"Don't fall apart on me tonight, I just don't think that I could handle it./Don't fall apart on me tonight, Yesterday's just a memory, Tomorrow is never what it's supposed to be/And I need you, yeah, you tonight."
Infidels' closer, "Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight" stands out on the album as a pure love song. On past albums like John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline, Dylan closed with love songs sung to the narrator's partner, and that tradition is continued with "Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight", with a chorus that asks "Don't fall apart on me tonight, I just don't think that I could handle it./Don't fall apart on me tonight, Yesterday's just a memory, Tomorrow is never what it's supposed to be/And I need you, yeah, you tonight."
Dylan Knopfler Taylor Shakespeare Dunbar Fall Apart April 12, 1983
Studio A
Power Station
New York City, New York
April 12, 1983Produced by Mark Knopfler/Bob DylanAfter having jammed in Rundown Studios, Santa Monica, with many musicians during 1982 and been around New York City in early 1983, Bob Dylan went into Power Station, the famous New York Studio, in April 1983 with a handful of skilled musicians:
Mark Knopfler (guitar), Mick Taylor (guitar), and Alan Clark (keyboards); From Jamaica, Robbie Shakespeare (bass) and Sly Dunbar (drums).
All songs by Bob Dylan.
Side One
- "Jokerman" – 6:12
- "Sweetheart Like You" – 4:31
- "Neighborhood Bully" – 4:33
- "License to Kill" – 3:31
Side Two
- "Man of Peace" – 6:27
- "Union Sundown" – 5:21
- "I and I" – 5:10
- "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight" – 5:54
Many of the songs recorded during the month they spent in the studio were either done spontaneously (all the cover versions), or worked on from the basic riffs (Foot Of Pride).
Fortunately these recording sessions are well documented and the following listings must be as close as one can get to completeness without listening to each and every tape. Information about the overdub sessions in mid-May (right after the ordinary recording sessions) has been fully available and documents that "Full Force" did not overdub "Death Is Not The End" in June/July, but immediately following the recording sessions. Information about later (June/July 1983) overdub sessions (if they took place) has not been available.
So now we set sail for a tour de force, which will answer last issue's prize winning question: "Which song was recorded in most takes and versions during these sessions?" It will not shed light on rumours like:" 'Sultans of Swing' was rehearsed during the Infidels sessions", as it can of course only document the songs which were recorded, and "Sultans of Swing" doesn't seem to be among them.
As earlier, notations about the takes (FS = False Start, LFS = Long False Start, CT = Complete Take) are given as they appear on the recording sheets and to avoid mistakes I have not tried to Interpret them or put them into any new system.
Interestingly, "Blind Willie McTell" was the first and the last song to be recorded during these sessions, indicating that a satisfactory format for the song was not found easily.
1. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight 2. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight CT3. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight FS 4. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight CT5. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight FS6. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight Inc7. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight 8. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight Take 1 CT9. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight Take 2 FS10. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight Take 3 FSl1. Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight Take 4 CT1-7 "Don't Fall Apart On Me Like That" on recording sheet.
Musicians: Mark Knopfler (guitar), Mick Taylor (guitar), Alan Clark (keyboards), Robbie Shakespeare (bass), Sly Dunbar (drums), Bob Dylan.
1 released on INFIDELS.
12. License To Kill Take 1 CT
The next day's recordings produced the first of two first take masters from the Infidels sessions: "License To Kill".
Infidels [Columbia, 1983]
All the wonted care Dylan has put into this album shows--musically, "License to Kill" is the only dud. His distaste for the daughters of Satan has gained complexity of tone--neither dismissive nor vituperative, he addresses women with a solicitousness that's strangely chilling, as if he knows what a self-serving hypocrite he's being, but only subliminally. At times I even feel sorry for him, just as he intends. Nevertheless, this man has turned into a hateful crackpot. Worse than his equation of Jews with Zionists with the Likud or his utterly muddled disquisition on international labor is the ital Hasidism that inspires no less than three superstitious attacks on space travel. God knows (and I use that phrase advisedly) how far off the deep end he'll go if John Glenn becomes president. B-
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