Tell Me
Bob Dylan / 4:25
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Mark Knopfler: guitar; Mick Taylor: guitar; Alan Clark: keyboards; Robbie Shakespeare: bass; Sly Dunbar: drums; Lou George, Curtis Bedeau, Gerard Charles, Brian George, and Paul Anthony: backup vocals Recording Studio: The Power Station / Studio A, New York: April 21, 1983 (Overdubs May 18, 1983) / Producers: Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler / Sound Engineer: Neil Dorfsman / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991 (CD 3) / Date of Release: March 26, 1991
“Tell Me” is a fairly trivial love song. A man wonders if the woman he loves thinks of someone else while she is kissing him (“Are you lookin’ at me and thinking of somebody else”). In the last verse, Dylan sings, “Are you someone whom anyone prays for or cries.” “Tell Me” was recorded on April 21 in eight takes. In a calypso-like style, Dylan and his band offer a serviceable performance, which allows Mick Taylor to show off his slide guitar, not in a blues style but more like a Hawaiian guitar. On May 18, in Dylan’s absence, Mark Knopfler enriched the piece with backup vocals by the extraordinary American R&B group Full Force. It seems that the songwriter forgot the tune as quickly as he had recorded it—at least until the official release on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3!
Lord Protect My Child
Bob Dylan / 3:57
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; Mark Knopfler: guitar; Mick Taylor: guitar; Alan Clark: organ; Robbie Shakespeare: bass; Sly Dunbar: drums / Recording Studio: The Power Station / Studio A, New York: April 25, 1983 / Producers: Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler / Sound Engineer: Neil Dorfsman Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991 (CD 3) / Date of Release: March 26, 1991
Bob Dylan was rarely so direct as in this song. He prays to the Lord to protect his child. This request shows hardly any optimism: a father terribly worried about his child’s future in the world that has become one of luxury, a father who knows that he is not eternal (“If I fall along the way / And can’t see another day / Lord, protect my child”). However, there is a glimmer of hope in the last verse: “When God and man will be reconciled / But until men lose their chains / And righteousness reigns.”
“Lord Protect My Child” is a rhythm ’n’ blues song, played with conviction and sung with exceptional authenticity. The recording was made on May 2 in ten takes, including four false starts. In the introduction, there is a possible technical problem: the first beat of the first three measures gives the impression of having been edited. Besides that, the musicians are all first rate, especially Alan Clark on piano. Two guitarists start a solo at the same time as Dylan begins playing his harmonica (in G)! Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, and Dave Brubeck recorded a cover of this highly spiritual song, produced by Chris Brubeck.
Foot Of Pride
Bob Dylan / 5:58
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; Mark Knopfler: guitar; Mick Taylor: guitar; Alan Clark: piano; Robbie Shakespeare: bass; Sly Dunbar: drums / Recording Studio: The Power Station / Studio A, New York: May 2, 1983 / Producers: Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler / Sound Engineer: Neil Dorfsman Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991 (CD 3) / Date of Release: March 26, 1991
Dylan read the Bible in depth and tells us so in this song, giving his own vision of the world. Even the song’s title is pulled from Psalm 36 (verse 11), “Let not the foot of pride come near me, no wicked hand disturb me.” Using biblical allusions, the songwriter denounces without any ambiguity everyone who has brought humanity to the edge of a cliff: for example, those who “Sing ‘Amazing Grace’ all the way to the Swiss banks.” The world as painted by Dylan is the world of sin, hypocrisy, and arrogance—a kind of Babylon of modern times.
The booklet of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 mentions that the version released on the bootleg was recorded on April 25. In Dylan’s discography at the time, “Foot of Pride” holds the record for the number of takes, forty-three, including fourteen complete ones in six sessions (April 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, and 29)! The high number of takes shows that Dylan did not find the right formula to bring this song to life. Unfortunately, the song struggles to take off, despite the valiant efforts of all the musicians.
Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground
Willie Nelson / 4:25
SINGLE
DATE OF RELEASE
I and I / Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
November 1983
on CBS Records
(REFERENCE A-3904)
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica (?)
Clydie King: vocals
Mark Knopfler: guitar (?)
Mick Taylor: guitar
Alan Clark: piano
Robbie Shakespeare: bass
Sly Dunbar: drums
Recording Studio
The Power Station / Studio A, New York: May 2,
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler
Sound Engineer: Neil Dorfsman
Genesis and Lyrics
“Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” was written by Willie Nelson. Jerry Seltzer, the manager who organized musical events in the San Francisco Bay Area for Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, said the song might be about a member of the Hells Angels from Austin called Charlie Magoo who died in an accident. The song was used in the soundtrack to a 1981 film directed by Jerry Schatzberg, Honeysuckle Rose, starring Willie Nelson as a country singer, along with Dyan Cannon, Amy Irving, and Emmylou Harris (as herself). Nelson’s hit was released as a single with “I Guess I’ve Come to Here in Your Eyes” on the B-side. The tune “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” peaked at number 1 on the US Billboard Country chart.
Production
During the sessions for Infidels, Dylan recorded several songs by other composers, including a superb version of “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” on May 2, 1983. Dylan’s cover is somewhat far from the original spirit of the Willie Nelson hit. The country tone of Nelson’s ballad is replaced by a blues-rock sound moving from a slow to a faster tempo by the end. Dylan’s voice is loaded with emotion. On this occasion, he was accompanied on harmony vocals by Clydie King, who, after “Union Sundown,” is performing on her second song for the Infidels sessions. Mick Taylor probably plays lead guitar, most likely his Stratocaster (Telecaster?) instead of his Gibson Les Paul. The style does not bear the mark of Mark Knopfler (right channel in stereo). The other guitarist on rhythm (left channel) does not seem to be Knopfler, either, but Dylan himself.
Twelve takes were made under the working title “Angel.” Dylan was satisfied enough with the last take to decide to use it as the B-side for the single extracted from Infidels. Depending on the country, this single was either “Union Sundown,” “Jokerman,” or “Sweetheart Like You.”
Empire Burlesque
Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?)
Seeing The Real You At Last
I’ll Remember You
Clean Cut Kid
Never Gonna Be The Same Again
Trust Yourself
Emotionally Yours
When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky
Something’s Burning, Baby
Dark Eyes
THE OUTTAKES
Driftin’ Too Far From Shore
Firebird
Who Loves You More
Wolf
New Danville Girl
Queen Of Rock’n’Roll
Look Yonder
Gravity Song
Girl I Left Behind
Prince Of Plunder
Straight As In Love
I See Fire In Your Eyes
Waiting To Get Beat
(The Very Thought Of You)
DATE OF RELEASE
June 10, 1985
on Columbia Records
(REFERENCE COLUMBIA FC 40110)
Empire Burlesque:
An Album Adapted for FM and MTV
The Album
In the summer of 1984, Bob Dylan returned to the studio. He had just completed his European tour, which began in the Verona Arena in Italy on May 28, 1984, and ended in Slane, Ireland, on July 8. Initially, he planned to practice and to provide the final touches to the songs he wrote earlier in Malibu, California. He wanted to wait to have a selection of reasonably uniform titles to be included on the same album, which explains the length of time for recording Empire Burlesque, from July 1984 to March 1985.
Dylan’s twenty-third studio album was the first released simultaneously on LP and CD, on June 10, 1985 (May 30, according to some sources). Empire Burlesque is an album of the digital age, characterized by a sound entirely different from any of Dylan’s previous albums. The songs, at least most of them, were remixed by Arthur Baker in a modern style. They were probably produced to attract radio listeners and MTV viewers, not the public of Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. In summary, Empire Burlesque is Dylan in the territory of Afrika Bambaataa and Hall & Oates, two artists also bearing Arthur Baker’s signature.
But as always with Dylan, the key is in the lyrics, in the poetic imagery and captivating rhythms of the words. If the songwriter is still obsessed with the Last Judgment, as evidenced by “When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky,” biblical texts are no longer his primary reference. What Dylan offers the listener here is a return to the golden age of Hollywood, with John Huston, Howard Hawks, Humphrey Bogart, and Lauren Bacall as masters of ceremonies. Several of his songs, in fact, have references to classic American film noir, sometimes with almost literal quotations. Thus, “Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?)” and “Seeing the Real You at Last” refer to The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Huston, “I’ll Remember You” to The Big Sleep by Howard Hawks, and “Never Gonna Be the Same Again” to Shane by George Stevens.
Dylan’s poetry is found in two songs with the accents of a protest song: “Clean Cut Kid,” the story of an average American “good kid” who goes to fight in Vietnam and whose dream turns into a nightmare, and “Dark Eyes,” the memory of a call girl.
Although Empire Burlesque is not a major Dylan album, it was well received, reaching number 33 on the US charts and number 11 in the United Kingdom. The effect of Live Aid on July 13, 1985, might have played a role. Dylan himself was very satisfied with this record, as he confided to Toby Creswell in 1986, “I thought it was really good.”20 By listening to the album, however, it is questionable that Dylan was well served by the sirens of digital technology.
The Album Cover
Ken Regan shot the photo for the cover. Regan, the great photographer of the Camera 5 agency, had photographed Dylan’s tour, the Stones, the Band’s The Last Waltz (1978), the Concert for Bangladesh (1971), and Live Aid (1985). Regan shows Dylan bowed, wearing an improbable Miami Vice–style jacket, which some felt proclaimed the technopop tone of the album. On the back, the design is comparable: Dylan is wearing a hat and is accompanied by a young woman who looks like Sara, although her face is partly hidden. The design of the album was given to Nick Egan, who had also worked on albums by the Clash, Dexys Midnight Runners, and INXS, among others, as well as on Dylan’s box set Biograph. The title of the album could refer to America, which became an empire in a country of burlesque.
The Recording
On July 24, 1984, a few days after his return from Europe, Dylan headed back to Intergalactic Studio in New York City, where he improvised a session with Al Green and his musicians from Memphis. The session turned into a fiasco, as reported by Ron Wood: “All these guys from Memphis couldn’t understand Bob’s chord sequences. Every time he started off a new song, he’d start in a new key, or if we were doing the same song over and over, every time would be in a different key. Now I can go along with that with Bob, but the band were totally confused.”89
From July 26, 1984, to March 23, 1985, Dylan booked no less than five studios to work on this album, totaling more than forty sessions of recordings and overdubs. After recording all the materials, he brought the tapes to Arthur Baker at Tommy Boy Records, a label oriented to dance, hip-hop, and R&B. Baker was an alchemist of sound, with the power to transform a rock composition into a disco or pop hit. His remixes included “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper, “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen, and “Thieves Like Us” by New Order, among others. In 1985, Baker helped produce Empire Burlesque, working as mixer and arranger. He gave Dylan’s songs a rather metallic and cold sound, popular at the time on rock radio stations. Only “Dark Eyes” escaped Baker’s transformation. In that song, Dylan revived the formula that created his musical identity, namely a voice, an acoustic guitar, and a harmonica. In 1986, Dylan explained his approach, “I just went out and recorded a bunch of stuff all over the place and then when it was time to put this record together I brought it all to [Arthur Baker] and he made it sound like a record. Usually I stay out of that side of the finished record… I’m not good at it. There are guys that don’t mind sitting in the control booth for days and days. I’m just not like that; I’m a one-mix man. I can’t tell the difference after that.”20
Dylan did not just increase the number of recording studios used. He also asked for twenty-eight musicians and two brass sections to participate in the album: five backup singers, eight guitarists, four bassists, four keyboards, a saxophonist, a percussionist, and five drummers—so far from his first recordings. The eclectic mix of musicians included the faithful Mick Taylor, Al Kooper, Ron Wood, Jim Keltner, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Benmont Tench, Alan Clark, Carolyn Dennis, and Madelyn Quebec, but also new musicians like guitarist Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and the keyboard player Richard Scher, who had played with Jeff Beck and Al Green.
Technical Details
Empire Burlesque was produced in five different studios. The exact number and dates of the sessions are unfortunately not definitive. Many documents are missing. However, various sources give a realistic idea of the recordings. After a first session at the Delta Recording Studio in New York City in June 1984, there were more than sixteen sessions at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood; a dozen at the Power Station in New York City, where the album Infidels had been recorded; about a dozen at Arthur Baker’s Shakedown Sound Studio in New York City; and some at Right Track Studios, also in New York but unfortunately not listed. Note that the Robb Brothers founded Cherokee Studios in the 1970s and produced an impressive number of artists. In 1975, David Bowie recorded his platinum album Station to Station there, and in 1978 and 1979 Michael Jackson made Off the Wall. In 1985, the recording equipment included a custom Trident A-Range console with eighty inputs. Arthur Baker’s Shakedown Sound Studio was equipped at the time with a forty-eight-channel Solid State Logic console. Three sound engineers worked on the album: Josh Abbey (Mark Knopfler, Brian Wilson), George Tutko (Duran Duran, Rod Stewart), and Judy Feltus.
The Instruments
In addition to his usual guitars, including his Fender Stratocaster, Dylan played an acoustic at Live Aid, presumably a Martin D-40, though it is not clear if he used it at the studio. Finally, he played harmonica on only one song, in G.
Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?)
Bob Dylan / 5:22
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, keyboards
Mick Taylor: guitar
Ted Perlman: guitar
Richard Scher: synthesizers
Robbie Shakespeare: bass
Sly Dunbar: drums
Carol Dennis, Queen Esther Marrow, and Peggi Blu: backup vocals
Recording Studios
The Power Station / Studio A, New York: April 25 or 26, 1983 (Overdubs January 15, 1985)
Shakedown Sound Studio, New York: (Overdubs February/March 1985)
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Dylan
Sound Engineers: Josh Abbey (The Power Station) and Arthur Baker (Shakedown)
Remix: Arthur Baker
Genesis and Lyric
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“Tight Connection to My Heart” was a new version of “Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart,” recorded during the 1983 LP Infidels sessions but excluded from that album. Between April 1983 and January 1985, the lyrics were entirely transformed. “Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart” is rooted in the mystical depths of biblical texts, while “Tight Connection to My Heart” refers to the Hollywood movie industry of the 1950s. The song includes references to lines from two classic Humphrey Bogart movies. In the 1951 movie Sirocco, Bogart says, “I’ve got to move fast: I can’t with you around my neck.” In the song, the line becomes, “Well, I had to move fast / And I couldn’t with you around my neck.” The second verse begins with two lines taken from The Maltese Falcon from 1941: “‘We wanna talk to you, Spade.’ ‘Well, go ahead and talk.’” In Dylan’s song, they become, “You want to talk to me / Go ahead and talk.” Further on in the song, Dylan sings a line almost straight from the movie Sirocco: “I can’t figure out whether I’m too good for you / Or you’re too good for me.” As Dylan confided to Scott Cohen of Spin in December 1985, “‘Tight Connection to My Heart’ is a very visual song. I want to make a movie out of it… Of all the songs I’ve written, that’s the one that’s got characters that can be identified with.”
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 70