Precious memories as Bob goes back to his ‘hidden’ springtime in the 80s

And So Dylan keeps coming back … all the way

To so many, Bob Dylan’s career in the 80s was drear and unfocussed … but there was a springtime and it happened in New York.

And here it is, documented as part of the never-ending bootleg series.

In some ways Bob Dylan in the 1980s was completely alternative, more than most of us ever noticed. He did a series of alternative versions of his already massive back-catalogue, he used an alternative voice, an alternative sartorial style and alternated between being hated and ridiculed.

And yet is so many ways, the truth is that the 80s was a brilliant part of his sometimes glittering, sometimes tarnished ballroom of a career.

In a way he was more alternative than he was perceived way back in the Sixties when he was branded like ‘pants and shirts’ as the voice of a generation and a folk hero.

Well, he was a folk hero for a bit, yes – and it’s still used as a ‘scratch’ biog by writers and bloggers who never noticed he actually moved like warm mercury in to blues, rock, country, folk, bluegrass, spiritual and Sinatra-style crooning.

And now, as Shadow Kingdom showed, he is plugged in to the cyber world of the covid-ridden PRESENT..

But from Empire Burlesque to Down in the Groove, Dylan seemed to be drifting to far from the shore of his audience – and yet his concerts, on the whole, were brilliant.

And now we are going back there with Springtime in New York, from 1980 – 1985

This next part of the bootleg series offers loads of alternate takes, unreleased numbers and rehearsals.

I for one want to back there…

Available as a 2 x LP or 2 x CD set, or a five-disc deluxe set, and will be released on September 17th.