Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

Trouble No More goes so hard, love that set

Thanks for the kind words morrisp!

Yeah, but that's not what he wanted--says in Chronicles he was telling superfans to fuck off---also it always seemed like escapism, escape from being That Guy, which amounts to what he says in Chronicle, only wimpier maybe, though understandable---but really what he gets is a publicity coup: STOP THE PRESSES BARD SUX--unless you liked the album, which some do, of course--but that was the angle. But a nice modest album would also have disappointed many, and (at the time) he complained something about having written (like John Wesley Harding in particular) to please the literary critics and shit, wanted a break from all that.

I'm actually skeptical of that. I'm not sure when Dylan began saying that - maybe the Cameron Crowe interview that was done for Biograph's liner notes - but that theory was floated out even earlier and I think he liked it and decided to go with it. (It reminds me of a common joke some auteur filmmakers like Orson Welles have - when someone says something about their work that they like but wasn't the intention, they retroactively make it their intention.) The reason why I'm skeptical has to do with Al Kooper and a few others who were working with him on New Morning. When they've been interviewed about that period, they all mention the same thing - everything was moving along all right until the negative press came out over Self Portrait. Dylan was bothered by it, and then all of a sudden, the work on New Morning became a lot more frustrating because Dylan kept changing his mind over and over again, re-recording songs that were presumed finished and just plain re-working and re-sequencing the album over and over again. (It probably says something that he also ditched his original plan of including a pair of covers to bookend the album.)

Or as Kooper said: "When I finished that album I never wanted to speak to him again. I was cheesed off at how difficult [the whole thing was]...He just changed his mind every three seconds so I just ended up doing the work of three albums...We'd get a side order and we'd go in and master it and he'd say, 'No, no, no. I want to do this.' And then, 'No, let's go in and cut this.'"

Dylan was struggling to write new songs, and he may have had a contractual obligation to release a new album of some kind. I think this is a case of Occam's razor - he just wanted to cut some songs his already knew without writing new ones, and he just let Bob Johnston do whatever he wanted with them rather than argue (the overdubs were Johnston's terrible idea). It's not unlike what he would do with so much of Down in the Groove, Good As I Been To You, World Gone Wrong, the Christmas album, the Sinatra-era standards albums, etc...if the songs aren't coming to him, he's comfortable doing non-original material and he probably enjoys doing it.

*Dylan was struggling to write new songs when he started on Self Portrait

(Obviously he started writing material for New Morning, but it still wasn't coming easy. It probably says something that he recycled two songs meant for an aborted play and used them to close New Morning.)

subbing out for the undubbed "All the Tired Horses" strikes me as madness!

the "Highyway 61 Revisited" performance from Isle of Wright is my definitive take. Some gnarly interplay going on there.

LOL, I hate the strings, it's like Hollywood schlock. (FWIW, I'd also move "Alberta #3" into the second slot after "All The Tired Horses")

That "Highway 61 Revisited" is AWESOME, the best thing from that show and thankfully properly mixed. (I have no idea how/why the original Self Portrait messed up the mix for those live cuts.) If I had to live cuts from that show, "H61R" would be one along with "It Ain't Me Babe." The latter would have been perfect if Dylan actually wanted to tell people to get off his back. (And more importantly it's very listenable, an excellent, new interpretation of the song.)

I like the strings on the 'if not for you' and 'sign on the window' on ANOTHER SELF PORTRAIT. (Hope I'm remembering those correctly.)

I love how disc after disc after disc of TROUBLE NO MORE begins with the same song: 'slow train'.

Coming back to 1970, which I've now played umpteen times:

I know that this is 2 or 3 sessions, and George Harrison played in one, and isn't on most of the tracks - though his involvement is a big part of the appeal.

What puzzles me is that GH is officially listed as playing on a few songs that are mostly spaced apart. Thus eg: it's not 'GH, guitar on tracks 1-5', but 'GH, guitar on tracks 2, 4, 6-7, 11'.

If the tracks are chronologically consecutive, and GH was in the studio the whole time, why isn't he playing on more of a run of songs?

Is it possible that he *is* playing on more songs than are listed, but they're not sure?

How can they tell anyway? Not much of the recording, TBH, comes across as very distinctively GH.

Is there a dedicated article about this session somewhere? Given the Bob obsessiveness out there, I might have expected it.

The songs with GH are listed in BOLD on the tracklist on this page.

https://www.musicconnection.com/kubernik-bob-dylans-1970-session-with-george-harrison/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxFAWPnhTPw

This version seems to include studio chatter (haven't listened properly yet). Again, if GH was present the whole time, I can't well see why he wouldn't be playing along.

Because George offered to play whatever Bob wanted him to play, or not at all. Whatever would please him...

How do you know?

As I said -- is there a fuller account of this somewhere?

think Mark G was making a little Let It Be joke there

tick

Heh, like with His Assholiness McCartney, right? As heard on yet another tense, tedious Beatles studio tape. Whatever Dylan's intent, Self-Portrait always was the sound of escapism, evasion, and yeah feeling like the well was dry---having all those unreleased originals somehow didn't count, weren't where he was currently at/not at now---and yeah the cover pic looks like a door knob *and* a guy saying, whaaaa, ain't no answers in here, bub, these kitschy keepsakes is all this ol' hickboy's got. (Live tracks carefully drained of all force to fit right into the hoarder's used cotton swab collection.) That's what it sounded, like, but the his earliest comment I've seen is, "I didn't think it was that bad!" Seemed surprised by the backlash, not courting it. (Although I first read it as "that bad," like maybe he knew or guessed that it might plausibly, "arguably," as we strangely say now, considered to be kinda bad? Maybe he was inclined to think so too---?
Which is maybe why he worked his and everybody else's ass off on New Morning, although I'm surprised to learn he took it that far: doesn't sound labored or overthought/contrived, like some later offerings; it tells the or a story, of where he is at now and how he got here, in a more personalized way, words and music, than the charming high generic originals of Nashville Skyline, discreetly distanced (alts of Travellin' Through show that it could have been much livelier overall, more like the issued takes of the title track, "To Be Alone With You," and my fave LP track, "Country Pie"--but again, that's not what he was going for)( just the sound of Cash making small talk in *those* outtakes is almost overwhelming: more of him on the issued record could have been waaay too intense for this chill interlude, a duet album, as the producer and Cash indicate some eagerness for, would have overshadowed Dyl's modest crooning, challenged him in ways he wasn't into)
And certainly NM was there to get the cred back on track after S-P, although his People then put out the word that it was recorded before the latter: true or not, didn't want to seem too concerned, too motivated by trying to please. (Planet Waves seemed more like something-for-everybody, but mostly worked, I thought.)

Yeah, I don't think New Morning sounds labored or overthought, just the opposite (a big part of its charm). I don't think anyone would've guessed so much work was being done on it, though on paper, having so many takes on different dates does suggest something might've been amiss.

I wish he put "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue" on the album instead of banishing it to B-side purgatory. (The version on Dylan is horrid. The alternate take on Another Self Portrait is pretty good but the master take on that B-side is best. For whatever reason the B-side version has never been given a proper U.S. CD release though it's on the import CD collection Masterpieces. For those who don't what that is, when Dylan struck a deal to perform at Budokan in 1978, his label's Japanese branch decided to release a comprehensive best of as a tie-in, along with that infamous live album.) If he had kept to the original intent of bookending New Morning with covers, "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue" would've been a perfect opening track.

Awful video, but here's a YouTube upload, apparently ripped from an old 45 judging by the occasional clicks that sound like vinyl pops that weren't filtered out well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVtn4bTh54c

I also prefer the alternates of "If Not for You" and "Went to See the Gypsy" that were on The Genuine Bootleg Series and eventually (sort of) released on Another Self Portrait. The latter has a beautiful vocal, and the electric piano gives it a nice "Phil Ramone producing in the 1970s" vibe even though he wasn't the producer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voD_UAImLRM

The former was remixed for Another Self Portrait. It sounds like it could be mono there while the bootlegged version is a wider stereo with a pedal steel overdub that's missing on the official release. I guess Sony/Dylan's people wanted to make the recording all about that fiddle, but I kind of like how the two instruments complemented each other on the bootleg. Here it is:

https://vimeo.com/580372445

'Went to See the Gypsy', along with 'Sign on the Window', seems to have been rehearsed / recorded more times than anything else in this period.

'Sign' is a marvellous tune and suggestive lyric. 'Gypsy', I'm not so sure. Wonder if Dylan overrated a bit (I keep reading that he was struggling to write songs), or if he should have rewritten it slightly. The lyric seems to build up to something but - as I know from hearing it about 100 times in the last month - effectively has nothing in the middle. The encounter with the 'Gypsy' is a non-event.

The best I can say about that, I suppose, is that it's a mystery how the Gypsy and his entourage disappears suddenly disappear completely from a hotel room while Dylan is making a telephone call.

Yeah, I don't think New Morning sounds labored or overthought, just the opposite (a big part of its charm).

seems like Kooper was probably frustrated that he worked up some pretty elaborate arrangements for a few of these songs and Dylan ended up going with the more ragged takes. I do really like the full band version of "time passes slowly" on Another Self Portrait.

'Gypsy', I'm not so sure. Wonder if Dylan overrated a bit (I keep reading that he was struggling to write songs), or if he should have rewritten it slightly. The lyric seems to build up to something but - as I know from hearing it about 100 times in the last month - effectively has nothing in the middle. The encounter with the 'Gypsy' is a non-event.

The best I can say about that, I suppose, is that it's a mystery how the Gypsy and his entourage disappears suddenly disappear completely from a hotel room while Dylan is making a telephone call.

This is gypsy slander and should not be tolerated. Went to See the Gypsy is a top 10 Dylan on a summer night with a beer in your hand.

The encounter with the 'Gypsy' is a non-event.

Like, I can't even. This is the entire point of the song!

WENT TO SEE THE GYPSY RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it's great in the jaunty New Morning version and possibly even more affecting on the Another Self Portrait more mournful verison

"'How are you?" he said to me/I said back to him"

It's very human.

Yeah, for the first time he shows himself as the credulous, I Want To Believe seeker and sucker ("He smiled when he saw me coming, said, 'Well well we-ell"), and sticks around even when the advance man unnecessarily hypes: "...He did it in Las Vegas, and he can do it here!" Sounds like he's still disappointed by the non-event. Here and in the desolate-to-desperate "Sign In The Window," and the freaked-out "Day of the Locust," nuthin left to do but the-end-of-the-Sixties cliche, get back to roots--b-but he's already done that on the previous two albums, and still sounds desolate-to-desperate on "Time Passes Slowly" ("when you're lost in a dream!"). But then he does get it together on all the remaining songs (as he did on the LP opener, I think it was, "If Not For You.") Even gets back to his seeker interests on "Three Angels" and "Father of Night"---are these the ones written for a play?

I love NEW MORNING, but unlike you, I don't think 'went to see the gypsy' is as good as it should be.

'The song is all about a non-event', yes, but maybe he could then clarify more about this non-event, what it meant, why he 'went to see the gypsy' in the first place, what he was expecting, why they say so little to each other, why he would depart this important gypsy character to make a telephone call, how he feels when the character mysteriously disappears.

I have read around all that I could on this song and the one standard line seems to be that it's about Elvis Presley. Not that Dylan really saw Presley in Minnesota. Why call Elvis the gypsy? Tell us more.

Dylan would be the last artist I would expect or want to clarify anything. He's been avoiding clarifying things since at least 1964.

The song, imo, is about expectations vs. reality and at the end reaches for a zen contentment like a lot of New Morning songs. It's similar to Sign on the Window (talk about an underdeveloped lyric), though in Sign it seems the narrator is trying to convince themselves while in Gypsy the narrator is convinced.

Maybe Dylan should have done a sequel song (cf Glass Onion) where he explains "The Gypsy was Elvis".

I’m sorry to correct you but “Went to See the Gypsy” is literally as good as it’s possible for a song to be.
The gypsy was Elvis, and wasn’t, and that little Minnesota town was Duluth, and Hibbing, and wasn’t, and the song happened and didn’t and the girl was nowhere to be found, and that’s what happens when you see the gypsy.

Or is it?

I quite like the song, and I've probably heard it more than any other over the last month - probably about 50 times of multiple takes.

But I think it's underdeveloped and could have benefited from another draft.

The explanations on here have been fine---there was also the sense that it's a song about the Sixties romance coming to an end, as Ellen Willis wrote about it reflecting a generational experience, especially for people of his and her age: turn 30, wake up and smell the coffee, as Dear Abby would put it, get up and get ready for work, here's spouse and kids and all that comes with them. Although his personal attraction to the esoteric, not only but sometimes giving evidence of including, thee mystical per se, keeps surfacing in later music and off-stage activities. But he had to go through this experience of non-experience and starting over, it seems.

"including thee mystical per se" not meant to have a comma between "including" and "thee"

Manymany xposts: Something that’s never leaked is the complete Masked & Anonymous sessions. That band was straight fire & I want to hear the 17 (!) unreleased songs.

That version of Cold Irons Bound is one of my favourite performances of any song ever.

Absolutely. It's definitive and beats the album version, so much that I made the substitution for my own listening. (FWIW, I also swapped out "Make You Feel My Love" for "Red River Shore" and "Cant Wait" for the officially released studio demo, both from the first disc of Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Volume 8. For the latter track, I had to cut out the talking at the beginning so that it starts on the first piano note, a very simple and easy edit.)

Cool---speaking of making your own Dylan playlists, have yall heard Medicine Sunday, the free download on Albums That Never Were? He's made an album of Dylan with the Band, taking first stabs at trying what became Blonde On Blonde.
Speaking of "Cold Irons Bound," there's a really good live version of it on this really good live BD collection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_1961%E2%80%932000:_Thirty-Nine_Years_of_Great_Concert_Performances Japanese import only, but I found it on Amazon soon after 2001 release,---now on Spotify, I think.

“She’s your lover now” is so great
“And you just sit around asking for ashtrays
Can’t you reach?”

^my favorite Dylan song (and line!)

Haha

xxxp Nice! FWIW, during the lockdown I finally listened to the entire 1965/1966 sessions box set in chronological order. Flies by pretty fast when you're stuck working at home, it took 2 or 3 days to do it without feeling I crammed the whole thing down. I always wondered why the hell Dylan ended up ditching the Hawks in the studio (though not on stage) when he was recording Blonde on Blonde. The handful of releasable cuts I heard - the one-off singles, as calstars mentions the aborted outtake "She's Your Lover Now" - were GREAT. Well, you listen to those sessions, and you hear what went wrong - Dylan was frustrated as hell and poor Richard Manuel got the brunt of it. It's on tape where Dylan's constantly telling them, especially Richard, "NO, I want it like THIS. Like THIS Richard, it's supposed to go like this." So once you hear the stuff that wasn't released before, it makes perfect sense.

Oh yeah---he tells the backstory, and how he chose tracks, how he tweaked them, getting a consistent volume level etc, to make it sound as much as possible like a real album---of whatever quality; see what yall think: http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2018/08/bob-dylan-medicine-sunday.html

Oops--links removed, sorry. But and prob because his sources are legit available though TCE Deluxe hella pricey: Sources used:
Bootleg Series Vol 8: No Direction Home (2005)
Bootleg Series Vol 12: The Cutting Edge (2015 Collector’s Edition)
Side Tracks (2013) Mainly what we're missing is his further cobble from those: Medicine Sunday appropriately concludes with the epic that never was, “She’s Your Lover Now”. Using pieces of Takes 15 and 16 on The Cutting Edge, I was able to create a complete performance of the song by editing a proper intro onto take 15 and crossfading into take 16 at the point where the band trails off, hopefully giving the illusion that The Hawks intentionally stopped playing and Dylan finished the song solo. A further edit was made at the outro so that Dylan concludes with the tonic of the song, giving it a resolve and a remorseful vocal improvisation to end the album.

Birdistheword: do you mean THE CUTTING EDGE?

My copy of that is 5CDs, and I took months working my way through it, listening to everything multiple times. Is your version bigger?

I initially thought that you meant the vast 1966 concerts set with 30CDs or whatever. Has anyone actually bought or played that?

I have bought and played the 1966 Live Recordings box, yes.

There's an 18-disc deluxe Cutting Edge set that has basically everything he recorded in the studio 1965-66. The 6-disc version is highlights of that.

I have also bought the 1966 Live Recordings box, it was surprisingly cheap and I had a Barnes & Noble gift card to use up at the time.

I haven't played through every disc yet, but probably nearly 2/3rds of it. Definitely something to work through slowly.

I have a copy of that 18 disc edition, I got it [REDACTED] DVDr

Oh, and that 1966 box set, I got on a really stupidly cheap deal..

I've only just realised that this 1966 edition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1966_Live_Recordings

was not part of The Bootleg Series but part of the same copyright series that gave us *1970*.

So has anyone played the whole of the 36CD set and is it interesting?

I felt that my CUTTING EDGE was inclusive but now I learn that it's only 1/3 of other people's.

I've played the whole 1966 live recordings set and it is awesome! the handful of audience recordings are rough going, but the australian / european / UK shows are unbelievable.

pinefox, yes, Cutting Edge, and as Tyler mentioned, it's the big 18 disc one I listened to. I also have the live set, which can usually be found for much less than $100 new - it never became a collector's item like the 18-disc Cutting Edge.

I haven't played the entire 1966 set though - FWIW, my favorites are the Liverpool (mono only) and Sheffield (stereo) discs, particularly Liverpool for the electric set. The real Royal Albert Hall show and the famous Manchester show are also great and to be fair have better sound since they were multi-track recordings.

To build on the discussion above – looks like Sony just bought all his recordings: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/24/bob-dylan-sells-recorded-music-catalog-to-sony-music-entertainment.html

More relevant details from Variety:

Bob Dylan and SME will continue to collaborate on a range of future catalog reissues in the artist’s renowned and top-selling Bootleg Series, which began in 1991 and includes 14 releases through last year’s lauded “Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985).” The agreement also provides the opportunity for SME to partner with Dylan on additional projects.