Dylan's Christian period

yeah i honestly don't think anyone not steeped (DEEPLY steeped) in Dylan lore would get a whole lot out of the movie. Maybe I'm wrong ...

Film nerds, maybe ...

btw i'm not kidding about moondog, haynes sticks a guy in a moondog costume in one of the quick panning shots of the early '60s village. i kind of want to hug haynes for that.

I saw the film with two folks I wouldn't really characterize as Dylan nerds (ie, my wife and an old gay buddy of ours) and they both really dug it. They don't hate his music or anything but they're hardly obsessives (y'know my wife has some sorta weird childhood associations with Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, buddy likes early 70s Dylan, etc.)

I think I was the only one of the three of us who was excited about all the detail/ephemera tho.

and yeah I spotted Moondog

yeah it's possible that I actually didn't appreciate the movie as a "movie" just because of the Dylan trivia overload that is practically every frame.

I didn't enjoy it as much the second time - it kinda lacks some narrative motion, there's no real arc to it. But it is fun and I love that Haynes does this kind of thing (I am also a big fan of Velvet Goldmine)

it was real splashy and my immediate reaction was overstimulation and enthusiasm, but within minutes i was like, "what was that all about?" and my impression began to sour. i should see it again.

I've still not seen the film (or heard the soundtrack, though I'm less excited about the latter---I fell for too many tributes in the 90s)...mostly because I don't watch any films these days. I'll try to check it out in the next few years, though; I've heard lots good about it.

Soundtrack has some duds, but is overall pretty good. Willie Nelson w/ Calexico doing "Senor" is probably my fave.

oh "Angelina" is really great, isn't it? The organ playing is terrific, and overall the playing is very sympathetic to what Dylan is trying to get across: a lament, presumably for a woman; but it's much more sympathetic to the woman than his 60s songs about women (and more sympathetic than the Blood on the Tracks too I think). Her relationship with God is confusing Dylan: she's surrounded by God's angels, but she doesn't seek God, exactly. But Bob isn't sure about his relationship to her: she can read his mind, but she's wearing a blindfold too. There is too much occlusion, but he'll do anything for her in God's truth.

oh man it's so good.
Do I need your permission to turn the other cheek?
If you can read my mind, why must I speak?

A Better Contract: November 16, 1979 @ Warfield, SF...wow. Dylan's singing on "I Believe In You" sounds like it comes from a very deep place, like crying somehow expressed as a moaning shout. There are none of the "greatest hits" on this show: just the new gospel songs, and the playing is hot; not so different from the 1978 live sound (that we talked about sorta recently on the Street-Legal thread), but more focused. The crowd seems into it, too!

What ferocious courage he has! his preaching at the end of "Precious Angel", going into "Slow Train", about how the world is going to be destroyed & Christ is going to set up his kingdom in Jerusalem for a thousand years; & after the crowd erupts he asks, "Do you believe those things?" and they just shout back, & it's hard to tell what they really think. But I'd gather that a typical Dylan show in San Francisco is not going to attract a lot of people believing those things. It's pretty in-your-face!

i don't think i've heard that one -- is it a good recording?
euro tour from 1981 is probably the best gospel-era tour recordings I've heard.

The only boot from that era I have is Rock Solid - the Massey Hall 1980 show. Absolute stunner.

yeah, that's a killer show -- the 81 stuff is a little less fire n brimstone (he mixes in older material), but the arrangements/band are very nice.

The recording is pretty ace, as far as I can hear---they could put it on a Bootleg Series. Actually a comp of this with the Massey Hall show would make a great Bootleg Series.

yeah, a gospel bootleg series would be welcome. one of the rare pre neverending tour eras not represented by a live album ... guess there's no official petty/dylan live album.

The 30th anniversary show is a Dylan/Petty show of sorts, no?

well, it's not from the period when they were touring together -- 1986-87, I think? 30th anniversary thing is 92, right?

ah, ok---and anyway they only play together on a few songs.

i dl'd something recently that was a SF show from 1980 w/ Jerry Garcia sitting in on a few tracks. Haven't listened yet, but a cool setlist. I'll see if I can dig up the link for it.

I'll highly recommend this 1979 show: high energy, great guitar work (I guess by a guy from Little Feat?).

yeah, it's a cool band - spooner oldham, jim keltner, tim drummond ... buncha top notch 70s session dudes.

Euler did you find this online somewhere or is it a physical boot?

If it's online, please point us in that direction.

I checked Dime, it's there but there are no seeders at the moment.

http://www.dylannl.nl/Live-1979/1040-1979-11-16-San-Francisco/View-details.html

Thanks Tyler!

that site is sort of weird to navigate, but it's pretty comprehensive

I'm currently reading Volume 2 of Clinton Heylin's Songs of Bob Dylan, and I'm at the Born Again part. That era makes for pretty samey reading, but I was shocked at how little I knew Slow Train Coming and especially Saved. I'm incapable of considering Shot Of Love with anything approaching objectivity as it was my first Dylan album and I loved it then and still. I put Saved on for the first time in years yesterday, and man, it is great.

There was talk of one of the gospel gigs being recorded for a potential live album release, it's bootlegged as Rock Solid and was recorded in Toronto 1980. From everything i've read about them, the Warfield shows could come up with an outstanding Bootleg Series between them.

yeah, I got it online; tyler's link looks good! I might try the other Warfield shows too; reading around, they're evidently legendary, and I can see why: the one I was writing about yesterday is smoking.

Thanks Tyler/Euler!

Okay, this is great

Yep this boot is amazing. The band is so good that when the gospel stuff finishes i'm getting pretty bored by the solo acoustic Tambourine and Times.

aaaaactually these songs are from a different show aren't they?

Yes! Those "bonus tracks" are from a 1976 show, btw.

i did think he was being surprisingly fan friendly with that hit filled encore

kind of rad that dylan's most famous "christian" song is pretty much the sleaziest sounding thing he's ever written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FavBDpg91gA&feature=related
especially this version. the tuxes add a certain something.

who is that on the axe? that's some hair! also Crosby is shaking some mad tambourine

think that's fred tackett from little feat...he was dylan's live guitarist for the gospel years i think...

I remember Gotta Serve Somebody and Precious Angel playing on the radio when I was fishing around 1980. I haven't heard either since, but I remember them very clearly. Found the former heavy handed sermonising, but compelling, and precious angel delightful.

just watched that clip of the sleaze, jeez yes, women in cages. playing in tails gives it real bite.
Relistening to Precious Angel, the verses lack urgency, just that up and down dylan vacuum cleaner thing, but chorus remains sweet gospel heaven

amazing clip, nice find tyler

sooo... how do Saved and Shot of Love compare to Slow Train Coming? Do they have a similar sound? It's funny to me how exhaustive all the wikipedia entries for Dylan's other albums are, and then you get to those two and there's, like, a paragraph. Finding youtubes for this material is proving difficult, but I'm curious to hear them...

saved seems more... christiany. sonically. i think because of the nature of some of the songs? whereas slow train seems a lot more blues-groovy.

i've only just started listening to these myself, and they're just so bizarre, sometimes, it's fascinating.

Shot of Love is slapdash and stupid, in the ways that count and the ways that don't ("Lenny Bruce" is one of his worst). I love "Every Grain of Sand" and "The Groom..." but I suspect a remastering will help me savor "Watered-Down Love" and "Trouble."

If it helps, Bono and Dylan both think the title track is one of Dylan's best.

is that due diligence on your part, to include bono in there rather than omitting to mention him?

Just the facts, ma'am.

That is one of my favorite things of this entire period. Like he is channelling the holy spirit.

Fuck yeah brad otm wrt Caribbean Wind, just floored me the first time I heard it on Biograph

i know i said upthread that shot of love was maybe the best of these but that was initial excitement i think, even though "property of jesus" and "in the summertime" really knock me out. saved is the best one imo and is swiftly becoming... my... favorite... dylan... record?

both of the complete live shows in the box set are AMAZING. toronto 1980 is perfect, and then just the next year at earl's court all the arrangements are completely fuckin different!

Agree that Saved is the best studio and that Toronto 1980 show is the best period.

Bob Dylan acting out "Shot of Love."

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: Interpretive Dance Bob Dylan is the best Bob Dylan. pic.twitter.com/QLRWlmnvN4

— HarryHew (@harryhew) August 30, 2023

Gestures aside, I find this musically scintillating.

Extraordinary that he had this much vitality after almost 20 years and numerous other career phases.