Remembering When Bob Dylan Left Two Masterpieces on the Cutting Room Floor in 1983

If Bob Dylan always did what we expected or even wanted him to do, he wouldn’t really be Bob Dylan, would he? You don’t get the adjective “iconoclastic” attached to your name by coloring inside the lines time and again.

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Once you accept that, you also realize that there are going to be times when Dylan will flummox us with a decision or two. His choice to keep a few stone-cold classics off his 1983 album Infidels ranks as one of his most baffling.

Comeback Vibes

When you’re an artist who’s been around as long as Bob Dylan, you’re bound to have stretches of quietude or fallow periods. And then it’s time for a comeback. Infidels, at least in terms of how it was marketed, was meant to be one of those comeback records.

Even though Dylan was still writing often about spirituality at this time, he was backing off from the overtly religious material. Those types of songs characterized his “Born Again” period on his last three albums. His label, Columbia, jumped at the chance to present Infidels as a return to a more straightforward pop-rock vibe.

Dylan also seemed amenable to a more commercially viable direction. He hired Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits to co-produce. Mick Taylor, formerly of The Rolling Stones, joined Knopfler on guitar on the record. Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, then the hottest session rhythm section in the world, also came aboard. Infidels was lining up to be a return to prominence for Dylan.

A Pair of Aces

On top of the ace personnel helping him bring the record to life, Infidels looked to benefit from outstanding material. Dylan came into the studio with a wide variety of songs. A few of them featured ambitious, sprawling lyrics. They recalled some of his monumental songs from the 60s and 70s.

Chief among them was “Blind Willie McTell”. The song is somehow both a requiem for a blues legend and a historical look at racism all at once. “Foot Of Pride”, a potent, fast-talking stomper where Dylan ran through his enemy list with eloquent fury, also loomed large.

With these two songs as the centerpieces, Infidels was shaping up to be a new classic. Mark Knopfler was certainly feeling optimistic about the material and the recordings he helped Dylan lay down. He left the sessions for a brief engagement with Dire Straits. And a funny thing happened in his absence.

Dylan’s Dodgy Decision

Always a bit impatient with the recording process and burdened by a contract that forced him to churn out records with regularity, Dylan didn’t wait around for Knopfler to return. He and a hand-picked engineer picked through what had been done, changed arrangements, did overdubs, and altered the essential character of the album.

They also decided to shelve “Blind Willie McTell” and “Foot Of Pride” from the running order. Even with those omissions, Infidels still arrived to praise in 1983. Dylan even made videos for a couple of songs to promote the album on MTV, which helped with a nice sales rebound.

Still, fans were left to wonder what might have been when those two omitted songs made their first official appearances once Dylan’s Bootleg Series reissues began in 1991. Infidels is great as is. But those two songs could have made it a masterpiece.

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