Bob Dylan’s Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Volume 8, which will be released in October, is now available for pre-order through Amazon.com.

The 2-CD set is currently priced at $18.99; the 3-CD set, with limited edition doodads, is a mere $152.99. There’s also a vinyl set for $92.13.

The free mp3 sample being offered through BobDylan.com is Dreamin’ Of You, of-course. There’s been various evaluations of it out there, ranging from the rapturous to the dismissive. It’s an outtake from the Time Out Of Mind recording sessions. Personally, I’m glad that Dylan and Daniel Lanois went with a different sound for the actual album. This track sounds to me a little bit like an outtake from some kind of U2 record. I think Bob’s singing is great, but I think he ultimately turned many of the lines from this song into something much better with Standing In the Doorway. So, in other words, I think this one is very appropriately an outtake. (Maybe when I hear it in full resolution on the actual release I’ll like it better — who knows.)

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So, Bob Dylan played a rare gig in Brooklyn, New York a few days ago, at the bandshell in Prospect Park. There’s a zillion reviews of it out there. That’s my part of the country, but I’ll confess I passed on getting tickets to this event. What was it Bob said to the Times earlier this year? “Poverty is demoralizing.” With the various extra charges added on, just getting tickets for myself and my significant other to sit on the grass inside the venue would have been pushing $200. And I alway figured that we could get away with doing what we and many hundreds of other people did do on the night, and that is sit outside the venue barriers and just listen. The sound wasn’t ideal, but there’s many gigs for which I’ve bought seats where I could say that too. Bob and the band were very tight. The Levee’s Gonna Break was a scorching standout. And one major plus of not being ticket holders was that we could take along our dog Billie. It was her first Dylan gig. (And her last, unless something like this happens again.) She enjoyed it, but waited in vain for her favorite tune.

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Thanks much to Francis Beckwith for the e-mail regarding his forthcoming book, “Return to Rome,” in which he writes about his own journey of faith from Catholicism to Protestant evangelicalism and then back to Catholicism. Among the chapters and subheadings in the book are familiar phrases such as “Property of Jesus,” “Tangled Up In Blue,” and “I Hear the Ancient Footsteps.” And in it he also writes about attending one of Bob Dylan’s famous gospel shows in San Francisco.

Part of the blurb on the book from Amazon:

What does it mean to be evangelical? What does it mean to be Catholic? Can one consider oneself both simultaneously? Francis Beckwith has wrestled with these questions personally and professionally. He was baptized a Catholic, but his faith journey led him to Protestant evangelicalism. He became a philosophy professor at Baylor University and president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). And then, in 2007, after much prayer, counsel, and consideration, Beckwith decided to return to the Catholic church and step down as ETS president. This provocative book details Beckwith’s journey, focusing on his internal dialogue between the Protestant theology he embraced for most of his adult life and Catholicism.

Professor Beckwith also wrote a fascinating essay on Dylan called “Busy Being Born Again: Bob Dylan’s Christian Philosophy.” It was included in the 2006 book “Bob Dylan & Philosophy: It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Thinking.” You can download a pdf of that essay from this page at his website.

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