Hop onto YouTube and you can find all sorts of generative, artificial intelligence slop with Bob Dylan’s name plastered on it. A real disservice to the artist and the music, but such is the modern world. Why kill off the environment to hear Dylan cover Green Day? Nonsensical the use of AI may be, it serves as a reminder of why bootlegging is so important. There will come a time when contemporary material from these legendary artists is no more. What we must rely on, then, are stage shows and studio cuts which never saw the light of day, not poor-quality rips of an artist’s voice, moulded and generated into performing any song we please. Part of art is the what if, the moments that nearly did happen are as important in the listening experience as the performances we keep returning to. Unofficial bootleg She’s Your Lover Now compiles very real what if moments, the non-album tracks which slipped on by.
What could have been had they released, that is a discussion worth having. Stray tracks and spare parts are of infinitely more interest than adding a layer of slop to already released recordings. The ethical and copyright issues aside, it is just not interesting to hear. What is, though, are the days where Dylan was writing up a storm, figuring out where his wordplay could take him. An early version of Visions of Johanna features as the opening track, a similar tempo but wildly different instrumentals. They fit the structure of the Blonde on Blonde, but changes to the guitar playing and the lyrics are heard in crisp, studio quality. Images of the eponymous former lover still linger on the track but the writing around it, the hopes of reconnecting with her so soon after tying the knot with Sara Lownds, are startling. She’s Your Lover Now shines a light on moments which feel, still, too jagged to release. No wonder Dylan rewrote some of this work, and canned other songs like Lunatic Princess.
Lunatic Princess is a brief but lucid blur of Maggie’s Farm instrumentals and lyrical tones Dylan would not return to until a decade later. It may be unfinished, but the heart and fire heard in this minute clipping is a staggering moment for She’s Your Lover Now. Many of these songs may be familiar to those who have listened through The Cutting Edge, but the re-contextualisation She’s Your Lover Now brings is a welcome experience. Tempo changes and instrumental breakdowns are the significant, constant change for these songs. Most of these songs can, indeed, be heard on The Cutting Edge, but the work done by bootleggers in touching these outtakes up as studio-like potential, through hard work and clipping tracks rather than exposing the beauty to lazy, modern tech, is wonderful to hear. It keeps the beating heart of She’s Your Lover Now and the Blonde on Blonde tracks within exposed to care, not cruel adaptive processes.
She’s Your Lover Now adds a new meaning to songs which were heavily changed before release. You can hear it in the softer tones of longing on She’s Your Lover Now, in the observations of undiscovered cruelty on hotel demo Positively Van Gogh. Crucial to any great bootleg is the consistency of the material, the efforts made to guide us through an inferred story which can be true and untrue all at once. What this unofficial bootleg offers are a cutting of dates and disasters, wrong turns which are reflected on through some of the most heart-wrenching works Dylan would write. His strength is reflection at an early age. I Can’t Leave Her Behind feels like the most obvious moment for this, and even when working with just a snippet, we can gauge the tenderness which seeped into Dylan’s lyrics, those moments of raw and open writing which are charted brilliantly by She’s Your Lover Now.
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
