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By Bill Altreuter

Amusing piece on the flap over the "Deluxe" version of "Tell Tale Signs". Good check off on some of the more unusual live re-workings Dylan has officially released:

"Over the years, concertgoers have been treated to, for example, reggae versions of ?Don?t Think Twice It's Alright? (1978 tour, officially available in Live at Budokan), a vicious rewrite of ?Lay Lady Lay,? where the titular lady?s wooing has degenerated into ?let?s go upstairs, who really cares? (1976 tour, Dylan was going through a difficult divorce at the time), and a stately, almost unrecognizable 7-minute-long ?Blowin? In the Wind? (2000 tour, officially available on a UK bonus disc with Best of, Vol. 2). The many versions of the kaleidoscopic masterpiece ?Tangled Up In Blue? have ranged from the romantic view of a breakup on Blood on the Tracks (1975) and the Rolling Thunder Tour (?there was music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air?), to the brilliant cynicism of the Real Live version (1984, same line: ?there was snow all winter and no heat, revolution was in the air?), passing through the thoroughly bizarre 1978 version?a sax-heavy ballad featuring an exotic dancer with a Bible fetish."

I was surprised by how not-awful "Live at Budokan" is when I gave a borrowed copy a spin for a project. By no means should you run out and buy it, but it made a certain kind of sense for Dylan to approach his material that way at that time and place.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).