The Latest from Saint Bob

I’ve been listening to Bob Dylan’s Tell Tale Signs nearly nonstop for the past couple of days. This two disc bootleg set covers Dylan's past 20 years, a period that produced the albums Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, Modern Times and Oh Mercy. The alternate takes give you a glimpse into his creative process as they seem to show the evolution of his work - we get two previously unreleased acoustic versions of “Mississippi” and two completely different takes on “Dignity”, to name a few. You can almost feel the songs taking shape lyrically and musically. As always in a bootleg release, there is also a lot of incredible work that somehow ended up on the cutting room floor. One example is “Red River Shore”, originally recorded for Time Out of Mind. Here’s the first line:

Some of us turn off the lights and we live in the moonlight shooting by
Some of us scare ourselves to death in the dark to be where the angels fly

I’ve seen Bob many times, most recently with Elvis Costello opening, solo acoustic. I have to admit when Bob and his band started to play, I wanted to see him solo acoustic…..so I could actually hear all the lyrics and enjoy the nuances of the performance. I don’t think he ever appears solo anymore, so this recording may be the closest I’ll get to that. The arrangements are spare and there is nothing to obscure not only his voice and the lyrics, but everything else he infuses into each song.

I could go on and on…..but I have to go listen to it again…………..

(unrelated p.s. Don't for get to VOTE!)