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: SURPRISINGLY STUNNING, HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL
Hit: 5 Stars
There's not much I can add to the other reviews that preceded me. I just want to add my voice to the growing chorus about the superlative quality of this release. I was stunned. This quiet acoustic numbers are Dylan Unplugged with a purity never captured by the MTV special of the same name. It's like having Bob in your living room singing to you.
The unadorned arrangements bring new life to the songs that have already been released. Those that are on disc for the first time are stunning (ie, Across The Green Mountain) and solidify Dylan's emerging stature as a colossus of American music. The Kennedy Arts Center award was well deserved indeed.
The stripped down Oh Mercy tracks in particular are revelatory - especially if you've only heard them on bootlegs of mediocre quality. Dignity 1, with Dylan singing alone with piano is capable of inducing goose bumps.
Don't hesitate - buy this disc. If you enjoy Dylan at all - especially Time Out Of Mind and Love & Theft you will get immense pleasure from this disc. These are most definately NOT re=packaged retreads that have been released to milk more money from an adulating public. This is music of the highest order. Think you know Somedaya Baby from its over use in the iPod commercials? Wait till you hear it in its original version. Talk about an iPod shuffle. I can't get these discs off the player.
Revelatory. Truly revelatory.
Free Music Review: Dylan's Bootleg Tell Tale Signs full of great music
Hit: 5 Stars
I have always been a Bob Dylan fan, listening to his early 60's Folk anthems ("The Freewheelen' Bob Dylan album"). His recent music is fascinating. If you like what Johnny Cash did in his last recordings (American/Lost Highway), you'll most likely like what Bob Dylan is doing now. It's incredible that this double CD of music is taken from unreleased material. It makes me wonder what other gems that Dylan has recorded and is sitting on. Many of the songs are re-makes of his earlier versions on two great CD's - "Time out of Mind" and "Modern Times". It is hard to name just one favorite, but the one song that sold me on this bootleg CD was his re-make of "Someday Baby". On the original version released on "Modern Times", this song is a blues and great in itself. On the bootleg CD, Dylan gives "Someday Baby" a more up tempo beat with a nice drum march in the background. It is a nice thing to hear these different versions of songs and get a different feeling from them. They all stand on their own. I remember seeing an interview awhile back in which Dylan said he could never make the music he did in the 60's. He is a true artist that continues to produce art. Unlike many of the 60's-70's recording artists, Dylan will not end up as a lounge act playing in venues like Vegas. "Tell Tale Signs" only makes me wait for his next release. My iPod shuffle seems stuck on his music now.Free Music Review: best bootleg set since the 1966 live concert (#4)
Hit: 5 Stars
This set was a very nice play to my surprise. It's a combination of early takes, developed takes, soundtrack one-offs, and live performances all of which date from March 1989 or later. The 1989 takes are particularly fine and make me wonder at the sheer cussedness of an artist who leaves songs like "Series of Dreams" and "Dignity" in an unfinished condition, and then puts out a 39-minute compact disc like "Oh Mercy." On quite a few of these songs Dylan even sings with his old "unruined" voice and it would seem that the Howlin' Wolf growl was something he chose to strain toward (perhaps there's no choice anymore). The "Time out of Mind" sessions are well represented with a couple interesting takes of "Mississippi" and a fabulous bloozy alternate version of "Can't Wait." With Dylan the lyric is the (nearly) fixed part of the song, while melody and arrangement are almost infinitely flexible.
The live "High Water" features a great turbulent rhythm from drummer George Recile and fine guitar interplay from Larry Campbell and Freddy Koella. "The Girl from the Greenbriar Shore" is Dylan solo from 1992 and I don't believe he's sung without accompaniment much since then. And there's a duet with Ralph Stanley where Stanley almost sounds more Dylanesque than Dylan. Or makes clear how much of Dylan's singing style was borrowed from bluegrass singers in any case.
Free Music Review: It's getting late, Dylan's getter darker and possibly better...
Hit: 5 Stars
Critics and fans used to argue about what was better: acoustic, folk Dylan or electric Dylan. Well, you can throw late period (Oh Mercy to present)into the mix. Tell Tale Signs is a stunning collection of alt takes, live recordings and rarities. In the eighties the artists I liked (The Clash, Billy Bragg, David Bowie)caused me to discover classic Dylan (Blonde on Blonde, greatest hits, Highway 61, Blood on the Tracks) because they worshipped him. After hearing those classic records, I thought I knew Dylan. That was until I bought The Basement Tapes. That record (with The Band) blew me away. It sounded loose, free yet well played. Dylan's musical landscape was infinitely expanded for me by that record. This new collection has changed my perceptions of late period Dylan in a similar way. You'll find yourself re-examining Oh Mercy (the alt tracks here are shockingly good). The live tracks are a revelation. Could his golden years be his best years. Time out of Mind, Love and Theft and Modern Times are an unholy trinity of greatness. Tell Tale Signs is a Basement Tape like addition to that late list of masterpieces. Yes, Dylan's voice is a strange combo of sand and glue (according to Bowie) but his words and music take us to that rare place: the intersection of human thought, action and the road beyond. Absolutely essential...Free Music Review: Great, great Vol. 8
Hit: 5 Stars
For anyone who is a Dylan fan, this set is a must. Studio outtakes, and alternate takes of some of his better songs, and all of them fairly recent. Which is different for Dylan, as usually his outtakes get released long after the fact, if at all, or by being 'bootlegged'. There are some amazing tracks here: Multiple takes of 'Mississippi', 'Dignity'... The latter, one of which sounds like it's Australian or something, the rhythm of it. I wish they would have included more from his World Gone Wrong/ Good As I Been To You period, when he was just playing and recording old folk songs by himself. Leaving off the 'live' tracks, as good as they are, in favor of more unreleased studio stuff would have been better, overall, as the studio tracks are the true standouts here. Hard to believe that so many folks have written this artist off in recent times. He goes about as deep as it gets. If you are a Dylan fan, you must get this set. If you're someone who is curious, and are just starting to perhaps get into Dylans music, this would also be a good collection. There is a 3-disc set that goes for over a hundred bucks, and the extra disc is filled with other wonderful songs. I'm sure you can save a few dollars (to say the least) and look around for a 'bootleg' version of that 3rd disc. It's worth seeking out, as well.