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| Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol.8/Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 | 
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| Artist: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Category: Music
List Price: £21.99
Buy New: £11.98
You Save: £10.01 (46%)
Buy New/Used from £10.14
Avg. Customer Rating:  (59 reviews)
Sales Rank: 190
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 4.8 x 0.6
MPN: 735795
UPC: 886973579527
EAN: 0886973579527
ASIN: B001D06SEI
Release Date: October 6, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Mississippi | | • | Most Of The Time | | • | Dignity | | • | Someday Baby | | • | Red River Shore | | • | Tell Ol' Bill | | • | Born In Time | | • | Can't Wait | | • | Everything Is Broken | | • | Dreamin' Of You | | • | Huck's Tune | | • | Marchin' To The City | | • | High Water (For Charley Patton) |
Disc 2
| • | Mississippi (1) | | • | 32 20 Blues | | • | Series Of Dreams | | • | God Knows | | • | Can't Escape From You | | • | Dignity (1) | | • | Ring Them Bells | | • | Cocaine Blues | | • | Ain't Talkin' | | • | Girl On The Greenbriar Shore | | • | Lonesome Day Blues | | • | Miss The Mississippi | | • | Lonesome River - Dylan, Bob & Ralph Stanley | | • | 'Cross The Green Mountain |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Subtitled "Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006", Tell Tale Signs, the eighth of Dylan's long running Bootleg series of officially approved outtakes, comes in two formats. The two-disc version consists of 27 tracks, including alternate versions of songs from his last three studio sets: Oh Mercy, Time out of Mind and Modern Times. Even non-obsessives will be seduced by the highlights here. A lovely sparse solo version of "Most of the Time", just Dylan strumming guitar and blowing a wheezy harmonica, outdoes the Daniel Lanois-produced original. The bleak, stately "Can't Escape from You", the sad and beautiful Civil War epic "Cross the Green Mountain", "The Lonesome River" a bluegrass standard with vocals from Ralph Stanley and a great, lo-fi live version of Reverend Gary Davis's influential "Cocaine Blues" are all standouts. Two versions of "Dignity"--a piano demo that reduces it to an oddly naked state and an unexpected rockabilly take--neatly capture the idea behind these volumes--to expose dedicated fans to the overlooked and underestimated parts of Dylan's constantly shifting oeuvre. --Steve Jelbert
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| Customer Reviews: Read 54 more reviews...
 1 star reviews of a 5 star album! December 4, 2008
All the 29 (so far) 1 star reviews are not reviews of the music but of the marketing of the 3CD version. Amongst them are some very angry long standing Dylan fans who refuse to even buy any of the versions, not merely the over priced deluxe version. Well, thats their loss.
I started listening to Dylan as a teenager in the early 60's and have always felt that the first three albums from the electric period were the peak of an amazing career. This new collection is another wonderful peak that has enabled me to revisit the period they cover and add to my appreciation of his later career. I have not yet found a song to better my personal Dylan favourite 'Desolation Row' but there are several that come close after a few weeks of listening and the collection only adds to my gratitude that the man and his music have been around during my lifetime.
I doubt that Mr D. gives a toss about these 1 star opinions of the marketing division of Sony and can't imagine he would be troubled by those who resort to non-retail means of obtaining the music. The 3rd CD whether you pay for it or not is the equal in musical terms to the other two - so 15 stars in all!
worth the money December 2, 2008
whatever he made and still makes is worth every cent...what's good about dylan is that he never cheats his fan...
Keep those bootlegs coming, Columbia November 22, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'll start off with a brief point. A lot of people have marked this item a poor buy because of a very different and overpriced 3cd version of it. But this is the rather cheap 2cd version, the one which is advertised here and the one which I plan to review. By the way, for the completist, there are people selling a copy of the third disc on ebay, so fret ye not!
As far as Bob Dylan is concerned, no two performances of a song should ever be the same. On this release, he proves his point and yet he also proves like Neil Young that he doesn't always release his best songs or the best versions of them. The first track kicks off with such a gorgeous version of Mississippi! I loved the released version, but the way Bob sings it is so tender here, the backing an almost a lilting and sympathetic response. Its not that its necessarily a 'better' version than the more strident one on Love and Theft. Its just completely different!! The same with Most of The Time, which sees Bob here sing it like the folk days of old instead of the swampy one on Oh Mercy. The real jewel in the crown on the first disc in terms of alternative versions must go to Born In Time. This is in every way a far superior version, making the one on Under The Red Sky sound frumpy and slapdash and devoid of purpose. By far the greatest unreleased song on disc one, and maybe the best of all on the set is Red River Shore. How Time Out Of Mind would have benefitted with a song like that. I'd swap it for Make You Feel My Love in an instant! Marching To The City, an unreleased song from the same sessions, and Dreaming Of You are also quite mindblowing. The live version of High Water is a revelation for all of those who have not seen him in person of late. Electrifying!
The second disc isn't quite as stupefying, if only because the alternative versions are not so different, although if this version of Ain't Talking had ended Modern Times, it would have made this Bobcat very happy indeed. The song 'God Knows' is also far superior to the released version. There are a few more live versions of his songs, the best being Ring Them Bells.... As far as unreleased songs go Can't Escape From You is an absolute gem, a real lost child and one I'm so glad I've heard. Its the one song that truly stayed in my head when I was working, just winding its way through my mind until I couldn't wait to get home and listen to the whole lot again. And to finish off, 'Cross The Green Mountain', previously released on a soundtrack which I hadn't heard is beautiful in the same way Workingman's Blues#2 was; an almost elegaic, frontier song that sounds so familiar yet original.
Oh, and how could he have left 32/20, the Robert Johnson song off World Gone Wrong???
Like the rest of the Bootleg series, this is just stirring, powerful stuff, and far more emotion is being relayed here than in many of the songs he released in the period. Maybe he didn't want to let too much of himself go at the time. But they're here now, and I'm thankful
Clearly a five star album November 19, 2008
How this is averaging so low is beyond me - it's the best album I've heard all year by a country mile. The alternative take of Can't Wait - magestic, unsettling, and superior to the original release in every way - would alone make this unmissable. Add to that the alternative takes of Mississippi - his greatest song of the last decade - and the wonderful unheard track, Girl from the Red River Shore, and this is absolutely essantial. Don't listen to the naysayers - this is a great record.
 "You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way" November 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is effectively a follow up to Bootleg series vol 1 - 3 (1961 - 91)
How anyone thought they could find 2 let alone 3 discs worth of recent material to compare with those glory years is beyond me. Dylan has had several peaks over the decades, but each has hit a lesser height.
Dylan's released work of the last ten years, while good, does not match the mid seventies era (Planet Waves / Blood on the Tracks / Desire), let alone the mid sixties classics. These outtakes reflect that drop in quality. There is nothing here to match "Blind Willie McTell" or "Last thoughts on Woody Guthrie" that appeared on the vol 1-3 set.
Anyway, the bad stuff first:
There is far too much filler here. The two (two!) versions of "Mississippi" are mediocre demos add nothing to my appreciation of the released version. "Series of Dreams" apppeared as a finished outtake on vol 1-3, why do we need an inferior demo on this editon? Some of the live tracks reflect Bob's inconsistency as a performer. "High Water" may have a sentimental resonance for the people of New Orleans, but it is a rotten performance.
Good stuff:
Two versions of Dignity - in two different arrangements with different lyrics (but one would have been enough!).
"Red River Shore" / "Greenbriar Shore" a Dylan original and the folk song it is based on.
"Ring Them Bells" live - a superb live performance - but why is it the only track from the four nights he recorded at the Supper Club?
The remaining tracks vary from ok to good. The finished movie songs being the better ones.
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