Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

The story I heard is that this take was a home demo. You can also faintly hear a door close after one of the barks.

or so the Germans would have you believe... I think careful editing amps up this impression. I do agree that NDH exposes the kind of crap Dylan had to put up with at the time. Or as a recent Stereogum post put it, "Suck On Your Glasses, Judas!" I usually don't laugh out loud at things I find on the Internet, but that did me in.

How about 'I Was Young When I Left Home'? Does vol 7 repeat the version issued with Love & Theft; either way, does anyone save me rate the latter? Its very guitar playing seems poignant.

It seems that vol 7, unlike other volumes, repeats existing and possibly familiar material.

Lou Reed NYC Man - a best of, 2 CDs for a fiver, from Fopp. So it was a part-exchange.

Sung with such beauty, control, and weight, I can't get over it. Devastates me every time.

No. It's my single favourite Dylan performance.

I like the alternate take of "Stuck Inside of Mobile" the best.

I am glad to hear about Vol 7. I'll have to get it!

it was sitting in the back of my memory untill cat power did it so damnedwell...these days i cant decide which i like better...

i've meant to dig up some old versions of it. a co-worker knows it from houseparty sessions when she was a kid..but hasn't pointed to any recorded versions..allmusic herei come

has anyone bought/heard the starbucks tapes?

So great.

Really enjoying the The Witmark Demos, but as I've been searching out reviews of the set I'm getting a little sick of the Dylan fanatics whining "well I've heard all these before, so this is nothing new and I can't believe they bothered to package this". Gee, thanks, but some of us like to not have to scrounge through tons of bootlegs and will happily pay for this stuff all collected and cleaned up nice.

ha, yeah, this is a great set, even though i may have been one of the fanatics complaining originally. second disc in particular is just a joy to listen to. i definitely prefer some of the versions here to the album versions.

I am listening to that second disc now!

I wanted to hear what 'I'll keep it with mine' sounded like in its very first instance.

And now I am hearing 'Boots of Spanish Leather' - my goodness. Such depth he seems to have found, to have plumbed or fallen into.

About 'keep it with mine', have I others mentioned before the basic difficulty with this song, namely that the 'everybody / will help you' line doesn't really fit vs the music, so every cover (and so many covers have occurred) has to solve this problem anew?

[= have I and / or others mentioned]

Just listening to Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (Take 5) from Vol.7.
So great.
― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 23 November 2005

my download code for the brandeis vinyl i bought in case anyone wants it:

http://www.myplaydirect.com/bobdylan/redeem_short_pin?cid=lg:4ve&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=retail

code: 349j3p56d57nd72

anyone know where i could find a version of "when i paint my masterpiece" from the rolling thunder revue tour?

just uh "replaced" the taped copy I had of the Bootleg Series Volume 2, as I'm sorta going through a mid-60s through the late 70s Bob-listening period at the moment and I am wondering at just how much there really is in the vaults from that '65-'67 period. Volume 2 really only includes a smattering - I have an unauthorized bootleg that I got back in the 90s called "Thin Wild Mercury Music" that has at least a dozen more tracks from the same sessions (Pilot Eyes, Just a Little Glass of Water, numerous alternate versions). Does anybody have any particular insight into this period or resources that would be worth checking out?

Also, did Dylan even tour the US with his electric band during this period? I mean I know about the inaugural folk festival shows and whatnot, but it seems like the live stories/bootlegs from this period are always from the two UK tours.

also - so glad to finally be hearing this 3/4 version of Like a Rolling Stone again

is that the one with the mickey jones replacing levon helm in the band?

I'm not sure...? it's very short, just over a minute-and-a-half. instrumentation is Bob at the piano, singing and playing harmonica too and I think there's some small electric guitar and organ bits at the end. I'll see if I can find a youtube...

wikipedia sez no

The recording sessions were produced by Tom Wilson on June 15–16, 1965, in Studio A of Columbia Records, 799 Seventh Avenue, in New York City.In addition to Bloomfield, the other musicians enlisted were Paul Griffin on piano, Joe Macho, Jr. on bass, Bobby Gregg on drums, and Bruce Langhorne on tambourine, all booked by Wilson. Gregg and Griffin had previously worked with Dylan and Wilson on Bringing It All Back Home.

On the first day, five takes of the song were recorded in a markedly different style from the eventual release—a 3/4 waltz time, with Dylan on piano. The lack of sheet music meant the song was played by ear. However the essence of the song was discovered in the course of the chaotic session. They did not reach the first chorus until the fourth take, but after the following harmonica fill Dylan interrupted, saying, "My voice is gone, man. You wanna try it again?" This take was subsequently released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. The session ended shortly afterwards.

Also, did Dylan even tour the US with his electric band during this period? I mean I know about the inaugural folk festival shows and whatnot, but it seems like the live stories/bootlegs from this period are always from the two UK tours.

According to this, he did do an electric tour of the US/Canada in 1966, but the personnel fluctuated. The US/Canada leg of the tour started out with Al Kooper and Levon Helm, and ended up with the rest of the Hawks and Bobby Gregg.

ah. I've seen Eat the Document, for some reason I thought all that footage was from the UK tours. Not that there's a lot of um, explication in that film.

Tyler had a boot up from one of the US dates on his blog.

There was also a mult-disc Bootleg Series release through Sony Japan only, with little publicity. Yet another reminder of just how crazy he is, to sideline something this good (like leaving the Desire sessions' "Golden Loom" in the can so long, in favor of shit like "Joey"). It ranges from the very early 60s, when he sounds like a mean ol' compelling preacher man on "Wade In The Water". to the late '90s, I think. A few prev released tracks, but nothing too obvious. He even reads 60s poetry from the stage, way better than most of the stuff on back album jackets (before John Wesley Harding, that is). Telltale Signs is mostly excellent too, although it's mostly about lost love, gotta be ready for that(the music's always good)(of course I'm just talking about the double-disc, but you could probably get everything on the third disc from the bargain bin or downloads, for much, much less than the full edition, though still wouldn't have the book, boo-hoo)

there seem to be a handful of outtakes from his 65-67 studio sessions that I can't find:

California
You Don't Have to Do That
Why Do You Have to Be So Frantic?

and then I guess various alternate versions of some things...

Also see Tyler's link to Renaldo and Clara on YouTube, speaking of Rolling Thunder. I haven't heard the Bootleg Series Rolling Thunder, don't know how it compares with thar (the old Hard Rain live LP has some good R Thunder performances). It's 3' 36", but very episodic, no prob with breaks. Don't know why it got such bad reviews: you get mostly really good, already speculative re-arrangements of songs from early 60s to recent past, and the whole thing is also a continuation of the troubled relationship dynamic on Blood On The Tracks--not a rolling cinematic break-up album, but scenes with restless,wry, sly, not-buyin'-any-alibis women, and somewhat befuddled men, the latter inching towards middle-aged crazy. (The actually middle-aged men, like Ronny Hawkins, Allen Ginsberg and Ramblin' Jack, thrive in the spotlight.) Great sound and pungent 70s dirty silver screen visuals (Dyl had already made the Scorsese connection after all, and maybe thinkin Cassavetes, Pennebacker of course, hoping for success like that of Altman's Nashville, or Led Zep's Song Remains The Same, it's kind of in between those)

another question:

what the hell was Dylan doing between New Morning and Pat Garrett? So weird that he went so long without releasing anything except a couple random largely ignored singles

I may have the chronology wrong, but I think that's around when Bob was trying to shake off any number of stalkers (Weberman and the like). Since putting out a crap record (Self Portrait) on purpose didn't throw people off his trail, he probably decided to clam up entirely.

he was raising kids and chickens and shit

"Cow Pie!" Now that nobody goes to MySpace, tons of albums there: whole series and boxes of Hank, Cash, Miles and Dylan for inst. All of BD's original 60s releases (in their 2010 mono, plus Best of the Mono Recordings). Several in the Bootleg Series, like the Whitmark Demos, Halloween Mask, Vols.1-3: Series of Dreams, Live At Brandeis (not sure if that's formally incl in Bootleg Series, but def 60s)

http://s.discogss.com/image/R-4142927-1356735357-6465.jpeg

Not a part of the bootleg series, but may as well be. Sony/Columbia quietly released 100 copies of this across a few European countries at the end of December, and it was available for download in a few countries (at an exorbitant price) but that's it. The mp3 download version apparently uses the less subtle artwork above, while the physical copies used the 50th Anniv. title. Basically all the alternate/live tracks they wanted to not let slip into the public domain? I'm not sure I understand how copyright law works that they had to do this, but I wish it was more widely available.

http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Dylan-The-50th-Anniversary-Collection-The-Copyright-Extension-Collection-Vol-I/release/4142612

out there on t0rrentz, of course