Showing posts with label Bob Dylan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob Dylan. Show all posts

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Bob Dylan - Yonder Comes Sin (1981) UPDATE

I was listening to this album recently and a couple of things occurred to me, which detracted from the complete listening experience of the album . Firstly, the coda of 'Blowing On The Water' which I tagged on to the end of 'Caribbean Wind' was too long. I still think it works nicely, but just when you expect it to gently fade away it just carries on going, so I've chopped about 40 seconds from it and I think it sounds much better. The other issue was with 'High Away', which once again just seemed to drag on too long, as well as having a false start in the middle, which I originally though would be OK to leave, but which does jar on repeated listens. On this one I've removed the false start, and also a couple of choruses either side of it, which tightens it up considerably, and instead of a rambling eight minutes, it's now a concise 4:52. Yandex links and Soulseek have been updated if you want to hear these edits, and see what you think. Obviously, if you prefer the originals then just ignore me.   

Friday, March 11, 2022

Slash - ...and on guitar (2008)

Saul Hudson was born in Stoke-on-Trent on July 23, 1965, and was immersed in music from the outset. His father, Anthony Hudson, was an artist who created album covers for musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, while his mother Ola J. Hudson was an African-American fashion designer and costumier from the United States, whose clients included David Bowie (whom she also dated), Ringo Starr, and Janis Joplin. During his early years, he was raised by his father and paternal grandparents in Stoke-on-Trent while his mother moved back to her native United States to work in Los Angeles, and when he was around five years old, they both joined his mother in Los Angeles. Following his parents' separation in 1974, Hudson became a self-described "problem child", living with his mother, but often being sent to live with his beloved maternal grandmother whenever she had to travel for her job. He sometimes accompanied his mother to work, where he met several film and music stars, and was given the nickname "Slash" by actor Seymour Cassel, because he was "always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another". In 1979, Slash decided to form a band with his friend Steven Adler, and although the band never materialized, it prompted him to take up an instrument, and since Adler had designated himself the role of guitarist, Slash decided to learn how to play bass. Equipped with a one-string flamenco guitar given to him by his grandmother, he began taking classes with guitar teacher Robert Wolin, but during his first lesson he decided to switch from bass to guitar after hearing Wolin play 'Brown Sugar' by the Rolling Stones. In 1981 he joined his first band Tidus Sloan, and a couple of years later he reunited with Alder and formed Road Crew, named after the Motörhead song '(We Are) The Road Crew'. He placed an advertisement in a newspaper looking for a bassist, and received a response from Duff McKagan. They auditioned a number of singers, including one-time Black Flag vocalist Ron Reyes, but they couldn't find one that suited them and so the band broke up the following year. Slash and Adler then joined  local group Hollywood Rose, which featured singer Axl Rose and guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and after that he played with Black Sheep, and also unsuccessfully auditioned for glam-metallers Poison. 
In June 1985, Slash was asked by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin to join their new band Guns N' Roses, along with Duff McKagan and Steven Adler, replacing founding members Tracii Guns, Ole Beich and Rob Gardner, respectively, and they began playing Los Angeles-area nightclubs‍ ‌such as the Whisky a Go Go, The Roxy, and The Troubadour‍. Before one of the shows in 1985, Slash shoplifted a black felt top hat and a Native American-style silver concho belt from two stores on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, combining them to create a piece of custom headwear which would become his trademark. After being scouted by several major record labels, the band signed with Geffen Records in March 1986, and they released their debut album 'Appetite For Destruction' in 1987, eventually selling over 28 million copies worldwide. However, as their success grew, so did interpersonal tensions within the band, and in 1989, during a show as opening act for the Rolling Stones, Axl Rose threatened to leave the band if certain members didn't stop "dancing with Mr. Brownstone," a reference to their song of the same name about heroin use. Slash was among those who promised to clean up, but the following year Adler was fired from the band because of his heroin addiction, being replaced by Matt Sorum of The Cult. In May 1991, the band embarked on the two-and-a-half-year-long Use Your Illusion Tour, and the following September they released the long-awaited albums 'Use Your Illusion I' and 'Use Your Illusion II', which debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 respectively on the U.S. chart. In the four years since the release of 'Appetite For Destruction', Slash had gained an enviable reputation as a guitarist, and so it was no surprise that he was asked to guest on albums from other artists, and one of the first that he accepted was an invitation from Iggy Pop, adding his guitar to Pop's 1990 'Brick By Brick' album, followed swiftly with a guest appearance on Bob Dylan's 'Under The Red Sky' album (even though Dylan later cut his solo), and collaborations with Alice Cooper, Motörhead, Michael Jackson, and Spinal Tap, and even though Spinal Tap don't take themselves too seriously, Slash pulled out all the stops for his contribution to their 'Break Like The Wind'. In November 1991 Izzy Stradlin abruptly left the band, and was replaced by Gilby Clarke of Candy and Kill for Thrills, and after the Use Your Illusion Tour had ended in 1993, the band released 'The Spaghetti Incident?', a cover album of mostly punk songs, which proved less successful than its predecessors. Slash then wrote several songs for what would have become the follow-up album to the 'Use Your Illusion' double set, but they were rejected by Rose and McKagan, and so with the band's failure to collaborate resulting in no album being recorded, Slash announced in October 1996 that he was no longer a part of Guns N' Roses. 
In 1994 he added his guitar to band-mates Gilby Clarke's solo album, and then formed Slash's Snakepit, a side project that featured his Guns N' Roses bandmates Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke on drums and rhythm guitar respectively, as well as Alice in Chains' Mike Inez on bass and Jellyfish's Eric Dover on vocals. Their 1995 album 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere' included Slash's rejected material that was intended for Guns N' Roses, and was critically praised for ignoring the then-popular conventions of alternative music. Faring well on the charts, the band toured in support of the album, before disbanding in 1996. Slash then toured for two years with the blues rock cover band Slash's Blues Ball, as well as adding his guitar to albums from Sammy Hagar and Insane Clown Posse, before deciding to regroup Slash's Snakepit in 1999, with Rod Jackson on vocals, Ryan Roxie on rhythm guitar, Johnny Griparic on bass, and Matt Laug on drums. Their second album 'Ain't Life Grand' was released in October 2000 through Koch Records, but it didn't sell as well as the band's previous release, and its critical reception was mixed. In 2002 Slash reunited with Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum for a Randy Castillo tribute concert, and realizing that they still had the chemistry of their days in Guns N' Roses, they decided to form a new band together. Izzy Stradlin was initially involved, but left after the others decided to find a lead singer; a task that took many months listening to demo tapes, before former Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland got the Velvet Revolver gig. In 2003 they released their first single 'Set Me Free' followed by their debut album 'Contraband' in June 2004, which crashed in at No. 1 on the U.S. chart, eventually selling two million copies. In July 2007 Velvet Revolver released their second album 'Libertad', and embarked on a second tour, but during a show in March 2008 Weiland announced to the audience that it would be the band's final tour, following which he was fired from the band, with Slash insisting "chemical issues" had led to his departure. Despite the loss of their singer, the band did not officially disband, and in early 2010 they began writing new songs and auditioning new singers. By January 2011 they'd recorded nine demos, and was reportedly due to make a decision on their singer, but Slash eventually admitted that they had been unable to find a suitable vocalist and that Velvet Revolver would go on hiatus for the next few years while its members focused on other projects. So that's the perfect place to end this collection of Slash's extra-curricular work between 1990 and 2008, so settle down and listen to some superb rock guitar on a wide variety of genres from a stellar group of artists. 



Track listing

Disc One
01 Home (from 'Brick By Brick' by Iggy Pop 1990)
02 Wiggle Wiggle (from 'Under The Red Sky by Bob Dylan 1990)
03 Always On The Run (from 'Mama Said' by' Lenny Kravitz 1991)
04 Hey Stoopid (from 'Hey Stoopid' by Alice Cooper 1991)
05 Give In To Me (from 'Dangerous' by Michael Jackson 1991)
06 Break Like The Wind (from 'Break Like The Wind' by Spinal Tap 1992)
07 You Better Run  (from 'March Ör Die' by Motörhead 1992)
08 I Don't Live Today (from 'Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix' by Various Artists 1993)
09 Tie Your Mother Down (from 'Resurrection' by Brian May & Cozy Powell 1993)
10 Hold Out For Love (from 'Colour Of Your Dreams' by Carole King 1993)
11 Believe In Me (from 'Believe In Me' by Duff McKagan 1993)

Disc Two
01 Cure Me...Or Kill Me... (from 'Pawnshop Guitars' by Gilby Clarke 1994)
02 Where You Belong (from 'Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus' by Carmine Appice 1995)
03 Communication Breakdown (from 'Stairway To Heaven' by Various Artists 1997)
04 Moja Mi Corazón (from 'Azabache' by Marta Sánchez 1997) 
05 Little White Lie (from 'Marching To Mars' by Sammy Hagar 1997)
06 Hall Of Illusions (from 'The Great Milenko' by Insane Clown Posse 1997)
07 Human (from 'Human' by Rod Stewart 2001)
08 Over, Under, Sideways, Down (from 'Birdland' by The Yardbirds 2003) 
09 The Blame Game (from 'Hollywood Zen' by Matt Sorum 2003)
08 Street Child (from 'Street Child' by Elan 2003)
09 Mustang Nismo (from the soundtrack to the film 'The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift' 2006)
10 Gioca Con Me (from 'Il Mondo Che Vorrei' by Vasco 2008)

Friday, January 7, 2022

Ron Wood - ...and on guitar (1987)

Ronald David Wood was born on 1 June 1947 in Hillingdon, London, and made his first appearances on record during the mid-'60s, firstly as guitarist for the Birds, who were an R&B band based in Yiewsley, Middlesex. They were a popular live act with a considerable fan base, releasing several singles in the mid-1960's, and Wood wrote or co-wrote nearly half the songs that the group recorded. By 1967 the Birds had disbanded, and Wood briefly took part in a project called Santa Barbara Machine Head, which included later Deep Purple co-founder Jon Lord (did he file that name away for later use?), before becoming a member of the oft-overlooked mod outfit The Creation, remaining with them for a short while, and appearing on a handful of their singles. After he left The Creation in 1967 he joined the Jeff Beck Group, but as Beck was one of the leading guitarists of the time, Wood switched to bass while with the band, and they recorded two highly respected albums, with 'Truth' appearing in 1968, and 'Beck-Ola' following the next year. Following the release of 'Beck-Ola', the Jeff Beck Group disbanded, with vocalist Rod Stewart embarking on a solo career, and after Steve Marriott left the Small Faces, Wood began working with the remaining members of that group, returning to his instrument of choice, the guitar. This line-up, plus Rod Stewart and former Bird Kim Gardner, teamed up with Wood's brother Art Wood in a group that they called Quiet Melon, and they made a handful of recordings in May 1969. When Quiet Melon folded, Wood and Stewart joined the former Small Faces full-time, changing the band's name to The Faces, and it was most of this band, with the addition of Keith Emerson on keyboards, and Steamhammer's Martin Pugh and Martin Quittenton, that backed Stewart on his first solo album 'An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down' in 1969. 
In the first half of the 1970's, The Faces released four studio albums and were among the top-grossing live acts of the period, and as well as his distinctive guitar work, Wood contributed harmonica, vocals and bass to the band's recordings, and co-wrote many of their songs. In 1972, Wood and Faces bassist Ronnie Lane composed the soundtrack to the film 'Mahoney's Last Stand' with help from Pete Townshend, Ric Grech and Kenney Jones, but the soundtrack album didn't appear until four years later in 1976. In 1973 Wood asked his old friend Mick Taylor to help out with his first solo album, and later that year he collaborated with Mick Jagger on the song 'It's Only Rock'n Roll (But I Like It)', as well as joining David Bowie to record a cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'Growing Up' during sessions for his 'Diamond Dogs' album. When Taylor departed from the Rolling Stones in December 1974, Wood helped out with the band's March 1975 recording sessions for their forthcoming album 'Black And Blue', and although still a member of Faces, he toured North America with The Rolling Stones in 1975. When The Faces announced their break-up in December of that year, Wood was officially declared a member of The Rolling Stones in 1976, playing slide guitar, as Taylor and Brian Jones had done before him, and adding both lap steel and pedal steel guitar to his repertoire. In addition, he often exchanged roles on the guitar with Keith Richards, blurring the boundaries between rhythm and lead, even within a particular song. In 1975, Wood released his second solo album 'Now Look', followed four years later by 'Gimme Some Neck', and to promote it he formed and toured with The New Barbarians, playing 20 concerts in Canada and the US. Throughout the 1980's Wood kept very busy, playing as an official member of The Rolling Stones, continuing his solo career, painting, and collaborating with a number of other artists, including Prince, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Ringo Starr and Aretha Franklin. Wood's first guest appearance was actually on Donovan's 'Barabajagal' single, where The Jeff Beck Group acted as his backing band, but as Wood was playing bass and not guitar I'm starting this collection with his appearance on Rod Stewart's 1970 album, and working through his contributions to other artists efforts through to the late 80's, and for the cover I've used a rare self-portrait painted by Wood himself. 



Track listing

Disc One
01 Only A Hobo (from 'Gasoline Alley' by Rod Stewart 1970) 
02 I'm Ready (from 'It Ain't Easy' by John Baldry 1971) 
03 Stop On The Red (from 'Wun' by Gerry Lockran 1972)
04 Just For A Moment (from the soundtrack of the film 'Mahoney's Last Stand' 1972)
05 Brahms (from 'The Academy In Peril' by John Cale 1972) 
06 Fallen Angel (from 'On The Road To Freedom' by Alvin Lee & Mylon LeFevre 1973)
07 Growin' Up (out-take from 'Pin Ups' by David Bowie 1973)
08 Kew (from 'Love Songs' by Billy Nicholls 1974)
09 Shut Up (from 'First Of The Big Bands' by Tony Ashton & John Lord 1974)
10 Ding Dong, Ding Dong (from 'Dark Horse' by George Harrison 1974) 
11 Feet (from 'Stone Alone' by Bill Wyman 1976)
12 Kinky (from 'Lasso From El Paso' by Kinky Friedman 1976)

Disc Two
01 All Our Past Times (from 'No Reason To Cry' by Eric Clapton 1976)
02 What A Town (from 'Rick Danko' by Rick Danko 1977)
03 Slow Screw Against The Wall/A Fry (from 'Ask Rufus' by Rufus feat. Chaka Khan 1977) 
04 Nobody's Child (from 'Puttin' On The Style' by Lonnie Donegan 1978) 
05 Jumpin' Jack Flash (from 'Aretha' by Aretha Franklin 1980)
06 Little Girl (from 'Bump In The Night' Ian McLagan 1981) 
07 Dead Giveaway (from 'Stop And Smell The Roses' by Ringo Starr 1981) 
08 Clean Cut Kid (from 'Empire Burlesque' by Bob Dylan 1985)
09 Go 'Way Little Boy (b-side of 'Sweet Sweet Baby' single by Lone Justice 1985)
10 Love Roulette (from 'Heartbeat' by Don Johnson 1986) 
11 Baby (from 'Dirty Strangers' by Dirty Strangers 1987)
12 The Usual (from the soundtrack of the film 'Hearts Of Fire' 1987)

Thanks to Gil for the suggestion

Friday, December 31, 2021

Stevie Ray Vaughan - ...and on guitar (1990)

Stephen Ray Vaughan was born on 3 October 1954 in Dallas, Texas, and began playing guitar at age seven, initially inspired by his elder brother, Jimmie Vaughan. Learning by ear, he diligently committed himself, following along to songs by the Nightcaps, and he listened to blues artists such as Albert King, Otis Rush, and Muddy Waters, and rock guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack. In 1963, he acquired his first electric guitar as a hand-me-down from Jimmie, and soon after he joined his first band, the Chantones, in 1965. Following a falling out with the other members he left the band and joined the Brooklyn Underground, playing professionally at local bars and clubs. In May 1969, after leaving the Brooklyn Underground, he joined a band called the Southern Distributor playing pop rock covers, but he tried to add blues songs to the group's repertoire, even though he was told that he wouldn't earn a living playing blues music, and so he and the band parted ways. In February 1970, Vaughan joined a band called Liberation, which was a nine-piece group with a horn section, and at a gig at the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas he was asked onstage by ZZ Top to jam with the band. In September 1970 Vaughan made his first studio recordings with the band Cast Of Thousands, which included future actor Stephen Tobolowsky, recording two songs for the compilation album 'A New Hi', which featured various teenage bands from Dallas. In late January 1971 he left Liberation and formed his own band Blackbird, moving from Dallas to Austin, Texas, as he felt they had more liberal and tolerant audiences. After a couple of years Vaughan left Blackbird and joined Krackerjack, staying with them for less than three months, and then joined Marc Benno's band, the Nightcrawlers, reuniting with Benno after meeting him at a jam session some years before. 
The next month, the Nightcrawlers recorded an album at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood for A&M Records, and although the record was rejected by A&M, it did include Vaughan's first songwriting efforts, 'Dirty Pool' and 'Crawlin''. In 1975 Vaughan joined a six-piece band called Paul Ray And The Cobras, which included guitarist Val Swierczewski and saxophonist Joe Sublett, and for the next two-and-a-half years he earned a living performing weekly at the Soap Creek Saloon and at Antone's, which was widely known as Austin's 'home of the blues'. In late 1976 the band recorded a single, with Vaughan playing guitar on both tracks, which was released in February 1977, and the band carried on touring for most of the rest of that year. Near the end of September he left the band and formed Triple Threat Revue, recording some tracks in an Austin studio in January 1978, but in mid-May the bassist left to form his own group and Vaughan renamed the band Double Trouble, recruiting new bass-palyer Jackie Newhouse, and by October that band had a residency at one of Austin's most popular nightspots, the Rome Inn. Following some line-up changes, the group settled on bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton, and in 1982 they performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, where David Bowie saw Vaughan play and contacted him for a studio gig, resulting in him playing his blues guitar on six of the eight songs on Bowie's 1983 album 'Let's Dance', including the iconic solo at the end of the title track. 
With the success of 'Let's Dance', Bowie requested Vaughan as the featured instrumentalist for the upcoming Serious Moonlight Tour, and in late April he began rehearsals for the tour in Las Colinas, Texas, but when contract renegotiations for his performance fee failed, he abandoned the tour days before its opening date, and he was replaced by Earl Slick. Double Trouble had recorded some tracks at Jackson Browne's studio after Browne had jammed with them in Montreux and offered free use of his studio, and after acquiring the recordings Double Trouble began assembling the material for a full-length album, to be called 'Texas Flood'. After knocking the album into shape, it was released on 13 June 1983, and peaked at number 38 on the US charts, ultimately selling half a million copies. In January 1984, Double Trouble began recording their second studio album 'Couldn't Stand The Weather', with John Hammond as executive producer and engineer Richard Mullen, and during recording sessions Vaughan began experimenting with other combinations of musicians, including Fran Christina, Stan Harrison, and Jimmie Vaughan. 'Couldn't Stand The Weather' was released on 15 May 1984, and two weeks later it had rapidly outpaced the sales of 'Texas Flood', peaking at number 31 on the US album chart. 
The success of the band's two albums, added to his recognition at playing with Bowie on 'Let's Dance', meant that he was often asked to guest on other artist's work, adding his guitar to records by Lonnie Mack, James Brown, and Jennifer Warnes among others. The recording with James Brown was for the soundtrack to the 1985 film 'Rocky IV', but it wasn't without it's troubles, as apparently Vaughan was so upset by how low his guitar parts had been mixed that he left in a helicopter never to return. The songs were edited for release as a single, and about four minutes had to be cut, which included most of Vaughan's solos, so for this post I've used the longer version which later appeared on Brown's 'Gravity' album, on which you can hear Vaughan's playing in full. During the majority of his life, Vaughan struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, but he successfully completed rehabilitation and began touring again with Double Trouble in November 1986. His fourth and final studio album 'In Step' reached number 33 in the United States in 1989, and was one of his most critically and commercially successful releases, including his only number-one hit 'Crossfire'. It cemented his reputation as one of the world's most highly in demand blues performers, and he headlined Madison Square Garden in 1989, and the Beale Street Music Festival in 1990. On 27 August 1990, Vaughan and four others were killed in a helicopter crash in East Troy, Wisconsin, following a performance with Double Trouble at Alpine Valley Music Theatre. An investigation concluded that the cause was pilot error and Vaughan's family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Omniflight Helicopters that was settled out of court. It was a terrible waste of a supremely gifted musician who was at the peak of his powers, and I hope that this collection of early recordings and guest appearances is a fitting tribute to his talent. 



Track listing

Disc One
01 Red, White And Blue (from the 'A New Hi' compilation album 1970)
02 I Heard A Voice Last Night (from the 'A New Hi' compilation album 1970)
03 Dirty Pool (from the unreleased album by The Nightcrawlers 1973)
04 Crawlin' ((from the unreleased album by The Nightcrawlers 1973)
05 Other Days (single by The Cobras 1977)
06 Texas Clover (b-side of 'Other Days)
07 Love Struck Baby (Triple Threat Revue demo 1978)
08 I Wonder Why (Triple Threat Revue demo 1978)
09 Let's Dance (from 'Let's Dance' by David Bowie 1983)

Disc Two
01 Don't Stop By The Creek, Son  (from 'Texas Twister' by Johnny Copeland 1983)
02 Oreo Cookie Blues (from 'Strike Like Lightning' by Lonnie Mack 1985)
03 Living In America (by James Brown from the film 'Rocky IV' 1985)
04 First We Take Manhattan (from 'Famous Blue Raincoat' by Jennifer Warnes 1986)
05 You So Heavy (from 'Emerald City' by Teena Marie 1986)
06 Love Roulette  (from 'Heartbeat' by Don Johnson 1986)
07 Bumble Bee Blues (from 'Distant Drums' by Brian Slawson 1988)
08 Pipeline (from 'King Of The Surf Guitar' by Dick Dale 1989)
09 Cat's In The Well (from 'Under The Red Sky' by Bob Dylan 1990)
10 Just How You Play The Game (from 'The Peacemaker' by Jerry Lynn Williams - 
                                                                                               recorded 1990, released 1996)

 

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Bob Dylan - Yonder Comes Sin (1981)

Following Bob Dylan's two religious-oriented albums, 'Slow Train Coming' and 'Saved', he began writing songs for the next record, with 'Property Of Jesus', 'Yonder Comes Sin', and new arrangements of older material like 'Ain't Gonna Go to Hell (For Anybody)' being composed during this time, as were 'Caribbean Wind' and 'The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar'. In March 1981, Dylan held some informal sessions at both Rundown and Studio 55, rehearsing some of his new compositions while auditioning a potential producer, Jimmy Iovine. These sessions focused on the song 'Caribbean Wind', an ambitious work that had been performed live once during November, and which was hoped to be a potential centerpiece for his upcoming album, but despite numerous attempts it was not considered quite finished. In the meantime, Dylan concluded that another producer was needed, and although legendary producer Bumps Blackwell stopped by one day and oversaw the recording of 'Trouble', 'Magic' and 'Shot Of Love', he didn't return for further work, possibly because of health issues. Chuck Plotkin, who had experience working with Bruce Springsteen, was eventually hired, and five sessions were scheduled for Plotkin's Clover Studio, producing usable takes of 'Property Of Jesus', 'Watered-Down Love', 'Heart of Mine', 'Lenny Bruce', 'Dead Man, Dead Man', 'In the Summertime', and 'Every Grain Of Sand'. An extensively rewritten and rearranged version of 'Caribbean Wind' was also recorded at Clover, but once again, Dylan was disappointed with the results, and it wasn't considered for inclusion. 
After listening to a preliminary version of the album, he decided to remove 'Angelina' and 'Magic' from the final sequence, and to re-record three of the remaining songs. Unlike Dylan's previous studio album 'Saved', 'Shot Of Love' included more secular material as well as overtly religious and evangelistic songs, and a number of critics had already turned on him for the evangelism of his last two albums, so the reception for 'Shot Of Love' was particularly harsh. Despite lavishing praise on 'Every Grain Of Sand', Paul Nelson of Rolling Stone savaged the rest of the album, and Nick Kent of New Musical Express called it "Dylan's worst album to date." In recent years, some critics have grown to appreciate 'Shot Of Love', while others continue to disparage it, but there are some fine songs on it, and no-one can dispute the quality of 'Every Grain Of Sand'. Many of the songs mentioned didn't make it to the final cut of the record, but luckily they have survived, and many of them would have been a welcome addition to the album. In fact, Dylan himself has said that the 'Shot Of Love' version of 'Heart Of Stone' is not as good as some of the other takes, and so now you can decide for yourself, as one of them is here, along with a wealth of other unreleased material from the various sessions. 'Borrowed Time' required a bit of work to give it an proper intro, and to clean up the ending, and as 'Wind Blowing On The Water' was only a one and half minute quasi-instrumental, I've added it as a coda to 'Caribbean Wind'. A few others needed a bit of cosmetic editing, but generally they were fine just as they were, including a raucous cover of 'Mystery Train' to end the album in fine style.



Track Listing

01 Caribbean Wind (Blowing On The Water)
02 Hallelujah
03 Heart Of Mine  
04 High Away (Ah Ah Ah Ah)
05 Yonder Comes Sin
06 Is It Worth It?  
07 Borrowed Time
08 Let's Keep It Between Us  
09 Magic  
10 Mystery Train

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Bob Dylan - Talkin' Woody Guthrie Blues (1961)

Woody Guthrie was a folk hero of Bob Dylan's, and five days after arriving in New York from Minnesota in 1961, Dylan tracked him down in East Orange, New Jersey, and meet him for the first time. Guthrie was 48 at the time, and lived at Greystone Park Psychiatric hospital in Morris Plains, New Jersey, but spent his Sundays at the apartment of Robert and Sidsel Gleason, 20 miles away in East Orange. He had been in psychiatric care since September 1954, when he checked himself into Brooklyn State Hospital, as he had trouble controlling his muscles and thought he had a mental disorder. When he checked out of the hospital in May 1956, he went to Morristown, New Jersey, where he wandered the streets, homeless, and was arrested, spending a night in Morris County Jail. At his own request he was then sent to Greystone, where staffers assumed he had paranoid schizophrenia - his claims that he had written thousands of songs and published a book seemed implausible. Months later, he was diagnosed as having Huntington's disease, a hereditary disorder that causes the victim to gradually lose control of his movements. Even though his mind was sound, Guthrie's family kept him at Greystone because it was the best option, and in 1959, when the Gleasons learned Guthrie was at Greystone, they arranged to take him every Sunday, making it much easier for Guthrie's family, who lived in Brooklyn, to visit. The Gleasons let visitors come by when Guthrie was with them, and some folk singers, including Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Phil Ochs, often stopped by, and Dylan had found out where Guthrie was when he went to the family home in Brooklyn and talked to Guthrie's 13-year-old son, Arlo. He had read Guthrie's autobiography 'Bound For Glory', which detailed his travels across America, playing his songs for anyone who would listen, and as he was rarely recorded, it was up to Dylan and other folk-singers of his generation to secure his legacy and carry on his tradition. By the time Dylan visited Guthrie, he was in pretty bad shape, barely able to move or speak, let alone sing, but he loved hearing his own songs, and Dylan was happy to play them. After his visit, Dylan wrote 'Song To Woody', which he included on his first album in 1962, incorporating some of Guthrie's songs into the lyric, peppering in bits from '1913 Massacre', 'Joe Hillstrom' and 'Pastures Of Plenty', and he played the song to Guthrie at a later visit. In the Spring of 1961, Guthrie's family transferred him back to Brooklyn State Hospital, so the visits to the Gleasons' apartment ended, and in 1967 he died at age of just 55. In the early years of his career Dylan often played Guthrie's songs in concert, and some were also recorded at the Gleason's home and in his Minnesota hotel room, and through him a new generation discovered the work of the man and learned about his contributions to American  music. This album collects a dozen of these recordings from 1961, when Dylan was taking his first steps to becoming a spokesman for his generation, and was taking the lead from one of his heroes. Considering the age of the recordings they are not bad quality, although I have had to do some patching to 'I Want My Milk' to fix some bad drop-outs and volume fluctuations.  



Track listing

01 1913 Massacre  
02 Gypsy Davy 
03 (As I Go) Ramblin' Round  
04 I Want My Milk  
05 Talking Merchant Marine  
06 VD Blues 
07 Pasture Of Plenty  
08 Car Car  
09 Ain't Got No Home
10 Talking Fish Blues  
11 VD Gunner's Blues  
12 This Land Is Your Land  

All songs composed by Woody Guthrie.

Friday, April 9, 2021

Jesse Ed Davis - ...and on guitar (1975)

Jesse Edwin Davis was born on 21 September 1944 in Norman, Oklahoma. His parents were both Native Americans, with his father, Jesse Ed Davis II, being Comanche, and his mother's side was Kiowa. His father was an accomplished painter in the "flat-style" tradition of Southern Plains painting, with his works being exhibited in the state capitol in Oklahoma City. Davis began his musical career in the late 50's in Oklahoma City and surrounding areas, with John Ware (later a drummer for Emmylou Harris), John Selk (later a bass player for Donovan), Jerry Fisher (later a vocalist with Blood, Sweat & Tears), Mike Boyle, Chris Frederickson, and drummer Bill Maxwell, amongst others. He graduated from the University Of Oklahoma with a degree in English Literature, but by the mid-60's he was touring with Conway Twitty. He eventually moved to California, living there for 8 years, and through his friendship with Levon Helm, he met Leon Russell, who introduced him to paying session work. As well as playing on sessions, he also joined Taj Mahal's band, playing guitar and piano on Mahal's first three albums. After Mahal's 1969 album 'Giant Step', Davis concentrated on the session work for artists such as Roger Tillison and Leon Russell's band The Asylum Choir, and in 1971 he recorded his first solo album after Atco Records signed a contract with him to record two records with the label. The first was '¡Jesse Davis!', where he called in favours from Gram Parsons, Leon Russell and Eric Clapton to contribute to the recording. He was also close friends with Gene Clark, and in 1971 he played on and produced Clark's second solo album 'White Light', as well as guesting with Russell on Bob Dylan's 1971 single 'Watching The River Flow'. This led to him working with George Harrison, performing at the ex-Beatle's 1971 Concert For Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden, along with Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Jim Keltner, Eric Clapton and many others. 
Two more solo albums followed, with 'Ululu' coming out in 1972 and 'Keep Me Comin'' in 1973, but he still slotted in the odd sessions here and there, culminating in him playing lead guitar on John Lennon's 'Walls And Bridges' and 'Rock 'n' Roll' albums, and almost completing the full set, he also played on Harrison's 'Extra Texture' and Starr's 'Goodnight Vienna'. In late 1975 he performed with the Faces as second guitarist throughout their final US tour, unfortunately becoming addicted to drugs during this time, and after the tour he continued to work as a session player on albums by Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Keith Moon, Steve Miller, Guthrie Thomas, Harry Nilsson, Ry Cooder, Neil Diamond, Rick Danko, Van Dyke Parks, Cher, and many others. In 1977 he moved to Hawaii, but was back in Los Angeles by 1981, broke and ravaged by drug and alcohol addiction, and was in and out of clinics throughout much of the 80's dealing with his addictions. In the ten years he was with Patti Daley, they never married, but after they split up he married twice, and in 1985, with his second wife, he formed and played in The Graffiti Band, which coupled his music with the poetry of the Native American activist John Trudell. In June 1988 he collapsed in the laundry room of an apartment building following a suspected drugs overdose, and died shortly afterwards. He was 43 years old. In his short life he made his mark on the music of many of his peers, with his contributions on Marc Benno's album in particular being outstanding. This two-disc set is just a brief example of his work, as he also played with many blues legends, such as B.B. King, Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, and Albert King, but I've omitted those as they were all legendary blues guitarists in their own right, and so Davis would only be heard as a backing musician, whereas I wanted to showcase his own exemplary playing on these other recordings from the 70's, when he was at the peak of his powers. 

Disc One
01 Funny Honey  (from 'Booker T. & Priscilla' by Booker T. & Priscilla 1971)
02 Poor Girl (from' Feel Your Groove' by Ben Sidran 1971)
03 Sweet Home Chicago (from 'Asylum Choir II' by Asylum Choir 1971)
04 Baby I Love You (from 'Minnows' by Marc Benno 1971)
05 Let 'Em Roll Johnny (from 'Roger Tillison's Album' by Roger Tillison 1971)
06 Rusty Toy (from 'Warm Waters' by Charles Lloyd 1971) 
07 Rollin' Mill Man (from 'She Used To Wanna Be A Ballerina' by Buffy Saint-Marie 1971)
08 Watching the River Flow (single by Bob Dylan 1971)
09 One In A Hundred (from 'White Light' by Gene Clark 1971)
10 Reno Street Incident (from 'Out The Window' by Jim Pulte 1972)
11 Heal Your Heart (from 'Recall the Beginning ... ' by Steve Miller Band 1972) 

Disc Two
01 Doctor My Eyes (from 'Jackson Browne' by Jackson Browne  1972)
02 Crossroads Of The World (from 'Rod Taylor' by Rod Taylor 1973)
03 Gypsy Davy (from 'Last Of The Brooklyn Cowboys' by Arlo Guthrie 1973)
04 Black Magic Gun (from 'Home At Last' by Wayne Berry 1974) 
05 Fair Play (from 'ST-11261' by Brewer & Shipley 1974) 
06 Grinning In Your Face (from 'That's A Plenty' by The Pointer Sisters 1974)
07 Subterranean Homesick Blues (from 'Pussy Cats' by Harry Nilsson 1974)
08 Open Up The Watergate (from 'L.A. Turnaround' by Bert Jansch 1974) 
09 Whatever Gets You Thru the Night (from 'Walls And Bridges' by John Lennon 1974) 
10 Only You (And You Alone) (from 'Goodnight Vienna' by Ringo Starr 1974) 
11 (What A) Wonderful World (from 'Midnight On The Water' by David Bromberg Band 1975) 
12 The Hits Just Keep On Coming (from 'Burnin' Thing' by Mac Davis 1975)

Suggested by Maybe The Devil, Maybe The Lord

For MAC users
Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.

Friday, March 12, 2021

Eric Clapton - ...and on guitar Vol. 2 (1976)

We're gradually coming to the end of this series, which started almost a year ago as a one-off post for Jimi Hendrix, and which has grown into what I hope can be viewed as a fairly comprehensive overview of the famous and the obscure guest appearances on record by some of the world's greatest guitarists. Eric Clapton was so prolific in the 70's that the first volume for him covered just the years 1968 to 1970, and so a second volume was always on the cards, and here it is.  



Track listing

01 Sitting On Top Of The World (from 'Sessions' by Howlin' Wolf 1971)
02 I'm Your Spiritual Breadman (from 'The Worst Of...' by Ashton Gardner & Dyke 1971)
04 Washita Love Child (from 'Jesse Davis' by Jesse Davis 1971)
04 Black John The Conqueror (from 'The Sun, Moon & Herbs' by Dr. John 1971)
05 The Scenery Has Slowly Changed (from 'Bobby Whitlock' by Bobby Whitlock 1972)
06 A Man Of Many Words (from 'Play The Blues' by Buddy Guy & Junior Wells 1972)
07 Comin' Home (from 'D & B Together' by Delaney And Bonnie 1972)
08 No-one Knows (from 'Music From Free Creek' 1973)
09 Sugar Sweet (from 'Burglar' by Freddie King 1974)
10 Eyesight To The Blind (from the 'Tommy' soundtrack album 1975)
11 Romance In Durango (from 'Desire' by Bob Dylan 1976)
12 Worrier (from 'Stingray' by Joe Cocker 1976)
13 This Be Called A Song (from 'Ringo's Rotogravure' by Ringo Starr 1976)
14 Kinky (from 'Lasso From El Paso' by Kinky Friedman 1976)

I've omitted a couple of tracks, not only for reasons of space, but also for the fact that Stephen Bishop, for example, has Clapton playing on his song 'Sinking In An Ocean Of Tears' and you can't even hear him (why would you ask one of the greatest ever guitarists to appear on your album and not give him a solo?), and although you can hear him perfectly well on Yoko Ono's 'Don't Worry, Kyoko', that's such an extreme listen that it really disrupted the flow of the album.  

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Mark Knopfler - ...and on guitar (1985)

Mark Freuder Knopfler was born on 12 August 1949 in Glasgow, the middle child of three, with an older sister Ruth, and a younger brother David, who is also a musician. During the 60's he formed and joined several bands and listened to singers like Elvis Presley and guitarists Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore, B.B King, and Hank Marvin, and at sixteen years of age he made a local television appearance as part of a harmony duo, with his classmate Sue Hercombe. In 1968, after studying journalism for a year at Harlow College, Knopfler was hired as a junior reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post, and during this time he made the acquaintance of local furniture restorer, country blues enthusiast and part-time performer Steve Phillips, from whose record collection and guitar style Knopfler acquired a good knowledge of early blues artists. The pair subsequently formed a duo called The Duolian String Pickers, and performed in local folk and acoustic blues venues, but two years later he decided to further his education, later graduating with a degree in English at the University of Leeds. In April 1970 he recorded a demo of an original song he'd written called 'Summer's Coming My Way'. enlisting Steve Phillips to help out on second guitar, along with Dave Johnson on bass, and Paul Granger on percussion. In 1973, Knopfler moved to London and joined a band based in High Wycombe called Brewers Droop, appearing on their 'The Booze Brothers' album, after which he took a job as a lecturer at Loughton College in Essex, and stayed there for three years while continuing to perform with local pub bands, including the Café Racers. 
By the mid-70's his brother David had moved to London, where he shared a flat with bass guitarist John Illsley, and in 1977, Mark moved in with David and John and all three began playing music together, forming a new band called Dire Straits. The group's first demos were recorded in three sessions in 1977, with David Knopfler as rhythm guitarist, John Illsley as bass guitarist, and Pick Withers as drummer. After signing to Vertigo Records, their debut album was released in 1977 to little fanfare in the UK, but when 'Sultans Of Swing' was released as a single, it became a chart hit in the Netherlands and album sales took off – first across Europe, and then in the United States and Canada, and finally in the UK. The group's second album 'Communiqué' was produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett and was issued in 1979, reaching number one in France, and 'Making Movies' quickly followed the next year. This album moved towards more complex arrangements and production, which continued for the remainder of the group's career, resulting in my favourite of their albums, 1982's 'Love Over Gold'. By the time 'Brothers In Arms' came out in 1985, the band were a world-wide phenomenon, with Knopfler also making a name for himself composing film music scores, and writing songs for other artists, including 'Private Dancer' for Tina Turner's comeback album of the same name. 
After his guitar style became noticed following the 'Sultans Of Swing' single, he was often asked to play on other artist's records, including such global superstars as Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Steely Dan. He played on Phil Lynott's first solo album 'Solo In Soho' in 1980, and was invited back to help out on the follow-up 'The Philip Lynott Album' two years later. After helping out on Kate & Anna McGarrigle's first album in 1983, he joined family and friends by appearing on albums by his bother David and former band-mate John Illsley. In 1985 he got to play with one of his earliest heroes Chet Atkins, contributing some superb guitar to 'Cosmic Square Dance'. Although this album ends in 1985, Knopfler continued to play on records from artists such as Sting, Randy Newman, Joan Armatrading, Jeff Healey and Hank Marvin up to 1997, adding his instantly recognisable guitar-playing to over 40 releases during that time. For this album, though, enjoy his earliest appearances on some classic albums of the 80's.    



Track listing

01 Gotta Serve Somebody (from 'Slow Train Coming' by Bob Dylan 1979)
02 Loving You (from 'Oh! What A Feeling' by Mavis Staples 1979)
03 Time Out Of Mind (from 'Gaucho' by Steely Dan 1980)
04 Ode To Liberty (The Protest Song) (from 'The Philip Lynott Album' by Phil Lynott 1982)
05 Cleaning Windows (from 'Beautiful Vision' by Van Morrison 1982)
06 Love Over And Over (from 'Love Over And Over' by Kate & Anna McGarrigle 1982)
07 Blanket Roll Blues (from 'Climate Of Hunter' by Scott Walker 1983)
08 Madonna's Daughter (from 'Release' by David Knopfler 1983)
09 Never Told A Soul (from 'Never Told A Soul' by John Illsley 1984)
10 Cosmic Square Dance (from 'Stay Tuned' by Chet Atkins 1985)


George Harrison - ...and on guitar (1975)

By 1969 George Harrison's songwriting had come on in leaps and bounds, culminating in him providing two of the most popular songs on The Beatles' 'Abbey Road' album. That same year he co-wrote 'Badge' with Eric Clapton, which was included on Cream's 'Goodbye' album, and on which Harrison played rhythm guitar, using the pseudonym L'Angelo Misterioso for contractual reasons. In May 1970 he played guitar on several songs during a recording session for Bob Dylan's album 'New Morning', and although none of them made the final cut for the album, some of them have appeared on one of Dylan's 'Bootleg Series' albums, including an alternate take of 'New Morning's 'Time Passes Slowly'. In 1971 he produced and played slide guitar on Badfinger's top ten hit 'Day After Day', and contributed dobro to Billy Preston's 'I Wrote a Simple Song', while in 1972 he added guitar to Harry Nilsson's 'You're Breakin' My Heart'. The following year he appeared on Cheech & Chong's 'Basketball Jones' from their 'Big Bambu' album, and 1973 also saw him add guitar to 'Waiting For The Band' from Nicky Hopkins' 'The Tin Man Was A Dreamer' under the name of George O'Hara, and 'If You've Got Love' from 'It's Like You Never Left' by Dave Mason under another of his pseudonyms, Son Of Harry. Lastly from 1973, Hari Georgeson helped out Alvin Lee & Mylon LeFevre on 'So Sad (No Love Of His Own)' from their 'On The Road To Freedom' album. 1974 was a bit quieter, with Harrison co-writing 'Far East Man' with Ronnie Wood, and both artists recording their own versions of the song, with Wood's coming out first on his 'I've Got My Own Album To Do' release. Also in 1974, two-man band Splinter released their debut, Harrison-produced album 'The Place I Love' on his Dark Horse label. It was actually the first record to be released on the label, and Harrison played guitar and keyboards on it as well, with the record spawning the hit single 'Costafinetown'. In 1975 Harrison expanded his horizons and added guitar to Tom Scott's jazz album 'New York Connection', rounding off nicely his extra-curricular activities from the first half on the 70's. Harrison then took a break while he released solo albums of his own, with his next guest appearances being in 1981 on an album from Mick Fleetwood and a single by Ringo Starr.   



Track listing

01 Badge (single by Cream 1969)
02 Time Passes Slowly (from the 'New Morning' sessions with Bob Dylan 1970)
03 I Wrote A Simple Song (from 'I Wrote A Simple Song' by Billy Preston 1971)
04 Day After Day (single by Badfinger 1971)
05 You're Breaking My Heart (from 'Nilsson Schmilsson' by Harry Nilsson 1972)
06 If You've Got Love (from 'It's Like You Never Left' by Dave Mason  1973) 
07 Waiting For The Band (from 'The Tin Man Was A Dreamer' by Nicky Hopkins 1973)  
08 Basketball Jones (from 'Big Bambu' by Cheech & Chong 1973)
09 So Sad (No Love Of His Own) (from 'On The Road To Freedom' by Alvin Lee 1973)  
10 Far East Man (from 'I've Got My Own Album To Do' by Ronnie Wood 1974)
11 Somebody's City (from 'The Place I Love' by Splinter 1974)
12 Appolonia (from 'New York Connection' by Tom Scott 1975)


Mick Ronson - ...and on guitar (1979)

Mick Ronson initially wanted to be a cellist, but moved to guitar upon discovering the music of Duane Eddy, whose sound on the bass notes of his guitar sounded to Ronson similar to that of the cello. He played with a number of small bands in the 60's including The Mariners, The Crestas, The Voice,  The Wanted, and then Hull's top local band, The Rats. In 1967 The Rats recorded the one-off psychedelic track, 'The Rise and Fall of Bernie Gripplestone' at Fairview Studios in Willerby, Yorkshire, which can be heard on the 2008 release 'Front Room Masters – Fairview Studios 1966–1973'. When John Cambridge left The Rats to join his former Hullaballoos bandmate Mick Wayne in Junior's Eyes, he was replaced by Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey, and in early 1970, Cambridge came back to Hull in search of Ronson, intent upon recruiting him for David Bowie's new backing band The Hype, along with drummer Woodmansey. He found Ronson marking out a rugby pitch, one of his duties as a Parks Department gardener for Hull City Council, and although initially reluctant, he eventually agreed to accompany Cambridge to a meeting with Bowie. Two days later, on 5 February, Ronson made his debut with Bowie on John Peel's national BBC Radio 1 show, and from that point on his future was assured. 
Within a few years his reputation had grown so much that he was often asked to contribute to other artist's albums, and later even to produce them. His first post-Bowie guest spot was actually on the recommendation of his employer, who was producing Lou Reed's 'Transformer' album, and he invited Ronson to play guitar on it. The same year he was asked to contribute to The Pure Prairie League's second album 'Bustin' Out', and I've included his superlative work on 'Angel No. 9' as an example of his contribution to the record, and Ronson was so taken with this song that he included a cover of it on his second solo album 'Play Don't Worry'. In 1974 Mott The Hoople were recording their last single before Ian Hunter left and the rest of the group reformed as simply Mott. During the recording of 'The Saturday Gigs' guitarist Ariel Bender was replaced by Ronson, marking his only official appearance on a Mott the Hoople release, and Ronson's image was used in the middle of the band's line-up on the single's cover. After Ian Hunter left Mott The Hoople he embarked on a long and successful solo career, starting which what I still consider his best album 'Ian Hunter', and 'Once Bitten, Twice Shy' shows Ronson at his very best. 
In 1976 Ronson contributed guitar to the title track of David Cassidy's 'Getting It In The Street' album, giving the former bubblegum pop star a bit of street cred. The same year he was a surprise addition to Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review tour, and concert recordings were eventually released as the 'Hard Rain' album, from which I've included the rocking 'Maggie's Farm'. Roger Daltrey employed Ronson's guitar on his 1977 solo release 'One Of The Boys', for which Paul McCartney wrote a new song 'Giddy', and Ronson was joined by Hank Marvin, Eric Clapton and Alvin Lee on a great fun recording. Also that year Ronson and Ian Hunter produced and played on Ellen Foley's debut album 'Nightout', with Ronson suggesting that she record two songs by Phil Rambow, one of which is included here. The most surprising track on this album, though, is a 1970 recording for Elton John's 'Tumbleweed Connection' album, where Ronson played guitar on the track 'Madman Across the Water'. This version of the song was not included in the original release of the album of the same name two years later, although it was eventually included on deluxe re-issues, and you wonder how this outstanding near-nine minute take could ever have been dropped from the record. Ronson collaborated with many more artists throughout the rest of his career, but I think this collection of his work from the 70's shows him at his best, and also the variety of artists who held him in high enough esteem to want him added to their records.   



Track listing

01 Vicious (from 'Transformer' by Lou Reed 1972)
02 Madman Across The Water (original version with Elton John 1970)
03 Angel No. 9 (from 'Bustin' Out' by The Pure Prairie League 1972)
04 The Saturday Gigs (single by Mott The Hoople 1974)
05 Once Bitten, Twice Shy (from 'Ian Hunter' by Ian Hunter 1975)
06 Gettin' It In The Streets (from 'Gettin' It In The Streets' by David Cassidy 1976)
07 Maggie's Farm (from 'Hard Rain' by Bob Dylan 1976)
08 Giddy (from 'One Of The Boys' by Roger Daltrey 1977)
09 Night Out (from 'Nightout' by Ellen Foley 1979)

Bob Dylan - Dylan Hears A Who (1966)

Following his motorcycle accident in 1966, Bob Dylan was forced to cancel his upcoming Yale Bowl performance, as well as the rest of the tour that would have followed. A cracked vertabrae meant that he was out of action for a number of weeks while he convalesced, and then he decided to take a break from the rock-star lifestyle for a further few months while he re-thought his life. During this prolonged period of inactivity he re-evaluated his life, looking back at his childhood, and rediscovered his Dr. Seuss books, re-reading them with a new perspective. He had the idea of setting some of the poems to music, as an experiment to make sure that the trauma of the crash had not affected his song-writing talent, and when he'd finished he was keen to record the results. Fearing that his reputation as a voice of the people could be damaged if word got out about what he was doing, he gathered a few close musician friends and swore them to secrecy, and they recorded a number of the new songs together. When they were finished Dylan was pleased with the results, but knew that he could never release them officially, and so he locked the tapes away in his vault. Now confident that he had not lost his muse he started writing again in earnest, and in the spring and summer of 1967 he joined his backing band The Hawks at the communal band house Big Pink, recording over 100 new songs in what would become known as 'The Basement Tapes'. The Dr. Seuss recordings stayed hidden for forty years, until bootlegs started to leak online in 2007, in the form of an album now titled 'Dylan Hears A Who', and accompanied by contemporary artwork, so we are now able to hear the results of those late 1966 recording sessions, which helped Dylan gain the confidence to kick-start the next stage of his career.



Track listing

01 Oh, The Thinks You Can Think
02 Green Eggs & Ham
03 Miss Gertrude McFuzz
04 McElligots Pool
05 Too Many Daves
06 The Zax
07 The Cat In The Hat


Bob Dylan - Blood From The Tracks (1974)

In September 1974 Bob Dylan gathered together a bunch of session musicians and set about recording his first truly solo album since 1970. Four days later he'd taped fifteen songs, capturing the swift working practices that he'd employed in his early years, and with the stripped-back sound also echoing that period of his career. Once engineer Phil Ramone had finished with the tapes, Dylan thought he was done with 'Blood On The Tracks', and test pressings went out to critics. The ten songs that were chosen for the album were not well-received by the music critic of the Village Voice, and apparently Dylan had the same mis-givings, so he took one of the test pressings home to play to his brother David, who suggested that it lacked a commercial appeal. Accepting this criticism, Dylan scrapped half of the album and re-recorded the songs, eventually releasing a very different version of the record. The New York pressing has been widely bootlegged over the years, with many fans believing it’s the superior version of the album, and although the complete New York sessions were released on the exhaustive 'More Blood, More Tracks' box set in 2018, this recording of the original New York recordings is taken directly from a mint condition test pressing of the intended release. Two out-takes have survived from the scrapped sessions, and I've included both the superb 'Up To Me', and an early version of 'Meet Me In The Morning' entitled 'Call Letter Blues', expanding this collection of songs recorded for the first version of a now classic album. 



Track listing

01 Tangled Up In Blue
02 Simple Twist Of Fate
03 You’re A Big Girl Now
04 Idiot Wind
05 You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
06 Meet Me In The Morning
07 Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts
08 If You See Her, Say Hello
09 Shelter From The Storm
10 Buckets Of Rain
11 Up To Me
12 Call Letter Blues

Suggested by 'The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear' by Bruno MacDonald


Bob Dylan - Dylan At The Movies - Vol. 1 (2007) & Vol. 2 (2015)

Back in November, Rod commented that the Dylan album that he wanted to see was one called 'Dylan At The Movies' - a collection of Bob Dylan's contributions to movie soundtracks. So for him and everyone else, here it is. I was surprised at just how many songs Dylan had written exclusively for films, while a number of them used alternate versions of more well-known songs, so it was interesting to try to collect them all together from various sources. Quite a few came from the 'Bootleg Collection' series, so the filmmakers seemed to be trying to get away from the obvious selections and go for something a bit different, and in the end there were so many tracks that I decided to split the album into two volumes of vinyl album length. The first song on 'Volume 1', 'Band Of The Hand (It's Hell Time Man)', was recorded for the film of the same name using Tom Petty's Heartbreakers as his backing band, and this volume features nearly all original songs, while 'Volume 2' plunders the 'Bootleg Collection' for some intriguing choices which the filmmakers felt enhanced their movies. Other than tracks 3, 7 and 8, all the songs on 'Volume 1' were penned just for the film, and were never included on any of his studio albums. 



Track listing

01 Band Of The Hand ('Band Of The Hand' 1986) original song (with The Heartbreakers)
02 Things Have Changed ('Wonder Boys' 2000) original song
03 Fourth Time Around ('Vanilla Sky' 2001) live at Royal Albert Hall
04 Waiting For You '(Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood' 2002) original song
05 'Cross The Green Mountain ('Gods And Generals' 2003) original song
06 Tell Ol' Bill ('North Country' 2005) original song
07 I'll Keep It With Mine ('The Wendell Baker Story' 2005) Blonde On Blonde out-take
08 Quit Your Low Down Ways ('Two Tickets To Paradise' 2006) The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3
09 Huck's Tune ('Lucky You' 2007) original song



Track listing

01 I'm Not There ('I'm Not There' 2007) out-take from The Basement Tapes
02 Walkin' Down The Line '(Lymelife' 2008) from The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3
03 Don't Think Twice, It's Allright ('The Help' 2011) from The Witmark Demoa
04 Suze (The Cough Song) ('Hick' 2011) from The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3
05 When The Ship Comes In ('Hick' 2011) from The Bootleg Series Vol 7
06 Farewell ('Hick' 20111) from The Witmark Demos
07 Series Of Dreams ('Bombay Beach' 2011) from The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3
08 Moonshiner ('Bombay Beach' 2011) from The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3 
09 This Land Is Your Land ('Foxcatcher' 2015) from The Bootleg Series Vol 7 
10 Red River Shore ('Gruber Geht [Gruber Goes]' 2015) from The Bootleg Series Vol 8 


Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan Vol. 2 (1962)

As I mentioned in my 'Freewheelin' Again' post, in his early recording days Dylan tended to take more songs into the studio than were needed for an album, and as he recorded all of them then there are some great quality out-takes floating around. I found this bootleg online, combining the officially released debut album with a number of rare out-takes, so I've extracted the songs which didn't make that debut and added in some others from the same year to make up a companion to his debut album, which I've called 'Vol. 2'. 'House Carpenter', 'He Was A Friend Of Mine', and 'Man On The Street' (a Dylan composition) were recorded at the debut album sessions, although this version of 'Man On The Street', along with a couple of the other songs, are live takes. The rest of the tracks were mostly recorded for radio broadcasts, such as 'Folksinger's Choice' with Cynthia Gooding in 1962, so the quality is exceptional for the period. I really liked the cover that came with the bootleg, but it listed the songs from the debut album, so I've removed them and replaced them with the songs on this compilation. 


Track listing

01 Roll On John
02 Hard Times In New York
03 He Was A Friend On Mine
04 Smokestack Lightning
05 No More Auction Block
06 Stealin' Stealin'
07 House Carpenter
08 Man On The Street
09 Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
10 Omie Wise
11 Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie
12 Talkin' Hava Negeilah Blues
13 The Girl I Left Behind
14 Worried Blues
15 Kingsport Town


Bob Dylan - Freewheelin' Again (1963)

When Bob Dylan went into the studio in 1963 to record the follow up to his eponymous debut album, he actually had enough songs to release a double album - something that was unheard of at the time if it wasn't a live recording. Consequently, Dylan and producer John Hammond picked the best thirteen songs and the classic 'Freewheelin'' album was born. However, Dylan did record all of the songs that he brought to the studio, and they eventually leaked out in superb quality a few years ago, and were pressed up on an unofficial CD. This post is most of that disc, but with the alternate takes removed as the best ones had already been used for the main album, and I've also remade the sleeve with a better quality alternate picture from the 'Freewheelin'' photo shoot. If you haven't already heard these songs then you'll be as amazed as I was at just how prolific Dylan was in those early years, and how he could blithely abandon these songs when he came to record the 'Another Side Of...' album the following year.



Track listing

01 Baby Please Don't Go
02 The Death Of Emmett Till
03 Mixed Up Confusion
04 (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle
05 Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues
06 Milkcow's Calf Blues
07 That's All Right
08 Solid Road (Rocks And Gravel)
09 Going To New Orleans
10 Let Me Die In My Footsteps
11 The Ballad Of Hollis Brown
12 Wichita Blues (Going To Louisiana)
13 Whatcha Gonna Do
14 Sally Girl


Bob Dylan & The Hawks - New York Blonde (1965)

I was about to post this album when I checked out the albumsthatneverwere site and found that he's just posted a very similar collection. We've both used the abandoned New York recordings, but he has a slightly different track listing, and has also edited and mixed some of the songs himself, so the two resulting albums will be slightly different, and I hope that both will be worth a listen. So, on with the post.
In late 1965 Bob Dylan and The Hawks held two sessions in New York, with further recording taking place in January of the following year, but after failing to complete a new album to his satisfaction, he relocated to Nashville and their limitless pool of studio musicians. There he completed 'Blonde On Blonde', the first double album in rock history, and which included only one track recorded in New York with The Hawks. While they were there, though, they did record enough material to make an album, which we'll call 'New York Blonde' for lack of any better ideas, and which would be entirely comprised of songs recorded with The Hawks at the sessions held in New York between October 5th, 1965, and January 27th, 1966. During the sessions and a concurrent tour, various members of The Hawks quit and were replaced by sessioneers, until eventually only Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko remained.  While Dylan would take Robertson with him to Nashville, the rest of the Hawks were left behind to wait for their next gig.
The album opens with the powerful 'I Wanna Be Your Lover', which was supposed to be his next single but which was inexplicably never issued at the time, not even as a b-side.  A laid back R&B version of 'Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat' comes next, followed by 'One of Us Must Know'; which was the only New York track to make the final cut for 'Blonde on Blonde', taking them 24 takes to get right. This is take 15, which is played in a straight country style with slightly different lyrics. A rehearsal take of 'I'll Keep It With Mine' is next, and then we have 'Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?', a single that failed to make a dent in the charts. The incomplete 'She's Your Lover Now' breaks down before the last verse, but luckily Dylan ran down the entire song on the next take for demo purposes. I've slotted is a cool instrumental before the classic 'Visions of Johanna', a song that started out as a straight-up rock and roll number in New York and became a lethargic ballad in Nashville. This is take 7, which has a bit more depth than the barnstorming take 5, and is also the longest take that he did. So this is what 'Blonde On Blonde' could have sounded like if the sessions with The Hawks had worked out to Dylan's satisfaction, but then we would have missed out on that era-defining double album. This one is still worth hearing, though.



Track listing

01 I Wanna Be Your Lover (Take 6 Mis-Slate)  
02 Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat (Take 1) 
03 One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) (Take 15 Complete) 
04 I'll Keep It With Mine (Rehearsal)
05 Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (Take 10) 
06 She's Your Lover Now (Take 15)
07 Instrumental (Take 2 Complete) 
08 Visions of Johanna (Take 7 Complete)

From The Album Fixer November 2015


Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home Acoustically (1965)

1965 was a transitional year for Bob Dylan. 'Another Side Of Bob Dylan' had been released in August the previous year, and by early 1965 thoughts had turned to a new album. Dylan went into the studio on 13th January and laid down enough songs with just guitar or piano accompaniment to complete an album, but then had an idea that he'd like to try some of the songs with an electric backing. He gathered together a rock 'n' roll band and went back into the studio the following day and re-recorded a number of the songs with a rock backing. The results were what he wanted to hear, and so 'Bringing It All Back Home' was released in March 1965 in the form that we know and love - side one electric and side two acoustic. But what if the electric sessions hadn't turned out as he'd hoped,and he'd gone with another all-acoustic album as a follow-up to 'Another Side Of...'? 



Track listing

01 Subterranean Homesick Blues
02 She Belongs To Me
03 Farewell, Angelina
04 Love Minus Zero / No Limit
05 Outlaw Blues
06 On The Road Again
07 Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
08 I'll Keep It With Mine
09 Mr. Tambourine Man
10 Gates Of Eden
11 It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
12 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
13 If You Gotta Go, Go Now

Side one uses the acoustic versions of the songs that were recorded on 13th January. 'Maggie's Farm' was never attempted acoustically, possibly as it was only written a few days earlier, and was recorded by the electric band on 15th January, so I've substituted 'Farewell Angelina', and also added 'I'll Keep It With Mine' at the end of side one, as both of these were recorded on the 13th's session. Side two is taken directly from the released album, and I've closed it with the take of 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now' from the first session, as this was only ever released as a Dutch 7" single.

From The Album Fixer site July 2016