Bob Dylan’s status as a bonafide cultural icon is such that even straight remasters of his previously recorded work, sans bonus cuts, warrant close examination. Released comparatively unobtrusively just prior to the drop of his new studio album Together Through Life, these four digi-pak’d titles, two of which are double cd sets, cover expanses of time and style that remind just now much the Bard and his music have changed (and changed us) over the years.
New Morning (Legacy)***1/2: Following so closely on the heels of the abysmal Self Portrait and far surpassing that debacle, fans wished this most transparent of Dylan albums followed had taken the double LP’s title. Not that there’s anything profound here—though “Went to See The Gypsy” and “Day of the Locusts’ are provocative—but on these deliciously simple songs, the crack musicianship, most from denizens of NYC where Bob was living post-Woodstock (Buzz Feiten, David Bromberg and Al Kooper all produced by Nashville’s Bob Johnston) is delightfully tasty. And it sounds like the man himself genuinely cares, an increasingly rare phenomenon as the years have progressed.
Before the Flood (Legacy) ***: Because the tour that brought Dylan back on the road with The band generated so much hoopla –in contrast to the second-guessing that greeted their first live collaborations—it’s consternating to find the official document portraying the principals at the peak of their powers on their own rather than together. As if being accompanists no longer suited them after launching his or her own career, The Band’s spotlight crackles with electricity, while Dylan’s solo acoustic segment showcases him in absolutely abandoned form as a folk troubadour of modern times. Much of the real collaborative takes sound rushed to a fault.
The Basement Tapes (Legacy) ****: If ever a Bob Dylan album demanded the expanded treatment (besides Blood on the Tracks and its ‘Minnesota’ outtakes), it’s the chronicle of his days with The Band in Woodstock, woodshedding at Big Pink, playing and writing just for the fun of it. Purists can feel righteously rankled at Robbie Robertson’s selectivity, and even more so with his overdubbing of guitar parts, but nobody can resist being enchanted by the mystery and earthy humor of this music, not to mention the camaraderie that arises from it.
Dylan and The Dead (Legacy) **1/2: Hearing Dylan himself speak so rhapsodically about how working with The Grateful Dead, particularly Jerry Garcia, taught him how to sing his most famous material again, it’s frustrating that the official document of their collaboration is so markedly inferior to bootlegs of rehearsals and other performances recorded during their time together. “Queen Jane Approximately” standouts out largely because the author so obviously relishes the song and the Dead share his enthusiasm: it’s similar to the bountiful energy and insight on the group’s collection of Dylan performances Postcards of the Hanging (one edition of which includes some takes with The Bard.
