ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST | Bob Dylan Blues 1976 -1978

 Bob Dylan - Blues with a Feeling - Non-Album Tracks (1976-1978)

Paul Says: 

I've been moving forward chronologically through Bob Dylan's career. For a while, I was stuck around the 1978 era. The reason is that Dylan did a lot of interesting things musically, especially in concert, but there are almost no official recordings (other than the "Street Legal" studio album), and most of the bootleg recordings don't sound that great. But I finally figured it out. 

I've made two stray tracks albums. The first one is here, and it's a blues album. Dylan had the blues at this point in his life. He was having a rough time personally. His long marriage to Sara Lownds slowly fell apart, ending with a divorce in 1977. In late 1978, he converted to Christianity, and that gave him a new purpose and energy in his life. But the between time largely coincides with the time frame of this album, when he truly had the blues. So it figures that he would have played a lot of blues songs in concert, and he did.

I must warn you though, the sound quality here is a little rougher than my usual standards. It doesn't sound terrible, mind you, but these generally come from audience boots instead of soundboard or radio broadcast boots. (There's only one soundboard boot from 1978, and no radio broadcasts, and it's from very early in year, before he was playing lots of blues songs.) Many of these songs were only played a few times in concert, so we're lucky to get any decent recordings at all. That said, I still did have standards. The really rough sounding songs are relegated to bonus tracks, as usual.

There are only two original songs here, "Rita May" and "Stop Now." I've already included a different version of "Rita May" on another stray tracks album "Abandoned Love," which is a studio version released on a single. This is a live version that's somewhat different, and more energetic. "Stop Now" is an original that has yet to be officially released in any form. I'm putting another version of that one on a different stray tracks album, "Coming from the Heart." But that version is done at a face pace, while this one is much slower. So I call this one the "Slow Blues Version."

In terms of covers, at the time, Dylan was very fond of blues singles from the 1920s and 30s, and continues to be. For instance, two of the songs here are by Tampa Red ("She's Love Crazy" and "Love with a Feeling") who did most of his recordings in the 1920s and 30s. I could be wrong, but I think the only well known blues songs from later are "My Babe" and "I'm Ready," which were hits in the 1950s by Little Walter and Muddy Waters respectively.

The first three songs are from 1976 concerts. Dylan basically took 1977 off musically, doing no concerts and releasing no songs (although he wrote some songs). The rest are from 1978.  

Everything here is unreleased. However, about half of the songs (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, and 8) are from studio sessions. Those all are from concert rehearsals that luckily got recorded. Since those have no audience applause on them, I did my best to remove the audience applause on the others to get them to match.

The two bonus tracks are more of the same, but they're bonus tracks because they sound worse. "I'm a Steady Rollin' Man," a Robert Johnson tune, was only played once in concert, so we're lucky to have a recording of that one at all.

This album is 35 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

01 Hold Me in Your Arms 
02 The Sun Is Shining 
03 Rita May 
04 My Babe 
05 Repossession Blues 
06 Lonesome Bedroom 
07 Love with a Feeling 
08 Stop Now [Slow Blues Version] 
09 She's Love Crazy 
10 I'm Ready

I'm a Steady Rollin' Man 

Weary Blues from Waitin'