Bob Dylan Mick Taylor Bob Dylan Mick Taylor/Spain 1984

We will release a live recording of Bob Dylan’s best audience recording. Speaking of live performances involving Taylor, of course, there is the 1984 European tour. For this tour, masterpieces such as “THE BEST SHOW: BARCELONA 1984”, “BRUSSELS AFFAIR 1984 REVISITED” and the soundboard “ROME 1984 1ST NIGHT” have already been released, but this time it is Madrid on June 26th. As you can see from the date, “THE BEST SHOW: BARCELONA 1984” is the live performance before Barcelona. To tell the truth, there were no decent items for the four days from the second day of Rome to Madrid in the June itinerary of the 1984 European tour, and it was a bit of an air pocket. It seems that the situation where we could not get a glimpse of the process of reaching the heights of Barcelona, ​​which was literally the best show, has continued until now. This Madrid release will be a breakthrough in breaking through such a situation, and it is an audience recording with excellent sound quality. Frankly speaking, it is of the highest quality, comparable to Barcelona. The sound image is extremely on, which is something that is common to Barcelona, ​​but while that one had a thick and powerful sound, this one is attractive in that it is clear and refreshing. In addition, the freshness of the tape is outstanding. It is hard to believe that it is an analog cassette recording from nearly 40 years ago. It is hard to believe that such a high-quality sound source has never been released before. This time, the CD was made based on the version available on the Internet, but in fact, the most easily available version on the Internet had a regrettable upload error in which a skip was mixed in the third lyric of “Masters Of War”, “Like I see through the water”, which was not present at the time of recording. However, there is a very small version of another transfer on the same Internet, and by combining it with that, the best version without any trouble was recorded. In other words, a branched version was discovered on the Internet, and it was used as a compensation to resolve the small problems that were seen in some of the main versions. After all, it is a stereo audience recording with outstanding sound quality recorded from the master tape, so by adjusting the condition, it has been polished to a suitable state. And as it is a live performance before Barcelona, ​​the performance content is excellent. Although it is the same stage in Spain, the atmosphere is different in a good way, which is also a big attraction. While Barcelona was enthusiastic and exciting, this one has a very relaxed atmosphere. Reflecting the atmosphere of the venue, Dylan and the band’s performance was very peaceful. Among them, Taylor’s guitar playing showed more inspiration than Barcelona, ​​which is the biggest reason why it was released at the same time as the Stones items this time. From “All Along The Watchtower”, which was the number where Taylor first exploded with a guitar solo on every stage, he played phrases with more sounds than Barcelona, ​​and in “I And I”, he accidentally played too much in the first guitar solo, and there was even a happy scene where he returned to the song as if he had applied the brakes in a hurry. This is obvious when you compare it with Barcelona. Another masterpiece is Dylan’s break corner, the R&B cover “I’ve Got To Use My Imagination” sung by bassist Greg Sutton. Here, Taylor takes advantage of the absence of the boss (laughs) and plays as hard as he can. Do you really play the lead so hard in a stop-gap number? Normally (laughs). Also, before this song starts, Dylan asks Sutton, “What are you going to sing today?”, which is really unusual. Normally, this is a corner that is definitely a toilet break time, but to my surprise, Sutton speaks to the audience in Spanish, which works well and gets the crowd excited even though it’s a stop-gap corner, which is extremely rare even in 1984. In this way, the first half of the live performance was going well in a very peaceful atmosphere, but the end of the live performance was also very peaceful. Speaking of Barcelona, ​​the famous scene of the big chorus in the finale “Blowin’ In The Wind” was seen, but Dylan, who was already in a good mood in Madrid, encouraged the audience to sing along. However, perhaps because they started singing in a higher key than in Barcelona (C at the time, G in Madrid), it backfired, and the chorus did not get as excited as it did then. Rather, it seems that the lessons learned here led to the excitement in Barcelona. And Dylan himself started singing at full throttle from around “Masters Of War” and sang aggressively (which is why the slight skipping in the song was so regrettable), and he sang a powerful song as if to rival Taylor, who played hard that day. There is no way that the stage before the rare Barcelona performance is bad. Above all, it is a stereo audience recording with the highest sound quality, and while Barcelona was a passionate live performance, Madrid was a relaxing one. The unique recording conditions worked well, and there was no stress such as the surrounding commotion that is common in European audience recordings, so please enjoy Taylor’s new masterpiece and famous sound source in 1984 Europe to your heart’s content with the best sound quality without any exaggeration! Estadio del Rayo Vallecano, Madrid, Spain 26th June 1984 TRULY PERFECT SOUND Disc 1 (58:54) 1. Highway 61 Revisited 2. Jokerman 3. All Along the Watchtower 4. Just Like A Woman 5. Maggie’s Farm 6. I And I 7. License To Kill 8. Just My Imagination (sung by Greg Sutton) 9. A Hard Rain’s Fall 10. Girl From the North Country 11. It’s Alright Ma Disc 2 (64:18) 1. Simple Twist of Fate 2. Masters of War 3. Ballad of A Thin Man 4. Enough Is Enough 5. Every Grain of Sand 6. Like A Rolling Stone 7. Mr. Tambourine Man 8. It Ain’t Me Babe 9. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (with Carlos Santana) 10. Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat (with Carlos Santana) 11. Tombstone Blues (with Carlos Santana) 12. Blowin’ in the Wind (with Carlos Santana) Bob Dylan – vocal & guitar Mick Taylor – guitar Ian McLagan – keyboards Greg Sutton – bass Colin Allen – drums