Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I like Tight Connection OK, and really liked "Has Anybody Seen My
Love." On the other hand, "When the Night Comes Falling" was far
inferior on E. Burlesque, compared to the original, which was great.

Funny: Empire Burlesque is the album that came out just as I was
becoming a true devotee (I grew up with Blood on the Tracks, but the
Lyrics book that came out in 85, along with EB, really opened me up to
everything else). I really liked EB, but picked it up recently on CD,
and found the production too much to bear on most tunes. Some real gems
on there, though. Besides the aforementioned: "Emotionally Yours,"
and, especially, "Dark Eyes" -- one of Dylan's best ever. And I really
like the "Keys" entry on that one. 

I'm not a tape collector mostly because it would just take too much
time and effort. 
  

    
 I feel the same way about Empire, a lttile too overproduced (funny noone is
given credit for producing the album), but also agree that some of the songs
are among the best.  When the Night Comes Falling is to me in the genre of
Watchtower and is one I really like.
  

    
Yep, but the original version (which is on the first bootleg series)
is vastly superior to the one on EB.

The two versions of "Has Anybody seen my love/Tight Connection" -- on
Bootleg and EB, are both great, but they are really two different
songs.
  

    
At the Folklife Festival in Seattle last weekend, there was a panel
discussion with the curators of the current "Bob Dylan's American Journey"
exhibit at the Experience Music Project museum. Mostly a discussion of the
early-sixties Greenwich Village musical scene (in Dave Van Ronk's words,
"there was a period of about a year and a half when you could be arrested
for walking down MacDougal Street without a guitar case.").

Have you seen the EMP exhibit? Any opinions about either the exhibit or the
importance of the folklies in both Minneapolis and later New York on Dylan's
underlying rock & roll sensibility?
  

    
Empire Burlesque could stand as Exhibit A for an album that really
served as a blueprint for material that, mostly, really grew hair in
performance. Both EB and his earlier effort Infidels signaled a bit of
comeback for Dylan in the public eye after the gospel albums (though
the too often overlooked Shot of Love -- one of absolute favorites --
was not really a gospel album). Arthur Baker, a producer of some hot
notable dance records was, for whatever reason, hired to produce EB to
give it that creepy sheen. By the time Dylan hit the road with Tom
Petty (and the girls) in '86, those songs began to sound a lot better.
Still, despite what some of the more respected, scholarly critics
contend, I think they are both fine, underrated albums.

"When the Night Comes Falling" is a compelling song that does feel as
though it is trying to capture some of the ominous spirit of
"Watchtower." Yet it is, obviosuly, a very personal song sung to what
I'm guessing is an estranged lover.

And, yes, Dark Eyes a real dusky masterpiece. Anybody heard and of the
versions he did with Patti Smith back in the mid-1990s? Killer stuff.
Emotionally Yours may be might least favorite song on the album but
Something is Burning and I'll Remember You (I think the only song from
the collection that he still semi-regualry performs).

EB was really his last good album for many years until Oh Mercy and
two of my faves: Good As I Been to You and World Gone Wrong. And, of
course, the Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3 came out in there too but that
doesn't really count.

I do recommend starting some sort of Dylan field recording collection.
One doesn't need too much to get the sweep of his career through the
concert recordings and they had so much to one's appreciation of the
man's power as an artist. I know he's always introduced as "Columbia
Recordings Artist, Bob Dylan" but I think of him more as a performing
artist or, as he put it once, a song & dance man.

No, I didn't see the Seattle EMP. Sounded good from what I heard. My
only beef with those type of museum retrospectives is that they can
render the living subject a bit irrelavant -- like their best days are
behind them. SOme may argue that Bob'd best days are right now.

The Dinkytown Minneapolis and NYC folkies undoubtedly had a major
impact on the young Bob Dylan and his discussion of his epipanies
during that period is one of better part of his memoir Chronicles. It
must have been pretty exciting. I even have some very dim memories of
being taken to Greenwich as a very young child and hearing people play
guitar near the arch in Washington Sq. Park.
  

    
Oliver, how did you decide which of the many cover versions Dylan has 
performed live over the years to include? Was your aim to be as 
comprehensive as possible? Did some get cut due to space limitations?
  

    
I believe there is an entry for every song (original or cover) Dylan
had every performed and/or officially released. Are there omissions of
which you are aware?
  

    
Who could blame you if you missed a couple!
  

    
Oliver, thank you for your valuable contribution to the Dylan
catalogue. One of the cultural myths about him, that circulated in the
late 70's was that he used to hang out in pubs and such, in disguise,
somewhat like Strider in LOTR, to try and get a fix on the subculture.
The spin on it was that he had lost his mojo and was trying to get it
back.

I did not get any sense of truth to that myth when I read Chronicles.
Would you please speak (write) to that?

Sorry I'm so late to this topic. It will go down in Inkwell.vue
archival history, next to the Dead I'm sure.

Someone should do Stephen Stills next.
  

    
You did an excellent job compiling the songs considering how many shows 
Dylan has played and projects he contributed to. I've been looking up 
songs as I listen to shows or records. So far I've only found a couple of 
covers not included in the book.

When he played with Levon Helm at The Lone Star in May 1988 he did 
"Nadine" which is in the book, but they also performed "The Weight."

When he played in June 1989 with Van Morrison in Athens, Greece, recorded
for a BBC TV show, they performed three songs together. "One Irish Rover"
is in the book, "Crazy Love" and "Foreign Window" are not.
  

    
Maybe I dreamed that he had done "I can See For Miles" at some point,
but I could have sworn I heard it somewhere.
  

    
 there's a great set of bootleg discs - Complete Dylan Covers 1988-2000.
Moon River, I'm in the mood for love, Van songs, GD songs among them.
Fairly comprehensive.  The real treats are the little intro that Bob does
before many of the songs.
  

    
tbessoir: re: the songs you mention. I didn't include songs Dylan
performed at impromptu situations. Along with the Levon gig at the Lone
Star there have been many more with an equally odd ball assortment of
songs. The unreleased material from the Basement Tapes would seemt to
rate as highly if not more so. I forget the decision-making process
that went into excising the two Van songs from consideration. Were they
done in concert or merely filmed? And if they were done in concert,
was Dylan's contribution to the performance a lead, shared lead or
minimal backing. I know I didn't include Touch of Grey because he
basically just stood on the stage with the Dead and strummed. Seemed a
bit of a stretch to include.

Howard: I think we dicussed that boot collection previously. Yes!
Amazing stuff. An important touchstone and enormously helpful to me in
writing my book. More importantly, its inspiring. I really go for the
old Child Ballad type stuff. And the blues.
  

    
Nukem77: I've heard those disguise stories. Who could blame him?

Stephen Stills? Not for me. I'm thinking someone should do a Kesey
biography. Hey, maybe me!
  

    
The three Athens tracks with Van were duets with no other musicians. I 
only have an audio recording. I do not hear any audience but I don't know 
for sure whether there was one or not.
  

    

Bob's cover of "Friend of the Devil" had one very small but vast change:
instead of "Ran down to the levee but the devil caught me there," he sand
"Ran down to the crossroads but the devil caught me there."  I just fuckin'
love that, because in one compact stroke he invoked the enormous specter of
Robert Johnson, thereby expanding the universe of that song hugely.
  

    
Fabulous!!    Uh, how does Hunter feel about it?
  

    

I never heard a peep from him about it.

I can't imagine he'd be too offended, though.
  

    
> "Ran down to the crossroads but the devil caught me there."  I just fuckin'
> love that, because in one compact stroke he invoked the enormous specter of
> Robert Johnson, thereby expanding the universe of that song hugely.

I beg respectfully to differ with the esteemed Mr. Gans in finding the
aforementioned poetic device typical of the sophomoric side of His
Emincence the Bob.
  

    
Did he say anything like that? He said he introduced Robert Johnson
into it and vastly expanded the scope of the song. And that's all he
said. 
  

    
It's cut and pasted from post #91. If we're talking about the same
thing?
  

    
I fear this will turn into more effort than it's worth giving to it,
so I promise not to drag it out if I can help it, but where is there
even a hint of tnf "finding the aforementioned poetic device typical of
the sophomoric side of His Emincence the Bob?" He doesn't say anything
like that, at all.
  

    
No. *I* SAID THAT in contrast to <tnf>'s rave review of the line
in question. *I* find cutesies like that the dark side of Dylan.
  

    
I.e., "... my difference of opinion consists in finding ..."
  

    
Oh, OK. 

Well, whatever.