Album Review – Bob Dylan – More Blood, More Tracks (Sony)
Neil Young – Songs for Judy (Warner Brothers)
Review by Geoff Jenke
Bob Dylan and Neil Young have been looking after their fans for a long time with live and outtake releases of their work from the 1960’s onward. While bands like the Beatles and Stones have only spasmodically released bonus tracks, Bob and Neil have been doing it with continued regularity.
Bob Dylan has been releasing his Bootleg Series since 1991, when he delivered a 3-volume set of songs comprising material from 1961 to 1989. Since then he has released 13 more sets of live and studio songs not previously available on legit releases.
Neil Young gave us the 10-disc Archive Vol 1 set in 2009 after having promised it at least a decade previous. Since then he has given us a steady supply of unreleased live and studio recordings which fans have lapped up.
Bob Dylan – More Blood, More Tracks – The Bootleg Series Vol 14. (Sony)
Bob Dylan is credited with the first ever popular rock bootleg to appear on the black-market way back in 1969, the Great White Wonder double album. It was a collection of songs recorded in a hotel room and also songs with The Band in the summer of 1967, as well as songs from The Johnny Cash Show in 1969.
More Blood, More Tracks is Vol 14 in the official Bootleg Series released by Warner Brothers and consists of recordings from 6 sessions Dylan did in 1975 which finally resulted in the 1975 Blood on the Tracks album. While a few of the outtake tracks from this Bootleg Series album have surfaced, most have never been available in any format.
The album assembles emotionally resonant alternative takes from the original album, plus a previously unreleased version of Up to Me. This album was how the songs were originally meant to be released, 5 tracks solo and 6 with just an extra bass player in Tony Brown. Dylan had a change of heart and re-recorded many of the tracks a few months later with a full band speeding up some of the tracks, as was common in that time.
If you own Blood on the Tracks album, this set is indispensable. The sound is brilliant, just Dylan beautifully playing straight to tape and minus any post production and mastering. Tangled up in Blue, Simple Twist of Fate, Shelter from the Storm and Idiot Wind have never sounded better.
For the completist there is a 6CD deluxe set which includes all sessions available, complete with outtakes, false starts and banter. However, for most people the single CD is all you need.
9/10
Neil Young – Songs for Judy (Warner Brothers)
Neil Young just beats Bob Dylan for the number of studio albums released in his career. Both have over 40 official releases not including Best of, Live albums and archival releases. Earlier this year Neil released Roxy: Tonight’s the Night 1973 live album to great applaud. Now we get another live set, this time from 1976 and featuring Neil solo.
Neil had spent much of 1976 playing live with Crazy Horse, so when he went out on his own, he would perform songs that would not be released for several years, including one, No One Seems to Know which has not seen the light of day till this release. Another song White Line wouldn’t turn up on an album until 1990’s Ragged Glory.
That is not to say Neil ignored his past at these solo shows. He plays Mr Soul, Here We Are in The Years and The Losing End from his previous band, Buffalo Springfield as well as his “current” (as in 1976) crowd favorites like Sugar Mountain, Harvest, The Needle and the Damage Done amongst others. The raw versions of the tracks found on Songs For Judy reflect an artist completely unvarnished and unafraid to allow the songs to breath and to find their own shape when performed in a solo setting.
The organ start of A Man Needs a Maid is actually what will eventually become Like a Hurricane, which was unreleased at this time.
Jimmy Carter was President of the U.S.A. and Neil Young was 31 when he recorded these songs. He had just broken up with long-time girlfriend Carrie Snodgrass and you can hear the pain in his voice at times. The title for the album, A Song for Judy comes from the fact Neil spotted Judy Garland in the front row at the concert.
In 1976 Neil Young was at the top of his game. Who would of thought that in 2018 he is still not far from it.
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