THE BAND - Tombstone: The Lost Album
The Band played their last waltz together in 1978 with an all-star concert that one would have thought used up all their desire for the big time. They went their separate ways with Levon Helm forming the RCO Allstars, Rick Danko pursuing a short-lived solo career while Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel did the sensible thing of touring together to play those old favorites. Robbie Robertson, of course couldn’t get enough of the spotlight and followed Martin Scorsese into the movies to make soundtracks. By the mid-‘80s The Band had regrouped minus Robertson, to start touring again. Then they decided to get back into the studios to record an album.
Since Robertson wrote the lion’s share of The Band’s music, they needed a producer to help them along. We’ve not had the good fortune of reading The Band’s bio but around 1990 or 1991, they linked up with pop writer Jules Shear, who wrote Cyndi Lauper’s hit All Through The Night. He was a sensitive songwriter who could write interesting material. He was also a Sony recording artist, the new label The Band had signed to.
At least 11 tracks were recorded with Jules Shear who sings and writes a fair amount but apparently the album was rejected by The Band’s new label, Sony Music. As far as we can tell the title song Tombstone and Never Again Or Forever were written by Jules Shear. The outtake "Tombstone" was originally recorded in 1991 by The Band with an amazing vocal from Rick Danko.
However, this song was also considered for inclusion on the Band’s finally released album Jericho, which arrived in 1993 on the indie Pyramid label. The only song that survived these 1990-‘91 sessions was Rick Danko's Too Soon Gone, a sweet farewell song for Richard Manuel included on Jericho. The version here is different.
Tombstone was hardly contemporary in feel except perhaps for the urban r ‘n b of Money Whipped with its unusual spoken interludes. Mostly Rick Danko’s superb vocals marked the way back to the Band of the old. Songs like All Creation, Too Soon Gone and the title track had their old sound and that rustic feeling of time stood still. But producer Jules Shear’s presence was also profound. It sounds like him handling vocals on at least four of the nine songs.
Finally, an album without Robbie Robertson or Richard Manuel was probably not an album Sony wanted to release. Tombstone remains in somebody’s vault with only Too Soon Gone released on 1993’s Jericho and High Price of Love emerging on 1996’s High On The Hog. The versions here were all recorded much earlier.
Track 01 Tombstone, Tombstone [Jules Shear]
Track 02 River Of Honey
Track 03 All Creation
Track 04 Baby Don't You Cry No More
Track 05 The High Price Of Love [This song later appeared on High On The Hog]
Track 06 Long Ways To Tennessee
Track 07 Too Soon Gone [This song later appeared on Jericho]
Track 08 Money Whipped
Track 09 Never Again Or Forever [Jules Shear]
| SOURCE | SDB | SOUND QUALITY | A | FORMAT | Mp3 | BITRATE | 192 | TRACKS # | 9 |
| LOCATION / VENUE | DATE | 90's | |||||||
| NOTES: | Tks 1, 3, 7 are sung by Rick Danko. Tks 5, 8 are sung by Levon Helm. Tks 2, 4, 6 , 9 sound like Jules Shear singing in front of The Band. Also available on megaupload here and the Artwork there. | ||||||||
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posted by zazafromjohor at 4:18 AM
2 comments
2 brilliant shows - Bob Played in Amsterdam on 08th & 9th -!!! Surely this band lacks great guitar players but as turns out now their boss has improved lots on the keyboards and the sologuitar as well. Denny plays something like 2 or 3 solo's and Stu ….. for 2 nights he did nothing but strum the rhytm. Most of the sound is the familiar punkrocking cowboyband but with Bob now doing practically all the interplay on guitar, piano, organ and harmonica, relying heavily on Donnie's steel to fill in empty spaces. Bob is clearly in control of everything, he's the true bandleader and he sings clear and confident throughout the show. Both RollingStones started with a harmonica line in which Bob layed out the tempo for the night for the band to follow. The feel of the first 4 songs on both evenings with Bob on guitar was, let's say StevieRayVaughn-ish-working-for-MCA-like southern bluesrock. This feel returned in the uptempo songs like HW61, River Flow and Mobile. Especially the hardrocking arrangements of It Ain't Me, Tom Thumb (Easter Time song ?) and Alright Ma on the 8th were a pleasure. Alright Ma on the 9th sounded even better than the night before ! To Ramona was a little bit out of place but there were some 'irregular on the setlist' songs that stood out and not only cos of surprise. Red Sky , Chimes Of Freedom (though bits of up-singing) and Ain't Talking were great but nothing beats the Visions Of Johanna of the second evening. A perfect performance in all respects that sent out shivers through the entire hall. I am certain not a word was spoken by anybody through this song.
In February 2006, Dylan recorded tracks for a new album in New York City that resulted in the album Modern Times, released on August 29, 2006. This date also included the iTunes Music Store release of Bob Dylan: The Collection, a digital box set containing all of his studio and live albums (773 tracks in total), along with 42 rare & unreleased tracks and a 100 page booklet. To promote the digital box set and the new album (on iTunes), Apple released a 30 second TV spot featuring Dylan, in full country & western regalia, lip-synching to "Someday Baby" against a striking white background. In a well-publicized interview to promote the album, Dylan criticised the quality of modern sound recordings and claimed that his new songs "probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em".
Despite some coarsening of Dylan’s voice (The Guardian critic characterised his singing on the album as “a catarrhal death rattle”) most reviewers gave the album high marks and many described it as the final instalment of a successful trilogy, embracing Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft. Among the tracks most frequently singled out for praise were "Workingman's Blues #2" (the title was a nod to Merle Haggard's song of that name), and the final song “Ain’t Talkin’”, a nine minute talking blues in which Dylan appeared to be walking “through all-enveloping darkness, before finally disappearing into the murk”.[108] Modern Times made news by entering the US charts at #1, making it Dylan's first album to reach that position since 1976's Desire. At 65, Dylan became the oldest, still-living musician to top the Billboard albums chart. The record also reached number one in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.
A classy looking package of an incredible sounding concert. The cover photograph is from Mojo magazine's Unplugged review. The back cover inset is from the 30th Anniversary concert. 
Every Grain Of Sand 
This disc is the first of several CD releases of this material to use the same title. It invites a wonderful 'behind the scenes' listen to rehearsals for the 1976 Rolling Thunder Tour. The sound, while not up to today's digital quality, is very nice. The vocals are slightly on top of the mix for the most part, but are not quite as crisp as the music. The package is fairly nice, with a cover shot of Dylan in the cemetery. (Visiting Jack Kerouac's grave). The back photo is the Revue in concert. The venues listed are slightly askew. Venues are listed correctly in the info section above. Highly recommended for musicians (who can appreciate the sometimes 'stop and go' of rehearsing new material), RTR tour fans (who will get a glimpse of some rare tour songs), and studio outtake fans (While these songs are rehearsals, they are directly from the soundboard. The alternate versions are enough to please any outtake fan). 
I Threw It All Away 
Dylan performs with the guitar, keyboard and harmonica. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s. He has also recently performed alongside other major artists, such as Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Tom Petty, Jack White and Eric Clapton. Although his contributions as performer and recording artist have been central to his career, his songwriting is generally held as his highest accomplishment.[2]His career accomplishments have been recognized with the Polar Music Prize, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Kennedy Center Honors, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters and Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was listed as one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century. 