Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Bob Dylan

Saved

1980 · Columbia FC 36553 · Stereo · US · LP, promo · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Columbia
Catalogue number	FC 36553
Year	1980
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US
Format	LP, promo
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Rock - Gospel/Christian Rock
Producer	Jerry Wexler, Barry Beckett
Musicians	Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar), Fred Tackett (guitar), Tim Drummond (bass), Jim Keltner (drums), Spooner Oldham (keyboards), Terry Young (keyboards, vocals), Clydie King (vocals), Regina McCrary (vocals), Monalisa Young (vocals), Mary Elizabeth Bridges (vocals)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  PAL-36553-1D
Side B:  PBL-36553-1C  B

Condition

Cover: NM-
Vinyl: NM-

Variant chronology

1980 - US Terre Haute pressing, stereo
1980 - US Pitman pressing, stereo
1980 - US Santa Maria pressing, stereo
1980 - US demonstration/promo white-label pressing, stereo  <- this copy
1980 - Canada, UK, Europe and other territory pressings, stereo - no separate band
1985 - US reissue, stereo - no separate band

This Pressing

Later-era pressing (stereo, 1980 or after) - white demonstration/promo label, not a retail stock copy; plant not identified on the label.

The Album

Saved was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama in February 1980, the second installment of Bob Dylan's turn toward born-again Christian material following his conversion, and it followed directly on the heels of the album that announced that change. Produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett, the sessions drew on the deep well of Southern soul and gospel musicianship associated with the Muscle Shoals sound, giving the songs a warmth and groove distinct from Dylan's earlier rock and folk records. The cover art, a painting of a divine hand reaching down toward outstretched human hands, makes explicit the album's theme of salvation that runs through every track. Where the preceding record had been met with curiosity and strong sales, this one arrived to a more divided audience, with longtime fans and critics unsettled by the overtly evangelical lyrics and the absence of Dylan's familiar ambiguity. Even so, the performances are considered among the most vocally committed of his career, with Dylan singing with an urgency that some critics have since reappraised as some of his most passionate work. The album closed out a brief but intense period in Dylan's catalog before his writing began to loosen its strictly religious focus on subsequent records. Decades on, Saved is regarded by many admirers of Dylan's gospel period as the rawest and most purely devotional of the three albums from that era.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. A Satisfied Mind
2. Saved
3. Covenant Woman
4. What Can I Do for You?
5. Solid Rock

Side 2

1. Pressing On
2. In the Garden
3. Saving Grace
4. Are You Ready

The Label

This copy's label is a white DEMONSTRATION NOT FOR SALE service label, carrying the standard early-1980s Columbia walking-eye rim design and the catalogue number split as AL 36553 / BL 36553 across the two sides, with no Terre Haute, Pitman or Santa Maria plant mark printed anywhere on it - Columbia's demo/service labels of this era never carry a plant designation, so the specific pressing plant that struck this copy is not established from the label itself. The rim typography and logo placement match the contemporaneous retail walking-eye design used across all US Columbia plants in 1980, which places the label in that single design generation without distinguishing a plant within it. What the label does establish is that this is a promotional service pressing rather than a shop-stock copy of the same catalogue number, since the demonstration wording is the one printed feature separating the two.

Fidelity

The album was mastered for Columbia's original 1980 release chain without any later audiophile remastering of note. Collectors generally regard the original Columbia stereo cut as perfectly serviceable but unremarkable sonically, with no widely acclaimed audiophile reissue of this title circulating among the usual specialist reissue series. This promo pressing shares the same mastering lineage as the contemporary retail copies, so its standing in the fidelity hierarchy is equivalent to an ordinary 1980 stereo pressing rather than superior or inferior to it.

Notes

This is a promotional, not-for-sale stereo copy of the 1980 Columbia release, identifiable by the white DEMONSTRATION NOT FOR SALE label rather than a retail stock label. The barcode on the back cover is a mark that did not exist before 1980, confirming the copy cannot predate that year, though it cannot establish which of the several 1980 pressing plants struck it. The runout etchings follow the catalogue's standard AL/BL 36553 pattern. No further distinguishing plant stamp is legible to separate it from the Terre Haute, Pitman or Santa Maria pressings of the same catalogue number.

Documenting collections

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