Bob Dylan – Wade in the Water Review

Steady yourselves, a playlist of early years material has hit the Bob Dylan YouTube page. For those expecting the inevitable self-titled album to appear in bulk, Wade in the Water will offer a tame surprise. It is not just a rehash of those early years moments but a piece which strips live material from the time of its notes and credit. Man of Constant Sorrow, I Ain’t Got No Town, and Baby Please Don’t Go all feature on this compilation. Where they come from is anyone’s guess. These generated playlists with a shoddy album cover are muddying the waters as they always do, but there is some interest in Wade in the Water. Early years live recordings are tough to come across in listenable quality. Having a harmonica instrumental which does not break the sound barrier or your eardrum is cause for celebration. A bluesy number opens this compilation and is at least a strong start.  

But Dylan hammering away on his guitar, giving the title track a stomp and holler beat with that timed percussion is brilliant. An excellent recording. A shame it has no credit and, therefore, listeners who want to hear more are not offered the chance. It’s a failing of the channel, which is, to a very limited extent, meant to be preserving these historic recordings. Until an artist can offer a team to counter the bootlegs, the latter will be more credible for keeping track of these appearances. Even an ounce more care from those compiling these rapidly releasing playlists would help. It is a rather poor showcase to see the official outlets held to a lower standard than bootleggers, whose hobby is finding the rarities of the stage. Wade in the Water is an annoyance, a symptom of a much wider problem which affects all artists with a backlog big enough to profit from long after they are gone.  

Dylan’s channel will no doubt cough up some awful dreck over the next decade, but it seems few are prepared for what this will do. The internet is already becoming an unusable mass. Disconnecting from it, by either shutting your Goodreads account down or downloading Wikipedia and printing it off, is the right course of action. Maybe not the latter, that would do as much damage to the environment as asking Chat GPT to rewrite an email. It’s poor form all the same, as is the lack of credit given on Wade in the Water. Recognisable performances and songs, Stealin’ and It’s Hard to Be Blind, particularly, cobbled together for the sake of grifting the older generation whose care stops once the song does. The dilution of these songs is worrying. These tracks have appeared time and again in these playlists.  

Wade in the Water, worst of all, has some excellent versions of those pre-folk hero days. Moments on stage where Dylan is getting to grips with the character he would display to his audiences, the little flickers of instrumental charm which made him a standout. All of that is present on these songs, solid pieces of work ripped straight from the stage. The problem, though, is their utilisation as a new project. Wade in the Water is happy to slice off the context of these performances. The whereabouts of the rest of the recordings are not noted. This would reduce the already pitiful viewing figures of the playlist at hand. It’s a shame it’s headed this way, but Wade in the Water highlights another reason to rely on bootleggers, rather than the official channels for these artists.