If you were to listen to just one of these two albums, I would strongly suggest this one, due to the unreleased originals and the better sound quality.
As I mentioned in my write-up for the "Blues with a Feeling" album, Dylan was in a bad place in this era. His first marriage finally ended in 1977 after a slow and painful decline. He rebounded by converting to Christianity near the end of 1978, which gave him new purpose. But before then, he felt lost and depressed. He wrote most of the songs for his studio album "Street Legal" in 1977, and it was released in the middle of 1978. But he continued to write lots of songs in 1978, perhaps twenty, maybe more. Two of those made it onto "Street Legal," and two more made it onto his next album, 1979's "Slow Train Coming."
But the vast majority fell through the cracks. Partially, that was because he has such a drastic change with his conversion to Christianity in late 1978 that the songs he wrote before that no longer interested him. But it also must be admitted that a lot of the songs were just okay, and far from lost masterpieces. Even though he wrote a lot of songs, it seems he wasn't feeling very emotionally inspired. That said, Dylan is such a great songwriter that I'm interested in hearing even his lesser efforts. This is basically an entire hidden chapter of his career that makes up a lost album.
Note that three of the songs here have been released elsewhere in very different versions. "The Man in Me" originally came out on his 1970 album "New Morning." In 1978, he rewrote most of the lyrics and changed the arrangement. I figure it's different enough to merit inclusion. That's also the case with "Lay Lady Lay," which was a hit when it first came out in 1969. The situation with "Do Right to Me Baby (Do Unto Others)" is a bit different. This song was written in 1978, but before his religious conversion. After his conversion, he rewrote the lyrics and included it on his 1979 album "Slow Train Coming." This is the pre-conversion version, which was only performed once in concert.
Some of these songs were co-written by Helena Springs, who was one of his backup singers at the time. Those include "Stop Now," "Coming from the Heart (The Road Is Long)," "More than Flesh and Blood," and "I Must Love You Too Much." They wrote even more songs together which aren't included here because no Dylan versions have ever emerged. Two of them, "If I Don't Be There by Morning" and "Walk Out in the Rain," were recorded and released by Eric Clapton. It's a shame there's no Dylan versions, since those are better than some of the songs here.
As I mentioned above, all the songs here are officially unreleased. However, the sound quality is somewhat better than the songs on the "Blues with a Feeling" album, because most of them come from bootlegged rehearsal sessions. The only live versions are tracks 3, 9, 10, and 11.
The two bonus songs consist of more radical rewrites of earlier songs. "Angel" and "Going, Going Gone" both first appeared on Dylan's 1973 album "Planet Waves." I don't know why, but "Angel" originally appeared as "Hazel," but he changed the title to "Angel" in 1978. These are only bonus tracks due to sound quality issues, and/or the songs not being so different from the original versions.
This album is 40 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.
01 Stop Now (Bob Dylan)
02 The Man in Me [1978 Lyrics Version] (Bob Dylan)
03 Stepchild [Am I Your Stepchild] (Bob Dylan)
04 You Don't Love Me No More (Bob Dylan)
05 This A-Way, That A-Way (Bob Dylan)
06 Take It or Leave It (Bob Dylan)
07 More than Flesh and Blood (Bob Dylan)
08 Lay, Lady, Lay [1978 Lyrics Version] (Bob Dylan)
09 I Must Love You Too Much (Bob Dylan)
10 Coming from the Heart [The Road Is Long] (Bob Dylan)
11 Do Right to Me Baby [Do Unto Others] [1978 Version] (Bob Dylan)
Angel [Hazel] (Bob Dylan)
Going, Going, Gone [1978 Version] (Bob Dylan)
https://www.upload.ee/files/16191877/BOBDYL1978_CmngfrmthHrt_atse.zip.html
The cover photo is from a concert at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, in Oakland, California, on November 13, 1978.
Like you, I find everything Dylan does of interest. Some of it I don't return to. Some I loved when they came out and everybody else (it seemed) hated them until rereleases (like Self Portrait). Some I didn't care for (the Christian period) but found much more interesting when they were released.
ReplyDeleteHe's a sometimes weird but a gifted dude.
Thanks for these two albums.