Bootleg Reviews (1980's) - Agent EB's Bob Dylan page

1980's Bootlegs
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07/13/85 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Live Aid ("With A Little Help From Two Stones") : A- (A-/A-)
This concert (Live Aid) is when the musicians didn't have any monitors, so they couldn't hear themselves. This means that they didn't really know how they were sounding. Apparently Bob got quite mad about this after his performance, and understandably so. He did fairly well (but he sung off-key for parts of When The Ship Comes In). This is also the concert in which Bob mentioned how some of the raised money should go to the farmers. This comment helped give birth to Farm Aid. The songs from '74 sounds as though it might have been sped up.

07/13/85 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Live Aid:
1. Intro
2. Ballad Of Hollis Brown (acoustic) (Keith Richards and Ron Wood on acoustic guitar)
3. When The Ship Comes In (acoustic) (Keith Richards and Ron Wood on acoustic guitar) (Bob on harp)
4. Blowin' In The Wind (acoustic) (Keith Richards and Ron Wood on acoustic guitar)

02/13-02/14/74 Inglewood, California:
5. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
6. Lay, Lady, Lay
7. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
8. It Ain't Me, Babe - the sound gets fuller (bass gets louder) and the volume gets louder halfways through
9. Ballad Of A Thin Man - fades-out at end
10. All Along The Watchtower
11. Ballad Of Hollis Brown
12. Knockin' On Heaven's Door - fades-out at end
13. Highway 61 Revisited
14. Like A Rolling Stone

Tempest Storm : B+ (A-/B+)
These are the studio outtakes from Empire Burlesque. New Danville Girl is what was to be re-written and eventually officially released as Brownsville Girl on Knocked Out Loaded. Several of these tracks were officially released on Empire Burlesque, but not before they were overdubbed by Arthur Baker. Several fans can't stand the way Empire Burlesque was produced. You can listen here to how it sounded before it was overdubbed. Many of the songs that haven't been officially released seem pretty silly.

1. New Danville Girl - a glitch causes a word to be repeated at 0:33
2. Tight Connection To My Heart - dropout in left speaker from 1:15-1:16
3. Clean-Cut Kid
4. I'll Remember You
5. Seeing The Real You At Last
6. Something's Burning, Baby
7. Trust Yourself
8. Emotionally Yours
9. When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky
10. Never Gonna Be The Same Again
11. Waiting To Get Beat
12. Straight A's In Love
13. The Very Thought Of You
14. Driftin' Too Far From The Shore
15. Who Loves You More - dropout at 0:48
16. Go 'Way Little Boy

02/11/86 Sydney, Australia : B (B-/B)
The last song from this concert is Knockin' On Heaven's Door. There wasn't enough room on these discs, so Knockin' On Heaven's Door from this concert is on the end of 10/07/87 Paris, France. If a trade is to be set up for 02/11/86, we can probably work something out in regards to Knockin' On Heaven's Door. Unfortunately, the end of A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall is cut out. This is really a shame because the first two songs of the solo acoustic set are the highlights: Bob's voice is just great (he sings differently than he does for the rest of the concert). The end of Seeing The Real You At Last is also cut out and from then on the sound quality is worse than it was before (and it becomes pretty poor). In The Garden is in even worse quality (see below for details). This show has the live debuts of both Emotionally Yours and House Of The Rising Sun. There's an interesting spoken introduction by Bob for Ballad Of A Thin Man.

Disc 1:
1. Instrumental - this instrumental sounds like a song Bob has performed in '86 called "Justine"
2. Positively 4th Street
3. Clean-Cut Kid
4. Emotionally Yours (live debut of this song from Empire Burlesque)
5. Trust Yourself
6. That Lucky Old Sun - written by Haven Gillespie and Beasley Smith
7. Masters Of War
8. Straight Into Darkness (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
9. American Girl (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
10. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (solo acoustic) - five lines are cut out after a gap at 6:20 - gap between this and next
11. Girl From The North Country (solo acoustic) (Bob on harp)
12. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) (solo acoustic)
13. I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know (acoustic with band) (sung with Tom Petty) - written by Cecil A. Null
14. I'm Movin' On - written by Hank Snow
15. Just Like A Woman
16. House Of The Rising Sun (live debut of this song from Bob Dylan) - written by unknown (traditional)

Disc 2:
1. When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky
2. Lonesome Town - written by Ricky Nelson
3. Seeing The Real You At Last - end is cut out
4. a few seconds of crowd and guitar noises
5. Ballad Of A Thin Man - sound worsens from here onwards
6. So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman
7. Refugee (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
8. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
9. Across The Borderline - written by Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, and Jim Dickinson
10. I And I
11. Like A Rolling Stone - dropout at 0:07 - gap between this and next
12. In The Garden - a few dropouts in the right speaker every so often, then the sound becomes absolutely terrible (it eventually recovers)
13. In The Garden (short instrumental)

encore:
14. Blowin' In The Wind (sung with Tom Petty)
15. Baby, Got To Go - written by unknown (?) - title is unknown (?)
16. Uranium Rock (Rock 'Em Dead) - written by Warren Smith

02/24/86-02/25/86 Sydney, Australia ("Precious Memories") : B+ (A-/B+)
This bootleg consists of songs from both Feb 24 and Feb 25 '86, but it doesn't say which songs are from which show. The Dylan video Hard To Handle was also filmed from these two days. By observing the setlists from both Feb 24 and Feb 25, I can say that I'll Remember You is the same as on Hard To Handle. There are three others songs (indicated below) which could be from the movie or not (these three songs were played both nights). I don't have the movie, so I can't check to see if they are or aren't from the same night. It's absolutely amazing how different these shows sound from shows later on in '86; Bob's singing sounds very different. There are occasional small pops and acetate-noises during this bootleg (it seems to be sourced from an acetate). This is an all-around good show, with an awesome All Along The Watchtower and an awesome harmonica solo on Knockin' On Heaven's Door.

1. Positively 4th Street
2. All Along The Watchtower
3. Masters Of War - small skip at 1:23
4. I'll Remember You - same as on Hard To Handle
5. I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know (acoustic with band) (sung with Tom Petty?) - written by Cecil A. Null
6. Bye Bye Johnny (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Chuck Berry
7. Breakdown (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
8. Just Like A Woman - could be same as on Hard To Handle (?)
9. Blowin' In The Wind (sung with Tom Petty?)
10. That Lucky Old Sun - written by Haven Gillespie and Beasley Smith
11. So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman
12. Spike (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
13. Like A Rolling Stone - could be same as on Hard To Handle (?)
14. Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Bob on harp) (sung with Tom Petty?) - could be same as on Hard To Handle (?)

07/04/86 Buffalo, New York ("Rich For Poor") : B+ (B+/B+)
This show sounds great. It's hard to rate this show in terms of the year '86 because this is one of the few shows I have from '86. We Had It All, To Ramona, One Too Many Mornings, and Across The Borderline, as well as the filler Thank God, are all highlights. One Too Many Mornings is breathtakingly good. Band Of The Hand (an unreleased song written by Bob) is well done. There are occasional small short dropouts during this bootleg. Also, this bootleg is missing the following songs from the show (all come after Across The Borderline): I And I, Like A Rolling Stone, In The Garden, Blowin' In The Wind, Rock 'Em Dead, and Knockin' On Heaven's Door. The Bob Dylan Field Recording site does say, however, that this bootleg has "The complete circulating tape from the satellite feed broadcast".

Disc 1:
1. So Long, Good Luck And Goodbye - written by Weldon Rogers - sound levels are inconsistent for approx. 2 min.
2. Positively 4th Street
3. Clean-Cut Kid
4. Emotionally Yours - mic noise at start
5. Trust Yourself
6. We Had It All - written by Dick Robertson, Nelson Cogane and Sammy Mysels
7. Masters Of War
8. Straight Into Darkness (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
9. Think About Me (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
10. The Waiting (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
11. Breakdown (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
12. To Ramona (solo acoustic) (Bob on harp)
13. One Too Many Mornings (solo acoustic) (Bob on harp)
14. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (solo acoustic)

Disc 2:
1. I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know (acoustic with band) (sung with Tom Petty) - written by Cecil A. Null
2. Band Of The Hand (It's Hell Time Man!)
3. When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky
4. Lonesome Town - written by Ricky Nelson
5. Ballad Of A Thin Man
6. Bye Bye Johnny (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Chuck Berry
7. The Losing (sung by Tom Petty) - written by unknown (?)
8. Spike (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
9. Refugee (sung by Tom Petty) - written by Tom Petty
10. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
11. Seeing The Real You At Last
12. Across The Borderline - written by Ry Cooder, John Hiatt and Jim Dickinson

filler:
13. Thank God - written by Fred Rose

- Track 13 is from 08/05/86 Mountain View, California (Chabad Telethon segment)

"Covering Them" : B (B/B)
Each track fades-out at the end and then it fades-in to the next track. This bootleg contains cover songs sung by Bob in the '86 tour. We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me) was only played twice in '86, Red Cadillac And A Black Moustache was only played three times in '86, and Kansas City was only played once in '86. Good Rockin' Mama, sung by John Lee Hooker, is here (it was only performed this once in '86). Several of these songs are very rockin' and full of energy.

1. So Long, Good Luck And Goodbye - written by Weldon Rogers
2. Shake A Hand (Ron Wood on electric guitar) - written by Joe Morris
3. Uranium Rock (Rock 'Em Dead) (Ron Wood on electric guitar) - written by Warren Smith
4. We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me) - written by Donny Fritts and Troy Seals
5. We Had It All - written by Dick Robertson, Nelson Cogane and Sammy Mysels
6. Unchain My Heart (Ron Wood on electric guitar) - written by James Freddy and Agnes Jones
7. Lonesome Town - written by Ricky Nelson - static pop at end
8. Across The Borderline - written by Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, and Jim Dickinson
9. I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know (acoustic with band) (sung with Tom Petty) - written by Cecil A. Null
10. Rock With Me Baby - written by unknown (?) - title is unknown (?)
11. Red Cadillac And A Black Moustache - written by W.B. Thompson and L. May
12. Good Rockin' Mama (Al Kooper on organ) (John Lee Hooker on electric guitar) (sung by John Lee Hooker) - written by John Lee Hooker
13. Kansas City - written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller - start might be clipped (?)
14. Happy Birthday (acoustic) - written by unknown (traditional)

- Tracks 1,5,7,9 are from 07/31/86 Tacoma, Washington
- Tracks 2,4 are from 07/17/86 New York City, New York
- Track 3 is from 07/16/86 New York City, New York
- Track 6 is from 07/15/86 New York City, New York
- Tracks 8,13 are from 07/24/86 Bonner Springs, Kansas
- Track 10 is from 06/16/86 Costa Mesa, California
- Track 11 is from 07/02/86 Akron, Ohio
- Track 12 is from 09/05/86 Mountain View, California
- Track 14 is from 07/21/86 East Rutherford, New Jersey

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