Bob Dylan – Love Sick (Take 2) Review

Haunted. That is the word that wraps up the opening to Love Sick (Take 2) and the momentum it carries. Spooked and gorgeous, distant crimes rattled through with a calmed and utterly gut-wrenching vocal display. Bob Dylan provides what many other artists cannot with reworkings of his own songs. It is the reverse of what U2 is currently doing with Songs of Surrender. Where Dylan perfected a release and offered up some solid pre-release workings and takes, U2 offered their perfect take and is now trying to offer some form of post-release bootleg. It is a strange place to be, but thankfully The Bootleg Series: Volume 17 is set for grand success, especially if quality like Love Sick (Take 2) is the benchmark.

One clear consistency for the tracks released to mark these Time Out of Mind sessions so far is the vocal change. Dylan feels much sharper in these cuts and extra takes than he does on the album. It will likely lead to comparison after comparison, but Love Sick (Take 2) is somewhat close to the original in scope and pacing. This deep-cut release is far longer than that of the Time Out of Mind release and a lot less jolly, removing its sharp guitar work and in its place a percussion-heavy presentation of the lyrics. Its pauses for instrumental defiance are well-worked, Love Sick (Take 2) feels like a better-rounded track than the one that featured on Time Out of Mind. Here, it feels contemplated, slow and moving.

It did on the album version, too. Love Sick was a clear high for Time Out of Mind, an opening track with real contemplation and depth. It still has both, and much of this new edition comes down to personal preference. Dylan receives the spotlight on the original release, but this new release sees him pull back a little, to let the instruments mark their worth and build up some new perspectives. Dylan feels loud and defiant on that original, it gives the lyrics their dues, but Love Sick (Take 2) gives a bitter, beautiful representation of those same words. It is the fundamentals of great writing that this track can be taken to those great highs and lows, its meaning interpreted through the change-up in track listing and instruments. Dylan’s delivery is, more or less, the same. It is what goes on around him, or what is lacking, that matters most.

Still, regardless of that, the best version of this track is the Grammys version, solely because it takes real guts to push through while a man with “Soy Bomb” painted on his chest throws his arms around right next to Dylan. Impressive stuff, and that guitar solo after his removal from stage is quite good. Love Sick (Take 2) strips down to the bare essentials of a very moving track and gives it some slower clarity. Moving acoustics mark a fine deep cut that, once again, gives Dylan’s writing a new feel, a new sound. It gives his listener the choice of mood on his song, a platter of choice that very few artists can match up. Those deep cuts of his studio work get better and better, The Bootleg Series: Volume 17 gears up with real promise at the heart of it.