Let’s not kid ourselves and say the 1980s were not a rough time for Bob Dylan fans. Even those who were born two decades later are suffering the consequences of deep diving his discography. It is not his voice that proves troubling, not even when it got to its croaking and gravelly lows, nor is it the lyrics which, from Shot of Love to Down in the Groove, proved, well, fascinating is a nice word to use. The production, the lacklustre sound and the ever-wavering sense of what Dylan wanted, this sense of artistic loss, was and is still taxing. Where these songs, often tricky to listen to in their overwhelmed production and lyrically understated studio form, come to life, is in their earliest form. Autumn in Los Angeles, the unofficial bootleg, serves as a welcome peek behind the curtain during Empire Burlesque recordings.
Five years of live recordings, predominantly stacked with religious materials and the texts which made up releases like Infidels and Saved. Dark days, indeed. Deep cuts from this period are for the truly dedicated, the fans who have exhausted all listening options and wish to hear Dylan in a floaty and unconvincing guitar rock state. Opener Mystery Train is a fascinating performance which relies more on the wild and liberated electric guitar riffs than the Steve Nieve-like Vox Super in the background. He may not appear on these studio sessions but his influence, his time with Elvis Costello and The Attractions, affected pop musicians of the time. It was a sultry beast of a sound, one which would affect those artists whose slow burn in the 1970s would lead to less sales, slimmer audience numbers. Dylan managed this problem by going for broke, by compiling just about every instrument in the immediate vicinity and throwing it at a track like Mystery Train. It is as intense and exciting a song as it is aimless and freed of expectation. Such is the joy of Autumn in Los Angeles.
For the first time in his career, Dylan is playing catch-up to other artists. You can hear those flickers of influence, the 1980s aesthetic for how a songwriter should impose themselves on lyrics and the tempo, with something like Caribbean Wind. A welcome addition, for sure, Autumn in Los Angeles is a brilliantly put together compilation, but the drop-off in lyrical and instrumental quality from Dylan is as fascinating as his very best. Every song is a “what could have been” moment, though few would have fundamentally changed the projects they are ripped from. Shot of Love would still be left reeling from Lenny Bruce even with the percussion thump and charming instrumental build of Caribbean Love. But a few official recordings, the David Letterman appearance of Jokerman, for instance, is tremendous. Pieces like Magic or Come Together are underwhelming but worth a listen. Every song paints a picture, if not its own, then a new stroke in the context of how Dylan was recording and writing.
Like any strong bootleg, Autumn in Los Angeles features a few tracks in desperate need of official release. The comfortable grooves and charming command of Heart of Mine has such a sweetness to it, an honesty in the romantic core heard in those lyrics. Heart of Mine is a perfect blur of those instrumental soft spots, of the still strong writing Dylan was capable of at the time, though it would appear in moments which feel rarer in the 1980s. Still, you can cling to Still Burning Baby and Nothing Here Worth Dying For. They add tremendous detail to a time of wavering quality. Autumn in Los Angeles shows Dylan’s 80s output is not a lost cause, but you have to dig deeper and deeper to find those charming songs, those features which continued the instrumental and lyrical quality of one of the all time greats. We are lucky to have a range of studio sessions from this period. Pick up the standout and get moving to the next compilation.
