Bob Dylan
April - May 1997
Bathed In A Stream of Pure Heat

Normally, I'm not a "compilations" person. It always seems that someone else's choices for "best of" are invariably different than what I would pick. But Dylan has performed so much that it's impossible for me to collect even a fraction of his concerts. So compilations often turn out to be an excellent way to capture the essense of a tour without sitting through all the dross. This acoustic compilation from the 97 tour is an excellent example. This is one of the top historically interesting compilations of Dylan performances not because it contains all the classic songs; rather, it's interesting in that it doesn't contain the classics. It's a combination of rarely played songs, cover songs and debuts but all performed very well and just as important, sequenced in a way that creates a great ambience and segue. At times, it seems as though he's improvising the arrangements rather than sticking to the predictable song structures. For me, that's pretty cool. For others, they can get annoyed with not hearing a "perfect" reproduction of the original sound. Still, couple all this with a darned good sound quality and - shazam - I think it's a great great bootleg. Not a "top 10 of all time" kind of bootleg but a fun, interesting set nonetheless.  Dylan's voice would suffer later in 97-98 but he was in pretty good shape during this early 97 time period - a bit rough at times but very listenable. On the flip side, Dylan is not exactly known for his 'great' voice so I never expect too much. I do expect a lot in phrasing and dynamics and he certainly delivers on this set. (Funny thing is that Bob's voice actually got better later on >'99 but that's another story).  To be clear, this is easily one of my favorite compilations by any artist but again, beware, if you're looking for more cliched, classic Dylan material (H61R, LARS, etc) then keep looking because you will be disappointed.  And truthfully, he's done some of these songs better in other years but this compilation is here and now and ready for the plucking. So with all this, I think this compilation is best listened to when you've got some reflective time to really sit and listen to the vocals, the instrumentation, the harmonies, the emotion. Invest 90 minutes in this Bob boot and you'll be rewarded.

1. Not Fade Away   2. Pretty Peggy-O   3. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere   4. Every Grain Of Sand   5. Pledging My Time   6. Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie   7. Friend Of The Devil   8. John Brown   9. Viola Lee Blues 10. Roving Gambler 11. Desolation Row

1. Stone Walls and Steel Bars   2. Love Minus Zero/No Limit   3. Wicked Messenger   4. Shooting Star   5. Long Black Veil   6. Born in time   7. You're A Big Girl Now   8. This Wheel's On Fire   9. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall 10. My Back Pages

return