Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

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

!

Cash certainly had a lot more freedom being an Columbia than he would have had on Decca or RCA, which would have been true for other artists on the label as well. Although Aretha seems to have been an exception or a counterexample.

Bob Dylan’s whiskey collection, Heaven’s Door™️ Spirits, which produces an ever-evolving collection of American whiskeys in collaboration with Bob Dylan, announces the first expression of its limited edition Bootleg Series, a rare 26-year old whisky finished in Japanese Mizunara Oak barrels. This first release, dubbed Volume 1 of the Bootleg Series, is both a celebration of the creative spirit of Bob Dylan and the craft of fine whiskey at its best. Offered in hand-made ceramic bottles featuring one of Bob Dylan’s best-known paintings, Train Tracks , this 2019 Edition comes beautifully housed in a uniquely designed and individually numbered collectible leather journal.

The Bootleg Series, which is named in tribute to Bob Dylan’s famed series of retrospective albums, will feature annual limited-edition releases of specially crafted new whiskeys, uniquely aged, blended or finished, for a one-of-a-kind offering. Each annual release will be presented in hand-made ceramic bottles featuring one of Bob Dylan’s paintings, with each bottle being housed in its collectible case.

With fewer than 3,000 bottles for sale at a suggested retail price of $499.99 for a 750ml bottle, the 2019 Edition of The Bootleg Series is now available for pre-order via ReserveBar.com and will be online and in select retailers nationwide in early December. Each Volume of the Bootleg Series is a one-time release, and once all the bottles are sold, they will be gone for good.

Behold:http://view.fans.legacyrecordings.com/?qs=3c68f323c06aca13059bcc3c77b7b9e15f1c57973b5df64a38f5c928b524aa7f11048762d778ac53484cde964c2bf6f556345589d67128226e5ab67b87cd526170f9d36485600e13a7356f99340b15ac

Classic or Dud: Heaven’s Door Bob Dylan Whiskey...

heard it was pretty good stuff

The Best of the Bootleg Series comp was just released to streaming services... looks like a pretty good tracklist, at a glance.

Yeah this set is pretty awesome, I fuck I love this alternate vers of Visions of Johanna so much

A great idea, and this is a reasonably good execution - The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3 was supposed to be everything this playlist was meant to be, but on a larger scale.

The playlist grabs plenty of great lost classics but misses quite a few while including some choices that pale in comparison. They skipped Live 1964, which I think was the right call - a tipsy performance, always seemed disposable compared to the 1963 shows at Town Hall and Carnegie. The Nashville set covering 1969 to 1970 is nowhere near as good as the earlier volumes, and the one take of "Wanted Man" is probably all they should have included, if at all.

Will check, but also I liked Vol 1-3, and, as said upthread, Travelin' Thru, along with overlap of those sessions into Another SP.

Oh did yall see that on Is Bob Dylan Overrated about return to Radio Time Theme Hour, with link to new whiskey-theme ep? Wonder if he ever plays any Bootleg Series or other BDootlegs on there?

xxxp Wow - I never heard this particular take of “Visions...”. Hot stuff!

I’m gonna have to get “The Cutting Edge” set... that’s one I skipped, but damn!

When you play THE CUTTING EDGE, it feels like the greatest record released in the history of popular music.

I now have the 2CD set in hand... the liner-note essay by B1ll Fl4nagan (a guy I once worked for) is really good.

Oh, sweet—this set has “I’ll Keep It With Mine” and “Farewell, Angelina” (pretty worthy repeats).

Reminding me: I slept so long on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964, finally got it! Reminding me also to listen.

I'll Keep It With Mine, complete with the producer accidentally recording, "keep doing what you're doing," over the tape, is one of my favorite Dylan tracks. It starts off so tentative and just builds and builds.

So has it been definitely decided who he wrote that for/about? Nico/Edie Sedgwick/someone else? Was reading the so far excellent, dense That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound late Friday night and there was some discussion about this.

From having read a little bit elsewhere, and via my own turn of mynd---think it might have been for whoever he was currently trying to pull, although if so, at least, far as I know, he didn't do like George Gershwin, according to some of his buddies: "I've been having a little trouble with this---listen, and see what you think. (Later) It will be our song."

I heard similar about Vinícius de Moraes from a Brazilian friend.

Can’t wait to hear this alt take of “She’s Your Lover Now” — one of my all-time favorites.

Sorry, I was suffering from a bit of mixed-up confusion. The real question was whether “I’ll Keep It With Mine” was written for Judy Collins, who first recorded it, or Nico. What I read seems to favor Nico slightly. “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” was about Edie Sedgwick.

That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound is written by Daryl Sanders, an author with whom I am otherwise unfamiliar. I am however familiar with the author of this piece: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/874-that-thin-wild-mercury-sound-bob-johnstons-work-with-dylan-cohen-cash-and-beyond/

Didn't know Collins did it! From 5, from 1965, so maybe she did it first. Just listened on YouTube: it's fast, an early folk-rock jangle 'n' lilt, a suggestion of Latin, might could've done better with congas and more bass, maybe any bass---she tries to ride it as carefully as possible, not rushing into the money shot chorus, but is not entirely successful, also her loud-soft dynamic doesn't quite go with the echo, I think--echo is distracting, getoutta here, but there is some potential otherwise, maybe with another producer
Then YouTube played her version of "Mama You Been On My Mind", changed to "Daddy": much better, just her and the fingerpickers, also fairly fast, but it works, the 'pickers are right with her (Baez also did a good version of this, even faster maybe, maybe a bluegrass cadence, words flying around, but no loss of clarity or feeling).
Of course then I played Fairport's "Keep It," so unfair, so killer.Denny handles the tempo and volume perfectly, like she's thinking out loud, word by word forming for the first time, then the chorus hits, pump up to the peak, let yourself back down, to more level ground, or looking out the window---in her/their version (she's got those other voices, players giving her room, helping her just enough, like Collins doesn't), the part about the reliable train and the weary conductor registers (and always did, even when I was a kid), as metaphorically and emotionally appropriate for her having to head into THAT chorus one more tyme---repeating her effects somewhat, but no prob, they work again---without pushing her/their luck---it's def not too long; YouTube says 5:38, which I never noticed on the album cover, never felt that long (which was pretty long for back then, I think).
This is remastered, so now I catch what I never had, after, "But how long can you search," it's "for what's lost." So now the thought occurs that, "Everybody will help you," which never did seem like a very Dylan sentiment, and she makes it seem a little teary, also "Some people are very kind," some sense of neg. experience along w irony, and so "Come on, give it to me," the almost regal desperate tender and maybe horny breakthrough to expression, reaching up and out to the other person---can see why Dylan would want to hear a woman singing this, for musical and other reasons, can imagine the song dealing with the way he felt, too, in some situation---wonder what he thought of this rendition? She got it from a tape or acetate circulating in the UK, not one of those special hotel meetings.
(Don't think he would have dared bring it to Collins with such a plan, at least judging by Hajdu's Positively 4th Street, in which Collins wanted to meet him early on, because who the fuck is this guy with all these amazing songs---so she invited him to lunch, and he babbled the whole time like an unnerved teen (my summary).
She got to be pretty good with his songs sometimes, but don't know that they ever got together again.