| Identifier | 9751091 |
| Created At | Tue May 23 2023 23:54:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) |
| Media Type | FLAC |
| Source Info | Studio>?>FLAC |
| Trades Allowed |
Performance
| Bob Dylan 1981-??-?? Caribbean Wind: Unreleased Shot Of Love Sessions, Compilation, Compilation | |
|---|---|
| Set 1 | Mystery Train - Outtake, 1981 Heart Of Mine - Outtake, 1981 Caribbean Wind - Outtake, 1980 Wind Blowing On The Water - Outtake, 1981 Shot Of Love - Outtake, 1981 Watered-Down Love - Rough Mix, 1981 Hallelujah - Outtake, 1981 Let It Be Me - Outtake, 1981 Is It Worth It? - Outtake, 1981 Let's Keep It Between Us - Outtake, 1980 Magic - Outtake, 1981 Dead Man, Dead Man - Rough Mix, 1981 Ah Ah Ah Ah (High Away) - Outtake, 1981 In The Summertime - Rough Mix, 1981 Borrowed Time - Outtake, 1981 |
| Set 2 | |
| Set 3 | |
| Comment | Welcome to a lovely and oft-overlooked corner of Bob Dylan's recording career - the sessions
that led to 1981's Shot of Love . Shot of Love is a remarkably good record, whatever else you've heard, and was Dylan's last to sound like a bunch of people playing in the same room until Love & Theft in 2001. There was no sleek shine to this production, and consequently it breathed with the passion found in much of the man's best work. Unfortunately, many of the finest recordings from these sessions were not released on that album. In particular, "Yonder Comes Sin" and "Caribbean Wind" are absolutely essential, and "Heart of Mine" was recorded in a much better rendition than the one that appears on the official release. Outside of these classics, more minor gems were recorded. No collection of Dylan outtakes would be complete without these covers of "Mystery Train" and "Let It Be Me." The fragmentary songs, including "Hallelujah" (not the Leonard Cohen song) and "Borrowed Time" make one wonder what could have been; "Is It Worth It" and "Ah Ah Ah Ah (High Away)" point to the reggae-influenced road ahead to Infidels , and contribute to the overall Caribbean sound of this era. The other studio cuts are intriguing as well. "Let's Keep It Between Us" is a fairly recently unearthed prototype for a song that would become transcendent on the road in Fall, 1980; you can find a live recording of the song on Rise Again: Live, Fall 1980 . “Caribbean Wind†is one of Bob Dylan’s greatest compositions, and this studio performance remains the only one not officially released (among the ones that have circulated). Until 2017, only the overproduced rendition on Biograph was available to paying customers; this was happily rectified with Trouble No More , where a soft piano rehearsal and the mind-blowing live performance from 1980 were finally officially released. This version of the song is somewhere between the rehearsal and live version, as it features the “rattlesnake†lyrics of the rehearsal that appears on Trouble No More but includes a more propulsive rhythm section. The rough mixes of "Dead Man, Dead Man," "Watered-Down Love," and "In The Summertime" are all interesting, but "Watered-Down Love" stands above the others, retaining an extra verse not present on the official release but conspicuous in live performances from 1981. It's likely that, like the longer version of "Dead Man, Dead Man" that appears on 2017's Trouble No More , this extra verse was cut for time constraints on the 1981 Shot of Love LP. "In The Summertime," too, stands out for the inclusion of a mournful harmonica that extends the song by a full minute beyond its officially released version. “Dead Man, Dead Man†is reasonably similar to the version that appeared on the final album, but drum and guitar overdubs would eventually be overlaid upon this raw in-studio rendition. A handful of songs have been cut from this updated publication of an earlier Thousand Highways compilation. Of these, "The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar" was abandoned for its similarity to the officially released studio performance; the only difference was an extended conclusion in which the band eventually stops playing. Live recordings have also been omitted to improve the sense of cohesion. An extended two-disc collection representing the 1981 tours will cover this material. I hope you enjoy this newest compilation, and include it in your collections alongside the inimitable Shot of Love and extraordinary Trouble No More . It was a blast to put together. Until next time, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes. -CS |