DEEP BENEATH THE WAVES vol 80

Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999


"GREAT WOODS"  2CD   (Wild Wolf)  Mansfield, Mass  12 Sept 1993 (13)
   +  filler Sacramento, Calif. 8 Oct 1993* (5),  Raleigh, NC  19 Sept 93*
(1)
Tracks: 19  Time: 140    Source: Soundboard/Audience* Quality: Excellent

It's not often we get an actual line recording (and I ain't
talkin' the hearing impaired variety), and when it happens we
cross our fingers hoping it collared a good performance (least I
do). I was thinking of the "actual" line recordings" we've been
blessed with in the last 10 years:  98-San Jose, 97-Irving Plaza
NY City,  95 - Laguna Beach (Monterey), 94 - Lewiston,  NY &
somewhere in Germany that escapes me, 93-Marseilles, 92-Waikiki,
88-Radio City, NY & Bristol, CT (comments welcome to KarlErik on
any I missed). Some really hit (Marseilles, Irving, Waikiki,
Laguna, Radio City) and others missed to some degree, whether
quality-wise or due to a mediocre performance.

Add this "Great Woods" set to the former category, in near 
perfect quality and showcasing a focused, "biting" Dylan
peformance that simply sizzles. The opening number sets the table
nicely, with a rough and tumble vocal and lengthy harp fills that
indicate Bob is in a lively mood on this night. The line
recording catches every little nuance and inflection with
startling clarity.

You wanna know what Dylan sounded like in '93, this is it (and to
my ears he sounds remarkably similar to how he sounds now). A
setlist full of nice surprises (Red Sky, I&I, River Flow) works
its way through a cutting acoustic set examining the vagaries of
love, lust, betrayal and loneliness (BlackJackDavey, Ramona,
Boots) and then into an astounding version of "God Knows," which
slowly builds and builds until it explodes into an all out sonic
assault, with Bob enunciating the words so clearly and screaming
3:10 into the song "ohhhhhhyeaaaaahh" like some manic street
preacher, then right into a visceral, "Stonesian"  Maggie's Farm.
Total goosebump material... now the band is really cutting loose
and then Bob pulls out all the stops on "Thin Man," stretching
out the words and lines as only he can do, elasticizing (sic)
them w/his inimitable vocal phrasing, while serving up one of the
more frightening and direct-hit versions of this tune that I can
ever remember ("props" must go to the Setzer-horns version of
this from late '98 also, to digress).

A lovely and lengthy "It Ain't Me Babe" sews up the Great Woods
in terrific fashion and segues seamlessly into the superb
sounding Sacramento filler.  So good, in fact, that it takes a
while to notice the difference - just a flat-out great sounding
audience recording that includes stunning versions of Mr.TMan &
GirlFromNC.

Wrapping it all up is a rare performance of OneMoreCup Of Coffee,
performed only twice on the Santana double bill trek from
summer/fall '93 and perhaps only two other times this decade.
Unlike most other "periods" of the NET, the performances on the
double-billed Santana tour have been underrepresented in this
"idiom," so this is a most welcome account that serves the period
quite nicely. Not to be missed!!!!!!!

TrackList: You're GonnaQuitMe/MemphisBlues/Watchtower/RedSky/I&I/RiverFlow/
BlackJackDavey/Ramona/BootsOfSpanishLeather/GodKnows/Maggie's/ThinMan/
ItAin'tMeBabe. Sacramento:
IfNot4U/MrTMan/Don'tThink2X/LongBlackCoat/GirlFrom
NorthCountry. Raleigh: OneMoreCupOfCoffee 



HOLD THE FORT FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH  2CD (WILD WOLF)   Complete 
    FT. Worth (Dylan portion), 16 May 1976 + various venues (see track list 
below)
 Tracks: 28    Time:  145+      Source: Soundboard/TV    Quality: Excellent
 
The definitive Ft. Worth '76 show, presented in best ever,
pristine sound quality that lays waste to previous incarnations
of this material. The quintessential Rolling Thunder '76 tour
document,  this does for RT76 what "Cowboy Angel Blues" did for
RT75.  Unlike previous issues, this one is nicely appended with
"Hard Rain" from the TV special  of the same name, the
blues-drenched rehearsal take of "The Sun Is Shining" and a
one-time only, transcendant performance of the classic Hank tune
"Weary Blues From Waitin'."  

Some may question the wisdom of
"corrupting"  Ft. Worth by injecting two non-Ft. Worth cuts into
the show (see tracklist), and for those folks there is always the
program button. Me, I'm glad to have 'em, no matter where they
"set," right maw?  :-)  The quality improvement is considerable
compared to previous releases, brighter, with more punch and
clarity, and less "noise." 

After reading Peter Stone Brown's
celestial (or Jordanesque, or Dylanesque> pick one) review  of
Bob's Tramps show of July 26, 1999, I am considering another line
of work, so you will not be seeing any "review," per se, of this
show. PSB "laid it all to waste" with his monumental account of
that gig, and all reviewers, myself included, are in
hiding contemplating their next move. If this were a basketball
game, PSB just scored 101 and broke Wilt's record ("what the fuck
is this guy talkin' about - just let us know about the show,"
they say). Shitgoddamn, I felt like I was there after reading
that Tramps review !!!!! You? (I can only imagine how "shriveled"
the "lamest of all-time" NY Post "Tramps-reviewer" would feel if
he "caught a glimpse of it" - you RMD readers know what I mean). 
So, we'll  be sending out our aqua-recruiters, who will  attempt
to enlist Mr. PSB's services on behalf of future DEEPs, so we can
find out what's REALLY HAPPENING on these kinds of disks. Suffice
it to say that there's LOTS HAPPENING on "Hold the Fort For What 
It's Worth" that you want to hear.  Great cover, too!!!  

 1) Mr. Tambourine Man
 2) It Ain't Me Babe
 3) Vincent Van Gogh
 4) Maggie's Farm
 5) One Too Many Mornings
 6) Mozambique
 7) Isis
 8) Blowin' In The Wind
 9) Railroad Boy
 10) Deportee
 11) I Pity the Poor Immigrant
 12) Shelter From the Storm
 13) I Threw It All Away
 14) Memphis Blues Again
 15) Rita Mae
 16)Oh Sister
 17) You're A Big Girl Now
 18) You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
 19) Lay Lady Lay
 20) Silver Mantis
 21) I Want You
 22) Going Gone Gone
 23) Idiot Wind
 24) Knockin' On Heaven's Door
 25) Gotta Travel On
 26) A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall*
 27) The Sun Is Shining
 28) Weary Blues From Waiting
 
 Tracks 1-14, 16-21, 23-25: Tarrant County Conv. Center, Ft. Worth, TX
 5/16/76
 Track 15:  The Warehouse, New Orleans, LA.  5/3/76
 Track 22: State Fair, Oklahoma City, OK  5/18/76
 Track 26: Hughes Stadium, Ft. Collins, CO  5/23/76
 Track 27: Rehearsal, Bellevue Biltmore Hotel, Clearwater, FL 4/15/76
 Track 28: Civic Center, Lakeland, FL 4/18/76
 
 

 
Additions and corrections:
 
> However, some of this can't be right!!!
>  20) Silver Mantis
> There is NO PA tape of Silver Mantis. The previous version of
> HOLD THE FORT FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH included an audience version
> from Ft Worth.

It is absolutely a PA tape, with no break whatsoever in the flow
from Lay Lady Lay and in the same quality. Perhaps the previous
version contained an audience tape but not this one.

> 21) I Want You
> Not done at Ft Worth! Is this from 18 may 76?
> 22) Going Gone Gone
> This is on the Ft Worth PA tape, so why include one from 18 may 76?

Good call.....the attribution on the tray card is wrong. It
should have stated that the "GoingGoingGone" was from Ft./ Worth
5/16 and the "I Want You" from Okla City 5/18.

> 24) Knockin' On Heaven's Door
> 25) Gotta Travel On
> There is NO Ft Worth PA tape of these tracks.
> So are they Ft Worth audience tracks as on the previous version
> of HOLD THE FORT FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH? 

Another good call...never got that far in listening, to be
honest, as I skipped right to Hard Rain & Weary Blues From
Waiting :-)  It's obvious these two are audies.

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