Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

Penn Gillette as the lead piece in the book is lol

like why would I care about that doofus' musical opinions

srsly

for those that got the mondo box set -- VG did...assuming tylerw did?

is it worth it?

I haven't ripped the CDs or watched the doc yet, just thumbed through the book

you talking about the Rolling Thunder set or the gospel set ums?

I have it digitally and have so far listened only to the three rehearsal disks, the "rare versions" and the Montreal show

tbh I'm a little disappointed in the rehearsals...they don't touch the Rundown rehearsals from a few years later. It seems like this band's gretest asset was *energy* and to hear these songs arranged for Dylan's shouty voice but without a lot of gusto...eh. I don't know maybe they'll grow on me.

The Montreal show is extraordinary.

xpost the new rolling thunder box

I have the 2cd Trouble No More

counterpoint — i think the rehearsals are awesome! especially the first disc ... pretty amazing that they were only a week or so away from the first show.

I need that jaunty Simple Twist of Fate from the mahjong parlor. Incredible!

yeah that was amazing

it's on disc 14

I know, but I’m kind of all in on vinyl right now.

I'm genuinely considering the RTR box. It's about 45 euros and I think I'd like to dip into the different shows

next up: Johnny Cash Wesley Harding Skyline!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-bootleg-series-update-nashville-849134/

Unlike recent Bootleg Series packages that compiled every song in the vaults from key albums Blood on the Tracks, The Basement Tapes, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, this new set will only contain select tracks from the sessions. “I think we did repeat versions of songs to death on The Cutting Edge,” says the source. “We’re trying to find one really good takes of each song. The giant dumps of everything like we’ve done in recent years really aren’t my preference. I like stuff that is more curated.”

This seems like a good idea. Somehow I doubt there are revelations buried in the rehearsal sessions for "Country Pie."

So, this won't get a deluxe box version? A bit like the Whitmark demos, then..

...or any of the sets prior to, what, Vol. 11(?)

Nice - this one I'm really looking forward to, esp the JWH stuff.

interesting to hear what they dig up there — plenty of the period was on Another Self Portrait. The Cash stuff is not great. John Wesley Harding outtakes are the most interesting ...

agreed

but man I would LOVE to hear Infidels and Empire Burlesque dried out and remixed + outtakes

that (and the time out of mind sessions) seem more exciting, but maybe they can't resist the press that a collab w/ Johnny Cash will generate ... even if that collab kinda sucks. (though maybe there's better stuff than what has already circulated?)

I'm sure and I guess also there's no hurry on the copyright front to get that 80s stuff out

I hope the Dylan camp doesn't think Time Out Of Mind was "already covered" by Tell Tale Signs; that set really needs to be expanded into a box each for Time, "Love and Theft", and Modern Times (the latter I would particularly love to hear).

xp

Bought the RTR box. I've skimmed the 3 rehearsals discs and they seem unnecessary. Poor quality and ramshackle. Looking forward to the 5 full concerts. So it's 60 euros for 10 discs of five gigs. Not a massive bargain but an ok price.

I need that jaunty Simple Twist of Fate from the mahjong parlor. Incredible!

― Rolling Thunderdome Revue (PBKR), Monday, June 17, 2019 3:52 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is so amazing, I played this a dozen times today...it's a shame the mix is p much just voice+drums

also the Hattie Caroll on that Montreal show is thrilling

Still dying to hear the rest of the 20+ songs that skookum band recorded for Masked and Anonymous.

Trouble No More film/live footage DVD is surprisingly entertaining, that was really a great band he had on those tours

Hackett had such a funny 70s-Lit-professor-turned-lead guitarist vibe, did he ever perform w leather elbow patches

ha yes the robert quine of that band

xxxposts
Seconded for Infidels.
Especially since it's well known that the released version of the album was rushed and unfinished.
I have made my own version of the album, basically removing the "rock" stuff and replacing them with some of the songs that were cut out.
It's pretty good (for a Dylan 80s album !).

There’s an (actual) bootleg of Infidels outtakes called Rough Cuts that you can get, if they never release that stuff officially.

are y'all taking about the movie on some thread I can't find?

just finished watching last night, so cool

Over here: Scorsese's movie about Dylan

https://www.bobdylan.com/news/bob-dylan-featuring-johnny-cash-travelin-thru-1967-1969-the-bootleg-series-vol-15-released-nov-1/

Looking forward to the JWH outtakes

yeah, that early version of "Immigrant" they've posted is great ... almost a completely different melody/approach. the Cash stuff I've heard is ehhh, but oh well.

Yes, I don't care about the Cash material

I'm gonna get this one for sure... Nashville Skyline is one of the few "classic" Dylan albums that I've never owned (only heard it once or twice); and I feel like I've never appreciated JWH enough, maybe this will give me a different way into it.

Me neither but JWH outtakes are like a holy grail

From today's Rolling Stone update on this (says don't expect too much from JWH outtakes btw):

Future plans for the Bootleg Series are unclear, but a Time Out of Mind set and one that chronicles Dylan’s pre-fame folk period in Minnesota and New York are both in contention. “We’ve collected all these early tapes of him like the Minnesota Hotel Tapes and all the tapes that Tony Glover recorded,” says the source. “We have all these things in beautiful quality along with the Town Hall concert [in 1963] and the Carnegie Hall concert [in 1963]. Some day we’ll put these all together and put them out, but it’s not like people are clamoring for it. There are probably a few other areas to explore before that.”

There are no immediate plans to end the Bootleg Series, but the steep decline in the market for physical product does put its future in some jeopardy. “We have to also see how long people keep buying these things,” says the source. “We’ll see what happens. Right now, there’s a certain amount of physical that still gets sold, so we’d like to keep doing them.”

Looking forward to this one and I'm glad it's a reasonably sized/priced entry and not some 18-disc behemoth.

haha:
"We had to include ‘All Along the Watchtower,’ but it’s not like ‘All Along the Watchtower’ cha-cha or anything."

a few years back i wrote:

The masterful John Wesley Harding LP was recorded (and written, if Dylan is to be believed) in a matter of days in late 1967. It stands virtually alone among the songwriter's albums in that collectors have never been able to get ahold of any session outtakes or alternates. But they exist—and someone's heard them. "I heard a couple of alternate takes of 'All Along The Watchtower' that were, to me as a fan, just incredible," Michael Chaiken, the curator of the recently announced Dylan archive in Tulsa, teased Rolling Stone. Do these alternate "Watchtower"s include previously unknown lyrics? A distorted rave-up? A salsa-inflected arrangement? Time will tell... hopefully.

xxp I appreciate the straightforward / no-B.S. nature of those remarks from the Sony(?) rep.

Jerry Garcia once helpfully explained to a Rolling Stone interviewer, "Acid music is whatever music you take acid to," and for me that was JWH, more than any other. It still plays itself in my head without warning, as my thots curl around it. So yes please, I'd like a little more. However, the Cash sessions are probably going to tip the scales for me, towards outright purchase.

Any thoughts on the new one? On first listen now. The JWH and NS outtakes are mildly interesting, and may grow on me. I'm half way thru the second disc of Cash sessions and reckon I don't need to listen to them more than this first time.

This may be the first BS I regret buying. Let's see.

Just listened to the whole thing, which is totally worth it (I paid full, reasonable price). True, nothing is revealed by the JWH alts, other than that the ones that made the cut were better, finding their own taut groove (these are mostly slower, simpler, except "Immigrant," which is too fast, kinda smarty-pants, works better as obsessive dirge of nosy semi-sympathetic neighbor). But even those sound good, as recorded and performed. Wotta trio! We knew that, but still.
They and added colleagues (carefully selected for affinity with the artist, not just the auto-A List cats, according to Colin Escott's ever-incisive notes)roll right through the Skyline sessions---been so many years since I listened to the finished product, but seem to recall being attracted to most of the songs right away, while finding the execution, at least in the mix, a bit too on-the-nose and sanitized (also Dylan's new-found per se country poise seemed self-conscious, and not much like the yowly country sounds he'd become known for in the beginning, incl among the suits; Escott deals with all that too)
Haven't done any comparative listening, but these takes work on their own, all earthy and fluid and good-humored, yet no screwing around, incl. with the point of the lyric. Just not too much formalism.
Ditto the even more freewheeling sessions with Cash, but they're finding grooves, establishing an in-person, in-the-moment rapport after years of listening to each other's records over and over (Escott says that Cash's early advocacy may have kept the not-terribly-well-selling Bobby on Columbia)
They get several tracks pretty much nailed down, at least vocally; further evidence that they were thinking in terms of an album, exploring the possibilities.
Good BD x Skyline sessioneers performances from The Johnny Cash show, especially the finale, "Girl From The North Country, with their host strong as ever on here (and I like the way his and Dylan's voices are always attentively co-existent, never blending).
Would not have guessed that "To Be Alone With You" (which sounds more Charlie Rich shufflin'-with-some-barbecue" than Jerry Lee among the other Skyline alts) would also show up in a visit with Earl Scruggs and sons but it works fine, as does "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance" and "Nashville Skyline Rag."
Oh yeah, and there are a couple of Cash covers from the Self-Portrait sessions, way sassy and way too good for the release.

"at least vocally"--but Carl Perkins and Cash's other regulars of that era are always on it too.

the new version of country pie is a revelation

!