With a seasoned music career and 40 studio albums under his belt, it only makes sense that folk rock icon Bob Dylan would have a few unreleased songs floating around. We’re partial to the following three tracks and think they deserve a proper release!
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1. “Making A Liar Out Of Me”
This 1980 track was recorded shortly after the Saved sessions. Sadly, it’s been more or less forgotten to time. This particular period of Dylan’s career wasn’t exactly the best, but the bootleg recording of “Making A Liar Out Of Me” definitely had some serious potential. Dylan should have included a more refined version of it on the 1981 album Shot Of Love.
We’ll probably never hear a non-bootleg version of it over 40 years later, but the track did end up making it to Trouble No More – The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981.
2. “Series Of Dreams”
Out of all the unreleased Bob Dylan songs on this list, “Series Of Dreams” still has us scratching our heads. This late-1980s recording is so incredibly passionate and addicting, that it just doesn’t make sense why Dylan never included it on a proper album.
“Series Of Dreams” was remixed and included on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. Still, it has the potential to be a standout single. But Dylan and producer Daniel Lanois couldn’t come to an agreement on which direction to take the track.
“Although [Daniel] Lanois liked the song, he liked the bridge better, wanted the whole song to be like that,” said Dylan of “Series Of Dreams”. “I knew what he meant, but it just couldn’t be done.”
3. “I Can’t Leave Her Behind”
“I Can’t Leave Her Behind” is one of the most arresting unreleased Bob Dylan songs out there. We think this ballad could have made it to an album, but Dylan didn’t think it was good enough to be released commercially. This song came to life during a jam session with Robbie Robertson during a tour of Europe in 1966.
We kind of get why this ballad didn’t come to fruition. It’s heavily improvised and wouldn’t be easy to reproduce. It wasn’t even supposed to be recorded at all, but D.A. Pennebaker managed to capture some of the tune during the above-mentioned jam session.
Photo by Val Wilmer/Redferns
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