Even with the official bootleg run from Bob Dylan there are large swathes of work left untouched. Whether this is over legal rights and ownership of recordings to the Dylan team not getting around to one era or another, there is a bountiful supply of pieces from the sixty years and counting of his career. Unofficial recordings are the great joy of the weekend. There is nothing sweeter than winding down with a few selections of Dylan’s work over the years and unofficial bootleg Another Night: Unreleased Recordings, 1961 – 2016: Volume 1 offers a lush collection of steady hits and alternative takes on the classic tracks listeners know and love. With it comes the expectation of crackling quality yet the slick live recordings collected on this piece, from the earliest days of Candy Man in 1961 through to High Water in 2016 mark surprise after surprise on this sixteen-track selection.
It Ain’t Me, Babe and Maggie’s Farm do well to highlight the change over twenty years. From 1976 into 1996. There is no chance the comparison was intentional from Another Night: Volume 1 but it is inescapable. Those early tones of swinging, stylish flutters. Set those all aside and listen to a cover of The Beatles’ Come Together. Immediately identifiable as all the best covers of The Beatles are, Dylan changes very little of the Abbey Road classic but his voice at this time – weathered by the storm of post-religious clarity and pre-comeback potential sounds desperate, clawing and excited by a break from his material. High Water (For Charley Patton) ripped from a 2016 show may read like a jumble of words but it carves out an essential piece of this collection. Those Love and Theft pieces bring out a whole new range in Dylan, and further along the way, Slow Train Coming confirms the need to let those early religious period pieces simmer a little.
Slow Train Coming still lingers as a soulful boom backed by competent vocalists and this version has a harsher appeal. Giving it a slower build than usual and feeding in those slick guitar tones is a winner. Extracting this piece from an otherwise indifferent year for live performances, 1987, is a real treat. There is a moodiness to this one which is not captured in many of the other Slow Train Coming performances and it pairs well with the later piece Hero Blues, brought back to the stage after a decade in the cold. A ten-minute Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again sounds unique – a staggered and effective rendition of a classic track. Gone are its punchy acoustics and the faster tempo and in comes a longing-filled instrumental section. Exceptional guitar work on this one has Dylan take a backseat to the rumbling powers of instrumental wonder.
Pair it with the subtler tones of The Night We Called It A Day, an undisguised heartbreaker, and what comes of Another Night is an exploration of deep cuts and moments which matter to those hardcore Dylan listeners. Bits and pieces which do not quite fit in the fabric of other recordings but are a thoroughly enjoyable experience. End it with Hallelujah, one of the great Leonard Cohen tracks and a worthy cover from Dylan. It is refreshing to hear the track not rammed through the pop modernities which has reduced the meaningful tones to unreasonably trite mush. Another Night has some shockingly good moments and mixed in with all those bits from The Beatles and Cohen is a wonderful example of how Dylan can lend his voice to the best.
