Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8
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Free Music Notes for Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8
Free Music Review: Maybe Dylan's Best Collection Of Music
Hit: 5 Stars
When the original Bootleg 1-3 came out I listened it grooveless (or bitless). How amazing, I thought, that a collection of a man's self-assessed garbage would have made an impressive career for anyone else. Too bad, thought I, that those days are over. How wrong I was. Now, less than 20 years later, comes a perhaps even better set of cast-offs.
I admit I'm late coming to this party, despite picking up all the other bootleg series day of release. The No Direction Home soundtrack was a bit off-putting - as in "this is all they have left to give us? alternate vocals on From A Buick 6?" Not that it sucked or anything, but they did seem to be mining the dregs. So when I saw this release I thought, how good can this dreck be when it is getting released AFTER the Subterranean Homesick Blues with the harmonica solo in the other speaker.
Then I picked this up whilst ordering volume 9, the demos, just as an aside. I think it sat on the CD player for a few weeks before I got bored enough to pop it in. Holy carpoleum! Amazing track after amazing track. The whole thing would be worth it for "Red River Shore" alone - truly a song you hope will never end. And do we need 2 alt versions of Mississippi? Turns out we do, we really do. Also the live tracks - usually I'm reaching for the old FF button when the live track hits a compendium. Filler deluxe they are. Not so here. "Ring Them Bells" which just floats on Oh Mercy (not a bad thing) becomes a completely different beast here - no longer a plea, more of a command. And my favorite is "Cocaine Blues", just for its ragged ying to the Van Ronk yang that has previously defined the tune.
Dylan's voice runs the gamut here, from sounding tired and worn out to sounding full and powerful. And all the shades are well suited to the songs and the instrumentation. It gives the album a variety show false front, which would normally be expected on a compilation album. But that's the weird thing about this collection or orphans - despite being produced in all manner of ways over 2 decades, it actually sounds like a planned coherent whole. You'd be tempted to think that Dylan excised and suppressed these tracks with the plan that they would one day come together to constitute an unexpected cannon shot across the bow of a world that has almost forgotten what the big deal with rock and blues was in the first place. Hope we can get a worthy sequel in 20 years.
Free Music Review: Volume Eight from the Eighth Wonder of sorts ...
Hit: 5 Stars
Twenty two years back I bought the Biograph series which simply blew my mind; living in Calcutta, getting an LP was difficult - although there were these little stores on Free School Street that sold used records of everything we liked - Stones, Beatles, Floyd, Who, Young, Zep and other Gods of Rock & Roll. Crowning glory of ones listening repertoire were Dylan & Cohen - an easy way to be regarded an elite listener of sorts. The prices however were astronomical (250 rupees per record - which was a lot of money). So we shared records among friends - I had the Biograph series on tape without the regular inserts - I believe they were pirated. We took particular note that more than half of the songs on Biograph were not available elsewhere; Biograph was a testimony to Dylan's recording talent - without repetition of any kind.
Twenty years & six bootleg series later we all know there is probably another eight CD worth of quality recording that can be unearthed (including expansive Basement Tapes, live circa Before the Flood, Toronto live recordings circa the born again time, the classic electric era of the white hot noise and God knows what else.
This collection is spectacular and in some ways gives the feel of a more consistent studio record as opposed to a group of songs spanning some seventeen years. With Oh Mercy in 1989, and the resurrection that followed, it is perhaps not a surprise that there are many outtakes that are worthy of a regular official release for any lesser artist. Who knew growing old for Mr. Dylan could be so much fun for us?
I wonder if Columbia would release a record of just one song (Mississippi comes to mind) just to show that how each reading can sound so engrossing & can be so different from the other - and to prove a point that I have been saying for years - genius never repeats - a repeater of the same stuff day after day is a performer - not an artist.
With me getting no younger anymore, and the world the strange abode of tastelessness that it is today, I am ecstatic to own this collection - to be savoured, like good wine, in moderation and over many years. And I hope that there is more to come.
Thanks Bobby, this one's from Free School Street!
Free Music Review: True to Life, True To Me...(and above all, his Muse)
Hit: 5 Stars
"Some of us turn off the lights and we live
In the moonlight shooting by
Some of us scare ourselves to death in the dark
To be where the angels fly.."
There is only one person on this planet who could write prose so beautiful that they don't even require any music to be considered eternally lyrical.
And that, of course, is His Bobness.
For anyone who has recently seen him in concert, it would be all too easy to shrug off any musical output from Mr D--but don't be fooled by the 'croaking and cloaking' endless tour. THIS is the real Dylan--the mystical magician, the soulful song & dance man and the 'now you see it, now you don't' brilliant songwriter who almost single-handedly changed all the rules for all songwriters who came after him.
There are many great moments on this 2 CD set (ignore the other, more pricey offers--those are just marketing ploys by the money boyz at Sony) but only one song here makes this entire effort not only worth having, but a requirement for anyone who appreciates the beauty of words and images that transcend time and space: Red River Shore.
In less than 8 minutes, The Jokerman summarizes a century of Americana music, tearing down the lines between genres (country? bluegrass? folk? is there any difference in his world?) and makes it all look/sound so easy. A sad tale of a loner, a "stranger in a strange land" forever left to live without his true love, with only his memories to keep him company. "Wearing the cloak of misery" he wanders through each day, "living in the shadows of a faded past".
Five decades into his musical journey, the Hibbing Hobo still has revelations to reveal before Revelations arrives. And on this song, and this CD set, he proves yet again that no one walking on God's green earth can string a phrase, a series of dreams or create a visual and musical universe as unique and beautiful as our boy Bobby.
And after listening to the masterpiece of the same name, you too will wonder if "someone ever saw him here at all, except the girl, from the Red River Shore."
Free Music Review: A Late Round Knockout
Hit: 5 Stars
Listening to Bob Dylan's new release Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series #8, I am reminded of a classic quote often attributed to Dennis Miller regarding Axl Rose... "What the hell does someone have to do to get thrown out of Guns `N Roses?" Put within the Dylan frame, "How the hell did any one of these songs miss the original release of his last four studio cd's?"
Far from the usual half-baked throwaways that clog the arteries of most alternative cut "retrospectives" Tell Tale Signs is anything but, containing fully-realized music that if not for the "Bootleg" banner would be considered a double cd of staggering beauty - easily cracking the top ten (or top five) of his prolific original catalog.
Whether in studio or in concert, Dylan's songs are never really finished. Their role has always been one of artistic baseline, original renderings that have spawned thousands of permutations of lyric and arrangement answerable only to his mood or circumstance on any given day. The deleted work from Time Out Of Mind and Oh Mercy (Dreamin' Of You, God Knows and Series Of Dreams among others) is ample illustration of just how deep his reservoir of material really is. The release itself is extraordinarily well done - the sound is brilliant and the expansive liner notes by Dylan acolyte Ratso Sloman brings real texture to the proceedings.
Almost fifty years in Dylan has mastered his role as changeling to perfection and honestly, that's what makes his enormous body of work so damn interesting - sobering when you consider that the seventeen-year "period" represented by Bootleg #8 would encompass four and a half careers given the popular half-lives of most contemporary artists.
As anyone who has followed Dylan live or on disc can attest, he is quite capable of "mailing it in" (and has done so frequently) so the fact that this is a stunner right out the box makes it all the more enjoyable. Jump in.
Free Music Review: Please "Ring Them Bells"
Hit: 5 Stars
Boo birds squawk about Bob Dylan's aging voice. They should marvel at his strength. He is still producing compelling songs. It's never been just about Dylan's voice. His genius is in his razor-sharp lyrics and lively tunes. There may never be another artist who can make so many people identify with lyrics that highlight the absurdities of the human condition.
As for his vocals, I've listened to this 1989-2006 collection of twenty-seven "rare and unreleased" tracks several times and have found his voice to be clear and distinctive. This is the real Deal...an. Some of these tracks are among the best of Dylan.
The two CDs contain alternate versions of songs from Dylan's "comeback" albums beginning with Oh Mercy (seven tracks) and continuing with Time Out of Mind (six tracks) and Modern Times (two tracks). During these years, Dylan put together backup bands which include the best musicians in the realm. The music is great.
One of my favorites is "Dignity," with two versions included here. This song exalts the most downtrodden, if they quest for dignity. There's a mini movie in "Ain't Talkin." The images are vivid. It blends a sense of dismay at the cruelty of mankind with a thirst for revenge.
Also included is "Everything is Broken," which manages to put a witty spin on what appears to be a total disaster. The touching "Red River Shore" captures the pain endured when a lover departs. Dylan's stirring war ballad, "'Cross the Green Mountain," recounts thoughts that run through a soldier's mind as he faces imminent death: nostalgia for the past's beauty and reflections on the coming sacrifice. There's a live 1997 performance of Reverend Gary Davis's "Cocaine Blues." Dylan's cover is a classic. Another great song is "Mississippi," which has two versions here. I'm still wondering exactly why he "stayed in Mississippi a day too long."
It's all sterling.