to him, "He's sitting right next to you!" Another time one of the musicians walked into the studio and said, "Man, that Bob Dylan is one weird m*****f*****!" Bob, who was in the room, hunched over his lyric sheets, lifted his head, raised an eyebrow, and resumed scribbling with his pencil.

Lots of great stuff in there; I can't wait to get it.

 

Yes, the UNCUT article is the most informative article about how Dylan
works in the studio I have seen. A must read!

Too bad we don't get the "New Orleans thing" take of Things have Changed Chris Shaw mentions.

 

I know, I'd love to hear that one too!