BOB DYLAN : SPRINGTIME IN NEW YORK : THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 16 1980-1985

 

Disc One (50:19)

  1. Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)
  2. To Ramona
  3. Jesus Met the Woman at the Well
  4. Mary of the Wild Moor
  5. Need a Woman
  6. A Couple More Years
  7. Mystery Train
  8. This Night Won't Last Forever
  9. We Just Disagree
  10. Let's Keep It Between Us
  11. Sweet Caroline
  12. Fever
  13. Abraham, Martin and John

Disc Two (43:54)

  1. Angelina
  2. Price of Love
  3. I Wish It Would Rain
  4. Let It Be Me
  5. Cold, Cold Heart
  6. Don't Ever Take Yourself Away
  7. Fur Slippers
  8. Borrowed Time
  9. Is It Worth It?
  10. Lenny Bruce
  11. Yes Sir, No Sir

Disc Three (53:44)

  1. Jokerman
  2. Blind Willie McTell
  3. Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight
  4. Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight
  5. Neighborhood Bully
  6. Someone's Got a Hold of My Heart
  7. This Was My Love
  8. Too Late
  9. Too Late
  10. Foot of Pride

Disc Four (50:46)

  1. Clean Cut Kid
  2. Sweetheart Like You
  3. Baby What You Want Me to Do
  4. Tell Me
  5. Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
  6. Julius and Ethel
  7. Green, Green Grass of Home
  8. Union Sundown
  9. Lord Protect My Child
  10. I and I
  11. Death Is Not the End

Disc Five (62:09)

  1. Enough Is Enough
  2. License to Kill
  3. I'll Remember You
  4. Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)
  5. Seeing the Real You at Last
  6. Emotionally Yours
  7. Clean Cut Kid
  8. Straight A's in Love
  9. When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky
  10. When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky
  11. New Danville Girl
  12. Dark Eyes

Label : Columbia

Release Date : September 17, 2021

Review (AllMusic) : If Bob Dylan's Bootleg series of archival releases - now in its fourth decade - has taught fans anything, it's that preconceived notions about his catalog are often proven erroneous. Entries such as Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) and Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979-1981 offered substantive counterarguments for the criticism the source albums received. Vol. 16: Springtime in New York 1980-1985 begins with the thoroughly slagged final outing in his Christian trilogy, Shot of Love (1981), and continues through the more warmly greeted albums Infidels (1983) and Empire Burlesque (1985). It reveals the many musical directions Dylan was traveling in simultaneously. Over 57 tracks and five discs, his sometimes radical experimentation with musicians (Sly & Robbie served as the rhythm section on Infidels), material, and production styles posits that he was seeking a way forward not out of restlessness but because he was lost - he would release the execrable Knocked Out Loaded and Down in the Groove over the next few years. The songs leading to and from Shot of Love are represented on the first two discs. There's a stellar rehearsal version of "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)," and a supercharged Bo Diddley-esque "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well." the scorching garage rocker "Borrowed Time" was created on the spot. There are many covers too. Dylan delivers the yacht rock hit "This Night Won't Last Forever" without irony, as well as Hank Williams' "Cold Cold Heart," a fine read of the Temptations' "I Wish It Would Rain," a swampy "Mystery Train," and an awful "Sweet Caroline." Discs three and four showcase material from the Infidels sessions. There's a (different) gospel-infused read of "Blind Willie McTell" and an alternate mix of "Jokerman" with a prophetic vocal that brings Mark Knopfler's and Mick Taylor's guitars way up front. After two versions of "Too Late," we get a third in the ragged blues "Foot of Pride." Outtakes of "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight" and "I and I" are superior to the album takes. The Empire Burlesque material offers "Enough Is Enough," penned on tour and performed only three times, and a Late Night with David Letterman performance of "License to Kill" with the Plugz. There is also a loose, soulful alternate version of "Tight Connection to My Heart." The squalling, shambolic garage rocker "Straight A's in Love" was previously unissued. One of the two versions of "When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky" contains a disco beat in a rocking context. The 12-minute "New Danville Girl" is fantastic, but eventually became the inferior "Brownsville Girl." Closer "Dark Eyes" (an alternate take) was composed because producer Arthur Baker wanted an acoustic track. Springtime in New York was curated and produced by Jeff Rosen and Steve Berkowitz. They went beyond the call of duty in sonic clarity, warmth, and selection; further, Damien Love's liner notes are detailed, authoritative, and wonderfully enthusiastic. Whether Shot of Love warrants deeper appreciation now is debatable, but this box set wonderfully showcases Dylan's lengthy, complex creative journey that only got rockier as the decade wore on.

Review (Humo) : In de eerste helft van de jaren 80 was ik Bob Dylan een tijdlang kwijt en hij zichzelf, zo wordt algemeen aangenomen, ook. Eerst werkte hij zich, in die dagen, door een reeks gospelplaten die vandaag véél minder slecht klinken dan wij toen allemaal dachten. We kochten die platen wel, walgden even van hun wansmakelijke hoezen, maar vergaten er warempel naar te luisteren. 'Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 (1979-1981)' boekstaafde die periode voor wat ze was: interessant, ook voor niet-gelovigen. Daarna, in augustus 1981, kwam 'Shot of Love'. Het artwork was alweer zum Kotzen maar de songs, zoals de lillende titeltrack, waren steengoed. Er was nog wat gospel aanwezig, maar de bluesrock en zelfs de folk keerde terug. Zie: 'The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar', het wonderlijke 'Lenny Bruce' en één van zijne Bobheids allermooiste mooien ooit: 'Every Grain of Sand'. Eén stevig minpunt wel: de plaat klinkt gewoon niet goed genoeg. Te veel producers achter de knoppen. Hoge omes bij CBS/Sony drongen aan op een 'hedendaagser sound', maar het geheel klonk veelal als een verkouden hond die met zijn kop in een emmer vastgeraakt was. De nieuwe verzameling 'Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985) - beschikbaar op dubbel-cd, dubbel-lp en als vijfdelige cd-box - wil daar wat aan doen, door te bewijzen dat Dylans songschrijfkunst in die jaren zo goed als intact was en dat zijn stemtechniek verbéterde in plaats van te verslechteren, zoals de vitters destijds vonden. Dat zijn platen in de eerste helft van de eighties grotendeels mismeesterd zijn, wisten diezelfde vitters blijkbaar niet. Bij aandachtige beluistering blijken 'Shot of Love', 'Infidels' (1983), 'Empire Burlesque' (1985) en 'Knocked Out Loaded' (1986) niet de stronthopen te zijn waarvoor ze in veel recensies gehouden werden. Songs als 'Jokerman', 'Sweetheart Like You' en 'Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)' hadden, soberder gebracht, hoogtepunten in de Dylancanon kunnen zijn. Wie goed luistert naar deze 'The Bootleg Series Vol. 16' komt veel van die songs weer eens tegen in beheerste en heldere versies. Zoek naarstig en u vindt ook vergeten parels ('Blind Willie McTell'!) en verder bijvoorbeeld 'Mystery Train' (een slordige Elvis-hulde wel, met Ringo Starr op drums en Ronnie Wood op gitaar) en een ingetogen versie van Neil Diamonds lijflied 'Sweet Caroline'. Herontdek ook het lichtjes geruststellende 'Death Is Not the End', of een ultraspaarzame lezing van 'To Ramona'. Om de rit af te sluiten met de ronduit touchante versie van 'Dark Eyes', een stilleven met Bob en gitaar. De herfst begint goed met deze 'Springtime in New York'. Dansen mag maar hoeft niet.

Review (Rolling Stone Magazine) : The Eighties are widely regarded as the low point of Bob Dylan's entire career, a time when he struggled to find relevance in the MTV era and released a series of tacky, rudderless albums that were savaged by fans and critics. Even Dylan himself refuses to defend his output from the time. "[I was] pretty whitewashed and wasted out professionally," he recalled in his 2004 memoir Chronicles: Volume One. "I'm in the bottomless pit of cultural oblivion. You name it. I can't shake it." But the newest chapter of the bootleg series, Springtime In New York (1980-1985), forces us to reevaluate this notion completely. The overwhelming amount of material - 54 unreleased songs total - proves that even at Dylan's lowest point, he was still capable of writing great music, even if the best songs often didn't wind up on his albums. This wasn't a failure of creativity. It was a failure of curation. The five-disc collection focuses on 1983's Infidels, while also shedding light on the records that bookend it: Shot of Love, the last of his born-again Christian albums, and the glitzy Empire Burlesque. The former showed Dylan continuing his divisive streak of born-again Christian albums ("No more," this magazine wrote. "For me, it stops right here") while the latter is an excessive, shimmery affair that has more in common with She's So Unusual than Highway 61 Revisited. Springtime opens with rehearsals for Dylan's Musical Retrospective Tour in the fall of 1980, where he was backed by the under-appreciated singer Clydie King. The shows were billed as a return to some of his older songs, following his strict gospel-only setlists, but instead of "Simple Twist of Fate" we get several wildcards: covers of hit songs at the time, like Bill LaBounty's "This Night Won't Last Forever" and Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree" (he also reportedly covered "The Rainbow Connection," but unfortunately it didn't make the cut). Perhaps because Dylan never intended the public to hear them, these renditions are intimate, raw, and even joyous. Close your eyes to his take on "Sweet Caroline," and you'll forget someone else wrote it. While the original Infidels demonstrated Dylan's genius ability to assemble a band - Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler (who produced the album) and Alan Clark, the Stones' Mick Taylor, and the reggae duo Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare - he left many of the best songs off the album in favor of duds like "Union Sundown." Gems like "Foot of Pride" and "Someone's Got a Hold of My Heart," later reworked as "Tight Connection to My Heart" on Empire Burlesque, would have made the album infinitely better. And then there's "Blind Willie McTell," one of his finest songs of his career. A great version was released on the first chapter of the Bootleg Series back in 1991, but this one is even better, as Dylan wails "There's a chain gang on the highway/I can hear them rebels yell" with sparkling clarity. There are two takes of "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight," and the first, a desperate, slow-burning plea, arrives like a gust of wind to the throat. How is it that we've gone nearly 40 years without hearing this? On a different version of "Sweetheart Like You," the sweetheart in question is no longer wearing a cute hat, but a pair of boots. This doesn't change the misogynistic tone of the tune, where Dylan points out, "You know a woman like you should be at home, that's where you belong." (Reflecting on the ballad in an interview, he admitted, "That line didn't come out exactly the way I wanted it to.") The Empire Burlesque material has been stripped of producer Arthur Baker's synths and gated drums. What remains are the tracks in their purest form - like a sprawling "New Danville Girl" that clocks in at nearly 12 minutes. But the highlight is undoubtedly Dylan's legendary 1984 performance on Late Night With David Letterman. In the same way that Neil Young grew fascinated with New Wave and linked up with Devo, Dylan recruited punk band the Plugz for his appearance. The energy he fed off the young musicians was so palpable that Letterman asked, "Is there any chance you guys can be here every Thursday night?"' If Dylan had gone on tour with these guys, would he have had a more successful decade? If he had kept his best songs on the albums, would they now be regarded classics? It's these kinds of what-ifs that make Springtime so gripping - and so essential.