WHY AM I DOING THIS? – Bob Dylan 2003

 

1      INTRODUCTION.. 2

2      2003 AT A GLANCE.. 2

3      THE 2003 CALENDAR.. 3

4      NEW RELEASES AND RECORDINGS. 5

4.1       Gods And Generals soundtrack. 5

4.2       Gotta Serve Somebody - The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan. 5

4.3       The Classic Interviews 1965-1966. 5

4.4       Masked And Anonymous soundtrack. 5

4.5       The SACD Hybrid release. 6

4.6       Web Bob. 6

4.6.1        Custom Mix CDs. 6

4.6.2        iTunes. 7

4.6.3        bobdylan.com.. 7

4.7       New circulating recordings. 7

4.7.1        The 1992 Bromberg Session. 7

4.7.2        New Morning rough mixes. 7

4.7.3        1984 Europe Tour soundboards. 8

4.7.4        The 16 November 1980 Soundboard. 8

 

 

Next

1               INTRODUCTION

There were a lot of mixed releases this year, but no studio time. The releases included the Masked And Anonymous soundtrack with four songs recorded last year. The Gods And Generals soundtrack contained the new song ‘Cross The Green Mountain, also recorded last year. Sony introduced a new web-service called Custom Mix CD, where the customer could choose up to twelve tracks and had his CD pressed and sent home. This service was however discontinued at the end of the year. Sony also released fifteen Dylan albums in the new SACD Hybrid format.

And of course the Never-Ending Tour kept rolling on. This year Dylan played 98 concerts in Australia, New Zealand, US and Europe.

 

2               2003 AT A GLANCE

 

 


 

3               THE 2003 CALENDAR

22 January

Masked & Anonymous premiers at the Sundance Film Festival in park City, Utah.

4 February

Release of the soundtrack to Gods And Generals, containing ‘Cross The Green Mountain, recorded with the touring band late July last year. A three minute promo video with Dylan is also released.

6 February

Dylan embarks on another tour Down Under with a show in Canberra, Australia. Charlie Sexton has now left the band and is replaced by Bill Burnette. Except for Saving Grace, which has not been played since San Francisco, California, 19 November 1980, the song selection remains the same as during the previous tour.

21 February

Happy Birthday was sung for Larry Campbell at the show in Auckland, New Zealand.

24 February

Concert # 1500 is played in Wellington, New Zealand.

26 February

The Down Under Tour ends with a show in Christchurch, New Zealand.

1 March

Gotta Serve Somebody -The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan is released.

18 April

A US Spring tour starts with a show in Dallas, Texas. Bill Burnette has now left the band and is replaced by Freddy Koella. Dignity returns temporarily to the set list and Freddie Hart’s Easy Lovin’ is played.

2 May

The show at the 10th Annual Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta, Georgia has to be interrupted due to a heavy rain storm.

18 May

Last show of the spring tour in Little Rock, Arkansas.

12 July

A long US Summer tour opens in Winter Park, Colorado (!)

21 July

The Masked & Anonymous soundtrack is released.

22 July

Bob Dylan’s guitar technician Tommy Morrongiello plays guitar on 5 songs at the show in Nampa, Idaho. He will return on 7 shows in 2003 and 11 shows in 2004.

29 July –
8 August

Bob Dylan is the opening act for The Dead during their Summer Getaway 2003 Tour. He joins The Dead and plays the piano during their set for three or four songs.

29 July

The show at Office Depot Center in Sunrise, Fort Lauderdale, Florida features the first version of Joey since 12 July 2000 in Moline, Illinois.

30 July

The show at St. Pete Times Forum features the first version of Silvio since 2 March 2001 in Yokohama, Japan.

6 August

Joan Osborne sings on Tears Of Rage at the show in Germain Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio,

9 August

Bob Dylan shares the bill with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and opens the show in Holmdel, New Jersey. During Dylan’s set Mike Campbell (guitar), Benmont Tench (piano), Tom Petty (guitar. vocal) play on the encores Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35 and All Along The Watchtower.

10 August

At the second show Dylan and Petty again shares the bill, this evening Tom Petty opens. Dylan joins Petty for two songs during their opening set.

12 August

At the show at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York Nils Lofgren plays guitar from the fifth song.

14 August

A vast East Coast power failure causes the show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City to be cancelled and rescheduled to 20 August.

17 August

First performance of Born In Time since Sandstone Amphitheater, Bonner Springs, Kansas 7 July 2000.

20 August

Chuck Loeb plays guitar on five songs.

23 August

The summer tour ends with a show in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

7 September

Warren Zevon dies.

12 September

Johnny Cash dies. Dylan issued the following statement about his old friend:

“I think we can have recollections of him but we can’t define him any more than we can define a fountain of truth, light and beauty. If you want to know what it means to be mortal, we need look no further than the Man In Black. Blessed with a profound imagination he used his gift to express all the various lost causes of the human soul. This is a miraculous and humbling thing.” (excerpt from a longer statement)

15 September

Columbia Legacy releases the SACD Hybrid Box Set:

4 October

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band plays the last show of The Rising Tour at Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York and they perform Highway 61 Revisited with Bob Dylan on vocal and guitar.

9 October

Dylan returns to Europe and starts a long Fall tour in Helsinki, Finland.

11 October

Izzy Young meets Dylan backstage at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Swede and at one point Dylan comments on his constant touring “Why Am I doing this? I have fourteen grandchildren!”

13 October

Mason Ruffner plays guitar during the encores at the show in Spektrum, Oslo, Norway.

23 November

At the show in Shepherds Bush Empire Theatre, London, England, no less than. 8 new songs for this tour are featured, among them the first version of Million Miles since Bad Reichenhall, Germany, 18 July 2001, the first version of Tough Mama since Telluride, Colorado, 20 August 2001 and the first version of Jokerman since Miami Beach, Florida, 31 March 1998.

 

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4               NEW RELEASES AND RECORDINGS

4.1         Gods And Generals soundtrack

Sony Music Soundtrax SK 87891, released 4 February 2003..

This soundtrack from the movie Gods And Generals contains the Dylan song ‘Cross The Green Mountain, in Scream Studios, Studio City, California, 23 July 2002 with the regular touring band.

 

4.2         Gotta Serve Somebody - The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan

This cover album contains a newly recorded version of Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking, a duet with Mavis Staples with mostly re-written lyrics. It was recorded with his touring band and Mavis Staples in a recording studio in Los Angeles 4 March 2002 and released 1 March 2003 The tracks are:

#

artist(s)

title

bible reference

1

Gotta Serve Somebody

Shirley Caesar

Joshua 24:15

2

When You Gonna Wake Up?

Spiritual QC's, Lee Williams

1 Corinthians 15:34

3

I Believe in You

Dottie Peoples

Philippians 1:29

4

Are You Ready?

The Fairfield Four

Matthew 25:10

5

Solid Rock

Sounds of Blackness,

Matthew 7:24

6

Saving Grace

Aaron Neville

Ephesians 2:8

7

What Can I Do for You?

Helen Baylor

Matthew 22:37

8

Pressing On

Chicago Mass Choir

Luke 16:16

9

Saved

The Mighty Clouds of Joy,

Jeremiah 17:14

10

When He Returns

Rance Allen

Proverbs 18:12

11

Gonna Change My Way of Thinking

Bob Dylan, Mavis Staples

Mark 10:49

 

4.3         The Classic Interviews 1965-1966

A CD from Chrome Dreams released 10 May 2003 featuring the following interviews:

San Francisco Press Conference 3 December 1965

Los Angeles Press Conference 16 December 1965

Martin Bronstein Interview 20 February 1966

Liner notes are written by Derek Barker.

 

4.4         Masked And Anonymous soundtrack

Sony Music Soundtrax COL 512445 2, released 21 July 2003.

 

#

title

artist(s)

 

1

My Back Pages

Magokoro Brothers

 

2

Gotta Serve Somebody

Shirley Caesar

 

3

Down In The Flood

Bob Dylan

*

4

It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

Grateful Dead

 

5

Most Of The Time

Sophie Zelmani

 

6

On A Night Like This

Los Lobos

 

7

Diamond Joe

Bob Dylan

*

8

Come Una Pietra Scalciata

Articolo 31

**

9

One More Cup OF Coffee

Sertab

 

10

Non Dirle Che Non E' Cosi'

Francesco De Gregori

***

11

Dixie

Bob Dylan

*

12

Cold Irons Bound

Bob Dylan

*

14

City Of Gold

The Dixie Hummingbirds

 

 

* recorded at Ray-Art Studios, Canoga Park, California, 16 July 2002 (24035)

** Like A Rolling Stone

*** If You See Her, Say Hello

 

4.5         The SACD Hybrid release

Columbia Legacy released the following albums in SACD Hybrid format as a boxed set with digipacks 15 September 2003:

Album

Format

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

*

Another Side Of Bob Dylan

**

Bringing It All Back Home

**

Highway 61 Revisited

*

Blonde On Blonde

**

John Wesley Harding

*

Nashville Skyline

*

Planet Waves

*

Blood On The Tracks

**

Desire

*

Street Legal

*

Slow Train Coming

**

Infidels

*

Oh Mercy

*

“Love And Theft”

**

* stereo

** 5.1 surround sound

 

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4.6         Web Bob

4.6.1    Custom Mix CDs

On the website www.custommixed.com Sony offered a new service where the buyer could mix his own CD by choosing up to twelve tracks. Bob Dylan was one of the first artists on the site. The following “rare” tracks were available:

title

original source

previous availability

Cocaine Blues

El Rey, Los Angeles, California 20 December 1997

European Love Sick CD single

Cold Irons Bound

El Rey, Los Angeles, California 20 December 1997

European Love Sick CD single

Dead Man, Dead Man

Saenger Theater, New Orleans, Louisiana, 10 November 1981

B-side of Everything Is Broken Cassette Single

Dignity

Oh Mercy alternate take

Touched By An Angel album

George Jackson (Big Band Version)

1971 studio session

1971 George Jackson single

Highlands

Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, California, 16 March 2000

Best of Bob Dylan vol. 2

I Threw It All Away

1 May 1970 studio session

circulating session tape

Million Miles

Broome County Forum. Binghamton, New York. 19 February 1999

Million Miles promo CD

Pretty Boy Floyd

1987 studio session

Folkways - A Vision Shared

Rita May

Desire outtake

B-side of Stuck inside of Mobile single

Roving Gambler

El Rey, Los Angeles, California 17 December 1997

European CD-single

Make You Feel My Love

Pauley Pavilion, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, 21 May 1998

European Things Have Changed CD single

Waiting For You

2002 studio session

Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood soundtrack

 

In December 2003 Sony stopped this service.

4.6.2    iTunes

The iTunes web service started to feature some rare Dylan tracks:

title

original source

previous release

Hero Blues

Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York, 26 October 1963

NONE!

Spanish Harlem Incident

Philharmonic Hall, New York City, New York, 31 October 1964

NONE!

Everything Is Broken

Oh Mercy alternate take

NONE!

4.6.3    bobdylan.com

The official Bob Dylan homepage on the Internet, www.bobdylan.com, did not offer any new tracks in 2003

 

4.7         New circulating recordings

4.7.1    The 1992 Bromberg Session

A recording from the sessions at the Acme Recording in Chicago, Illinois, 3-5 June 1992, produced by David Bromberg, contains Sloppy Drunk, Polly Vaughn, Catskill Serenade and Miss The Mississippi.

4.7.2    New Morning rough mixes

This recording from the various New Morning sessions in 1970 contains the following tracks:

If Not For You

 

Day Of The Locusts

 

Time Passes Slowly

 

Gotta Travel On

 

Went To See The Gypsy

 

Winterlude

 

If Dogs Run Free

 

Spanish is the Loving Tongue

solo version with longer piano introduction

The Man In Me

 

Went To See The Gypsy

slow version

Tomorrow Is A Long Time

1970 band version

New Morning

 

Alberta

 

Sign On The Window

 

If Not For You

slow version with strings

One More Weekend

 

It Hurts Me Too

 

Three Angels

 

Father Of Night

 

 

4.7.3    1984 Europe Tour soundboards

This compilation contains:

Verona, Italy, 29 May:

Blowin’ In The Wind, Tombstone Blues

Brussels 7 June:

Girl From The North Country, Love Minus Zero/No Limit

Gothenburg 9 June:

Love Minus Zero/No Limit, The Times They Are A-Changin’

Vienna 14 June:

Blowin’ In The Wind

Cologne 16 June:

Jokerman, Just Like A Woman, I And I, Tangled Up In Blue, Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Simple Twist Of Fate

Rome 20 June:

It Ain’t Me, Babe, The Times They Are A-Changin’, Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat, Tombstone Blues, Blowin’ In The Wind

4.7.4    The 16 November 1980 Soundboard

The final five songs are now circulating: When You Gonna Wake Up?, Blowin’ In The Wind, City Of Gold, It’s all Over Now, Baby Blue

 

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