The latest chapter in Bob Dylan’s ongoing archive initiative, The Bootleg Series, is subtitled Springtime in New York and covers the often (but not always) much-maligned interval of 1980-1985. comprising the albums Shot of Love, Infidels, and Empire Burlesque. The extravagant 5CD edition contains previously unreleased outtakes, alternate takes, rehearsal recordings, live performances, all told is a presentation of fifty-seven recordings, only three of which are previously unreleased in any format (and which the curators note contain different versions of that number issued earlier).
In compiling this material for this release (as well as 2CD and 2LP highlight editions), the producers Jeff Rosen and Steve Berkowitz don’t attempt anything fancy, much less overtly completist. Instead, they present a roughly chronological sequence of selected recordings in the aforementioned varied forms, the sum total of which illuminates the steps in the actual recording process. As such, this installment of The Bootleg Series becomes not only an overall illustration of how the respective collections of tracks were finalized for release–comparable to the anthology from earlier in 2021 anthology 50th Anniversary Collection 1970—but the means by which Bob Dylan taught himself to take charge of that very process himself (as he has been in recent years).
It’s helpful to keep in mind the ‘official’ album(s) for comparative purposes, even when hearing only the most indirect means of crystallizing this chameleonic artist’s intent. Epiphanies can arrive in the forms of covers as disparate as Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” and Dion’s “Abraham, Martin and John,” but more to the point are the end results of those exploratory instances: the alternate take of “Lenny Bruce” for instance, radiates a sanctified glow nowhere in evidence during its first public appearance on record, thanks in part to a single viola and one cello.
In the context of Bob Dylan’s often far-flung experimentation, it should come as no surprise that early originals such as “To Ramona” appear in close proximity to traditional material such as “Mary of the Wild Moor.” In the next decade, The Bard would release two albums of songs like the latter, as means of reconnecting with a muse from whom he had become estranged after a marked return to form of 1989’s Daniel Lanois-produced Oh Mercy. But it’s important to point out that, aside from a revisit of roots, material so familiar (at least to Bob) is also means to give the assembled musicians a workout to so they are primed for rehearsals of his own compositions i.e., “Need A Woman.”
Not surprisingly, this is where the clarity of sound (mixed and mastered by Mark Wilder, Steve Addabbo, and Chris Shaw) becomes relevant to these recordings. The keyboards are as clear as the various rhythm guitar parts, rendered by the corps of road-honed accompanists including Willie Smith on the former instruments and Fred Tackett, among many others, on the latter. The Bard himself is in fine voice throughout, whether he’s intoning “Fur Slippers” (with a straight face?) or a delightfully loose run-through of Jimmy Reed’s blues classic “Baby What You Want Me to Do.” Neither performance compares to the depth of the author’s engagement on “Lord Protect My Child,” however, and with both pianist Alan Clark and former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor sound suitably moved as they play there too. As does the rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare: the drummer and bassist respectively sound as emphatic as the frontman.
The stellar likes of those players on Springtime in New York, however, doesn’t mitigate the absence of what is purportedly a wealth of more and different renditions of major material. Although this version of “Blind Willie McTell” is different than the one on Bootleg #1-3, the arguable shortfalls of more such variations suggest fans and consumers should be glad there is no content exclusive to each configuration of this title. What is really not debatable listening to 1980-1985 though is that it suffers more than a little by its overlap of a timeline coinciding with The Bootleg Series, Vol. 13 / 1979-1981: the inclusion here of “Caribbean Wind” and “The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar” (for which this live “Enough Is Enough” is a rowdy soundalike) are two of the three major compositions from that turn of the decade era.
Yet even as Volume 16 turns enervating from certain vantage points, the distinctive quality of the content ultimately renders omissions moot. While there is no more than a single inclusion of “Foot of Pride” here either–one of a select objects of great focus in Terry Gans’ exhaustive (exhausting?) book, Surviving in a Ruthless World: Bob Dylan’s Voyage to Infidels–the version appearing here reveals evidence of Dylan’s prolonged concentration on it, even if the effort doesn’t’ always bear fruit: the air of danger is minimal on this rendition, at least compared to the one that also appears on the 1991 archive package whereby this vault initiative began.
In contrast, both takes of “Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight” carry more drama than that one on Infidels, while “Too Late,” in both acoustic and full band versions, suggests there was a definite hierarchy in terms of available material for that album. Excerpts for the next album, Empire Burlesque, make a similar case, but end up just as revelatory than much of what precedes it, if not more so, precisely because there’s no third-party mixing courtesy Arthur Baker (he is one of twenty individual given ‘special thanks’ in the credits section of the enclosed book).
Given how consistently fervent (and often abandoned) are Dylan’s vocals on songs he kept fine-tuning like “Clean Cut Kid” and newer originals such as the gorgeous balladry of “I’ll Remember You” and “Emotionally Yours,” the thought occurs Bob wanted au courant sound as a means of garnering attention for work of which he was proud. As with the ’80’81 sessions for Shot of Love, on which Ringo Starr and Ronnie Wood participated, Dylan himself oversaw a protracted string of studio dates involving multiple musicians including some of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers as well as members of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
The rotating cast of accompanists mirrored the varied sources of material, some but not all of which were extracted from the prior album’s store of songs. The stripped-down, essentially solo Dylan performance of “Dark Eyes” was written specifically to close the album: its folk roots reflect the down-to-earth mindset behind the material preceding it, much of which, like“Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anyone Seen My Love),” was camouflaged by errant production nowhere to be heard here (except in mere vestiges of it in the form of synthesizer and percussion on the aforementioned number originally called “Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart” ).
In its meticulous delineation of Bob Dylan’s artistic endeavors during one of the most prolific phases of his career, The Bootleg Series Volume 16 is an object lesson in the ongoing evolution of such an archive initiative, one now in its thirtieth year. As such, this deluxe packaging mirrors the discerning care brought to bear on the music inside: enclosed within the slipcase is a hardcover book with the liner notes plus plentiful photography and ephemera pertaining to the period, this in addition to the ‘media carrier’ holding the CDs and, appropriately enough, all the credits (including track-by-track personnel listings).
The formatting and the content of Springtime in New York 1980-1985 thus mirrors Bob Dylan’s discography at large, especially in recent years. Accordingly, both fans and dilettantes will find it rewarding, though perhaps in ways neither demographic might expect.
One Response
these aren’t finished performances. Rehearsals and tweaking. Interesting from that perspective alone.