Plymouth Rock

Talk about blowing your mind away! two PA tape recordings in stunning quality. This isn't so much about feeling that you're there, or even part of the action, this is about sitting underneath Dylan's mike stand and having his foot tapping three inches from your nose. The recording is quite simply something else - every nuance in Dylan's voice is captured,even when he's laughing with the stage band, - hell you can even hear picking up his harmonica and the other musicians coming onto the stage. Not that any of this periphery is in any way distracting - once the music kicks in all you hear is shear poetry in the making. I Don't Believe You is sung with a feeling and passion I've never heard before. You feel priveliged just to be able to listen to it. There's no point in wasting superlatives on the performances - you know the kind of thing to expect, just expect to hear it better than you've ever heard it before. Of the two tapes the Plymouth recording has the edge on brightness, a sparkle to the edge that is somehow indefinable and yet significant. The Waterbury tape has a slightly warmer, bassier feel to it, (and it's been out on CD before of course - (Tell Like It Is), but such analysis is pretty academic - both tapes sit nicely together. If I have to come up with a gripe I think I'd have preferred the tapes to have been reversed in running order, simply because the tracks would have followed a more logical concert sequence but we're into picking hairs here when there really aren't any fleas. This one really made my day. .

Tfeb B (9)