Bob Dylan’s 1989 summer European tour wrapped up with a pair of shows in Greece. During an off-day, Dylan and Van Morrison climbed onto the picturesque Hill of the Muses in Athens for a stunning four-song acoustic set that thankfully was captured by cameras for the BBC documentary Arena: One Irish Rover – Van Morrison in Performances. They began with Morrison classics “Crazy Love” and “And It Stoned Me,” but the clear highlight was the 1986 Morrison obscurity “Foreign Window,” featuring Dylan on harmonica and Van on guitar and vocals. They wrapped up the set with a duet on “One Irish Rover.”
-Andy Greene (rollingstone.com)
Philopappos (The Hill Of The Muses) Athens, Greece 27 June 1989
Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath’s as hard as kerosene
You weren’t your mama’s only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams
Stadio Lamberti Cava de’Tirreni, Italy 21 June 1989
Most of the time
I’m clear focused all around
Most of the time
I can keep both feet on the ground
I can follow the path, I can read the signs
Stay right with it when the road unwinds
I can handle whatever I stumble upon
I don’t even notice she’s gone
Most of the time
–
.. Sony wanted him to record a promo video of the song to help their ongoing attempts to promote an album that had been (correctly) received as a real return to form. And Dylan, being Dylan, duly obliged by re-recording the song with the musicians destined to feature on his next album, under the red sky, and letting his son Jesse film the results. The resultant thudding threnody was as unambient as it gets. Yet Dylan dug it enough to allow promo CDs of this new version to be released, even though after a month off the road his voice was not in great shape, and the song suffers accordingly
~Clinton Heylin (Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2, . 1974-2008)
Culver City Studios
Los Angeles, California
16 March 1990 Shooting of Most Of The Time promo video. Produced by Don Was.
Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of you
You were trying to break into another world
A world I never knew
I always kind of wondered
If you ever made it through
Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of you
—
“Shooting star” was his first album closer since “Every Grain of Sand” to share that slightly somnambulant feel, a gorgeous melody, caressed vocal and an abiding conviction that there are two kinds of people, good (i.e. saved) and lost people.
~Clinton Heylin (Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2, . 1974-2008)
This was the 6th “Oh Mercy” recording session, and Dylan also landed another master: “Everything Is Broken”.
The Studio New Orleans, Louisiana 14 or 15 March 1989 6th Oh Mercy recording session, produced by Daniel Lanois
“Most of them are stream-of-consciousness songs, the kind that come to you in the middle of the night, when you just want to go back to bed. The harder you try to do something, the more it evades you. These weren’t like that.”
~Bob Dylan (to Edna Gundersen, Sept 1989)
The Studio New Orleans, Louisiana 8 March 1989 Third Oh Mercy recording session, produced by Daniel Lanois
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