A Thousand Highways

SUMMERTIME BOBNESS

As promised earlier by CWS A Thousand Highways has a mega post article of three volumes devoted to Bob Dylan post his born again preaching period and the reintroduction of the more secular songs and back catalogue. The article here is very well worth reading. Whilst I allowed I was sceptical as had rather left Bob to 'get it out of his system' (as if I knew this would happen) but "You Gotta Serve Somebody' really stuck in my craw and I was left to find inspiration elsewere for a few years. My brother bought all these from Saved to Gotta Serve etc but it was too strong a conversion for this listener and possessed little to no poetry for me. I don't gotta serve no-one 'cept me ya get me? 'Trust Yo'self' I say! Check the notes here as CS explores the somewhat eccentric reintroduction of more playful arrangements and re-arrangements of songs from his back catalogue. Fascinating

1000 Highways -Bob in Summer 1981

As he says:

The third and final year in Bob Dylan's so-called 'gospel period' is a peculiar, unique experience. The early days of the tour were actually quite reminiscent of the preceding Musical Retrospective Tour of Fall 1980. Note the appearance on Volume Three of "Abraham, Martin & John," which was played only twice in 1981 after being featured regularly throughout the earlier tour. Other songs shared between Dylan's four appearances in the United States during June 1981 and his popular return to secular performances between November to December 1980 after a year of pure gospel were "Rise Again," "Covenant Woman" and "We Just Disagree." These tracks would disappear from the set after the singer set foot on European soil for a Summer tour, and the new year would quickly acquire its own identity.

Enjoy I know I did . . . .