Thursday, September 20, 2018
For a long time I was really interested in hearing the New York sessions for Blood on the Tracks. The story goes that Dylan cut most of the songs that ended up on the album with a group of New York session players, including the cats who recorded the music for Deliverance. He went home for Christmas and played the songs for his brother, who thought they could be done better, so Dylan assembled some Minnesota musicians and re-recorded the material. Thing is, a fair amount of the New York material has found its way onto Bootleg Sessions releases already. The material is interesting- lyrical changes, different tempos and instrumentation, all that sort of stuff, but I feel as though more of it would be too much. Some of the Bootleg Sessions sets are invaluable: the Basement Tapes set, for example, is closer to what went on at Big Pink than the original official release and is therefore essential, and I think Tell Tale Signs is one of my favorite Dylan collections. At least half of the Royal Alber Hall set is essential, and the first set in the series, Bootleg Collection Vol. 1-3 is a great alternative way into the work. I actually like the Self-Portrait material too, although I'd say it is really mostly for obsessives, scholars and completests. So I don't know, do I really need a half dozen more versions of "Meet Me in the Morning"?
// posted by Bill @ 10:33 AM 
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