Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

slightly off topic, but can one of you true heads tell me if there are any tracks/versions on "Greatest Hits Vol. II" (the 2LP) that aren't available elsewhere?

I think they’re all on Side Tracks.

yeah, but which ones? I believe "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" is one of them,but what else?

I ask b/c I actually have a copy of the 2LP at the moment and am def not buying Side Tracks anytime soon

(btw my version is the early one with 'She Belongs To Me'

ah here we go

The final package included one previously uncollected single, "Watching the River Flow", an outtake from the same sessions, "When I Paint My Masterpiece"; one song from Dylan's April 12, 1963 Town Hall concert, "Tomorrow Is a Long Time", and three songs from the September sessions, "I Shall Be Released", "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", and "Down in the Flood". The remaining tracks were drawn from existing releases.

That version of You Ain't Going' Nowhere with Happy Traum is really sweet.

xp sorry, guess I misunderstood yr question

np, WIkipedia tells all

also worth noting the the version of 'Quinn The Eskimo' on this set is the live Isle Of Wight version that was also on Self-Portrait

FWIW "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" actually sounds better on the leaked mono recording of the same 1963 Town Hall show. It's possible the bootleg is even closer to the first-generation source than the Greatest Hits Vol. 2 master (where it's essentially a dub, now audibly worn in spots). I really wish they officially released that and the 1963 Carnegie Hall set in full as one of the Bootleg Series volumes - Sony/Dylan's camp considered it but opted for the 1964 set, which is nowhere near as good.

Just dropped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llFXxE0I3aM

The widely bootlegged version popular with collectors, except in a new mix - drier with no echo on Dylan's vocal and the cough in the intro has been fixed

Maybe they threw the cough onto “Suze.”

I’ve been on the fence now about whether to order this, for obvious reasons (and as someone grimly pointed out, the set’s title is now… unfortunate). But after a few days, I feel like maybe I should proceed with business as usual, rather than stay in a state of agonized suspense. I wouldn’t blame any fans who decide otherwise, though.

Unless you were planning to order one of the high-demand collectibles like the Third Man vinyl (which may be a moot point if it's already sold out), just hold off until they get their hearing and the courts determine whether the case should go to trial. I doubt the sets will sell out before then, and then you can just play it by ear from there. That's probably what I'm doing.

Makes sense

It's funny how "Blind Willie McTell" was the lost grail, but now (to my ears) we've got "Dignity" and "Highlands" and "Murder Most Foul" and other epics that at least match it.

I never quite got the hype around "BWM" – I do like this new version, though.

It's funny how "Blind Willie McTell" was the lost grail, but now (to my ears) we've got "Dignity" and "Highlands" and "Murder Most Foul" and other epics that at least match it.

I'm a fan of all four, but I know the latter two have detractors ("Highlands" has been called self-parody by at least a few Dylan-loving critics - Bill Wyman of the Chicago Reader and Salon, and I think Tim Riley as well).

"Blind Willie McTell" never quite had the definitive recording, but it follows the approach Dylan had the most success with (and would have when he had a later-career resurgence), which was tap into old forgotten American songs and refashion them into new songs. No big deal to him because it was a common practice (see Woody Guthrie), but Dylan was much more impressive with it because he drew from a wide, wide array of songs (whereas Guthrie would even reuse quite a few of the same tunes and arrangements):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzcpUdBw7gs

So that's kind of the musical hook, but that puts more emphasis on the words - if it's a great original song, it would have to be the lyrics that make it, and on paper, I do see why it's been celebrated. I don't want to say "Dignity" is worse because it's one of his masterpieces from that era too - just one great verse after another - but "Blind Willie McTell" really gets under the skin. The Band's version is pretty good, and Dylan pretty much used their arrangement when he brought it into his setlists, but I don't think Greil Marcus is wrong when he says Chrissie Hynde's version may be definitive - it could be the best version I've heard by anyone.

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

I think I posted this in another thread, but do you guys know this outtake To Fall in Love With You? I only recently learned about it – pretty remarkable...

Thanks for that, bird! Will listen to those embedded songs soon, too.

You're welcome Eazy! Re: "To Fall in Love with You," I think I've heard it...it may have been a song he tried to record for that ill-fated movie. He was contractually obligated to contribute four new songs, but I guess they re-negotiated because based on the soundtrack and the movie, he didn't deliver (2 new, one Hiatt cover which was sadly the best of the three...I do like Hiatt though). I don't know why he gave up on "To Fall in Love with You," it's more promising than what he did turn in, but he wasn't exactly known for picking his best songs at that time.

Greil Marcus's Real Life Rock Top 10: August 2021

8. Bob Dylan, “New Danville Girl,” from Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980–1985) (Columbia). For years, I’ve tried to figure out why this 1984 outtake from the misbegotten Empire Burlesque — a song written with Sam Shepard that starts out with the singer trying to remember a Gregory Peck movie, and goes on for nearly another 12 minutes, by which time the singer is trying to remember a different Gregory Peck movie — is so much more alive than “Brownsville Girl” from the no-better-maybe-even-worse Knocked Out Loaded from 1986, which on paper is basically the same song: why in its utterly singular way it’s as good as anything the singer has ever done. Hearing it now as part of a five-CD set of unreleased material from Dylan’s worst decade of record making, it’s clear: he sounds interested. You know: a movie. You want to see how it comes out. Even if you’re the one writing it, or for that matter acting it, or came in in the middle and are sticking around to see how it begins.

I'll add it probably helped that the other production elements were dialed back down a bit (less overdubs, less in-your-face presence in the mix).

quite enjoyable set, doesn't come as much of a surprise

glad to have a good quality version of Danville Girl available on Spotify, much more relaxed than the mix on Knocked Out Loaded

Based on the alternate take of “Tight Connection,” I was just imagining if Mark Knopfler and Tina Turner had done it instead.

Everybody draws the line somewhere, but I try not to blame the song for the singer, so his (usually, though not always, a male) assholery doesn't win---applying to Morrison, Clapton (although I'm not likely to listen to him anymore anyway, or Cosby), Mamas and Papas (though Philips was never charged, his daughter's accusations are impossible to forget), Polanski's movies too---so I'll probably still be listening to Dylan's music, no matter what.

While hoping to god there isn't yet another line ahead, to be drawn there or not.

The version of “I and I” sounds more like (early) Dire Straits than any of the other Knopfler/Dylan material I’ve heard.

Argh, they finally release the best take/arrangement of "Someone's Got a Hold of My Heart" but the mix is awful. It's missing some beautiful overdubs by presumably Mick Taylor (sounds like his work) and it pushes way, way up a heavy guitar part that sounds pretty wrong for this song (it's buried beneath the other guitars in the previously bootlegged mix). Seek out the one treasured by collectors on the three-disc The Genuine Bootleg Series Vol. One, it should be easy to find and download somewhere.

Also, the Empire Burlesque alternates do sound better, but in most cases I still have to go with the ones on the released album, simply because they're better takes. It's a little frustrating, I wish they stuck with the master takes when doing these revisionist mixes.

"New Danville Girl" and the new "Blind Willie McTell" are perfect though, I'll give them that. And "Let's Keep It Between Us" sounds like Bonnie Raitt (and Rob Fraboni) simply re-created that rehearsal's arrangement note-for-note when Raitt recorded it for Green Light - that's a compliment to Dylan as that track was probably one of the standouts on Raitt's album.

Would've been nice to hear Dylan's guide vocal on the song he gifted to Lone Justice (though they made it a B-side because it sounded too much like McKee mimicking Dylan).

Would also like to hear hear his version of the song he gifted to Carla Olson, "Clean Cut Kid."

The song on Empire Burlesque(?)

Ha, forgot that, thanks!

Forgot about this number - from a 1984 live rehearsal, it's a shame it wasn't included on the new box set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI0eqpfGeYg

I'm not sure if Dylan ever finished it, but at least in terms of music and arrangement, it's a really, really nice sketch, especially compared to the stuff he was finishing and putting out at the time.

You need to skip directly to the 2 minute mark (the first two minutes are a rougher, earlier sketch). Tried to incorporate that into the embedded link but it still plays from the beginning.

Too Late is a great song.

I ended up using a combination of gift $ and discount to pick up this set. The packaging is really nice; I've never handled one of these "Complete" Bootleg Series volumes before.

I've listened to Disc 3 several times in the row – such great stuff on it. I love the progression at the end, from strummy, tentative "Too Late"; to funky, confident "Too Late"; to "Foot of Pride" (all in the space of two recording sessions).

These lines, man:

A whore will pass the hat, collect a hundred grand and say thanks

They kill babies in the crib and say only the good die young

“Death Is Not the End,” the (Dylan-penned) gospel song that closes out Disc 4, is a fantastic recording.

I guess '80s Dylan has been getting a resurgence even without this set. You had that '80s tribute album from some years back, but you also had two truly excellent Dylan covers albums by Bettye LaVette and Chrissie Hynde that drew heavily on the '80s. Albums like that typically have the same drawbacks - even good ones like the Byrds or Fairport Convention's albums are generally compilations that feel redundant when the original albums are essential - but LaVette's and Hynde's are the first two that actually feel like fully-realized works worth owning. I know Christgau has recommended another by Maria Muldaur from some years back, so I may check that out later, but it doesn't lean on the '80s like those other two.

I have a “tight connection” to this era (sorry), I guess because it was a big part of the sound of my childhood… Dylan’s voice in the ‘80s is the first “Dylan voice” I knew, and this material still feels like ground zero of my Dylan fandom to me (hence why I wanted all 5 of these discs, and I’m fine with even 2 Basement Tapes CDs, etc.)

Marcus and his old buddy xgau are on opposite sides of the fence re "Brownsville Girl" and Rolling Bootlegs in general: The 'gau loves that song (which I enjoy too), doesn't particularly give a shit about the series, but maybe he'll compare it with "Danville Girl," now that Marcus has.
Fairport's (& Fotheringay's) A Tree With Roots seems handy, not xpost redundant, to me: rounds up"Si tu dois partir," their "cajun" Dylan hit, also "Percy's Song" and others that I don't think he's ever released, in good-to-killer renditions, even "Jack O' Diamonds," the adapted folk song/poem on the back of one of his album covers, which another guy set to music and released as a single, so Fairport covered that too, and it's good---great to have all this on one reasonably priced CD (maybe other formats too)
Totally agree about LaVette's often bold, personalized set: she's unafraid of his 80s thicket, chops and channels "The Times They Are A-Changin'," sure sounds like she's speaking to her own mama in "Mama You Been On My Mind."
Chrissie Hynde's rainy day quarantine set is real good too, though it's just her and the Pretenders guitarist trading tracks, could maybe use more than acoustic guitar and piano, but might distract from the vibe.
Muldaur's Dylan love songs set is enjoyable too, although she tends to select from the relatively normie side*---does do a great version of "Golden Loom," insanely left in the can, man, from the Desire sessions (man I wish I hadn't thought of that album)
*Wish Marianne Faithful would do a Dylan set, incl. her excellent "Visions of Johanna."

"Si tu dois partir" and "Percy's Song" are both on Unhalfbricking though, and I think that's a great, GREAT album. (I think they used the BBC recording for "Percy's Song," where it's just Sandy singing the opening, but I love that collection, at least the original Rykodisc/Hannibal CD.) To be fair, once you get away from the Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson-era recordings, the Fairport albums get a lot less essential, and there are cuts from those years without Denny or Thompson that were included on the Dylan covers collection, including some that weren't album tracks.

I was curious as to whether Hynde would have added drums and bass if she could, but the more I listen to her album, the more it feels right. That's especially true of the two peaks on her album, "Blind Wille McTell" and "Every Grain of Sand." The latter is virtually on par with Dylan's recording but I think Marcus is right - she does THE definitive take on "Blind Willie McTell." The chosen instrumentation really does sound perfect to me - it could very well be an accident, simply the default instrumentation given the pandemic, but it feels spot on. Dylan also did a piano and acoustic guitar version with Knopfler, but that was likely a run-through whereas it sounds like Hynde took the time to refine and carefully arrange her version to perfection.

I'm just glad to have all those Fairport (incl. Peel Sessions, other BBC), solo Sandy demos, Fotheringay etc tracks in one place, and it all sounds good to me. Yeah prob right for Hynde to concentrate on vocals, not mess w instrumental overdubs that much.
Another good Dylan covers album out this year, from Lucinda Williams. exemplary quarantine placeholder Lu's Jukebox covers series:
I just first listened to Lucinda Williams' Bob's Back Pages: A Night of Bob Dylan Songs,(2020 download. on CD later in 2021?) which is a lot to take in, quality and quantity and range and depth (of dug-in heels, writing and choice-wise), but clearly she's wide awake all night, no slurs, lots of teeth, with her hot crusty railroad combo from Good Souls Better Angels, I think (it's a download, so no fancy info). The theme, one of the recurring themes, is restless frustration---"I look like I'm movin', but I'm standin' still," but never shut up. The dread "To Make You Feel My Love" is the ringer, and closer, but works (and follows "Idiot Wind"), by far the best version I've heard, of which there have of course been a shitload. "Everything's Broken," "Political World," and "Man of Peace" make one ornery triptych early on. "Queen Jane Approximately"is drinking wedding band folk punk change of pace, nice. Was going to pick some from YouTube, but can't decide.

― dow, Friday, June 18, 2021

I was listening to the Fairport "Percy's Song" recently for the first time in ages after reading about it in Thompson's memoir; I generally think of the song as long and dirgey and repetitive (though I remember finding the snippet of it in Don't Look Back lovely), and their arrangement does a really nice job of giving it direction and flow.

ok was confused for a second until I googled, weird to name the Fairport comp after maybe the most famous Dylan bootleg

Yeah, I know! It's a great title though so I guess it's up for grabs since it hasn't been used for an "official" release.

xxp Good call on the Lucinda Williams album - hope she does at least one when she tours next year (she's supposed to do a show with Bonnie Raitt at the Beacon in NY).

Awesome! Was wondering what Raitt's up to these days. Somebody better post that show!
Anybody heard Dylan's demo of "Percy's Song"? I assume there is one; does Thompson mention their Dylan sources? Think they got "I'll Keep It With Mine" from an acetate, maybe via Joe Boyd's fellow Americans.

Thompson's recent memoir actually talks about "Percy's Song" - credit goes to D A Pennebaker's Dont Look Back, the band saw the movie and picked up on the song when Joan Baez performed it in the movie. They went looking for it afterwards and it was tough to track down. They found it in an old book of sheet music for Dylan's songs.

Thanks---I should have looked it up by now: YouTube's got several posts of his version, live and on Biograph---wiki sez:
"Percy's Song" is a song written by Bob Dylan. It was recording during the October 1963 sessions for Dylan's third album, The Times They Are A-Changin', but not included on it.

Folk star Joan Baez performed "Percy's Song" in the 1967 documentary film Dont Look Back,[1] which made the song known to the general public. The British folk rock group Fairport Convention recorded "Percy's Song" on their third album, released in 1969, Unhalfbricking. Then Arlo Guthrie recorded it for his 1970 album Washington County; this version achieved some progressive rock radio airplay in the United States.

Dylan's recording was not officially released until 1985 when it appeared in the Biograph box set. In the notes to that collection, Dylan credits Paul Clayton for the song's "beautiful melody line."[2][3][4] Clayton had played "The Wind and the Rain" to him, a variant of "The Twa Sisters", Child ballad 10.[5]

Dylan wrote the song from the point of view of a narrating character.[2] The song relates the story of a fatal car crash and a subsequent manslaughter conviction and 99-year sentence in Joliet Prison that is handed down to the driver (a friend of the first-person narrator). The narrator goes to ask the sentencing judge to commute his friend's sentence which he considers too harsh, but the sentence stands. The story of the hard-hearted judge is reminiscent of the Child ballad "Geordie".[6]
I took it that the narrator, who had no good answer for the judge, incl. a protest, really no answer at all, was limited to concern for his friend: the judge's statement of facts in the case, and his own professional POV, aren't challenged. So listeners are left to think and feel what we will, as with "Blowin' In The Wind" and a lotta other songs later on.

the Unhalfbricking version is one of my fave things ever, the band at the height of their powers

Oh yeah!
xpost So, clearly I need to listen to Paul Clayton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Clayton_(singer) That article mentions record co. suit re "Don't Think Twice," which I knew got its tune from a certain folk song, but didn't know that Dylan got it via Clayton's adaptation, incl. some of the words:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Think_Twice,_It%27s_All_Right