Bob Dylan is notorious for discarding songs or doing last minute re-recordings of songs before finally deciding whether or not they should be included on various albums he has released through the years.   His ‘official’ Bootleg series of releases have finally brought many fine songs and alternate versions of officially released songs to the public.

His latest Bootleg release, Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8, focuses on various recordings made between 1989 – 2006; or during what is now being called his creative renaissance period after faltering in the late ’80s and early ’90s.   This period has produced the great triple threat of Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft and Modern Times.

In 1990 Dylan released Under the Red Sky, produced by Don Was, and it featured an all star cast of helping hands including Stevie Ray Vaughn, David Crosby and George Harrison.  The album is either loved or loathed by various Dylan aficionados and remains a greatly under appreciated album in the Dylan canon in my opinion.  

But, with songs such as “Wiggle Wiggle” and “Handy Dandy”, many people wondered what had happened to the legendary weight of Dylan’s craft and lyricism.  Dylan has yet to shed light on what the simplistic songs included on the album really mean or point to. 

As has sometimes been the case in the past, Dylan came to the recording sessions for Under the Red Sky with two leftover tracks from the previous well regarded album, Oh Mercy.   One of these songs was “Born In Time”; a beautiful song with that extra special Dylan magic intact.   The reworked version of the song made its way on to what eventually became Dylan’s 27th album but what we now have learned is that Dylan didn’t want to include the original Oh Mercy version of the song on the album for whatever reason.

If you do listen to both versions you’ll clearly see that the unreleased version (now available on Tell Tale Signs) is clearly better and features an upfront vocal mix of Dylan confidently working his way through the song.   The track is also less adorned by the add-on piano fills and other nusiances that Don Was most likely tacked on.   Why Dylan signed off on including the inferior version is just another mystery in his long standing history of strange song choices as far as his albums go. 

Here is the version you should hear and it again brings home the fact that Dylan is a true master!