Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

I think it may have been the first! Other artists had released single-LP odds-and-sods outtakes collections, but this seems like the first box (CD or otherwise) to contain all unreleased material.

the "water is wide" that opens disc 2 is gorgeous.

indeed, the (traditional?) melody reminds me of Neil Young's "Mother Earth" which Dylan might have been playing so loud that somebody was yelling at him to turn it down

Dreamin' of You sounded pretty great last night.

the "water is wide" that opens disc 2 is gorgeous.

indeed, the (traditional?) melody reminds me of Neil Young's "Mother Earth" which Dylan might have been playing so loud that somebody was yelling at him to turn it down

― corrs unplugged, Tuesday, January 31, 2023 1:47 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

wow yeah this is an amazing performance

"Mother Earth" is definitely based on that melody — but Dylan had probably been singing "Water Is Wide" since 1960.

The album remix is an interesting excercise, not really better overall but clearer in places, less "artificial", as promised sounds a bit more like a rehearsal space (although I gather it was a pretty funky rehearsal space that didn't necessarily sound like the new mix) and less like that weird Lanois space

Look forward to hearing all the unreleased takes

Appreciative for awakening Dylan's recording appetite, I nevertheless disliked TOOM for years. As a collaboration Oh Mercy is a better realization of Lanois + Dylan; whatever else it's got songs, beautiful and awful.

Listening to this album I'm struck by how the fanning away of Lanois' murk reveals how a few songs sound created for or even by the murk ("Can't Wait," "Lovesick," "Til I Fell in Love with You"), therefore the new mix accentuates the original's weaknesses.

i revisited the original last night for the first time in ages in hopes of drumming up some interest in the new set. i came away from the og mix with the same thought i remember about it: nice bob, nice fluff, nothing all that memorable happens. very much same feeling re:later day neil young. yes, some good (and sometimes even great) songs in there but a lot of mediocrity too. in fact, mostly that. not terrible, just meh. but i also think oh mercy! is across the board top tier bob, so what do i know?

maybe if someone does a highlights disk i'd check it out, but this was never my favorite period of bob and i've become a cliche in thinking it's horribly overrated. allmusic gave the new set three stars, overall vibe: ya only for people who already really this material.

*really like oops

hence why Love and Theft and 3/4ths of Modern Times were such shocks. It turns out...he needed to produce his own albums and write songs reflecting that immediacy.

oh boy, not sure i can get on board with that. again same vibe as modern neil: nice, but very meh.

wowee, I must be pretty shallow because I think TooM and LaT are stone brilliant, both top 5 Dylan for me. Maybe top 7, but still.

I won't bore with my entire history with Dylan, but after getting into him big in high school and college, I somehow had drawn this magic line that Desire was the latest Dylan I ever needed to hear and I couldn't care less about anything after that. TooM, which I didn't even hear until the early 2000s was huge for me and made me realize that, hey, this guy is worth digging into. Still love it.

L&T has a heft and insouciance which at the time pointed me toward a new way of thinking about love that coincided with my love for St. Etienne, Pet Shop Boys, and other acts who saw no point in lingering on bathos. I prefer it to almost every album he's released since 1969, including Desire (ugh) and Blood on the Tracks.. "I'm sittin' on my watch so I can be on time" + Charlie Sexton riffs = my idea of Dylan.

in other words L&T is queerer than Dylan or anyone else said at the time

Yeah, Desire was not one of my favorite Dylan albums but it was one of the first ones I bought, because of "Hurricane" being in Dazed & Confused. In those pre-internet days that snippet from the Emporium scene was enticing, in large part because it was one of the few songs that didn't end up on either soundtrack.

I'd be inclined to say that The Bootleg Series LPs are the best records I've heard that were released this century.

"Listening to all 18 CDs", etc, sounds time-consuming, but while I don't have an 18CD version of anything, I play what I do have over and over and over again - notably the 6CD BASEMENT TAPES and 5CD CUTTING EDGE. Which really is probably the best record of the century, for me.

I've never been that into TOOM or L&T (in fact TOOM is the only Dylan studio album of original material that I've never listened to in full, and one of the few I've never owned)... don't mean to be challopsy, as these are obv critical & fan favorites, they just don't press too many buttons for me.

How would you know, if you’ve not listened to them in full?

Oh, L&T I have (many times)... just TOOM. I didn't dig the singles, the sound... even the title and album cover put me off (shallow as that may be). I gave it another go with this remix or whatever, but the songs just aren't my kind of thing.

What do you dislike about L&T?

I dunno, I just don't like the style of the songs that much... it's a boring listen for me ("Mississippi" aside). I don't really start locking in with Bob again until Together Through Life. It's all good...

It's the same production!

It's the songs, man! Not Jack Frost's icy knob-twiddling...

I mean, if "Summer Days" and "Lonesome Day" and "Sugar Baby" did nothing for ya...

FWIW, with Time Out of Mind, the version I usually listened to has a few personal tweaks: I replaced "Cold Irons Bound" with this version from Masked and Anonymous (his touring band though by this time David Kemper had been replaced by George Receli), I replaced "Make You Feel My Love" with "Red River Shore" from disc one of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs (though to be fair, I like hearing that song on Adele's 19), and I replaced "Can't Wait" with the early version, also from the same disc on BS Vol. 8: TTS, but I trimmed off the brief dialogue heard at the start. It really improved the back half for me, so as much as I love Time Out of Mind, I have to admit that what I enjoy isn't really what was released.

I'll also add that I think Love & Theft is the better album and would not change anything about it.

I sometimes rate Dylan albums by how funny they are and Together Through Life is corny as fuck and L&T is a top 3 funny Dylan album.

I mean the way he sings "must have been Don Paquale making a 2AM booty call" - that's amore.

"The size of your cock will get you nowhere" from "Black Rider" is hysterical.

this sidebar inspired me to go back to love + theft for the first time since it was new and i'm pleasantly surprised! the second half is way better than i remembered and the ballads! awww, sweetheart bob!

exclamation marks!

I'd be inclined to say that "LOVE & THEFT" is the best new Dylan LP of the century, along with ROUGH & ROWDY WAYS - which feels, I suppose, more ambitious, more risky, maybe is ultimately even greater ... But the fun-loving cigar-chewing whisky-glugging joke-telling qualities of "L&T" seem plain.

I don't think I've ever found much "humor" in Dylan, once you get past, say, the Blonde on Blonde era (and not counting some of the bizarre humor on The Basement Tapes).

Romeo, he said to Juliet, “You got a poor complexion
It doesn’t give your appearance a very youthful touch”
Juliet said back to Romeo, “Why don’t you just shove off
If it bothers you so much”

Yeah Love and Theft is full of jokes

"Othello told Desdemona, 'I'm cold, cover me with a blanket/ By the way, what happened to that poison wine?"/ She says, "I gave it to you, you drank it."

Guess I should revisit L&T

100 Funny Bob Dylan Moments

I really like Modern Times but it doesn't seem to get the love

"Ain't Talkin'"'s my favorite of his recent Long Doomy Album Closers.

Modern Times may be my favorite Dylan album. I certainly listen to it more than any of his peak-era '60s records. And Alfred otm re: "Ain't Talkin'."

"I was WUUUN-der-in where in the WOOORLD alicia KEEEEYs could BEEEEE" is one of my fav Dylan funny lines

I don't think I've ever found much "humor" in Dylan

you may be a preacher, full of spiritual pride. might be a city councilman, taking bribes on the side. you might be working in a barbershop: you may know how to cut hair.

i rode with him
in a taxi once
only for a mile and a half
seemed like it took a couple of monnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnths

and WHEN HE DIED! i was HOPING! that it WASN'T CONTAGIOUS!

well i dunno which is worse:
doing your own thing
or just being cool

(sorry. should be in the other thread.)

You're gonna need my hel,p sweetHEART
you can't make looooove all bah yourselffff

l+t in partic does have a lot of direct actual "jokes", some of which he deliberately overnudges-- "i'm stark naked but i don't care / i'm goin off into the woods / i'm... HUNTIN... BAAAARE"-- but also as ever his delivery of "normal" lines can be exhilaratingly funny-- "i see your loverman coming / coming across the barren field / well he's not a gentleman at all / he's ROTTEN to the core / he's a COWARD and he / STEALLLLLLSSSZZZSZSSZ"