ROCK SOLID (1) Drammenhalle (Drammen, Norway) July 10, 1981 (line) (2) Rainbow Music Hall (Denver, CO) January 22, 1980 (line) Disc Two - Heart Of Mine, When You Gonna Wake Up, In The Garden, Blowin'In The Wind, It Ain't Me Babe, Knockin' On Heaven's Door (2) When He Returns, Man Gave Names To All The Animals, Precious Angel, Slow Train, Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking, Do Right To Me Baby, Solid Rock, Saving Grace The 8 bonus tracks were reportedly salvaged from a Columbia acetate (?) and supposedly considered for actual release. If Dylan's '80 "religious" shows appeal to you, this one's for you. An outstanding set nicely packaged with 8 page booklet, color pics, essay.
Junkyard Angel 004-A [T-608]
Massey Hall (Toronto, ON); April 19, 1980 (line)
Tracklist: Gotta Serve Somebody, Covenant Woman, When You Gonna Wake Up, Precious Angel, Slow Train, Solid Rock, In The Garden, Cover Down Break Through
DEEP: Not much need be said about this terrific sounding set, allegedly the unreleased live album considered for official release way back when. The sound is as close to official release quality as you are likely to hear. The performances of the gospel material are breathtaking, Dylan's singing never better and his conviction awe-inspiring. Essential stuff.
rmd: I think this is Bob's greatest album ever, unreleased or not. Great performance and crystal clear sound.
rmd: Stunning quality "official" live recording that never actually made it to release. The performances are superb and committed.
THE BORN-AGAIN MUSIC
Flashback 2CD [T-280]
Massey Hall (Toronto, ON); April 20, 1980 (line)
Tracklist: Disc One - If I've Got My Ticket Lord, Hold On, The Rainbow Sign, Show Me The Way Lord, Freedom At The Wall, This Train Is Bound For Glory [not Dylan]; Gotta Serve Somebody, I Believe In You, When He Returns, Ain't Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody, Cover Down Break Through, Man Gave Names To All The Animals, Precious Angel, Slow Train [Dylan];
Disc Two - Stranger In The City, Walk Around Heaven All Day [not Dylan]; Do Right To Me Baby, Solid Rock, Saving Grace, Saved, What Can I Do For You, In The Garden, Are You Ready, Pressing On [Dylan]
EDLIS: Complete show in excellent sound quality. Essential for those who like their Dylan Christian. rmd: While the performance is not as inspired as the fall 1979 run of gospel shows, the sound quality of this line recording is far superior to the '79 audience tapes. A fine, fine pair of discs.
BOB'S BOOTS: Fantastic quality recording straight from the soundboard. Some of the pure hell-fire and brimstone inspiration of the previous fall tour has drained off a little, but there is still a spark. Perhaps Dylan was fighting with his twin (That enemy within) as never before. The sound quality, however, is far superior to most of those earlier shows. As is the case with most Flashback titles, package is nice, but minimal. Great cover period photo and track & venue listed on back. It is rumored that this venue was intended to produce a live CBS album. Indeed, there is a professionally shot mult-camera video that exists of this night, and a better quality recording of half of the Dylan portion of the previous night's show entitled 'Rock Solid.'
SOLID ROCK
Wanted Man WMM 005/006 [T-239]
(1) Massey Theatre (Toronto, ON); April 20, 1980 (line)
(2) Massey Theatre (Toronto, ON); April 19, 1980 (line)
Tracklist: (1) Gotta Serve Somebody
(2) Covenant Woman, When You Gonna Wake Up
(1) I Believe in You, When He Returns, Ain't Gonna Go To Hell, Cover Down Break Through, Man Gave Names to All the Animals, Precious Angel, Slow Train Coming, Do Right to Me Baby, Solid Rock, Saving Grace, Saved, What Can I Do for You?, In the Garden, Are You Ready?, Pressing On
NOTE: This is not the album of the same title prepared by Dylan for official release but rejected by Columbia; that album has been bootlegged as "Rock Solid."
FAREWELL BLOOMFIELD
Cuttlefish 004/005 2CD [T-383]
Warfield Theater (San Francisco, CA); November 15, 1980 (line)
Tracklist: Gotta Serve Somebody, I Believe In You, Like A Rolling Stone, Man Gave Names To All The Animals, Simple Twist Of Fate, Ain't Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody, Girl From The North Country, Slow Train Coming, Abraham Martin And John, Let's Keep It Between Us, Mary From The Wild Moor, Covenant Woman, Solid Rock, Just Like A Woman, Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar, When You Gonna Wake Up, In The Garden, Blowin' In The Wind, City Of Gold
rmd: An almost complete line recording in better quality sound than the more common tape from the next night. Mike Bloomfield comes on for two songs, his last performance before he died. (Matthew Zuckerman) Good soundboard; not great, but very listenable, not harsh or compressed, just a littly blurry and hissy. Completely enjoyable, and historically essential.
RISE AGAIN
Wanted Man WMM 036/037 [T-319]
(1)Paramount Northwest Theater (Seattle, WA); November 30, 1980 (2)Paramount Northwest Theater (Seattle, WA); November 29, 1980 (3)Paramount Northwest Theater (Seattle, WA); November 30, 1980
Tracklist: (1) Gotta Serve Somebody, I Believe In You, Like A Rolling Stone, Man Gave Names To All The Animals, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, Fever, All Along The Watchtower, Ain't Gonna Go To Hell, Girl From The North Country, Slow Train Coming (2) To Ramona, We Just Disagree, Simple Twist Of Fate, Saved, Don't Think Twice (3) Abraham Martin And John, Rise Again, Let's Keep It Between Us, Mary From The Wild Moor, Solid Rock, Just Like A Woman, Senor, What Can I Do For You, When You Gonna Wake Up, In The Garden, Blowin' In The Wind, City Of Gold, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
CDG: A disc that is a real killer. rmd: An excellent (for the time) audience recording of a complete concert, including "Fever," with five bonus tracks from the night before. rmd: Interesting setlist with rarities and excellent performances. Sound quality is very listenable, more distant and echoey than one would like, but with a pure and consistent tone. A good choice if you like this era.
BOB'S BOOTS: Great sounding stereo audience recording of an incredible show. This set includes the entire 23 song concert of November 30, plus 5 filler songs that were only performed the previous night. The sound is a little distant, but pure and warm. A great choice for fans of the gospel transition period. Dylan moves to piano for the first three songs on disc two, and delivers a blistering solo performance of 'It's All Over Now Baby Blue'. The packaging is adequate with a nice Black & white photo cover, and track listing & venue on back.
BETWEEN SAVED AND SHOT
Dandelion DL 105 [T-656]
(1) Shot Of Love worktape (2) Shot Of Love outtakes
Tracklist: (1) Is It Worth It, High Away [Ah Ah Ah Ah], Hallelujah [Yes Sir, No Sir], It's Magic, Child To Me, Wind Blowing On The Water, All The Way Down, My Oriental Home, (We're Living On) Borrowed Time, I Want You To Know I Love You, Rockin' Boat, Movin' [Wait And See], Almost Persuaded, Don't Ever Take Yourself Away, Mystery Train (2) Heart Of Mine, Watered Down Love, Shot Of Love
DEEP: Newly circulating outtakes from March-May 1981, presented in excellent quality. A very interesting listen with (mainly) fully realized tunes and a couple of instrumentals. Beautifully presented with a stunning cover, 12 page color, glossy booklet and thoughtful essay. Not for everyone..... Crazy Joe said it best, something to the effect of it being "unessentially essential," or something like that.
rmd: A highly recommended set. Most of the tracks are only works-in-progress, with neither melody or lyrics entirely worked out, never meant for release in this form. Many of these unfinished songs show real promise. They are fascinating, and give a behind-the-scenes look at what went down in the studio at the time. NOTE: Reportedly in better quality than the common circulating tape, but not as complete. A 2-CDR fan project with the same title circulates, and is probably more complete.
BOB'S BOOTS: Review: Studio outtakes from March-May 1981. Great quality. This is a must-have collection for fans of the gospel period. Comes complete with a 12 page color, glossy booklet and essay.
A BIRD'S NEST IN YOUR HAIR
Rattlesnake 006/007 2CD [T-677]
Earl's Court (London, UK); June 29, 1981
Tracklist: Disc One: Come On In This House, It's Gonna Rain Again, Show Me The Way, Saved By The Grace Of Your Love [Havis/Dennis/King]; Gotta Serve Somebody, I Believe In You, Like A Rolling Stone; Till I Get It Right [Regina Havis]; Man Gave Names To All The Animals, Maggie's Farm, Simple Twist Of Fate, Dead Man Dead Man, Girl From The North Country, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Slow Train; Walk Around Heaven All Day [Carolyn Dennis]
Disc Two: Let's Begin (w/Clydie King), All Along The Watchtower, Lenny Bruce, Mr. Tambourine Man, Solid Rock, Just Like A Woman, In The Summertime, Masters Of War, Forever Young, When You Gonna Wake Up?, In The Garden, Blowin' In The Wind, Love Minus Zero, Knockin' On Heaven's Door
NOTE:Reportedly cloned from the fan project "London, England 6/29/81."
DEEP: A terrific addition to the well-documented Europe '81 tour, standing proudly alongside Avignon. A pretty amazing audience recording that leaves nothing to the imagination, with upfront vocals and distinct instrumentation, easily the finest '81 audience recording of the '81 tour that I can recall. A tour de force performance from Dylan and band, notable for Dylan's fervent deliveries and vocal gymnastics. A real keeper, nicely packaged. rmd: A beautiful audience recording of a stunning show. Simply amazing stuff throughout; even the ordinarily lame stuff is redeemed. The audience is remarkably non-talkative. The artwork is also quite attractive.
IN THE SUMMERTIME
Dandelion DL 022/23 [T-566]
Tracklist: Disc One - (1) Times They Are A-Changin', Gotta Serve Somebody, I Believe In You, Like A Rolling Stone, Man Gave Names To All The Animals, Girl From The North Country, Ballad Of A Thin Man, In The Summertime, Slow Train, Let's Begin, Lenny Bruce, Just Like A Woman, Forever Young, Jesus Is The One
DEEP: While a smidgen over-recorded, this serves as a nice companion piece to the outstanding Avignon '81 board, with a slightly varied set list and several different tracks.
rmd: Great song selection, fantastic performances, and wonderful sound.
BOB'S BOOTS: This 2 CD package is an absolute 'must have' for fans of the gospel period. Both shows are smooth, full, warm, and well mixed in a fantastic quality right from the soundboard. The bonus tracks are from an intended, but never released CBS live album. 8 page booklet and great photos. Highly recommended.
AVIGNON
Moonlight 9517/18 [T-475]
Palace Des Sports (Avignon, France); July 25, 1981
Tracklist: Saved, I Believe In You, Like A Rolling Stone, 'Till I Get It Right*, Man Gave Names To All The Animals, Maggie's Farm, Girl From The North Country, Ballad Of A Thin Man, In The Summertime, Shot Of Love**, Walk Around Heaven All Day*, The Times They Are A-Changin', Let's Begin, Lenny Bruce, Slow Train, Solid Rock, Just Like A Woman, Saved By The Grace Of Your Love*, Watered Down Love, Jesus Is The One, Heart Of Mine, When You Gonna Wake Up, Forever Young, In The Garden, Blowin' In The Wind, It Ain't Me Babe, Knockin' On Heaven's Door (* not Dylan)
DEEP: The complete circulating soundboard tape (not the whole show, as "Slow Train" is cut and MrTMan is missing) presented in excellent quality (note: part of this show was previously issued on "True Stories" in wrong order). Sound here is clear and well balanced, with the vocal's right up front, and Dylan's performance is very energetic and forceful, to say the least. Perhaps still recovering from a reported bout with the flu at this show (witness Oslo two weeks prior), his voice takes on added nuances and expression, IMO, which only adds to the quality of the show. Preferable to me are the acoustic & sparser sounding numbers (Girl From NC, Thin Man, In Summertime, Let's Begin very fine performance, Just Like, Blowin, It Ain't Me, Knockin' finale). The subtleties are sometimes lost in the "wall of sound" arrangement employed on a lot of the "louder" songs, although Dylan's charismatic vocals never fail to cut through the busy mix. I must add that Fred Tackett does some fine work on guitar, particularly on "When You Gonna Wake Up" and "Heart of Mine" and the back-up singers, while annoying in some places, are well suited to some of the arrangements on this tour. 27 tracks in all, including 3 with lead vocals by the back-up singers which, perhaps surprisingly, fit in to the show nicely.
Overall, an excellent set from Moonlight, who have yet to put out a dog. The packaging is timely ('81 shots) and decent but won't win any awards. Now, if they could only find the complete soundboard from Oslo of that year we'd be in business.
BOB'S BOOTS: Great 2 CD set from one of my favorite periods. This contains the complete circulating soundboard tape, missing some of the girls' material, and Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man", the opening "Saved" (sic) and an instrumental jam. This final night of the European tour is marred by tragedy. A concert goer fell into the power grid and was electrocuted. All power was lost, and Dylan and the band improvise acoustic songs on stage until it is restored. The tragedy multiplies when, emerged into darkness, another girl dies after falling from a retaining wall. The show must go on, and so it does. And what a show it is. Dylan is focused and powerful. A fantastic effort from all, and the soundboard recordings are incredible. *Bob doesn't sing on these. **Used in a 1985 20/20 broadcast, and in the official 1990 video release 'John Hammond: From Bessie Smith to Bruce Springsteen.'
ROUGH CUTS
Gold Standard 57119XK1 2CD [T-345]
Black Nite Crash SRE 1/2 [T-346]
Power Station (New York, NY); April 11-May 8, 1983
Tracklist: Disc 1: Sweetheart Like You, Someone's Got A Hold Of My Heart, Lord Protect My Child, Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground, Foot Of Pride, I And I, Tell Me, Union Sundown, Julius And Ethel, Jokerman, License To Kill, Man Of Peace, Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight, Neighborhood Bully Disc 2: Blind Willie McTell, This Was My Love, This Was My Love, Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground, Dark Groove, Don't Fly Unless Its Safe, Clean Cut Kid, Death Is Not The End, Sweetheart Like You, Union Sundown, Sweetheart Like You rehearsals
BIAB: Overall, this is an nice CD in excellent quality with some truly great performances. This is despite it being seemingly hastily put together and the officially released tracks. Also, they could have put all the different takes of the same songs together. General sound quality is truly excellent, very full stereo sound. There is some hiss present throughout but this is only really evident during quiet moments, with some exceptions.
BOB'S BOOTS: This is another of several releases of the Power Station material. There were at least four different double CDs of the same name that contained basically the same material, in much the same quality. Each package was released by a different manufacturer. This Power Station material has also been released, in part, in several packages; under various titles. The quality of this material is great. There is some slight tape hiss, and at times 'dead air' noise. The overall sound, success of 'Infidels', and desire for studio outtakes has been the spawn of the numerous releases. The outtakes themselves are most highly recommended. There really seems to be no particular standout as far as the various versions of CDs, ... If you own one, for all practical purposes you own then all.
LES TEMPS CHANGENT
Silver Rarities 143/144 [T-407]
(1) Parc De Sceaux (Paris, France); July 1, 1984 (2) Minestadio (Barcelona, Spain); June 28, 1984
Tracklist: (1) Highway 61 Revisited, Jokerman, All Along The Watchtower, Just Like A Woman, Maggie's Farm, I And I, License To Kill, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Tangled Up In Blue, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), Simple Twist Of Fate, Masters Of War, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Every Grain Of Sand, Like A Rolling Stone, Mr Tambourine Man, It Ain't Me Babe, Times They Are A-Changin', It's All Over Now Baby Blue (w/Van Morrison), Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat, Tombstone Blues, Blowin' In the Wind, Knockin' On Heaven's Door (2) Every Grain Of Sand, Lay Lady Lay
DEEP: An excellent audience recording, well worth having.
NOTE: Enough is Enough is missing from between Thin Man and Every Grain of Sand.
OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE
Wanted Man WMM 060 [T-406]
Empire Burlesque sessions (New York, NY/Hollywood, CA); July 1984-April 1985
Tracklist: New Danville Girl, Tight Connection To My Heart, Clean Cut Kid, I'll Remember You, Seeing The Real You At Last, Something's Burning Baby, Trust Yourself, Emotionally Yours, When The Night Comes Falling, Never Gonna Be The Same Again, Waiting To Get Beat, Straight A's In Love, The Very Thought Of You, Driftin' Too Far From Shore, Who Loves You More, Go Way Little Boy
DEEP: One of the best releases of 1995.
BOB'S BOOTS: This is a retelling of the 1992 CD from 'Sick Cat' entitled 'Clean Cuts' That CD had a speed problem. Wanted man has slightly cleaned up the tracks, but most importantly, they have been slowed down about 10% back to the original recording speed. Another thing that 'Wanted Man' has done is to create a nice looking cover with great period photos. A big improvement over the previous cover. This is a 'must have' title for all fans of Empire Burlesque and/or fans of studio outtakes.
TRUE CONFESSIONS
Swingin' Pig 107 [T-184]
Westwood One Superstars In Concert Tour 1986 broadcast (US version)
(1) Sydney, Australia 24.02.1986 (2) 31.07.1986 - Tacoma, USA (3) 25.02.1986 - Sydney, Australia
Tracklist: (1) Positively 4th Street, (2) All Along The Watchtower, (1) Masters Of War, I'll Remember You, I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know; Bye Bye Johnny, Breakdown (Tom Petty); Just Like A Woman, (3) Blowin' In The Wind, (1) Lucky Old Sun, So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star, Spike, (3) Like A Rolling Stone, Knockin' On Heaven's Door
CDG: Clear board recording; includes a few solo Petty cuts. Tight band, good soul.
DEEDS OF MERCY
Razor's Edge 002 [T-317]
Studio On The Move (New Orleans, LA); March 7-24, 1989
Tracklist: Shooting Star, God Knows, God Knows, What Good Am I?, Most of The Time, Everything Is Broken, Political World, Born In Time, Dignity, Shooting Star, Disease Of Conceit, Ring Them Bells, Most Of The Time, What Was It You Wanted?, Series Of Dreams
rmd: "Deeds Of Mercy" definitely came out on top for me. "Ring Them Bells" definitely sounds to have gone through the digital mill to take out the hiss and brighten the sound, but the true presence of the music has been forfeited to a degree. It's not at all bad, but I'd advise any analog fan to stick with "Deeds." (Matthew Zuckerman) Although "Bells" has better sound than "Deeds", the different track listings make it difficult to say categorically that either disc is dispensible. (Ben Taylor)