Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

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.

Track list floating around Twitter, goes w some recent talk of next in series:

disc 1

1. "Love Sick" (acoustic demo, 1997)
2. "Not Dark Yet" (alternate take, Time Out Of Mind, 1997)
3. "Shake Sugaree" (studio rehearsal, 1994)
4. "Polly Vaughan" (unreleased, 1992)
5. "Long Time Man" (rehearsal at Shrine Auditorium, 1995)
6. "Million Miles" (studio rehearsal, 1997)
7. "Mississippi" (acoustic demo, 1996)
8. "Cold lrons Bound" (alternate take, Time Out Of Mind, 1997)
9. "Ring Of Fire" (Feeling Minnesota soundtrack, 1996)
10. "lnterfere" (studio rehearsal, 1996)
11 . "Red River Shore" (acoustic demo, 1996)
12. "Cocaine Blues" (rehearsal, George Mason University,1998)
13. "Standing ln The Doorway" (alternate take,Time Out Of Mind,1997)

disc 2

1. "All I Ever Loved ls You" (acoustic demo,1996)
2. "Dreamin' Of You" (acoustic demo,1996)
3. "Hello Stranger" (unreleased, World Gone Wrong,1993)
4. "Sugar Girl" (studio rehearsal,1997)
5. "Doin' Alright" (acoustic demo,1994)
6. "Can't Wait" (studio rehearsal,1996)
7. "Not Dark Yet" (acoustic demo,1996)
8. "You Belong To Me" (Natural Born Killers soundtrack, 1992)
9. "Million Miles" (alternate take,Time Out Of Mind,1997)
10. "Make You Feel My Love" (alternate take Time Out Of Mind 1997
11. "Red River Shore" (unreleased, Time Out Of Mind,1997)
12."That Was Right" (studio rehearsal,1998)
13. "Marchin' To The City" (studio rehearsal,1996)
14. "Tryin' To Get To Heaven" (studio rehearsal,1996)

disc 3

1.“Love Sick” (Live at Grammys 1998)
2.“Shake Sugaree” (studio rehearsal, 1997)
3.“The Lady Came From Baltimore” (unreleased, 1992)
4.“99 Silly Hats” (rehearsal at Sony Music Studios, 16 Nov 1994)
5.“Til I Fell In Love With You” (alternate take,Time Out Of Mind, 1997)
6.“Can’t Wait” (Acoustic Demo, 1996)
7.“Catskills Serenade” (unreleased, 1992)
8.“Make You Feel My Love” (Live at Pauley Pavilion UCLA, Los Angeles CA, 21 May 1998)
9.“Standing In The Doorway” (studio rehearsal, 1997)
10.“Not Dark Yet” (studio rehearsal, 1997)
11.“Tryin’ To Get To Heaven” (alternate take, Time Out Of Mind, 1997)
12.“Sugar Girl” (demo, 1995)
13.“All I Ever Loved Is You” (unreleased, Time Out Of Mind, 1997)

If you paste this, will prob revert to errors in orig. "translation" from Twitter image (Not Dork Yet, alternate toke etc.)

Unconfirmed, as far as I know

Not Dork Yet, alternate toke

omg/lmao, these are both A+

think this is a clever fake, but who knows? Would be weird for the Bootleg Series to suddenly go completely out of chronological order (though i guess the Springtime in NY played around a little with that).

“Love Sick” (Live at Grammys 1998)

SOY BOMB!

Soy Bomb guy is way more dated than Dylan these days

I’m imagining 99 Silly Hats is Dylan mining The 10,000 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins and won’t be told otherwise.

completely out of chronological order Well, mostly around TOOM time, with little bit of filler fack back as '92---think Series of Dream jumped around more.
So I finally realized: tour-box-wise, we've had '66, Rolling Thunder, Trouble No More---but no '74 comeback tour box; fuckin why? Must have more like Before The Flood.

anyone know what's up with these The Joker vol. 1-5 Early Years? released throug... "Wet Music"? Is it official? Are they releasing everything from 1962 because of some copyright thing?
https://open.spotify.com/album/1oPGtbWK7xGK8vArq2SaRH?si=45D-hD8HQTKdA5A5ntFp1g

Guess this is most appropriate BD thread for some shows mentioned herel which curator says you're never gonna be able to just go to the Center, and pull up in whole...
from Flagging Down The Double E's e-newsletter (which usually has show downloads):

An In-Depth Look at the Bob Dylan Center's Unheard Live Recordings
Talking Supper Club, Salt Lake '76, and more with co-curator Parker Fishel
Ray Padgett
I was lucky enough to spend the past weekend at the grand opening of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Center is terrific, a museum that, even while it would be accessible to the casual fan, offers plenty for the superfan to salivate over. One example among many: Even after I’d probably spent five or six hours there over two days, I suddenly stumbled upon a never-heard World Gone Wrong outtake, “I’ve Always Been a Rambler,” tucked away on a wall. It sounded amazing (time for an early ‘90s Bootleg Series?), and that sort of revelation is everywhere you look.

But the public-facing Center is only the tip of the iceberg (speaking of icebergs, you can also see handwritten early lyrics for “Tempest”). Everything that’s on display still only represents a tiny fraction of the full Dylan archives in Tulsa. So I wanted to learn what else they have.

Not the untold lyric sheets and studio sessions and photos and ephemera, though I’m curious about that too. Since this newsletter focuses on Dylan in concert, I wanted to get more information about their stash of rare and never-heard audio and video recordings of shows, and how fans can hear it.

So I sat down with Parker Fishel, Archivist and Co-Curator of the Bob Dylan Center, to dive deep. No matter how esoteric and specific my questions — and, fair warning, some of them are pretty esoteric and specific — he was a wealth of knowledge.

Again, I am only focusing on live material here, so if you’re looking for more of a broad overview of the Center and archives, I’d check out recent articles in the New York Times and Vanity Fair.

Okay, here’s my conversation with Parker, slightly edited and condensed.

Great article. Thanks. That 1981 Blowin’ in the Wind footage is incredible.

Nice! Thanks dow!

But most of that (1974) tour was recorded

This is especially great news. Except for certain numbers, I never liked Dylan's singing on the later shows, and for the most part that's where all the circulating soundboards have come from. (They're also the source for the official live album.) The earlier show had better performances from him and some better, more interesting songs too - the highlight would be Dylan's solo "Nobody 'Cept You," and if they have at least a soundboard recording of one of the best takes, that would be incredible.

*earlier shows

Also that's nuts about Supper Club and other "restricted" material - so we can't see the film/video re-issued until Dylan is dead?

Somewhere in the coverage of this opening was a discussion of the "little red books" of early, revealing Blood On The Tracks lyrics: only a rumor at best for most followers, but the Center's got'em.

New Bootleg Series Vol. 17, "Fragments: The "Time Out Of Mind" Sessions (1996-1997)" will be out in January, 2023. The compilation will include outtakes and live material, as well as a completely remixed version of the album. pic.twitter.com/FC2RmNvYO2

— Definitely Dylan (@DefDylan) October 31, 2022

Speculation on another forum is that the format for the 5CDs will be:

Disc 1 - Remix
Disc 2 - Outtakes and Alternates
Disc 3 - Outtakes and Alternates
Disc 4 - Live (1998-2001)
Disc 5 - Bonus Disc: Previously Released (assumption that this will be stuff from Vol. 8 and other places)

Nice. Get that Lanois sound out of the mix! (just kidding... sort of)

I love the Lanois sound but on reflection, I would like to hear the LP without it.

I'm not 100% sure if the content of that tweet above is genuine. Are others?

Well, the H0ffmanites (lol) are running with it and they've generally been otm with these when the early rumors start to leak. If not the exact details, they've generally always been correct about the focus and general content.

I think Jim Dickinson might have sparked interest in a remix decades ago and it snowballed from there. He openly discussed how he didn't like the released mix and how it could've been a whole lot better, and given that it's Lanois producing, quite a few people have speculated what a remix would sound like. The earlier mixdowns of Oh Mercy songs on Tell Tale Signs definitely benefitted from less tinkering by Lanois, so I can see the same thing happening here.

think it was Auggie Meyers who heard time out of mind and said "that's not the record I played on!"

i like the lanois murk, but yeah, i also like the more open sound of the tell tale signs stuff, so I can see a remix being good. not a replacement for the original but good.

I love the album, can’t stand Lanois, but don’t necessarily dislike his production here. There are moments when it feels extremely self-conscious and overbearing — if he’d dialed back the swampy slapback just a little it would be a major improvement. It’s telling that 30+ years after the launch of the Bootleg Series, this is the only time where Dylan’s all, “oh shit, we gotta remix that.”

I actually substituted three tracks from Time Out of Mind on iTunes, but in those cases, it was either a better song ("Red River Shore" over "Make You Feel My Love") or simply a much better performance and arrangement rather than just a remix ("Can't Wait"'s 'studio demo' on Disc 1 of Tell Tale Signs and "Cold Irons Bounds" from the later recording with Charlie Sexton et al on Masked & Anonymous).

Also, Rob Stoner posted something about Dylan on social media recently - apparently he heard an early version of "Make You Feel My Love" way back in 1978! It was one of Dylan's "B songs" - stuff he didn't want to record himself but tried to give to other artists, and what Stoner heard was Dylan playing it on a piano for Robert Gordon, who passed on it and everything else Dylan offered him because they didn't really fit him.

xp - Also that "graphic design is my passion" looking ass box is totally in line with recent sets.

xp Ha yeah, I saw that. If it's true, that'd be pretty unique for Bob — a few exceptions aside ("Mississippi" for one) he usually leaves old songs behind. It'd be like if he decided to record "Farewell Angelina" for Empire Burlesque.