Expecting Rain

This is good stuff. Right place, right time, right connections.

I'd vote for Bob Dylan over Bob Dole any day. Glad you didn't run him over.

Yeah, I guess. I wanted to give him some of my songs...really did...but thought better of it.

Well, wasn't meant to be. Can't believe you and Goombay didn't drink wine with him since it was so abundant.

The guy was bs'ing you...or just had his facts mixed up. He was walking through the lobby of the Americana (very upscale hotel) and the front desk called security because he looked like a hobo...and security almost threw him out.

I don't know where the band stayed...but it would be hard to imagine that they hole up in South Beach....30-40 minutes (with traffic) from the studio. The Americana...is 5-10 minutes.

those were not smooth sessions, but were historic no doubt. dickinson used to be along with the late great charlie freeman, part of the criteria atlantic house band back in the day, when mac rebennack and neil young and freddie neil used to hang out. nobody at criteria remembered him.

bob had reasons for wanting to do the thing in miami but its best not discussed.

hes hangs out here from time to time, or did back in the day. back in the early nineties i saw him in key biscayne pounding pina coladas, right before some south american tour. he was bombed but having a good time and enjoying himself. the only guy who recognized him was a folksinger guy at the outdoor beach bar and bob asked him to not say nothin and he bought him a drink,

Sure it was meant to be. Two of them ended up on L & T. Damn thief

And no wine drinking with him...but smoked a few joints.

Bob loves South Florida...and was around fairly often throughout the 90's...you got that right. He put on two amazing concerts at the Cameo movie theatre on South Beach...in, I think, 99. Best I've ever seen Dylan. I mean...great, great shows.

Do you live in Miami?

there was an article in the paper at the time. maybe someone can find, but i recall the police were called. he was wearing the hood.
the band stayed in south beach far away from bob, im pretty certain it was the marlin or the one right across the street from it, i used to see them all the time.
i know someone who rode the CITY PUBLIC bus a couple of times with him, as he checked out the local color. and the ever present tommy dowd was at some of those sessions too

i do from time to time. yes i was at those Cameo shows, he came down from the roof stepping down that long stairwell in the back. he hung out at some bar in south beach that aint there no more, of course, tantra maybe? bars there sorta come and go, today its the hottest place on earth a week later its shuttered and the owner is wanted by the FBI. cant beat it.

bob used to at that time have friends in the area. dont know if he has anymore.

I remember Tantra. Hate clubs. But that's just me. The Cameo show's were great. He was looking for a place to rehearse...and they thought of the Cameo...next thing you know...he was doing 2 shows. THAT'S when he was on the way to South America. He was opening for the Stones in Brazil....stopped for a short period in Miami...and did the Cameo shows before heading to South America...98...or 99. I was in the balcony...in a Champagne booth...drinking bottles of DP...sitting back on a couch, with a friend, and my feet on a coffee table. Great way to enjoy a concert. (We were major wine buyers from the local wine/liquor distributor who provided the beverages for the venue, Southern Wine & Spirits.)

it was march 1998. the cameo is still there the building i think but its something else now. it used to have seats but they were gone by the time bob played there. i saw U2 there i think when they first started out.
ron wood had a bar there that bob used to hang out in the late 80s, right around the time south beach took off. thats where i met bo diddley and jerry lee.

Why not?

they were non musical. bob friends ususally dont know each other.

They put sofa's and coffee tables up top where it used to be balony seating, and took out the floor seats to jam more people in. Afterall...it was a movie theatre. Very small. I listened to boots of the second night and Bob was as good as he seemed the night of the show. It was the best I had heard him in the 90's. Period.

Whe we talking about the TOOM sessions...the one thing I remember being very suprised at, was that it was tense, very serious, and little small talk.

they were not fun, however, a lot of people who worked at Criteria many who were not even aware of bob became big fans of his music afterward.
there were some particpants of those sessions who had the idea to leave, thats how bad it got. Lanois did not want to record there, which meant bob made sure it was recorded there. Lanois wanted to record the thing in Oxnard with all kinda of novelty and bob wanted nothing to do with it. half the people there were called in by bob after he decided Lanois people were not cutting it. but the album did good and actually liberated bob from having to ever use a producer again, as Lanois was more or less the record label idea.
ive heard the theory that lanois maybe when mixing, took out bob people and upped his own. ive heard the theory that the mix went back and forth, with strong commentay by some of the parties. the stuff on the boolteg series have more of a OH MERCY vibe than the resulting TOOM.
i would theorize that if bob at the time had a stronger postion with the label it may not have come out at all.

right connections- sometimes it's hard to say what those might be

bob had security during those sessions. but he didnt come to own the studio, other business was being conducted at the same time. as long as you dont announce yourself as some sort of rubbernecking dylanologist of one kind or another, you can go about your business. if you are involved in taking wine theres no reason you cant do so and check things out.
now if you are a rubbernecking dylanologist waving a bottle of spitzer around then you will have a hard time escaping being expelled from the area. thats the way it used to be, but things have changed that guy from the pawn shop show, did just that, waved around a copy of self portrait and hollored about a bit and bob hooked him up. thats not the way things operated back in the day.

I'll bet it's the same regarding finding a decent puro when you want one.

The wineman/goombay conversation has been some of the best chatter I've seen on ER in quite some time. It looks like you two may have just met on this thread and I'm thankful to be present for the conversation. Here are the set lists to those Cameo performances that you guys alluded to (black means both nights):

March 30, 1998
Cameo Theater Night #1
---
To Be Alone With You
If You See Her, Say Hello
Can't Wait
Born In Time
Silvio
White Dove (acoustic)
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (acoustic)
Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)
All Along The Watchtower
Queen Jane Approximately
'Til I Fell In Love With You
(encore)
Highway 61 Revisited
It Ain't Me, Babe (acoustic)
Love Sick
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

March 31, 1998
Cameo Theater Night #2---
To Be Alone With You
Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Can't Wait
You're A Big Girl Now
Silvio
Cocaine Blues (acoustic)
One Too Many Mornings (acoustic)
Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)
Million Miles
Jokerman
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
(encore)
'Til I Fell In Love With You
It Ain't Me, Babe (acoustic)
Love Sick
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

i loved the white dove, jokerman was a cluster probably the worst version. i had some video of some of the show i probably still do but have no idea where its at, got it from some guy from california who videotaped some of one of the shows and was friend with a band member, you could hear the soundcheck and i think they did some muddy waters stuff tho i dont recall if bob did the singing.
first shows in miami after the war at criteria. those were the days. 'this lanois no matter what we play its a problem'. i would love for lanois and bob to tangle again one last time for old time sake.

there was a long set of stairs that went all the way down from the roof( where i guess the dressing room was) and spiraled down to the stage, bob walked down while they introduced him.

does anyone know if tommy masters is still with bob? if bob comes to a town near you i advise you go see him without ado. dont mind all the voice talk. picasso got nothing on bob.

Wasn't he Bob's bus driver? I think Stu is doing that now. At least that is my theory on why Bob keeps him.

yea he was the bus driver among other things. hes stll around or gone?

stu is the guitar guy who doesnt do much? i dont know what possesed bob to get the hee haw guy from the br549 (sp) band, who doesnt do much playing either.
i saw that band once and couldnt sit thru it it was so bad and corny.

I'm probably not the one to ask about Tommy. I'm not one to lord over his bus and try to catch glimpses of him or the band. I tend to leave them be since they are people too. As far a Stu goes, I don't get it. I know that some here will jump in and defend him and I know he CAN play if allowed. But he ain't. I hung out with one of Stu's good buddies in the parking lot of one of the summer shows this year so I feel bad saying it, but Bob could do better.

i dont know him but i know a bunch of his friends tbat are always telling me to give him messages.
as for stu he doesnt seem to do much. if i were to theorize i would have to come to the opinion that he must be a friend. a friend of a friend.
the music thing has politics too,

I thought Jokerman was great...but it could've been the moment. I haven't heard that one on a boot. But I have heard a number of songs from those two nights (the second being superior) and it confirms what I heard live....and that is that Bob was in rare form vocally...and that he never sounded better in the entire decade (at least from the many performances I attended, and heard boots from). He was brilliant. And what a cool up close and personal venue...a former movie theatre.

As for the TOOM sessions, I can't add much more than I have. It was all business, tense, with no small talk...and they didn't drink any of the wines we brought with us. Although they may have, after the sessions. And I only heard a few songs that I went "wow" to. By the few sessions I attended, I didn't anticipate the album being anything special. But it was fun being there, and knowing it was Bob's first time in the studio recording entirely original material...since Under The Red Sky, I believe. (They did play several covers during the sessions, but can't recall what they were.)