TRUSTING HIMSELF

Bob Dylan 1985

by

Olof Björner

 

A summary of recording & concert activities,

releases, tapes & books.

Beskrivning: bob85a

 

 

© 2004 by Olof Björner

All Rights Reserved.

 

This text may be reproduced, re-transmitted, redistributed and

otherwise propagated at will,  provided that this notice remains

intact and in place.



 

1             Introduction

Despite the fact that Dylan did not tour 1985 was a year of extreme visibility. At least twelve interviews, a new album, Empire Burlesque, and four charity engagements, the "We Are The World" and "Sun City" recordings, and the Live Aid and Farm Aid concerts. Besides these two public performances Dylan also played at a youth festival in Moscow.

 

2             1985 At A Glance

 

 

3             The 1985 Calendar

15 January

Two songs are overdubbed at The Power Station in New York City and later released on Empire Burlesque: Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love) and Clean Cut Kid.

28 January

This day Dylan participates in two recording sessions, the first results in Seeing The Real You At Last, released on Empire Burlesque, the other is the We Are The World recording session.

5 & 14 February

Recording for Empire Burlesque continues at The Cherokee Studio in Hollywood, California.

19-24 February

Recordings for Empire Burlesque are moved to The Power Station in New York City, New York.

3-4 March

Final Empire Burlesque recording sessions at The Power Station.

March

Bill Flanagan interviews Dylan for his book "Written in My Soul".

April

Dylan plays harmonica at a Sly Dunbar - Robbie Shakespeare session in RPM Recording Studio in New York. One track, No Name On The Bullet, is released on the album Language Barrier, 5 August 1985.

May

The single Tight Connection To My Heart/We Better Talk This Over is released.

8 June

Release of Empire Burlesque.

17 June

Bob Dylan answers telephone calls from listeners in the radio program Rock-Line.

11 July

Dylan jams with Mick Jagger late at night in The Lone Star Café in New York City. Paul Simon and Keith Richard are also present.

13 July

Dylan performs with Keith Richards and Ron Wood at Live Aid. Dylan's proposal to set aside a tiny amount of the raised money for the farmers inspires Willie Nelson to organize Farm Aid.

25 July

Dylan sings Blowin' In The Wind, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall and The Times They Are A-Changin at the 12th World Festival of Youths and Students in Moscow.

Summer

Dylan makes his third benefit appearance when he participates in the recording of the Sun City single and video.

August

Scott Chen from US music paper ”Spin" interviews Dylan at his home in Malibu.

22 August

Shooting of the video When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky at the Gymnasium of First Methodist Church in Hollywood.

September

Cameron Crowe interviews Dylan, the result is published in the Biograph booklet.

September

Charles Young interviews Dylan for MTV. Dylan mentions his collaboration with David Stewart and that he will be touring next year with "60 to 100 shows".

19 September

Dylan is interviewed by Bob Brown from ABC-TV in Malibu. The interview is broadcast 20 October in the program "20-20".

 

Rehearsals for Farm Aid take place at Universal Studios in LA.

21 September

Rehearsals for Farm Aid at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.

22 September

Farm Aid concert with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

Late September

Mikal Gilmore interviews Dylan for the LA Herald Examiner.

Fall

Charles Kaiser interviews Dylan for the Boston Review. The result is not published until April 1986.

October

David Fricke interviews Dylan for Rolling Stone

October

Release of Emotionally Yours/When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky single.

28 October

Release of Biograph.

Late October

Denise Worell interviews Dylan for a profile in Time magazine. The complete profile/interview is published in Worrell's book "Icons" 1989.

Early November

Robert Hilburn interviews Dylan for LA Times.

13 November

Bob Dylan's first 25 years in the music business is celebrated at the Whitney Museum in New York. A short acceptance speech by Dylan is broadcast by ABC-TV in the program "Entertainment Tonight" and also by MTV.

20-23 November

Recording session in London in "The Eurythmics Church" with Dave Stewart produces one track later released on Knocked Out Loaded.

22 November

Andy Kershaw interviews Dylan. The short conversation is broadcast by BBC 2, November 26 in the program "Old Grey Whistle Test"

November

Bob Dylan attends a wedding reception at Turpin Meadow Ranch, Jackson Hole, Wyoming and joins the bar band from the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson for its last two sets playing backup on mandolin.

December

Dylan starts rehearsing with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at Soundstage 41, Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

 

[TOP]

4             Empire Burlesque

The recording of Empire Burlesque took place in a number of sessions starting in mid 1984 and ending in the beginning of March 1985. A large number of these were overdub sessions. There are many details missing and the summary below gives only a fragmentary picture. Arthur Baker did the final overdubs and remixing during February and March 1985. As usual there are a number of songs here that were never used again, and a number of these songs are not circulating. The titles may be just the engineer’s best guess during the recording session. Below (x) stands for “released after later overdubbing”.

Some of the sessions were produced by Bob Dylan. Here's a summary:

 

 

# of

take released on

Date

Song

takes

EB[1]

KOL[2]

BOOT[3]

single

1984:

 

 

 

 

 

 

26 July

Driftin' Too Far From Shore

?

 

x

 

x

 

Firebird

?

 

 

 

 

 

Who Loves You More

?

 

 

 

 

 

Wolf

?

 

 

 

 

 

Clean Cut Kid

?

 

 

 

 

6 December

New Danville Girl

2

 

(x)

 

 

 

Queen Of Rock 'n' Roll

?

 

 

 

 

 

Look Yonder

?

 

 

 

 

7 December

Look Yonder

?

 

 

 

 

9 December

Gravity Song

?

 

 

 

 

10, 11 December

New Danville Girl

?

 

(x)

 

 

14 December

Something's Burning, Baby

?

(x)

 

 

 

 

The Girl I Left Behind [4]

?

 

 

 

 

22 December

I'll Remember You

?

 

 

 

 

 

Prince Of Plunder

?

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing The Real You At Last

?

 

 

 

 

1985:

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 January

Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)

?

x

 

 

 

 

Clean Cut Kid

?

x

 

 

 

28 January

Seeing The Real You At Last

?

x

 

 

 

5 February

Trust Yourself

?

x

 

 

 

 

Queen Of Rock 'n' Roll

?

 

 

 

 

 

I'll Remember You

?

x

 

 

 

14 February

Straight A's In Love

?

 

 

 

 

 

I See Fire In Your Eyes

?

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting To Get Beat

?

 

 

 

 

 

Emotionally Yours

?

x

 

 

x

 

The Very Thought Of You

?

 

 

 

 

19 February

When The Line Forms

?

 

 

 

 

 

When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky

?

 

 

x

 

 

Never Gonna Be The Same Again

?

 

 

 

 

20 February

Never Gonna Be The Same Again

9

9

 

 

 

21 February

Something’s Burning Baby

?

 

 

 

 

23 February

When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky

4

4

 

 

4

24 February

?

 

 

 

 

 

3 March

Dark Eyes

6

6

 

 

6

4 March

?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TOP]

 

Live history

Song

Debut

Clean Cut Kid

Champaign, Illinois 22 September 1985 at Farm Aid

Dark Eyes

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 25 February 1986[5] and Boston, Massachusetts, 10 December 1995 [6]

Driftin' Too Far From Shore

Concord, California 7 June 1988

Emotionally Yours

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 11 February 1986

I'll Remember You

Champaign, Illinois 22 September 1985 at Farm Aid

Never Gonna Be The Same Again

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 21 February 1986

Seeing The Real You At Last

Wellington, New Zealand, 5 February 1986

Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)

Toad's Place, New Haven, Connecticut, 12 January 1990

Trust Yourself

Wellington, New Zealand, 5 February 1986

When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky

Wellington, New Zealand, 5 February 1986

Something's Burning, Baby is the only song from Empire Burlesque that has never been played live.

 

Officially released live versions

Hard To Handle

I'll Remember You
When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 25 February 1986

 


 

Performances during The Never-Ending Tour

Clean-Cut Kid

1988, 1990

Dark Eyes

1995

Driftin' Too Far From Shore

1988, 1989

Emotionally Yours

1993

Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)

1990, 1993

I'll Remember You

1988-1999, 2001-2003

Never Gonna Be The Same Again

1995-1997, 1999, 2002, 2003

Seeing The Real You At Last

1988-1992, 1995-2003

 

[TOP]

 

 

5             Songs 1985

January

Emotionally Yours

 

 

I'll Remember You

 

 

Trust Yourself

 

 

Seeing The Real You At Last

 

February

Never Gonna Be The Same Again

 

 

I See Fire In Your Eyes

1

 

Queen Of Rock 'n' Roll

1

 

Straight A's In Love

 

 

The Very Thought Of You

 

 

Waiting To Get Beat

 

 

When The Line Forms

1

 

When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky

 

March

Dark Eyes

 

November

Under Your Spell

2

 

Notes

1.     No version is circulating.

2.      Co-written with Carole Bayer Sager.

 

 

 


 

6             Suggested Readings

6.1       Articles

Dark Eyes – Homer, the Slut #8

Mixed Up Confusion In Biograph's Dates by Clinton Heylin The Telegraph #23

Movies Inside His Head by John Lindley The Telegraph #25

The First Live Aid Isis #21

We Are The World by John Bauldie The Telegraph #20

 

6.2       Interviews

20 ABC Interview Talkin' Bob Dylan 1984 & 1985

Charles Young Interview Talkin' Bob Dylan 1984 & 1985

Mikal Gilmore Interview Talkin' Bob Dylan 1984 & 1985

Bob Dylan Interview – by Mikal Gilmore, On The Tracks #11 (Summer 1997)

Old Grey Whistle Test Interview Talkin' Bob Dylan 1984 & 1985

Robert Hilburn Interview Talkin' Bob Dylan 1984 & 1985

Rockline Talkin' Bob Dylan 1984 & 1985

Westwood One: Dylan on Dylan Talkin' Bob Dylan 1984 & 1985

 

6.3       Reviews of Empire Burlesque

Empire Burlesque ... The Reviews The Telegraph #21

Empire Burlesque by Larry Sloman The Telegraph #21

 


7             SOURCES

 

William J. Clinton

The Bob Dylan CD & CDR Field Recordings Guide Of William J. Clinton
www.angelfire.com/wa/monicasdude

Tim Dunn

I Just Write 'Em As They Come.
Annotate
d Guide to the Writings of Bob Dylan
A Not-A-Ces Publishing Venture 1990.

Glen Dundas

Tangled Up In Tapes — 4th Edition

A Recording History of Bob Dylan

SMA Services, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada 1999. Softcover 334 pages.

Clinton Heylin

A Life In Stolen Moments. Bob Dylan Day By Day 1941-1995.

Schirmer Books 1996, 404 pages.

Clinton Heylin

Bob Dylan, The Recording Sessions 1960-1994

St. Martin's Press, 1995, 233 pages.

Michael Krogsgaard

Positively Bob Dylan
A Thirty-Year Discography, Concert & Record Session Guide 1960-1991.
Popular Culture, Ink. 1991. 500 pages.

Michael Krogsgaard

Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions (Part 3).
The Telegraph #55, Summer 1996, pp. 111–142.

Craig Pinkerton

Bob's Boots
www.bobsboots.com/

Ray Stavrou

A Vinyl Headstone Almost In Place
Loose leaf binder, 530 pages.

 


 

8             Bibliography

John Baldwin

The fiddler now upspoke, Volumes 1–5.

A collection of Bob Dylan interviews and press conferences.

Desolation Row Promotions, 1995.

Carl Benson (ed)

The Bob Dylan Companion — Four Decades of Commentary.

Schirmer Books, New York 1998. Softcover 306 pages.

Michael Gray

Song & Dance Man III. The Art Of Bob Dylan

Cassell 1999. Hardback 918 pages.

Clinton Heylin

Behind The Shades. A Biography.

Summit Books 1991, 500 pages.

Daniel Kramer

Bob Dylan. Citadel Press (hardback) or Pocket Books. Great photo book from 1964-1965.

Craig McGregor (ed)

Bob Dylan. A Retrospective.

William Morrow 1972

Anthony Scaduto

Bob Dylan. An intimate biography. New American Library 1973

Robert Shelton

No Direction Home. The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. New American Library 1986.

Howard Sounes

Down The Highway. The Life Of Bob Dylan. Groove Press 2001.

Elizabeth M. Thomson (ed)

Conclusions On The Wall. New Essays On Bob Dylan.

Thin Man 1980

Paul Williams

Watching The River Flow

Observations on Bob Dylan's Art-in-Progress, 1966-1995.

Omnibus Press 1996, 255 pages.

Paul Williams

Performing Artist – The Middle Years: 1974-1986
Underwood Miller 1992, 334 pages.

 

[TOP]



[1] Empire Burlesque

[2] Knocked Out Loaded

[3] The Bootleg Series

[4] traditional song

[5] aborted attempt

[6] as a duet with Patti Smith