Tell Tale Signs - Dylan Bootleg Series Vol 8

Looks incredible. Huck's Tune alone makes it worthwhile.

just to clarify, though the others have eventually had sweet lookin' vinyl box set treatment, isn't the super expensive version just for three cds, book + seven inch? it'd make a lot more sense if it was for the vinyl, but i got the impression that it was just all that money extra for the limited-ness of it and the extra disc.

it looks great, anyway. take seven of tell ol' bill, from a studio boot of alternates, is up there with the best stuff on the last three lps.

Well, both are kind of pricey really. The first 2 cd's are the standard release, and come with a 60 page booklet, listed at $19. The 3 cd edition comes with the 7" single, a 150 page hardback book and the 60 page booklet, and runs at $130. The vinyl set is 4 lp's which only cover the 2 cd's worth of material, and costs $100.

I'd happily go for the vinyl version, but by the time I get shipping to the UK it's up at $150. It just seems a little silly, but then I always regret it when these Bootleg Series get deleted and I can't find them anymore.

Looking at the tracklisting, theres 3 versions of Mississippi listed as Time Out Of Mind outtakes. Does anyone know if this is the same Mississippi which wound up on Love & Theft?

The outtakes from Oh Mercy are much better than what made the album. That so much of that stuff is seeing official release is great. Sad that there don't appear to be any Love and Theft outtakes.

"Mississippi" is the same song that made it onto Love and Theft; when that album came out he said he thought the Lanois recordings of the song were crap, and the song needed to be rescued from the production. Maybe he changed his mind and now appreciates the differences.

"Dreaming of You" -- the mp3 they've released -- is very nice. Some of the same lyrics from "Standing In the Doorway" but totally different song. Looking forward to this maybe more than any previous Bootleg Series. A lot of stuff I've never heard of, much less heard, and I'm sort of a Dylan bootleg nerd. I'm sure there's some stuff that bigger Dylan nerds are freaking out about not being included, but oh well. The 3 disc $130 version is ridiculous. May as well come with a sticker that says, "why don't you just download this illegally."

The "Oh Mercy" version of "Born In Time" that I've heard is incredible. Looking forward to having it in good sound quality.

And the live stuff, though it's obviously available elsewhere, seems to be pretty thoughtfully chosen.

Of course I'll buy this. But I was hoping for more World Gone Wrong/Good As I Been To You outtakes. I would have liked them to put "Things Have Changed" on here, but I think it was on some greatest hits already. The third disk looks cool but waaaay out of my price range.

Yeah, I would have liked if they'd compiled some of the stuff which might have been released on previous compilations, soundtracks etc. Theres a nice song, Return To Me (a cover I imagine) on the Sopranos soundtrack which would have been nice to get a hold of. Maybe theres some contractual reasons why some of the soundtrack stuff isn't there though.

Return to Me (cover indeed) is pretty awesome. It's kinda done in a schmoozy Dino way

A cover of the old country standard "You Belong To Me" from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack is missing... IIRC it's segued into and out-of on the NBK soundtrack, so that's a shame.

About time the Oh Mercy take(s!!) of Born In Time got released officially, though. One of my favourite things he's ever done.

streaming on npr!!!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95047293

holy shit this is awesome

* 3. Series of Dreams 6:27 (Unreleased, Oh Mercy)

Wasn't this on the first Bootleg Series (or rather, "Volumes 1-3")?

yeah....according to wiki it did.

this version is fucking really really mindblowing amazing:

* 2. Most of the Time 3:46 (Alternate version, Oh Mercy)

can't wait, as the song goes. this is looking more and more awesome.

ok just listened to that "most of the time" -- goddam it is good -- like the Blood On The Tracks version of that song.

Wow. I'm definitely going to have to kick up the £50/100/whatever it costs me to get the vinyl of this one. This stuff is just amazing. I'm picking it out just because it's playing right now, but this version of Someday Baby is just awesome.
So, can we all agree that the last 10 years have been his best period by far? :)

the pricing structure of the vinyl and special editions is fucking CRIMINAL

It's horrible, esp. given how straightforward it is to find that stuff by other means.

like i would totally go for either the vinyl full 3LPs for like 80-ish or the 3CD thing for like 40-50-ish...but 135 for 3 CDS!??

or just charge 10 bucks more for the 3rd cd w/o the fancy booklet

Yep, the vinyl price isn't too annoying, it's just that being in the UK if I order from the dylan site postage is about another £50, and I'm worried it'll be tough to find in the shops. And yeah Matt, I would definitely pay extra to get the extra disc on vinyl, but CD? I see absolutely no value in cd's, so I'll just be downloading that 3rd disc.

or just charge 10 bucks more for the 3rd cd w/o the fancy booklet

― Peter Cetera (Euler), Wednesday, October 1, 2008 9:54 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
^^ this.

yeah scout i'll just DL it too, but yeah it sucks because i'll have proper copies of the other two and then just MP3s of the other stuff...

I think Columbia's marketing dpt thinks that obsessive Dylan fans are too old to know about file-sharing...

I believe Columbia think's that too, but it is far from the case. I used to be very active in the fangroups and i got hipped to torrents and all of that from them, if the goods are out there, people will do whatever it takes to get what they don't got...

...but that being said, there's a LOT of obsessives who have to have everything pressed with BD's imprimatur on it. I mean, when you have to buy the official Bob Dylan Picnic set...that's when i tapped out and moved on!

wow this is really a great album.

i got the lo-class version for 16.99! not bad...

but i wish i coulda bought the hi-class version.

but anyway a lot of these alternate versions might be better than the ones that made the albums.

Hmm, I'm tempted...

anyone who balked at paying like 100 bucks just to get one more CD of stuff on that deluxe version...might find this blog post....highly *interesting*

http://philspector.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/unmasked-and-unanimous/

yeah, i got the third disc by nefarious means ... and it is pretty good! though i've read some grumblings from dylan nerds about the inclusion of the live stuff, it sounds good to me -- that version of "highwater" that closes out disc 1 is intense.

i like the live stuff...this era hasn't really been documented with a live album like all his other eras have been, so it's interesting to me to hear that stuff...would like a proper live album sometime.

yeah, it'd be nice to have a well-curated multi-volume live set of the neverending tour, for those of us who don't have the inclination to wade through the billions and billions of bootlegs of the last 20 years. and this is coming from someone who has tons of those bootlegs.

This set is extraordinary, and handily puts to rest the long-held and annoying myth that Dylan has been washed up since '74, or even earlier, as some claim.

This set is extraordinary, and handily puts to rest the long-held and annoying myth that Dylan has been washed up since '74, or even earlier, as some claim.

Sorry, but who still makes this claim?

Anyway, this is marvelous. It's as if melodies and chords were unimportant; it's his granitic personality and voice that finally matter -- "everything is broken," etc. Songs exist as guides, not templates.

Tossing "Girl From The Red River Shore" from TOOM was stupid AND intelligent: it would have shown up that overrated album.

I don't care for the spare version of "Series of Dreams," one of the few great Dylan songs to benefit from Daniel Lanois' voodoo.

Looks incredible. Huck's Tune alone makes it worthwhile.

Great song. On par with "Things Have Changed".

I've just realised that a major oversight is not including anything from the 1994 sets with the Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra. Their version of Hard Rain is one of the best ever.

Bryan Ferry's is my favorite: it kids the many bad lines, but does right by the gooduns, which gradually take over. Hey, speaking of live, have yall heard the Japanese import-volume of the Bootleg series, live from 1961 til the mid-90s? Incredible--also incredible that Greil Marcus and I were the only ones to Pazz & Jop it--no brag, for more than one reason--for instance, not many people heard or heard of it. Why does Dylan do this kind of thing? Mebbe he McCain alibi: it's his people. Let Dylan be Dylan, people!

finally got my proper copy of this ... listening now, the set seems a little frontloaded -- the 1st disc can definitely stand up as a great Dylan album, on par with Time Out of Mind, Love & Theft and Modern Times. Everything here is pretty fucking awesome -- the acoustic "Most of the Time", "Red River Shore", "Born In Time", "Dreamin' of You", "Marchin' To The City"!!! Phew. Interesting to hear these Lanois outtakes that have been mixed by someone other than Lanois - a lot less murk and mist. And I like the murk and mist, but "Marchin' To The City" and "Red River Shore" benefit from the clearer mix.

Tom Ewing's review in p4k is fantastic as usual

this version of "most of the time" still kills me.

Tom Ewing's review in p4k is fantastic as usual

― baaderonixx, Wednesday, October 22, 2008 12:49 PM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah was great! don't go to pitchfork a lot anymore so i missed it but that was a great review.

first disc on this is a motherfucker

I got the 3CD version cheap in Fopp (£25 or thereabouts)

What's with the bobdylan.com 7" extra?

'Cross the Green Mountain' was the real standout on this for me. An absolute masterpiece. Up there with 'Blind Willie McTell' or 'Up to Me' as not only some of the best non-album tracks ever but some of the best songs ever written full stop.

mark which fopp and were there many there? i would def get it at that price.

actually i see its down to only £40 on amazon now so seems holding out a while has actually worked.
now just gotta wait until neil young archives is £50

This was Tottenham Court Road, London, though I have seen it in other places.

(or was it £35?, cannae remember...)

(Check the Monsieur Fopp thread, I posted it there)

The major disappointment from this set was that the version of Born In Time I mentioned above wasn't one of the two(!) versions included. So the (to my mind) definitive version remains bootleg-only.

yeah, i guess the "born in time" from those Oh Mercy bootlegs is different from this one ... Still the same general arrangement though, right -- vastly superior to the Under the Red Sky version.

Wonder what the next Bootleg Series will be?

Still patiently awaiting Basement Tapes

ha, billy joel covered it?
i don't think it's a horrible song, but as far as Dylan love songs go, it's not so hot.

accroding to Wiki: It has also been covered by Trisha Yearwood, Neil Diamond, Joan Osborne, Luka Bloom, Josh Kelley, Timothy B. Schmit, Kelly Clarkson, Ronan Keating, Winifred Horan (from Solas), Emily Loizeau, Bryan Ferry, Mary Black, Ruarri Joseph, Phil Keaggy, Taylor Hicks, Jon Peter Lewis, Kris Allen and Maria Muldaur.

it's a modern standard

He has probably 500 better songs.

Oh, I forgot Ferry's version, which should tell you something.

Is the "Born In Time" that's raved about on this thread, the one on Genuine Bootleg Series volume 2 (disc 3)?

i don't think it's the exact same take, but it's pretty much the same? i feel like the vocal is slightly different.

Do you have a rec on a good Oh Mercy sessions boot? once again blown away this morning with "Born In Time" & the other "Oh Mercy" tracks on the various Genuine Bootleg Series vols are hott.

Deeds of Mercy.

yesss this one: http://www.bobsboots.com/CDs/cd-d13.html
good stuff, though some of the stuff that showed up on tell tale signs suggests that there is even better stuff -- the acoustic "most of the time" is stunning. i think there must've been a whole tape of dylan just doing these songs on solo piano/guitar.

nice

It's one of those days when latter-day Bob sounds like the best thing in the world.

here's a great fanmade comp of roughly this period that i've been enjoying (some crossover w/ the deeds of mercy thing)
1) Hard Times (Live at Willie Nelson's Big Six-0)
2) Political World (Oh Mercy Outtake)
3) 2x2 (Under the Red Sky Outtake)
4) Ragged & Dirty (Live 1993)
5) Jim Jones (Live 1993)
6) TV Talkin' Song (Under the Red Sky Outtake)
7) Lakes of Ponchartrain (Live 1989)
Handy Dandy (Under the Red Sky Outtake)
9) Roving Blade (Live 1992)
10) Most of the Time (Oh Mercy Outtake)
11) Unbelievable (Under the Red Sky Outtake)
12) Jack-a-Roe (Live 1993)
13) Sloppy Drunk (Bromberg Sessions)
14) Golden Vanity (Live 1992)
15) Born in Time (Under the Red Sky Outtake)
16) What Was it You Wanted? (Live 1990)
17) You Belong to Me (World Gone Wrong Sessions)
http://ow.ly/4hoeM
highly recommended!

oh man

just found Deeds of Mercy, gonna pull this one now, gonna be a great afternoon

btw the "Series of Dreams" at the end of Genuine Bootleg Series vol 2, live 1993, is insane; it ends in guitar apocalypse & ends way too soon too, Bob cutting it off but he musta known that things were on fire.

and then he never played that song live ever again, haha.

no way! but in a way I get it; where do you go from there?

He's been like that with a lot of his "best songs ever"...

"Blind Willie McTell", "I'm Not There", etc...

yeah, i think he only tried "Series of Dreams" out a couple of times onstage. "Blind Willie" has become something of a standard in the past decade or so, though, which is cool. Some great versions.

There was that funny one where he rattled some "dylanish" lyrics in front of Bono, who was amazed/gobsmacked, and when Bob refused to continue, asked if he could use the lines, to which Bob also refused with a cringe...

(Something about listening to the Neville Brothers, if it's googleable)

got it:

"I was listening to the Neville Brothers, it was a quarter of eight
I had an appointment with Destiny but I knew she would come late
She tricked me, she addicted me, she turned me on my head
Now I can’t sleep with these secrets, they leave me cold and alone in my bed"

dylan, always messing with bono.
he should write an article for the New Yorker entitled: "Ways I Have Messed With Bono"
http://www.atu2blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dylanbonoslane-300x199.jpg

love the version of "someday baby" on this so much

deeds of mercy boot VS ring them bells boot FITE

the ultimate battle!
are they all that different?

It's actually no contest - pretty sure they're exactly the same except for sequence, and the fact that Ring Them Bells is all digitally compressed and 'cleaned up,' ie no fun

i'd dig an official "Sessions" type release of the oh mercy stuff, probably unlikely to happen any time soon.
anyone read this? i flipped through it at the store -- had a bunch of stuff about the oh mercy/time out of mind sessions
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aE0JiRS0L._SS500_.jpg

Hmmm...I bet that's pretty great. Let us know if you read it. I'mma put it on my wishlist, cuz god knows I have no shortage of shit to read at the moment.

oh man, the "Born In Time" on Deeds Of Mercy...

like I don't know if any of you are gonna know what I mean, but that is my feel...

i like this amazon review of the lanois book
THIS IS AN AMAZING BOOK. THRU LANOIS' TECHNICAL ABILITIES AND HIS PRESENTATION OF HIS WORK WITH WILLY NELSON, NILSSEN, DYLAN, NEIL YOUNG. DAVID BOWIE, EMO AND MANY MANY OTHERS, I TRULY UNDERSTOOD THE PROCESS FOR THE FIRST TIME. I BOUGHT SEVERAL OF THE ALBUMS DISCUSSED AND HAVE HAD SO MUCH PLEASURE THAT I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO YOU.
(lol EMO)

Picked up a double lp this weekend called No Direction Home : Additions to the Bootleg Series 1989-2005 (very confusing name). It appears to be some of the stuff from the bonus cd of Tell Tale Signs, as well as some other stuff. Quite a lot of live recordings, including a gorgeous version of Trying To Get To Heaven which I remember being a highlight when I went to see him in Stirling Castle. TO be honest, there's not a huge amount of exciting stuff here, but I just love this period, so am happy to buy it all up.

Has anyone else seen/bought this at all? I'll post up the tracklisting shortly.

Wanted CKA 846898-2

Side A
1. Cold Irons Bound (Live)
2. Duncan And Brady
3. Things Have Changed (Live)
4. Tell Ol Bill
5. Marchin To The City
6. Ring Them Bells

Side B
1. Born In Time
2. Most Of The Time
3. Can't Wait
4. Red River Shore
5. Mary And The Soldier

Side C
1. Love Sick (Live)
2. Knockin On Heavens Door (Live)
3. Forever Young (Live)
4. Train Of Love (Live)
5. People Get Ready
6. Blowin In The Wind (Live)

Side D
1. Not Fade Away (Live)
2. Mississippi
3. Senor (Live)
4. Blind Willie McTell (Live)
5. Try To Get To Heaven (Live)

bootleg

So yes, double-checking my original post, that'll be the 3rd cd from the original releases, with 10 extra tracks, 8 of them live tracks, then People Get Ready and Tell Ol Bill (this version of which is absolutely lovely).

this is awesome.

I love that after so many stabs at "Mississippi" he finally said, "Hm, if I get rid of this...this Lanois thing, it actually sounds and feels perfect!"

And the photo of Dylan messing with Bono reminded me of Ian MacLagan's account of being in Dylan's band in 1983. Mick Taylor told Ian to make up a list of Dylan songs he wanted to play and present it to Dylan. Mac duly did so, Dylan looked it over in the hotel bar and said, "Hm...yes...ok, we'll do these! Good suggestions!"

From that point forward, at no point in the tour were any of those songs ever played.

it's kind of mind-fogging how there are three mississippi's on here so if you play it all together on repeat he seems to be singing an awful lot about mississippi, or missing mississippi

mississippi am i spelling that right

~~~mississippi~~~

M. I. MISS. ISS. IP. PY. MISSISSIPPI.

I wish I'd got the 3-disc version of this. It was just soooo expensive... This is one of my favourite Bootleg Series. And I've been on a Paul Brady trip (again) these past few weeks and would love to own Dylan's version of Mary and The Soldier

ain't gonna worry
aboot meeee
any more

eat when i'm hungry, drink when i'm dry

love that song so much but wrong album dude! u shoulda revived the time out of mind thread

i have never listened to that

i revived this one b/c tell tell signs rulez ok

ok let me revive a highway 61 thread and post the following on it: "early one morning the sun was shining"

yall are dumb

That lines in "Dreaming of You" on this record as well as "Standing in the Doorway" so it's a fine revive.

lol sorry j

the "High Water" on this smokes so hott

and actually

https://books.google.com/books?id=73eAjOofhCAC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=dylan+eat+when+i%27m+hungry,+drink+when+i%27m+dry&source=bl&ots=1ONdfpy3LU&sig=dZ0hN8xm0_JkgBbdUdpyK0NujSk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBWoVChMIrbv5psb-xgIVlg-SCh3waQJ6#v=onepage&q=dylan%20eat%20when%20i%27m%20hungry%2C%20drink%20when%20i%27m%20dry&f=false

dylan dylaning too

THROW YOUR PANTIES OVERBOARD

alrighty