This is volume 12 of The Bootleg Series which chronicles the unreleased material of Bob Dylan’s career. For my money, this is as good as Bob Dylan ever got, since the sessions we’re talking about during this time produced the classic albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and the iconic Blonde on Blonde. Has ANYONE ever delivered three such powerful albums in a row?!??
The 2 cds set here includes alternate takes, false starts, rehearsals and acoustic versions or demos of songs every Baby Boomer was raised on. It’s like watching out-takes of Casablanca to come across solo acoustic guitar versions of “She Belongs to Me” and ”Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream.” Likewise to hear the evolution of “Like A Rolling Stone” or a looser read of “Highway 61 Revisited” allows us to get into the creative mind of a musical genius who as at his most creative point in his career.
One thing that isn’t usually appreciated about Dylan, but which comes up here repeatedly, is how bona fide he is with the blues. The rehearsal read of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” or alternate read of “Tombstone Blues” have Dylan snarling like a hound dog. His raspy voice growls during “Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence,” while, alternatively, he comes across like a street minstrel when his voice gets sandied on the intimate “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” or “Mister Tambourine Man.” The supporting team here is just as legendary, including the likes of Joe South/g, AL Kooper/org, Robbie Robertson/g, Rick Danko/g, Garth Hudson/org and Mike Bloomfield/g. The music here is so strong that you don’t have to have the original versions memorized to appreciate these outtakes; even “second best” stands up on its own more than 97% of what today’s “indie” artists put out.
But, it wasn’t the sounds that have made Dylan so important. He literally changed music industry and structure by writing his own songs and lyrics. No one, arguably before or since, composed modern lyrics with such reflection and poignancy. While the Beatles were singing about “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” Dylan was putting words to the perfect kiss-off song on “Positively 4th Street,” writing about love on “Just Like A Woman” and “I Want You” or making social commentary on “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” while “Stuck Inside of Mobile…’ and “Like a Rolling Stone” have reflections on our states in life that few other artists even care to ponder. You know something is happening, but you don’t know what it is.
Sony Legacy