Autumn In Los Angeles: Unreleased Studio Recordings, 1980-1985
Second Edition
01. Mystery Train - Outtake - Shot of Love
02. Caribbean Wind - Outtake - Shot of Love
03. Magic - Outtake - Shot of Love
04. Heart Of Mine - Outtake - Shot of Love
05. Shot Of Love - Outtake - Shot of Love
06. Let’s Keep It Between Us - Rehearsal - 1980
07. Don’t Fly Unless It’s Safe - Outtake - Infidels
08. Jokerman - Unreleased - David Letterman Show, 1984
09. Treat Her Right - Rehearsal - David Letterman Show, 1984
10. Dirty Lie - Rehearsal - 1984
11. Almost Done - Rehearsal - 1984
12. Don’t Start Me Talkin’ - Unreleased - David Letterman Show, 1984
13. Dark Groove - Outtake - Infidels
14. Come Together - Rehearsal - 1985
15. Nothing Here Worth Dying For - Rehearsal - 1985
16. Go ‘Way Little Boy - Unreleased - 1984 Studio Session
17. Who Loves You More - Outtake - Empire Burlesque
18. Freedom For The Stallion - Unreleased - 1985 Studio Session
19. Shake - Rehearsal - 1985
20. Something’s Burning Baby - Outtake - Empire Burlesque
Bonus
Trouble - Outtake - Shot of Love
To Each His Own - Outtake - Infidels
The Very Thought Of You - Outtake - Empire Burlesque
Fans are lucky to have access to a larger-than-average number of Bob Dylan studio recording
sessions spanning 1980 to 1985, including tour rehearsals and outtakes from Shot of Love,
Infidels, and Empire Burlesque. Following the publication of Columbia’s Bootleg Series 13:
Trouble No More and Bootleg Series 16: Springtime in New York, a handful of these tracks
remain officially unreleased. I’ve compiled the best of these into a 20-track collection structured
to reveal the evolution of Bob Dylan as a recording artist over this tumultuous five-year period
when he returned to secular music after two years working primarily on religious material.
The first section comprises rehearsals Fall 1980 Musical Retrospective Tour from Fall 1980 and
the Shot of Love sessions in late 1980 and early 1981. The former provides us with a variant of
original composition “Let’s Keep It Between Us” that’s distinct from the version released on
Springtime in New York; It’s hard to love the sleepy studio takes of “Let’s Keep It Between Us”
once you’ve heard the incendiary live performances from Fall 1980, but I find the rehearsal to
still be an engaging exercise in hearing how a song can grow from studio to stage.
The Shot of Love outtakes are more interesting, not least because they all escaped inclusion on
the two Bootleg Series volumes dedicated to this period. You’ve got excellent alternate
interpretations of “Caribbean Wind,” “Shot of Love,” and “Heart of Mine,” a recording of “Mystery
Train” that’s a little looser than the officially-released outtake, and the otherwise-undocumented
original composition “Magic” that’s still in a gestational stage somewhere between rough
sketches like “Wind Blowing On The Water” and completed lyrics like those that would appear
on the final album.
The vast majority of completed songs from Bob Dylan’s Infidels sessions are present on
Springtime in New York, but I wanted to make sure that a few lingering gems didn’t escape the
notice of dedicated fans. Specifically, the instrumental tracks “Don’t Fly Unless It’s Safe” and
“Dark Groove” are used to bookend other tracks recorded from 1983 to 1984. Besides these
outtakes, I’ve highlighted the singer’s legendary 1984 appearance on the David Letterman show
backed by The Plugz with two performed songs (Infidels’ “Jokerman” and Sonny Boy
Williamson’s “Don’t Start Me Talkin’”) and a brilliant rehearsal of Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right.”
For more insight on this event, I strongly recommend reading Ray Padgett’s interview with Plugz
bassist Tony Marsico over at Flaggin’ Down The Double E’s. The Infidels era is rounded out with
two tour rehearsals from early 1984: the respectively beautiful and eerie “Almost Done” and
“Dirty Lie.” While neither would ever be performed by their writer, “Dirty Lie” was finally
completed and published by The Secret Sisters at Bob Dylan’s suggestion in 2014.
Autumn In Los Angeles’ final group of songs is anchored by their association with the Empire
Burlesque era. Among these, “Come Together,” “Shake,” and “Nothing Here Worth Dying For”
are believed to come from rehearsals conducted as the prelude to an abandoned 1985 tour with
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers that never happened (Dylan and Petty would reunite for tours
in 1986 and 1987, as documented on the Thousand Highways Collection’s A Voice Without
Restraint and Determined To Stand). “Come Together” is just a bit of fun riffing on The Beatles’
seminal Chuck Berry pastiche, original composition “Shake” sounds like an evolution on the
aforementioned “Treat Her Right” and would later feature in Bob Dylan’s 1986 Farm Aid
performance, and “Nothing Here Worth Dying For” is a lovely chorus in search of verses; much
like “Almost Done” and “Dirty Lie,” it’s a shame that “Shake” and “Nothing Here Worth Dying
For” were never properly finished. I’m sure that listeners will also enjoy a pitch-corrected version
of Allen Toussaint’s “Freedom for the Stallion,” which has circulated for years as a helium-voiced
sped-up version, and the Lone Justice outtake of “Go ‘Way Little Boy” featuring Bob Dylan
singing a song he’d written for them. “Who Loves You More,” which was erroneously omitted
from my original version of this set, is a fiery embryonic blues track from the Empire Burlesque
sessions. The set ends with an alternate version of Empire Burlesque’s “Something’s Burning
Baby” that includes some additional lyrics.
Until next time, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes.
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