"Series of Dreams" can come true - like this ultra-rare live performance by Bob Dylan in Japan, '94

Not many of the songs Dylan has played on his "Neverending Tour" have been performed so few times as "Series of Dreams." He's played it in concert only 10 times, all of them in early 1994 except for one lone appearance in Vienna VA, on September 8, 1993.
Most of the rest were during Dylan's February 1994 Far East tour where it made the setlist at half of the 14 dates including six of 11 shows in Japan plus one in Singapore.
Dylan played it two more times that spring in Davenport, IA, and Rockford, IL, on April 6 and 12, for a total of just three US performances ever.
And then that was that.
I was lucky enough to hear Dylan perform it live at three of those Japanese shows - and captured it at all three as well. I picked this version from Hiroshima 2/16 to debut first because it's one of the two best and the closest shot. I plan to upload the other two some day soon as well.
"Series of Dreams" is a fascinating little gem and to my ears, anyway, sounds a bit different from anything else Dylan has ever released.
Originally recorded in March 1989 for the album "Oh Mercy," producer Daniel Lanois said it was his pick for the opening track. Many critics who heard it later agreed that "Series of Dreams" should have been and would have been one of the album's standouts.
But in the sort of move that is hardly unfamiliar to dedicated fans, Dylan decided to leave it off the album.
A remixed version with added overdubs was included on "The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991" when the set came out a couple of years later in January 1991. That version also featured on "Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3 in 1994."
An alternate take, also recorded at the March 23, 1989 "Oh Mercy" sessions, was released in 2008 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006.
Dylan released a video for the song as well to accompany its original Bootleg Series debut. It was nominated in 1991 for the Grammy Award for Best Music Video.
The song's lyrics and imagery, fragmented and vivid, do a superb job of evoking what so many memorable dreams feel like - especially the ones that haunt you for a while.
Musically, the song is driven by its pounding percussion, making it a great pick for this particular version of Dylan's backing band. As you'll hear - and see - Winston Watson does full justice to the central percussive sound that powers this live version just as it does the original recording.
Check out Watson's eyes during the final 30-40 seconds of the song's big finish, with their intense focus on Dylan every few seconds, who's turned around to face him, interspersed now and then with glances at Tony Garnier on bass, and a few personal expressions of bliss. It's a great look at what it's like for musicians to play behind Dylan.

[@jerusalem46]

Winston Watson , fantastic drummer and really sweet guy.

[@johncovert3140]

Bless you for sharing this. Also, your "liner notes" are insightful and afford a much better appreciation of the performance. Cheers!

[@jacintomello]

Muchas gracias😊

[@0otee]

Superb🥁🎶💥Winston Watson Drumming🪘🥁🪘🥁🎸🎤Bobs’ methalic voice use wow🌹🌺❣️Those Dreams lived out here

[@markhayward7400]

Winker Watson does a great job here in establishing this song's driving, nervy, rhythm. I like Dylan's vocal too, but he is still feeling his way in to the song, I think.

[@ksb994]

Great write-up on the history of the performances of “Series of Dreams”. Please know that there’s a whole community of people around the world who appreciate your notes, as they serve to deepen the extraordinary and never ending ways that Dylan has made our troubled world better and inspired us, in spite of the man-made ego-based reality (see License to Kill”), to keep hope alive. Thank you.

[@ArturArtist]

Thanks so much - I’m glad to know my commentary means something. ☺️

[@supergrahambo]

Winston Watson just propelled this hallucinatory song into hyperdrive. Dylan was on fire! Great quality video. Thanks for posting.

[@thetrevorosborne]

many thanks for putting this on . I think its one of the songs where the studio version (overdubbed version) is hard to top in terms of vocals/ music/atmosphere

[@ArturArtist]

True - could be that's why Dylan only tried it 10 times in concert.

[@badfingees]

I saw Bob play the same song at the Budokan a week ago and it was mind-blowing! thanks for sharing this.

[@ArturArtist]

You’re very welcome! I was so lucky to get the chance to capture such a rare performance. It’s great to know that you and other folks are enjoying seeing it now 😊

[@boxingjerapah]

Great to have it, but none of the live versions capture the studio takes imo ..

[@gringo557]

Great to see this finally coming out!!! :)

[@ninapross3337]

Excellent at 7am

[@targarosko]

AMAZING WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks and good new week ♥♥♥

[@ArturArtist]

You’re welcome. Nice to hear from you, I’m glad you’re enjoying the video. All the best to you 😊

[@targarosko]

@@ArturArtist ♥♥♥

[@JamieThomas_Musician]

fantastic, many thanks for posting!

[@ArturArtist]

You’re very welcome. I love being able to share these with other fans. Icing on the cake is hearing from people that they’re enjoying watching!

[@conncork]

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[@micheleulysse]

stunning! ♥

[@michaelb.9548]

Wow! 😮

[@susanneeiler7205]

Super

[@RuaTheRapoet]

Quite a performance-great you captured such a rarity, and three times even so you could make sure we have the best combination of shot and performance one first. I do want to ask, given this video having detail that is beyond unparalleled for videos from this time period, did you use AI upscaling or some similar technique to increase the detail?

[@ArturArtist]

I’m glad you’re enjoying the video. Yes, I do use a program called Topaz Video AI to upscale the videos from their original 720x480 SD to 4K resolution in most cases these days, or very occasionally just full HD. Most of my videos were shot on Hi-8 from August 1992 through 2002. The earliest were shot on plain 8mm. The videos from 2021 were shot on a new digital HD camcorder. I started using the Topaz AI software in September 2021, so if you look at videos on my channel uploaded before that, you can see the difference. Originally I only upscaled them to 1920x1080 HD, because even on a pretty powerful professional workstation, it could take 11-12 hours to process a 7 minute video. Last summer I added another, more powerful workstation that can do the same job in about an hour. Now I’m able to upgrade whole 90-100 minute concerts to HD in 5-8 hours on average. Then I upscale those results to 4K which takes another 16-24 hours. I figured out after a few tries that going straight from SD to 4K doesn’t typically produce good results. I put a lot of time into testing which of numerous processing models the software offers yields the best result for each video. I also make other improvements with the Adobe Premier Pro video editing software I use, and even employ some more specialized add-ons for situations where built-in color correction tools in Premier Pro can’t handle some tougher lighting challenges. As you can probably tell, I enjoy the tech side of producing these videos, as well as the content. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about the technology I use to get these results, feel free to email me at [e-mail] 😊

[@RuaTheRapoet]

@@ArturArtist Wow, thank you for your answer more in-depth than I could have hoped! Okay, that does explain the look. Of course, I'm sure it helps you had a steady, good-quality-for-the-times video to start with. The upscaled effect is definitely pretty striking, and overall works quite well. The only weird aspects I could notice were when it looked like the shadow on Bob's face was coming through straight hair, and when the camera panned out so everyone got a kind of alien silhouette glow. But there very fact that I had to ask whether it was upscaled rather than just being able to state it shows the naturalness of the processing overall.

[@ninapross3337]

Yeah!!!!!

[@joachimneumann7151]

Wow, thx so much. What a Performance ❤

[@ArturArtist]

You’re welcome! I’m glad to know you’re enjoying it. 😄

[@marakaretsos5204]

🎼⭐️🍀

[@ninapross3337]

Good video too

[@ArturArtist]

Appreciate it

[@d1973ld]

Winnston, Winler's hair has it's rhythm, awesome

[@ArturArtist]

Besides contributing great drumming, Watson is quite a visual asset!

[@d1973ld]

@@ArturArtist Absolute, awesome drummer for sure, seems like a cool dude nonetheless, coming from a guitar player, HA:']

[@d1973ld]

@@ArturArtist If I was playing guitar with him, I'd try my best to keep up

[@PVP-w4u]

❤

[@chavruta2000]

much darker tone to this one that the studio version. this is the nightmare version.

[@ArturArtist]

🤔

[@mario7frankielee]

thank you 🙏 i love winston! did you know that jim henson molded his drummer animal after winston? just kidding 🙈

[@ArturArtist]

You'll be seeing a lot more videos with Winston over the next few weeks. I captured four shows in Japan in 1994 and I'm working on a whole series of new videos from those shows to roll out as quickly as I can. Jokerman was the first, last week - it also has some GREAT shots of Watson.

[@mario7frankielee]

@@ArturArtist great can’t wait 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@dresdenfemmes]

Movement doesn’t look like professional footage, but it’s super clear & the sound is great. Incredible boot if that’s what it is. Love his guitar solo! Takes me back to seeing him in 93 (though I never saw him play this).

[@ArturArtist]

Thank you. I shot this footage myself, just like all the other videos here on my channel. (I mentiomed that in the description.) 😢It was done on a 1992 model Hi-8 analog camcorder. I also did the video editing to prepare the footage for upload and “remastered” the audio from a DAT recording my late husband made, also from a seat in the audience. If you enjoyed it, please take a look at some of the other videos I’ve posted here - including a whole series from 5 shows in September 1993. kzbin.info/aero/PLW3MNZDD-K8oMkXLm7JEQz_eyG6KjB1tZ&si=CfbTjKv1e139Vag8

[@d1973ld]

His name is Winston, hair, Winkler dudes

[@asokaselvarajah6922]

It sounds rather laboured and tedious to be honest, just from listening to a few seconds of it. Unlike the studio recording. Probably due to the musical background or the way it is being delivered.

[@ArturArtist]

To each their own. I’ll just note that Dylan’s performance starts off a bit weak and tentative but gets surer and stronger as he gets into it. This was only the 6th time he’d ever performed it live, so there was no well-worn groove to fall right into. If you only listened to the first few seconds, rather than a few seconds from somewhere later in the performance, I don’t think you’re basing your judgment on a very representative sample. At least you’re open about the fact that your assessment of the performance is only a snap judgment based on a few seconds’ sample.

[@asokaselvarajah6922]

@@ArturArtist Fair enough. That is exactly what I did actually. I will listen/watch the rest then.