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BOB DYLAN : THE BORN AGAIN MUSIC |
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Disc One (71:42)
Disc Two (63:58)
Label : Flashback Productions Venue : Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Date : April 20, 1980 Quality : Soundboard Recording (A+) Review (Bob's Boots) : Fantastic quality recording straight from the soundboard. Some of the pure hell-fire and brimstone inspiration of the previous fall tour has drained off a little, but there is still a spark. Perhaps Dylan was fighting with his twin (That enemy within) as never before. The sound quality, however, is far superior to most of those earlier shows. As is the case with most Flashback titles, package is nice, but minimal. Great cover period photo and track & venue listed on back. It is rumored that this venue was intended to produce a live CBS album. Indeed, there is a professionally shot mult-camera video that exists of this night, and a better quality recording of half of the Dylan portion of the previous night's show entitled 'Rock Solid'. Review (AllMusic) : Rumor has it that Columbia planned to record Bob Dylan's mid-April 1980 performances at Toronto's Massey Hall for a proposed live album and concert film. While the project never reached fruition, the existence of multi-camera video footage lends credence to the gossip, as does the soundboard-quality fidelity of the two-disc bootleg set The Born Again Music, which documents the April 20 gig in its entirety. Returning to the road following a two-month hiatus that yielded the Saved LP, Dylan seems re-energized and focused, shedding some of the fire-and-brimstone proselytizing of his previous gospel outings and letting the sheer conviction of his art do the preaching. Regardless of the listener's beliefs, it's virtually impossible not to yield to the power and glory of this deeply soulful music, which communicates the true depth of Dylan's Christian convictions in ways that studio efforts like Slow Train Coming don't.
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