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"...Crumble Into Each Other..."
Against a backdrop of huge
escalation in the Vietnam War, the assignations of Dr. Martin Luther King in
April and Robert Kennedy in June and racial unrest in major American cities and
University campuses – Joan Baez steps into Columbia's studios in Nashville in
October 1968 with Producer Maynard Solomon, four members of Area Code 615 and
other top session types to make a double-album of Bob Dylan cover versions -
some featuring Indian Sitar in their Americana Folk Rock renditions.
Taking its title from lyrics
in "I Shall Be Released" – the ambitious "Any Day Now" double-album
would quickly see light of day only two months later at the tail end of
December 1968 on Vanguard Records and hit Blighty in April 1969. This very cool
and gorgeous sounding CD Remaster of 2005 is part of Ace Records 'Vanguard
Masters Series' and has had major audio restoration work done – JEFF ZARAYA
lifting this completely forgotten early twofer up by the boot straps. And at
fewer than seven quid, VMD 79741 even throws in as Bonus Tracks two further BD
covers from a Japanese-only tour album that wasn't issued anywhere else
(unavailable too on digital until now). Let's get down with the Baz and Bob
show…
UK released 26 March 2005 (8
February 2005 in the USA) - "Any Day Now" by JOAN BAEZ on Ace
Records/Vanguard Masters VMD 79741 (Barcode 029667008426) offers the entire
1968 2LP set of Bob Dylan Cover versions Remastered onto 1CD with Two Bonus
Tracks (Previously Unreleased outside of Japan) and plays out as follows (75:32
minutes):
1. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
[Side 1]
2. North Country Blues
3. You Ain't Going Nowhere
4. Drifter's Escape
5. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
6. Tears Of Rage [Side 2]
7. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The
Lowlands
8. Love Is Just A Four-Letter
Word [Side 3]
9. I Dreamed I Saw St.
Augustine
10. The Walls Of Redwing
11. Dear Landlord
12. One Too Many Mornings
13. I Shall Be Released [Side
4]
14. Boots Of Spanish Leather
15. Restless Farewell
Tracks 1 to 15 are her tenth
album - the double studio-set "Any Day Now" - released December 1968
in the USA on Vanguard VSD 79306/7 and April 1969 in the UK on Vanguard SVRL
19037/8 (reissued 1970 on Vanguard VSD 79306/7).
BONUS TRACKS:
16. Blowin' In The Wind
(Live)
17. It Ain't Me Babe (Live)
Tracks 16 and 17 recorded
Live in Japan in 1967 and only released there – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED anywhere
else
The 12-page booklet is a
pleasingly in-depth affair – ARTHUR LEVY going deep into social, commercial and
personal reasons behind her recordings of the era. There are those pencil
drawings that featured on the original artwork but mostly its just text – and a
bloody good read it makes too. Engineered for release from original tapes by
JEFF ZARAYA – sonic solutions and 20-bit digital audio was used and bass
restored. This is a rather lovely sounding CD – giving it that analogue Folk
shimmer that I love. Great transfer…
Dylan fans of the day would
have scrutinized the track list and noticed that a few of the entries were not
the usual fodder. Several tracks had been circulating on Basement Tapes
bootlegs (“Too Much Of Nothing” and "You Ain't Going Nowhere" for
instance) and two were only just heard on The Band "Music From Big
Pink" July 1968 debut album - "Tears Of Rage" (a co-write with
Richard Manuel) and Dylan's anthemic "I Shall Be Released".
In December 1968 - when the
double was issued Stateside – impact-wise the lyrical powerhouse "I Shall
Be Released" had a meaning that encompassed worlds. But it wasn’t only
about his amazing lyrics - she stretched interpretations too. Baez gives
"Tears Of Rage" a stunning Acapella rendition perfectly setting up
her version of the Side 4 monster on 1966's "Blonde On Blonde" double
- the eleven-minute "Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" - her soft voice
giving it a much more lovelorn Folky feel. There are four from the then
recently issued "John Wesley Harding" album - "Drifter's
Escape", a hurting "I Pity The Poor Immigrant", a softly sinister
"I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" and a pure man-on-the-street hatred
in "Dear Landlord".
The new song to everyone was
the lilting "Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word" that opened Side 3. For
me it's one of the prettiest on the whole project. In fact when the
double-album troubled the US Billboard LP charts in late January 1969, Vanguard
figured its unique presence here might even make a collector's hit and issued
the song as a US 45 in March 1969 (Vanguard VRS-35088) with the opening song on
its flipside - "Love Minus Zero/No Limit". That combo made No. 86 on
the singles chart but no more. The long-player fared way better - with a
20-week chart run, the 2LP set peaked at an impressive No. 30 and was nominated
for a Folk Grammy.
Her band featuring several
instruments prominently – Fred Carter and Grady Martin on guitars, blind
session-man Hargus 'Pig' Robbins on piano - Vinnie Bell on Indian Sitar and
somewhere in there is Stephen Stills - with Buffalo Springfield at the
time.
"We’re both just one too
many mornings and a thousand miles behind…" – Baez sang back in the day,
knowing all too well what her relationship with Dylan was and how far both had
travelled since 1962.
I suppose you could accuse
"Any Day Now" of being an inevitable vanity project (given their
famous pairing on so many tumultuous Sixties occasions). But it doesn't feel
like that. Instead I'm moved again. Like it's time we went back 52 years and
revisited the hugely influential Zim and his equally feisty activist New York
Lady. Because both were, and are still - a class act. Check it out…
