April 18: Bob Dylan – If You See Her Say Hello Lakeland 1976
If you’re making love to her, watch it from the rear
You’ll never know when I’ll be back, or liable to appear
For it’s natural to dream of peace as it is for rules to break
And right now I’ve got not much to lose, so you’d better stay awake
~Bob Dylan (“Lakeland 76” lyrics to If You See Her, Say Hello)
And then, with an ease I find terrifying, Dylan moves into one of the most nakedly personal performances of his career (something like “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” but inverted, and
without the gloss of riddle and mystery): the 1976 version of “If You See Her, Say Hello.”
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)
For a master of masks and distancing effects this is an extraordinary performance – no-one listening to it can feel anything other than that there is no distance at all between the author-performer and the performance.
~Andrew Muir (Troubadour: Early and Late Songs of Bob Dylan)
Brilliant, breathtaking & brave version of this great song.
This is not a “best from 1983” list, just 5 Great songs Bob Dylan recorded in 1983.
Blind Willie McTell (electric version)
I didn’t think I recorded it right. But I don’t know why that stuff gets out on me. I mean, it never seems to get out on other people.
~Bob Dylan (to Kurt Loder, March 1984)
Studio A
Power Station
New York City, New York
April/May 1983
Infidels recording session. Produced by Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan.
Not released.
Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
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