Expecting Rain

Romeo recording
https://rapidshare.com/files/132112073/ ... rk_Yet.mp3

one of my favorite songs... thanks

ps I miss you!

Thanks, Applebarry and ROMEO!!!!
I will sleep better now.

Beautiful song...thanks

Great, great, great one!


Thanks Romeo and Appleberry!

Many thanks, appleberry, for sharing Romeo's recording of "Not Dark Yet." I never tire of hearing Dylan's performances of songs from Time Out of Mind.

Ditto. Thanks appleberry and Romeo!

Listening to this performance I think Bob learned some portuguese.

Portuguese is a melancholic, melodic and sentimental language.

Yes, thank you for posting...... I like this version very much.....

You're terrific! Thank you, appleberry. Man, he can sure hold a note when he wants to.

thanks a million for sharing, very nice version

for all those who should have a problem with rapidshare, I have a permanent mirror file of this gem now up on my site http://www.notdarkyet.org

Thanks for this. A wonderful performance and even more masterful recording.

A big thank you!

This is beyond frustrating! The man CAN still sing (well, at least like he did in 2000-2002 era) - why he chooses to bark at the end of some lines is anyone's guess. Is he being lazy? There are beautifully articulated lines in here that we like and appreciate so much from Bob, and then there is the disgusting vocal tick.

I really don't think he can control the barking. The percentage barked/nonbarked lines changed gradually from 2002-2012. He reached 98/2 now...

Best bark in the land!

^^^ BobyWolf???

I wrote at a brazilian fan club he is getting close to be a beautiful wolf.

WO HAA! followed the river and I got to the seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! wooooooooooooooooo(f)

he absolutely can control it - I really think it is his default way to end a phrase now (as upsinging used to be). He gets off plenty of solid notes during the end of lines in this Not Dark Yet, so he can control it. He chooses to sing that way.

Why on earth would he choose to sing/croak that way? Well, we seem to disagree here. His voice has become rough, thin & limited more and more over the years. Every time he wants to give some emphasis to a word it turns out to be a hoarse croak. This was the case even back in 2002/03 ("I'll be your baby to-n***"). Upsinging was just a trick to deal with the problem. Today, he only can SING, if he holds back very much and tries to pronounce VERY soft, low and smooth - and even this only works every now and then, as we hear in this performance ("...but it's gettin' th***" / "but it's getting there").

Having said that: I admire your optimism and cross fingers for the first European shows. I'll be there...

I haven't been too crazy about his singing over the past year or more, but this is surprisingly good.

Il chante comme la pluie.

^^^^^^

I presume* the "solid notes" are the notes his voice can still hit, and there certainly are a few but I don't know if I'd characterize it as "plenty." The croaks are where the only thing that comes out is a croak. He isn't choosing to make it croak there, it's a physical limitation that has developed over the years due to age and abuse of the vocal chords. He compensates by raising his voice, which comes out sounding like a bark. Often, he will employ a ubiquitous "technique" upon which he's become increasingly reliant: at any point where it might seem as if he's stumbled, he will immediately repeat his misstep 3 or more times in succession, as if to play it off and say "I meant to do that!" This was often quite effective when he had more range, but he doesn't have much to work with these days, resulting in some very bizarre sounds, hence the shift of focus toward "stage persona" and arrangements that are deliberately bizarre and repetitive to reinforce the perception "I want it to sound like this."

Nevertheless, for a performance of recent vintage, this NOT DARK YET isn't half bad. It hasn't been bizarrely and repetitively rearranged beyond recognition, and he at least makes an effort at a coherent vocal. The one-note harmonica solo even works a bit. Mostly.

*DISCLAIMER: the following represents my own speculative analysis based on my own observation grumble grumble

It's really not a matter of vocal range, if that's what you're getting at here. There are notes both high and low that are held out in this performance alone, and you can find the same to be true on various bootlegs from the early shows of most recent tours.



I would agree with this assessment for the most part, but what you're leaving out is that, when Bob is "on" (which seems to happen only on certain songs and in certain performances), even the "croaks" go toward expressing the lyrical and emotional content of the song. Listen from around 1:30 to 2:00 for examples of this: "she wrote me a LETTER, and she WROTE IT so kind" / "I don't see WHY...I should even CARE." At other times (maybe even most of the time) certainly, the croaks or barks get in the way of the song, but in this case, they bring out by contrast the significance of the words. Not Dark Yet is both a sorrowful song and an angry one, and to go from the bitter bark of "WHY" to the wistful "but it's gettin' there" is very effective, at least to my ears.



This is a jazz technique as well. I think I know what you mean, but I don't think it's as ubiquitous as you make it out to be. Now if we're talking about Dylan's organ playing, I am in 100% agreement with this statement. Vocally, I don't hear it happening that much.



To your ear they may be deliberately bizarre, but if we're talking about the recent changes to Blind Willie, Things Have Changed & Cry A While, I'm going to respectfully disagree. All three of those arrangements inject new life into songs that had gotten stale in performance, and if you think they're bizarre, you should listen to more Captain Beefheart.



I would say it's no more than 1/8th bad, and what's bad about it is actually the harmonica solo. Dreadful, in fact. It starts out promising, but becomes repetitive and melodically ineffective within 3 or 4 bars, and stays that way. If not for the harp solo, I would call this the best Not Dark Yet I've heard in years.

But again, only my opinion.