NP but Dylan

Robin Landseadel robinlandseadel at comcast.net
Tue Nov 9 23:18:21 CST 2010


On Nov 9, 2010, at 7:14 PM, Michael Bailey wrote:

>> Love "Tell Tale Signs", though . . .
>
> not familiar with that, it's a bootleg, right?
> I have this project going, I'm gradually listening to the whole Dylan
> catalogue, theoretically going to do research too, as time permits.
> The bootlegs I want most are the ones from the Basement Tapes time...

Nope, the "bootlegs" you want are on "Tell-Tale Signs." This two-CD  
set is Volume 8 of Sony's Columbia Legacy issue series, but it's  
really inappropriate to call these performances "bootlegs". These are  
mostly alternate takes of previously released songs including a lot of  
new, or at least previously unreleased, songs. But the alternate  
performances aren't anything like most "alternate takes," these are  
alternate and radically different arrangements. Most, frankly, are  
superior to the "Official" versions if only in that they tend to be  
more congenial to Dylan's voice in his current state of encroaching  
crotchetiness. The gestation of this material centers around the time  
"Time Out Of Mind" was on the singer's mind. There's an earlier and  
far superior version of "Mississippi," featuring just Daniel Lanois'  
swamped-out guitar behind him instead of the cluttered arrangement on  
"Love and Theft." "Most of the Time" as a solo performance sounds like  
it wandered off from the "Blood on the Tracks" sessions. "Red River  
Shore," an outtake from "Time Out of Mind," sounds like it bunked with  
"Boots of Spanish Leather." "Everything is Broken" is stripped down,  
sped up and punked out. Bob gives Robert Johnson's "32-20 Blues" his  
best shot. There's also a couple-two-three live performances,  
including a ferocious "Lonesome Day Blues" from 1997.

Dylan's in better voice in this two-CD collection than he is on the  
"Official" releases that came out of these sessions covering 1989 to  
2006. As far as I'm concerned that's the songwriter's richest era.  
"Tell Tale Signs" might be his best album.

Good luck on your quest for the Basement Tapes Sea Scrolls.




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