A chap who handed me a small piece of paper outside the Albert Hall during Bob Dylan's most recent performances there turned out to go by the name of Frankie Lee – not Judas Priest, but Frankie Lee – and when I contacted him later, he turned out to be a purveyor of high-quality bootlegs.
Not your official Bootleg Series bootlegs – real bootlegs – and they seem to be so extensive that I could probably buy enough to give me listening material for what remains of my life.
After being slightly troubled by the morality of acquiring Dylan material that somehow has been sneaked away from recording studio and concert hall desks, with presumably no money finding its way to the artist, I succumbed to the temptation of ordering 'After The Empire' – allegedly the missing link between 'Empire Burlesque' and 'Knocked Out Loaded', both much panned albums but both also containing real gems.
It does not disappoint. It's raw Dylan in the studio, playing with and exploring songs that, as far as I know, have surfaced nowhere else.
It's a mark of the man's genius that even his musings, sketchings and jam sessions produce songs that no one else could come close to in terms of feel, intensity and passion.
Oh, Frankie, what have you started?
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