Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete is a compilation album of unreleased home recordings from 1967 by Bob Dylan and a group of musicians that would become The Band, released on November 3, 2014. It is the latest addition in the series of official “bootleg” recordings issued by Columbia Records.
The basement recordings were made during 1967, after Dylan had withdrawn to his Woodstock home in the aftermath of a motorcycle accident on July 29, 1966. Dylan has referred to commercial pressures behind the basement recordings in a 1969 interview with Rolling Stone: “They weren’t demos for myself, they were demos of the songs. I was being PUSHED again into coming up…
…with some songs. You know how those things go.” In October 1967, a fourteen-song demo tape was copyrighted and the compositions were registered with Dwarf Music, a publishing company jointly owned by Dylan and his manager Albert Grossman. Acetates and tapes of the songs then circulated among interested recording artists.
Peter, Paul and Mary had the first hit with a basement composition when their cover of “Too Much of Nothing” reached number 35 on the Billboard chart in late 1967. Ian & Sylvia, also managed by Grossman, recorded “Tears of Rage”, “Quinn the Eskimo” and “This Wheel’s on Fire”. In January 1968, Manfred Mann reached number one on the UK pop chart with their recording of “The Mighty Quinn”.[9] In April, “This Wheel’s on Fire”, recorded by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity, hit number five on the UK chart. That same month, a version of “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” by the Byrds was issued as a single. Along with “Nothing Was Delivered”, it appeared on their country-rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, released in August.[12] The Hawks, officially renamed the Band, recorded “This Wheel’s on Fire”, “I Shall Be Released” and “Tears of Rage” for their debut album, Music from Big Pink, released in July 1968. Fairport Convention covered “Million Dollar Bash” on their 1969 album Unhalfbricking.
In July 1969, the first rock bootleg appeared in California, entitled Great White Wonder. The double album consisted of seven songs from the Woodstock basement sessions, plus some early recordings Dylan had made in Minneapolis in December 1961 and one track recorded from The Johnny Cash Show. One of those responsible for the bootleg, identified only as Patrick, talked to Rolling Stone: “Dylan is a heavy talent and he’s got all those songs nobody’s ever heard. We thought we’d take it upon ourselves to make this music available.” The process of bootlegging Dylan’s work would eventually see the illegal release of hundreds of live and studio recordings, and lead the Recording Industry Association of America to describe Dylan as the most bootlegged artist in the history of the music industry.
The basement recordings became the basis for Dylan’s 1975 official release The Basement Tapes. This album was criticised by authors Greil Marcus and Michael Gray because it contained recordings by the Band on their own, and because some important Dylan songs were omitted from the selection
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.9LP collection of music from Bob Dylan from 1964 with live music from the likes the CBC TV Studios in Toronto, the Steve Allen Show, Eric Von Schmidt’s House, the BBC, the Newport Folk Festival, Masonic Memorial Auditorium in San Francisco…
Since 2012, when the European Union passed a revised copyright law, extending the copyright on recordings from 50 years to 70 – but only if the recording was published during its first 50 years – record companies have been exploring their vaults for potentially marketable material in danger of losing its copyright protection if it is not released.
That first year, Sony released a limited-edition collection of 1962 outtakes by Bob Dylan, with the surprisingly frank title, “The Copyright Extension Collection, vol. I.” In 2013, Sony released…
…a second Dylan set, devoted to previously unreleased 1963 recordings.
For collectors, these sets are a boon, and they are becoming increasingly plentiful as the 50th anniversary of each year of the 1960s rolls around, moving deeper into the rock era. Record labels, however, have complied with the publication requirement reluctantly, releasing the sets in small quantities, or making them available only as digital downloads.
This year’s trawl is starting to shape up. Only 1,000 copies will be available, but if past years are any guide, collectors who obtain copies are likely to make copies available online before the year is out.
A person close to the project, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, provided a track list that includes television performances at the CBC in Canada and on “The Steve Allen Show”; a tantalizing tape, accounting for nearly three LP sides, that Mr. Dylan recorded with the folksinger Eric Von Schmidt, at Von Schmidt’s home in Florida; and a disc of studio outtakes from the sessions for “Another Side of Bob Dylan,” with the first take of “It Ain’t Me Babe,” alternative versions of several other songs, and a 46-second pass at “Mr. Tambourine Man,” a song he would not complete until 1965.
Most of the set, however, is devoted to concert recordings, few of which have turned up on bootlegs in master quality versions. These include performances in London, Philadelphia, San Francisco and San Jose.
LP 1 – SIDE A
CBC TV Studios – Toronto, Ontario, Canada, February 1, 1964
1. The Times They Are A-Changin’ (2:36)
2. Talking World War III Blues (4:53)
3. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (5:27)
(Missing) Girl From The North Country
4. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (6:02)
5. Restless Farewell (5:03)
LP 1 – SIDE B
NBC Studios – Steve Allen Show – Los Angeles, California, 25 February 1964
1. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (6:04)
Eric Von Schmidt’s House – 532 Beach Road, Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida, May 1964. All tracks performed by Bob Dylan and Eric Von Schmidt. (Previously not in circulation)
2. Bob and Eric Blues #1 (6:35) (Written by Bob Dylan and Eric Von Schmidt)
3. Black Betty (1:22) (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan and Eric Von Schmidt)
4. Come All You Fair And Tender Ladies (4:48) (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan and Eric Von Schmidt)
5. Florida Woman (2:58) (Written Eric Von Schmidt) (previously unknown title)
6. Johnny Cuckoo (3:47) (Traditional, arranged by Eric Von Schmidt)
LP 2- SIDE C
Eric Von Schmidt’s House - (Actual address listed on the box), Sarasota, Florida, May 1964
1. Money Honey (3:34) (Written by Jesse Stone)
2. More And More (4:00) (Written by Webb Pierce and Merle Kilgore)
3. Mr. Tambourine Man (6:11)
4. Suzie Q (5:36) (Written by Dale Hawkins, Stan Lewis, and Eleanor Broadwater)
5. Harmonica Duet (2:27) (Written by Bob Dylan and Eric Von Schmidt)
6. Glory Glory (3:08) (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan and Eric Von Schmidt)
LP 2 – SIDE D
Eric Von Schmidt’s House - (Actual address listed on the box), Sarasota, Florida, May 1964
1. Dr. Stangelove Blues (5:45) (Written by Eric Von Schmidt)
2. Stoned On The Mountain (1:35) (Written by Bob Dylan)
3. Stoned On The Mountain (3:28) (Written by Bob Dylan)
(Missing) I Want To Hold Your Hand (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
(Missing) I Got A Hold On You (?)
4. Walkin’ Down The Line (3:00) (Written by Bob Dylan)
5. Joshua Gone Barbados (4:03) (Eric Von Schmidt)
BBC Studios, London, England, May 1964
6. With God On Our Side (2:00)
Didsbury Studios, Manchester, England, 14 May 1964
7. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (3:15)
(Still uncirculating) Blowin’ In The Wind
(Still uncirculating) Chimes Of Freedom
LP 3 – SIDE E
Royal Festival Hall – London, England – May 17, 1964
(Note: This concert was recorded by Pye Records Ltd., previously uncirculated except *)
1. The Times They Are A-Changin’ (3:35)
2. Girl From The North Country (3:49)
3. Who Killed Davey Moore? (3:17)
4. Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues (3:28)
5. Ballad Of Hollis Brown (5:55)
6. It Ain’t Me, Babe (4:29)
LP 3 – SIDE F
Royal Festival Hall – London, England – May 17, 1964
1. Walls Of Red Wing (4:00)
2. Chimes Of Freedom (7:32)
3. Mr. Tambourine Man (6:37) *
4. Eternal Circle (2:59) *
LP 4 – SIDE G
Royal Festival Hall – London, England – May 17, 1964
1. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (7:44) (Followed by intermission)
2. Talkin’ World War III Blues (5:41)
3. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (5:08)
4. Only A Pawn In Their Game (5:47)
LP 4 – SIDE H
Royal Festival Hall – London, England – May 17, 1964
1. With God On Our Side (6:20)
2. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (6:54)
3. Restless Farewell (7:13)
4. (Encore) When The Ship Comes In (3:39)
LP 5 – SIDE I
Columbia Studios – New York, New York – June 9, 1964
(The “Another Side Of Bob Dylan” session, produced by Tom Wilson.)
1. Denise (3:01)
2. It Ain’t Me, Babe TK 1 (2:07)
3. Spanish Harlem Incident TK 3 (3:09)
4. Spanish Harlem Incident TK 3 (1:31)
5. Ballad In Plain D TK 2 (2:02)
6. I Don’t Believe You TK 1(4:07)
7. I Don’t Believe You TK 3 (3:56)
LP 5 – SIDE J
Columbia Studios – New York, New York – June 9, 1964
1. Chimes Of Freedom TK 1 (3:12)
2. Chimes Of Freedom TK 3 (3:07)
3. Mr. Tambourine Man TK 1 (:46) (with ”Rambling” Jack Elliott, backup vocals.)
4. Black Crow Blues TK 1 (1:20)
5. Black Crow Blues TK 2 (3:48)
6. I Shall Be Free No. 10 TK 1 (:50)
7. I Shall Be Free No. 10 TK 2 (3:17)
8. I Shall Be Free No. 10 TK 3 (5:09)
9. I Shall Be Free No. 10 TK 4 (4:43)
LP 6 – SIDE K
Freebody Park – Newport, Rhode Island – July 24, 1964
Newport Folk Festival afternoon workshop
1. It Ain’t Me, Babe (3:47)
Freebody Park – Newport, Rhode Island – July 24, 1964
Newport Folk Festival evening
2. All I Really Want To Do (3:40)
3. To Ramona (4:25)
Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, New York, New York, August 8, 1964 (Joan Baez concert)
4. Mama, You Been On My Mind w. Joan Baez (2:35)
5. It Ain’t Me, Babe w. Joan Baez (3:51)
6. With God On Our Side w. Joan Baez (5:33)
LP 6 – SIDE L
Town Hall – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – October 10, 1964 (Audience)
1. The Times They Are A-Changin’ (3:33)
2. Girl From The North Country (4:06)
3. Who Killed Davey Moore? (3:40)
4. Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues (4:12)
5. To Ramona (5:11)
6. Ballad Of Hollis Brown (5:48)
LP 7 – SIDE M
Town Hall – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – October 10, 1964 (Audience)
1. Chimes Of Freedom (7:18)
2. I Don’t Believe You (4:18)
3. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (9:54)
LP 7- SIDE N
Town Hall – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – October 10, 1964 (Audience)
1. Mr. Tambourine Man (7:00) (Intermission)
2. Talkin’ World War III Blues (5:39)
3. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (7:44)
4. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (4:20)
LP 8- SIDE O
Town Hall – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – October 10, 1964 (Audience)
5. Only A Pawn In Their Game (4:53)
6. With God On Our Side (6:35)
7. It Ain’t Me, Babe (4:25)
8. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (6:19)
9. (Encore) All I Really Want To Do (3:20)
LP 8- SIDE P
Masonic Memorial Auditorium – San Francisco, California – November 27, 1964 (Audience, incomplete)
1. Gates Of Eden (6:04)
2. If You Gotta Go, Go Now (2:54)
3. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (8:26)
4. Talkin’ World War III Blues (5:29)
5. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (4:03)
6. Mama, You Been On My Mind w. Joan Baez (2:17)
LP 9 – SIDE Q
Civic Auditorium – San José, California – November 25, 1964 (Audience, incomplete)
1. The Times They Are A-Changin’ (3:17)
2. Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues (3:36)
3. To Ramona (4:20)
4. Gates Of Eden (7:34)
5. If You Gotta Go, Go Now (2:26)
LP 9 – SIDE R
Civic Auditorium – San José, California – November 25, 1964 (Audience, incomplete)
1. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (7:30)
2. Mr. Tambourine Man (6:02)
3. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (6:15) (Intermission)
4. Talkin’ World War III Blues (4:43)
5. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (4:21)
All songs written by Bob Dylan, unless otherwise noted.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It’s obviously up against some stiff competition from lingerie adverts and festive albums that came with free Christmas cards, but there’s an argument that Shadows in the Night may be the most improbable moment yet in Bob Dylan’s latterday career. By releasing a collection of standards from the Great American Songbook, Dylan, presumably inadvertently, joins in a trend begun 14 years ago by Robbie Williams. Ever since Williams proved that you could sell 7m copies of Swing When You’re Winning to an audience who’d never previously evinced much interest in the work of Cole Porter or Johnny Mercer, the Great American Songbook album has become a kind of sine qua non among rock stars of a certain vintage. They’ve all been at it, from Paul McCartney to Carly Simon to…
..Linda Ronstadt. Rod Stewart seemed to treat the whole business less like a canny career move than a terrible endurance test to inflict on the general public. By the time he released his fifth Great American Songbook collection, you got the feeling that even the most indefatigable fan of the jazzy standard was on the floor tearfully pleading for mercy, and in danger of developing a nervous twitch brought on by the opening chords of Mack the Knife.
However, Dylan has latterly made a career out of doing the exact opposite of what most of his peers do. They dutifully tour their big hits, or perform classic albums in order; he takes to the stage and either brilliantly reinterprets his back catalogue or wilfully mangles it beyond repair, depending on whether you’re the kind of critic who gets whole paragraphs out of a change of syllabic emphasis in the lyrics of All Along the Watchtower or an audience member who’s heard three-quarters of Like a Rolling Stone without realising it’s Like a Rolling Stone. They make albums that cravenly attempt to conjure up the atmosphere of their best-loved classic works; he makes albums that conjure up a world before Bob Dylan existed – filled with music that sounds like blues or rockabilly or country from an age when pop was as yet untouched by his influence.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Elvis Presley for rock’n’roll, Bob Dylan for folk and Johnny Cash forcountry music are still considered as the founding fathers. Few artists about whom it can be professed on the entire planet that there had a “before” and “after”.
The Influence series pairs songs made famous, or at least recognized cover versions, by a renowned artist with their often lesser-known originals. Influence, Vol. 2: I Was Young When I Left Home takes a probing look at Bob Dylan’s choices of cover material, much of which made up his early repertoire. The massive set reaches 50 tracks, with the first volume consisting of Dylan’s takes on early folk-blues and ramblin’ country tunes, while volume two houses the original versions by the likes of artists such as Hank Williams,…
…Roy Acuff, Woody Guthrie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and many others.
CD1
1. Bob Dylan – You’re No Good [01:40]
2. Bob Dylan – Fixin’ to Die [02:20]
3. Bob Dylan – House of the Risin’ Sun [05:18]
4. Bob Dylan – Talkin’ New York [03:18]
5. Bob Dylan – Song to Woody [02:42]
6. Bob Dylan – Baby, Let Me Follow You Down [02:35]
7. Bob Dylan – Man of Constant Sorrow [03:07]
8. Bob Dylan – In My Time of Dyin’ [02:39]
9. Bob Dylan – Pretty Peggy-O [03:23]
10. Bob Dylan – See That My Grave Is Kept Clean [02:43]
11. Bob Dylan – Gospel Plow [01:45]
12. Bob Dylan – Highway 51 [02:51]
13. Bob Dylan – Freight Train Blues [02:18]
14. Bob Dylan – Candy Man [03:04]
15. Bob Dylan – Stealin’ Stealin’ [02:12]
16. Bob Dylan – It’s Hard to Be Blind [02:55]
17. Bob Dylan – Omie Wise [02:59]
18. Bob Dylan – In the Evening [03:56]
19. Bob Dylan – Sally Gal [01:35]
20. Bob Dylan – Long John [06:19]
21. Bob Dylan – Cocaine [02:18]
22. Bob Dylan – VD City [01:46]
23. Bob Dylan – Ramblin’ ‘Round [03:17]
24. Bob Dylan – Black Cross [04:13]
CD2
1. Jesse Fuller – You’re No Good [03:04]
2. Bukkha White – Fixin’ to Die Blues [02:52]
3. The Almanac Singers – House of the Risin’ Sun [02:53]
4. Clarence Ashley – The House Carpenter [03:15]
5. Woody Guthrie – 1913 Massacre [03:38]
6. Blind Boy Fuller – Mama Let Me Lay It On You [02:58]
7. The Stanley Brothers – Man of Constant Sorrow [02:56]
8. Josh White – In My Time of Dyin’ [03:15]
9. Hank Williams – (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle [02:24]
10. Blind Lemon Jefferson – See That My Grave Is Kept Clean [02:52]
11. Will Shade – Stealin’ Stealin’ [02:59]
12. Tommy McClennan – New Highway 51 [02:50]
13. Roy Acuff – Freight Train Blues [02:40]
14. The Bently Boys – Down On Penny’s Farm [03:05]
15. Frank Hutchison – Worried Blues [03:22]
16. Henry Thomas – Honey, Won’t You Allow Me [02:52]
17. Jimmie Rodgers – Mule Skinner Blues [02:59]
18. Paul Clayton – Who’s Gonna Buy You Ribbons [02:56]
19. Doc Watson – Handsome Molly [02:19]
20. Blind Willie McTell – Motherless Children [02:56]
21. Big Joe Williams – Baby Please Don’t Go [02:49]
22. Woody Guthrie – Car Song [01:51]
23. Dave Van Ronk – He Was a Friend of Mine [03:34]
24. Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – Cocaine Blues [02:13]
25. Woody Guthrie – Pastures of Plenty [02:23]
26. The Shelton Brothers – Deel Elem Blues [02:53]
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The album might have saved Bob Dylan’s career. At the least, it proved the icon still relevant, and his wits still in tact. And it immediately followed what remains the artist’s biggest disaster, the yet-unexplained and forever puzzling Self Portrait, a nearly unlistenable attempt that caused many to wonder whether Dylan had lost his mind. If intended as a joke, it bombed, making the sublime New Morning all the more important to restore faith in the singer’s creativity and songwriting prowess. It did all this and more, and stands as his finest studio effort during a five-year span.
“Many of the songs seem to have been made up on the spot, with confidence in the ability of first-rate musicians to move in any direction at any time,” wrote Dylan expert and cultural critic…
…Greil Marcus in his original review for the New York Times. “The riffs, inventions, and studio jams of New Morning have their own personality…the full joy of anticipating the right move and the exhilaration of hitting it square and bouncing off a chord into a new lyric.”
These observations hold true today, for the 1970 effort claims a daring flair Dylan rarely exhibited on albums before or since. Enthusiasm and excitement surround his singing, and his work on the 88s underlines the liberating arrangements. Offbeat and eclectic, the record frolics and swings, with the Bard and his crack band pursuing jazzy steps (“Sign on the Window”), shuffling spoken-word experiments (“If Dogs Run Free”), and soulful rock (“The Man In Me,” used to wonderful and prominent effect in the Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski).
Throughout, Dylan’s phrasing communicates joyousness and simplicity seemingly carried over from the stripped-down John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline. The record’s dominant sentiments trace to the lead track, “If Not For You,” one of the singer’s all-time greatest singles, stitched with country threads and warmth that pervades everything that follows. Yes, New Morning may lack the iconic status of some of Dylan’s better-known records. Yet the underdog stature makes repeat listens all the more rewarding.
Mastered on Mobile Fidelity’s world-renowned mastering system, this SACD version spotlights the open, woozy sound that welcomes wholeheartedly Dylan’s piano, several eager guitars, female background singers, Al Kooper’s organ, and snappy drumming into a world of their own. New Morning remains one of Dylan’s loosest and jovial affairs, the instruments retaining an off-the-cuff sensibility relating to a nightclub atmosphere or live stage feel. On this reissue, notes naturally dangle and fade, allowing the playful vibes and humor to come through like never before. Consequently, the album can be experienced with a new perspective.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Bob Dylan‘s first album is a lot like the debut albums by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones — a sterling effort, outclassing most, if not all, of what came before it in the genre, but similarly eclipsed by the artist’s own subsequent efforts.
The difference was that not very many people heard Bob Dylan on its original release (originals on the early-’60s Columbia label are choice collectibles) because it was recorded with a much smaller audience and musical arena in mind. At the time of Bob Dylan‘s release, the folk revival was rolling, and interpretation was considered more important than original composition by most of that audience.
A significant portion of the record is possessed by the style and spirit of Woody Guthrie, whose influence as a singer and guitarist hovers over…
…”Man of Constant Sorrow” and “Pretty Peggy-O,” as well as the two originals here, the savagely witty “Talkin’ New York” and the poignant “Song to Woody”; and it’s also hard to believe that he wasn’t aware of Jimmie Rodgers and Roy Acuff when he cut “Freight Train Blues.” But on other songs, one can also hear the influences of Bukka White, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, and Furry Lewis, in the playing and singing, and this is where Dylan departed significantly from most of his contemporaries. Other white folksingers of the era, including his older contemporaries Eric Von Schmidt and Dave Van Ronk, had incorporated blues in their work, but Dylan’s presentation was more in your face, resembling in some respects (albeit in a more self-conscious way) the work of John Hammond, Jr., the son of the man who signed Dylan to Columbia Records and produced this album, who was just starting out in his own career at the time this record was made. There’s a punk-like aggressiveness to the singing and playing here. His raspy-voiced delivery and guitar style were modeled largely on Guthrie’s classic ’40s and early-’50s recordings, but the assertiveness of the bluesmen he admires also comes out, making this one of the most powerful records to come out of the folk revival of which it was a part. Within a year of its release, Dylan, initially in tandem with young folk/protest singers like Peter, Paul & Mary and Phil Ochs, would alter the boundaries of that revival beyond recognition, but this album marked the pinnacle of that earlier phase, before it was overshadowed by this artist’s more ambitious subsequent work. In that regard, the two original songs here serve as the bridge between Dylan’s stylistic roots, as delineated on this album, and the more powerful and daringly original work that followed. One myth surrounding this album should also be dispelled here — his version of “House of the Rising Sun” here is worthwhile, but the version that was the inspiration for the Animals’ recording was the one by Josh White.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. If The Times They Are a-Changin’ isn’t a marked step forward from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, even if it is his first collection of all originals, it’s nevertheless a fine collection all the same. It isn’t as rich as Freewheelin’, and Dylan has tempered his sense of humor considerably, choosing to concentrate on social protests in the style of “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
With the title track, he wrote an anthem that nearly equaled that song, and “With God on Our Side” and “Only a Pawn in Their Game” are nearly as good, while “Ballad of Hollis Brown” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” are remarkably skilled re-castings of contemporary tales of injustice. His absurdity is missed, but he makes up for it with the wonderful “One Too Many Mornings”…
…and “Boots of Spanish Leather,” two lovely classics. If there are a couple of songs that don’t achieve the level of the aforementioned songs, that speaks more to the quality of those songs than the weakness of the remainder of the record. And that’s also true of the album itself – yes, it pales next to its predecessor, but it’s terrific by any other standard.
01 The Times They Are A-Changin’
02 Ballad Of Hollis Brown
03 With God On Our Side
04 One Too Many Mornings
05 North Country Blues
06 Only A Pawn In Their Game
07 Boots Of Spanish Leather
08 When The Ship Comes In
09 The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
10 Restless Farewell
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Bob Dylan and the Band both needed the celebrated reunion tour of 1974, since Dylan’s fortunes had been floundering since Self Portrait and the Band stumbled with 1971’s Cahoots. The tour, with its attendant publicity, definitely returned both artists to center stage, and it definitely succeeded, breaking box office records and earning great reviews. Before the Flood, a double-album souvenir of the tour, suggests that these were generally dynamic shows, but not because they were reveling in the past, but because Dylan was fighting the nostalgia of his audience — nostalgia, it must be noted, that was promoted as the very reason behind these shows. Yet that’s what gives this music such kick — Dylan reworks, rearranges, reinterprets these songs in ways that are still disarming,…
…years after its initial release. He could only have performed interpretations this radical with a group as sympathetic, knowing of his traits as the band, whose own recordings here are respites from the storm. And this is a storm — the sound of a great rocker, surprising his band and audience by tearing through his greatest songs in a manner that might not be comforting, but it guarantees it to be one of the best live albums of its time. Ever, maybe.
Mastered on Mobile Fidelity’s world-renowned mastering system and pressed at RTI, this transparent SACD version cracks wide open the ceiling previously obscuring many of the tonal details, revealing microdynamics, and vocal nuances on the recording.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The latest chapter in Columbia/Legacy’s highly acclaimed Bob Dylan Bootleg Series focuses on the legendary studio sessions that produced Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde, the trilogy of album masterpieces which secured Dylan’s reputation as a songwriter and performer of unprecedented depth, power and originality while significantly impacting the course of popular music and culture. All recordings included in The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 are pristine transfers and mixed from the original studio tracking tapes.
18 CD Collector’s Edition of The Cutting Edge include every note recorded during the 1965-1966 sessions, every alternate take and alternate lyric. All previously unreleased recordings have been…
…mixed, utilizing the original studio tracking tapes as the source, eliminating unwanted 1960s-era studio processing and artifice. The limited edition includes rare hotel room recordings from the Savoy Hotel in London (May 4, 1965), the North British Station Hotel in Glasgow (May 13, 1966) and a Denver, Colorado hotel (March 12, 1966) as well as a strip of original film cels from “Don’t Look Back.”
Disc 1
1. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Breakdown.
2. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – Take 2 (1/13/1965) Complete.
3. I’ll Keep It With Mine – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Released on Biograph, 1985.
4. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7, 2005.
5. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Fragment. Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
6. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream – Take 2 (1/13/1965) Complete.
7. She Belongs To Me – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Complete.
8. Subterranean Homesick Blues – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3, 1991.
9. Outlaw Blues – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Complete.
10. On The Road Again – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Complete.
11. Farewell Angelina – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Released on Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3, 1991.
12. If You Gotta Go, Go Now – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Complete.
13. You Don’t Have to Do That – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Incomplete.
14. California – Take 1 (1/13/1965) Complete.
15. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – Take 3 remake (1/13/1965) Complete.
16. She Belongs To Me – Take 2 remake (1/13/1965) Complete.
17. Outlaw Blues – Take 1 remake (1/13/1965) False start.
18. Outlaw Blues – Take 2 remake (1/13/1965) Complete.
19. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – Take 1 remake (1/14/1965) Complete.
20. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – Take 2 remake (1/14/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
21. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – (1/14/1965) Insert.
22. Subterranean Homesick Blues – Take 1 remake (1/14/1965) Complete.
23. Subterranean Homesick Blues – Take 2 remake (1/14/1965) False start.
24. Subterranean Homesick Blues – Take 3 remake (1/14/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
25. Outlaw Blues – Take 1 remake (1/14/1965) False start.
26. Outlaw Blues – Take 2 remake (1/14/1965) Fragment/breakdown.
27. Outlaw Blues – Take 3 remake (1/14/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
Disc 2
1. She Belongs To Me – Take 1 remake (1/14/1965) Complete.
2. She Belongs To Me – Take 2 remake (1/14/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
3. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream – Take 1 (1/14/1965) False start.
4. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream – Take 2 (1/14/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
5. On The Road Again – Take 1 (1/14/1965) False start.
6. On The Road Again – Take 2 (1/14/1965) Complete.
7. On The Road Again – Take 3 (1/14/1965) False start.
8. On The Road Again – Take 4 (1/14/1965) Complete.
9. Maggie’s Farm – Take 1 (1/15/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
10. On The Road Again – Take 1 remake (1/15/1965) Complete.
11. On The Road Again – Takes 2-6 remake (1/15/1965) False starts/complete.
12. On The Road Again – Take 7 remake (1/15/1965) Complete.
13. On The Road Again – Takes 8-9 remake (1/15/1965) False starts.
14. On The Road Again – Take 11 remake (1/15/1965) False start.
15. On The Road Again – Take 12 remake (1/15/1965) False start.
16. On The Road Again – Take 13 remake (1/15/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
17. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – Take 1 (1/15/1965) False start.
18. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – Take 2 (1/15/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
19. Gates Of Eden – Take 1 (1/15/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
20. Mr. Tambourine Man – Takes 1-2 (1/15/1965) False starts.
21. Mr. Tambourine Man – Take 3 (1/15/1965) Breakdown.
22. Mr. Tambourine Man – Takes 4-5 (1/15/1965) Breakdown.
23. Mr. Tambourine Man – Take 6 (1/15/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
24. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – Take 1 remake (1/15/1965) Released on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.
Disc 3
1. If You Gotta Go, Go Now – Take 1 (1/15/1965) Complete.
2. If You Gotta Go, Go Now – Take 2 (1/15/1965) Complete.
3. If You Gotta Go, Go Now – Take 3 (1/15/1965) Complete.
4. If You Gotta Go, Go Now – Take 4 (1/15/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3, 1991.
5. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 1 (6/15/1965) Complete.
6. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Takes 2-3 (6/15/1965) Fragments.
7. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 4 (6/15/1965) Breakdown.
8. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Takes 5 (6/15/1965) False start.
9. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Takes 6 (6/15/1965) Breakdown.
10. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 7 (6/15/1965) Insert.
11. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 8 (6/15/1965) Complete.
12. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 9 (6/15/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7, 2005.
13. Sitting On A Barbed-Wire Fence – Take 1 (6/15/1965) Rehearsal and breakdown.
14. Sitting On A Barbed-Wire Fence – Take 2 (6/15/1965) Complete.
15. Sitting On A Barbed-Wire Fence – Take 3 (6/15/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3, 1991.
16. Sitting On A Barbed-Wire Fence – Take 2 (6/15/1965) Edited version. Complete.
17. It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 1 remake (6/15/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3, 1991.
18. Sitting On A Barbed-Wire Fence – Takes 4-5 (6/15/1965) False starts.
19. Sitting On A Barbed-Wire Fence – Take 6 (6/15/1965) Complete.
20. Like A Rolling Stone – Takes 1-3 (6/15/1965) Rehearsal.
21. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 4 (6/15/1965) Rehearsal. Partially released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3, 1991.
22. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 5 (6/15/1965) Breakdown.
Disc 4
1. Like A Rolling Stone – Rehearsal remake (6/16/1965) Rehearsal.
2. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 1 remake (6/16/1965) Rehearsal.
3. Like A Rolling Stone – Takes 2-3 remake (6/16/1965) False starts.
4. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 4 remake (6/16/1965) Released on Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
5. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 5 remake (6/16/1965) Rehearsal.
6. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 6 remake (6/16/1965) False start.
7. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 8 remake (6/16/1965) Breakdown.
8. Like A Rolling Stone – Takes 9-10 remake (6/16/1965) False starts.
9. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 11 remake (6/16/1965) Complete.
10. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 12 remake (6/16/1965) False start.
11. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 13 remake (6/16/1965) Breakdown.
12. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 14 remake (6/16/1965) False start.
13. Like A Rolling Stone – Take 15 remake (6/16/1965) Breakdown.
14. Like A Rolling Stone – (6/16/1965) Master take, guitar.
15. Like A Rolling Stone – (6/16/1965) Master take, vocals, guitar (BD).
16. Like A Rolling Stone – (6/16/1965) Master take, piano, bass.
17. Like A Rolling Stone – (6/16/1965) Master take, drums, organ.
Disc 5
1. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 1 (7/29/1965) Breakdown.
2. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 2 (7/29/1965) False start.
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 3 (7/29/1965) Incomplete.
4. Tombstone Blues – Take 1 (7/29/1965) Complete.
5. Tombstone Blues – Takes 2-3 (7/29/1965) False starts.
6. Tombstone Blues – Take 4 (7/29/1965) Complete.
7. Tombstone Blues – Takes 5-7 (7/29/1965) False starts, rehearsal.
8. Tombstone Blues – Take 9 (7/29/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7, 2005.
9. Tombstone Blues – Take 10 (7/29/1965) False start.
10. Tombstone Blues – Take 11 (7/29/1965) Breakdown.
11. Tombstone Blues – Take 12 (7/29/1965) Released on Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
12. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 1 (7/29/1965) Complete.
13. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 2 (7/29/1965) False start.
14. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 3 (7/29/1965) Complete.
15. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Take 4 (7/29/1965) Released on Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
16. Positively 4th Street – Takes 1-3 (7/29/1965) False starts.
17. Positively 4th Street – Take 4 (7/29/1965) Complete.
18. Positively 4th Street – Take 5 (7/29/1965) Complete.
19. Positively 4th Street – Take 6 (7/29/1965) Breakdown.
20. Positively 4th Street – Take 7 (7/29/1965) Breakdown.
21. Positively 4th Street – Take 8 (7/29/1965) Breakdown.
22. Positively 4th Street – Take 10 (7/29/1965) Breakdown.
23. Positively 4th Street – Take 12 (7/29/1965) Released as a single, 1965.
Disc 6
1. Desolation Row – Take 1 (7/29/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7, 2005.
2. From A Buick 6 – Take 1 (7/30/1965) False start.
3. From A Buick 6 – Take 2 (7/30/1965) False start.
4. From A Buick 6 – Take 4 (7/30/1965) Accidentally released on the first pressing of Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
5. From A Buick 6 – Take 5 (7/30/1965) Released on Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
6. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Takes 1-4 (7/30/1965) False starts.
7. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 1 (7/30/1965) Complete.
8. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 2 (7/30/1965) False start.
9. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 3 (7/30/1965) Complete.
10. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 4 (7/30/1965) False start.
11. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 5 (7/30/1965) Complete.
12. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 6 (7/30/1965) Rehearsal/false start.
13. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 7 (7/30/1965) False start.
14. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 8 (7/30/1965) False start.
15. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Takes 10-11 (7/30/1965) False starts.
16. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 12 (7/30/1965) Complete.
17. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 14 (7/30/1965) Breakdown.
18. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 15 (7/30/1965) Breakdown.
19. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 17 (7/30/1965) Accidentally Released as B-side of first pressing of Positively 4th Street single.
20. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 1 (8/02/1965) False start.
21. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 2 (8/02/1965) False start.
22. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 3 (8/02/1965) Complete.
23. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 4 (8/02/1965) False start.
24. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 5 (8/02/1965) Complete.
25. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 5 (mis-slate) (8/02/1965) Complete.
26. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 6 (8/02/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7, 2005.
27. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 7 (8/02/1965) False start.
28. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 8 (8/02/1965) False start.
29. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 9 (8/02/1965) Released on Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
Disc 7
1. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Take 1 (8/02/1965) Breakdown.
2. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Take 3 (8/02/1965) Complete.
3. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Take 4 (8/02/1965) Rehearsal.
4. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Take 5 (8/02/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7, 2005.
5. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Takes 9-10 (8/02/1965) Breakdown.
6. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Takes 11-12 (8/02/1965) False starts.
7. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Take 13 (8/02/1965) Complete.
8. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Takes 14-15 (8/02/1965) False starts.
9. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Take 16 (8/02/1965) Released on Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
10. Queen Jane Approximately – Take 1 (8/02/1965) Rehearsal.
11. Queen Jane Approximately – Take 2 (8/02/1965) Complete.
12. Queen Jane Approximately – Take 3 (8/02/1965) False start.
13. Queen Jane Approximately – Take 4 (8/02/1965) False start.
14. Queen Jane Approximately – Take 5 (8/02/1965) Complete.
15. Queen Jane Approximately – Take 6 (8/02/1965) Complete.
16. Queen Jane Approximately – Take 7 (8/02/1965) Released on Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
17. Ballad Of A Thin Man – Take 1 (8/02/1965) False start.
18. Ballad Of A Thin Man – Take 2 (8/02/1965) Breakdown.
19. Ballad Of A Thin Man – Take 3 (8/02/1965) Released on Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
20. Ballad Of A Thin Man – Take 4 (8/02/1965) Insert.
Disc 8
1. Desolation Row – Takes 1-2 remake (8/02/1965) False start/breakdown.
2. Desolation Row – Take 3 remake (8/02/1965) Breakdown.
3. Desolation Row – Take 4 remake (8/02/1965) False start.
4. Desolation Row – Take 5 remake (8/02/1965) Complete.
5. Tombstone Blues – Take 1 (8/03/1965) Complete. Vocal overdub.
6. Tombstone Blues – Take 2 (8/03/1965) Complete. Vocal overdub.
7. Tombstone Blues – Take 3 (8/03/1965) Complete. Vocal overdub.
8. Desolation Row – Take 1 (8/04/1965) Rehearsal.
9. Desolation Row – Take 2 (8/04/1965) Rehearsal.
10. Desolation Row – Take 1 (8/04/1965) Complete (with insert).
11. Desolation Row – Take 5 (8/04/1965) Complete master without acoustic guitar overdub. Released on Highway 61 Revisited, 1965.
12. Desolation Row – Take 6 (8/04/1965) Guitar overdub.
13. Desolation Row – Take 7 (8/04/1965) Guitar overdub
14. Tombstone Blues – Take 1 (8/04/1965) Harmonica overdub.
15. Medicine Sunday – Take 1 (10/05/1965) Incomplete.
16. Medicine Sunday – Take 2 (10/05/1965) Incomplete.
17. Jet Pilot – Take 1 (10/05/1965) Released on Biograph, 1985.
18. I Wanna Be Your Lover – (10/05/1965) Rehearsal.
19. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 1 (10/05/1965) Fragment.
20. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 2 (10/05/1965) Fragment.
Disc 9
1. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 1 (10/05/1965) Fragment.
2. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 1 Edit 1 (10/05/1965) Complete.
3. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 1 Edit 2 (10/05/1965) Complete.
4. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 2 (10/05/1965) Complete.
5. I Wanna Be Your Lover – (10/05/1965) Rehearsal.
6. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 3 10/05/1965) Complete.
7. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 4 (10/05/1965) Complete.
8. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 5 (10/05/1965) Complete
9. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 6 (10/05/1965) Complete.
10. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 6 (mis-slate) (10/05/1965) Released on Biograph, 1985.
11. Instrumental – Take 1 (10/05/1965) Fragment.
12. Instrumental – Take 2 (10/05/1965) Complete.
13. Visions Of Johanna – Take 1 (11/30/1965) Rehearsal.
14. Visions Of Johanna – Take 2 (11/30/1965) Rehearsal.
15. Visions Of Johanna – Take 3 (11/30/1965) Rehearsal.
16. Visions Of Johanna – Take 4 (11/30/1965) Complete.
17. Visions Of Johanna – Take 5 (11/30/1965) Complete.
18. Visions Of Johanna – Take 6 (11/30/1965) Rehearsal.
19. Visions Of Johanna – Take 7 (11/30/1965) Complete.
20. Visions Of Johanna – Take 8 (11/30/1965) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol.7, 2005.
Disc 10
1. Visions Of Johanna – Takes 9-12 (11/30/1965) False starts.
2. Visions Of Johanna – Take 13 (11/30/1965) Breakdown.
3. Visions Of Johanna – Take 14 (11/30/1965) Complete.
4. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 1 (11/30/1965) False start.
5. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 2 (11/30/1965) False start, rehearsal.
6. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 3 (11/30/1965) False start.
7. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 4 (11/30/1965) False start, rehearsal.
8. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 6 (11/30/1965) Complete.
9. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 7 (11/30/1965) Breakdown.
10. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 8 (11/30/1965) Complete.
11. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 9 (11/30/1965) False start.
12. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 10 (11/30/1965) Released as a single in October, 1965.
13. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 1 (1/21/1966) Breakdown.
14. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 2 (1/21/1966) Rehearsal.
15. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 3 (1/21/1966) Breakdown.
16. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 4 (1/21/1966) Incomplete.
17. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 5 (1/21/1966) Rehearsal.
18. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 6 (1/21/1966) Complete.
19. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 7 (1/21/1966) False start.
20. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 8 (1/21/1966) Rehearsal.
21. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 9 (1/21/1966) Rehearsal.
22. She’s Your Lover Now – Takes 10-11 (1/21/1966) Rehearsal.
23. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 12 (1/21/1966) Rehearsal.
24. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 13 (1/21/1966) Rehearsal.
Disc 11
1. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 14 (1/21/1966) Breakdown.
2. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 15 (1/21/1966) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3, 1991.
3. She’s Your Lover Now – (1/21/1966) Rehearsal.
4. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 16 (1/21/1966) Complete.
5. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 1 (1/25/1966) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7, 2005.
6. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 2 (1/25/1966) Complete.
7. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 1 (1/25/1966) Rehearsal.
8. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 2 (1/25/1966) Rehearsal.
9. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 3 (1/25/1966) Fragment.
10. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 4 (1/25/1966) Rehearsal.
11. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 5 (1/25/1966) Rehearsal.
12. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Takes 6-8 (1/25/1966) Rehearsal.
13. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 9 (1/25/1966) Rehearsal.
14. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Takes 10-14 (1/25/1966) Rehearsal.
15. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 15 (1/25/1966) Complete.
16. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Takes 16-17 (1/25/1966) False starts.
17. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 18 (1/25/1966) Complete.
18. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – (1/25/1966) Rehearsal.
19. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 19 (1/25/1966) Complete.
20. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Takes 21-22 (1/25/1966) Breakdown.
Disc 12
1. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 23 (1/25/1966) Complete.
2. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – Take 24 (1/25/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
3. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – (1/25/1966) Master take, guitar (BD) and organ.
4. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – (1/25/1966) Master take, vocal.
5. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – (1/25/1966) Master take, piano and drums.
6. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) – (1/25/1966) Master take, guitar and bass.
7. Lunatic Princess – Take 1 (1/27/1966) Incomplete.
8. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Takes 1-2 (1/27/1966) False start, incomplete.
9. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – (1/27/1966) Insert.
10. I’ll Keep It With Mine – (no date listed) Rehearsal. Partially released on The Bootleg Series, Vol.1-3, 1991.
11. Fourth Time Around – Take 1 (2/14/1966) Rehearsal.
12. Fourth Time Around – Take 2 (2/14/1966) Breakdown.
13. Fourth Time Around – Takes 3-4 (2/14/1966) Rehearsal.
14. Fourth Time Around – Take 5 (2/14/1966) Complete.
15. Fourth Time Around – Takes 6-7 (2/14/1966) Rehearsal.
16. Fourth Time Around – Take 8 (2/14/1966) Rehearsal.
17. Fourth Time Around – Takes 9-10 (2/14/1966) False starts.
Disc 13
1. Fourth Time Around – Take 11 (2/14/1966) Complete.
2. Fourth Time Around – Takes 12-13 (2/14/1966) False starts.
3. Fourth Time Around – Takes 14-16 (2/14/1966) False starts.
4. Fourth Time Around – Takes 17-18 (2/14/1966) False starts.
5. Fourth Time Around – Take 19 (2/14/1966) Breakdown.
6. Fourth Time Around – Take 19 again (2/14/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
7. Visions Of Johanna – Take 1 (2/14/1966) False start.
8. Visions Of Johanna – Take 2 (2/14/1966) Breakdown.
9. Visions Of Johanna – Take 3 (2/14/1966) False start.
10. Visions Of Johanna – Take 4 (2/14/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
11. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Takes 1-2 (2/14/1966) Rehearsal.
12. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 3 (2/14/1966) Complete.
13. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Takes 4-5 (2/14/1966) Rehearsal.
14. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 6 (2/14/1966) Breakdown.
15. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 6 again (2/14/1966) Rehearsal.
16. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 8 (2/14/1966) Complete.
17. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 9 (2/14/1966) Breakdown.
18. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 10 (2/14/1966) False start.
19. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 11 (2/14/1966) Breakdown.
20. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 12 (2/14/1966) False start.
21. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 13 (2/14/1966) Complete.
22. I’ll Keep It With Mine (instrumental) – Take 1 (2/15/1966) Rehearsal.
23. I’ll Keep It With Mine (instrumental) – Take 2 (2/15/1966) Rehearsal.
24. I’ll Keep It With Mine (instrumental) – Take 3 (2/15/1966) Rehearsal.
25. I’ll Keep It With Mine (instrumental) – Take 4 (2/15/1966) Rehearsal.
26. I’ll Keep It With Mine (instrumental) – Take 5 (2/15/1966) Rehearsal.
27. I’ll Keep It With Mine (instrumental) – Takes 6-7 (2/15/1966) Rehearsal.
28. I’ll Keep It With Mine (instrumental) – Take 8 (2/15/1966) Rehearsal.
29. I’ll Keep It With Mine (instrumental) – Take 8 again (2/15/1966) Complete.
30. I’ll Keep It With Mine (instrumental) – Take 9 (2/15/1966) Complete.
Disc 14
1. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands – Take 1 (2/16/1966) Complete.
2. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands – Take 2 (2/16/1966) Rehearsal.
3. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands – Take 3 (2/16/1966) Complete.
4. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands – Take 4 (2/16/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
5. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 1 (2/17/1966) Rehearsal.
6. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – (2/17/1966) Rehearsal.
7. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 1 (2/17/1966) Breakdown.
8. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Takes 2-3 (2/17/1966) Rehearsal.
9. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 4 (2/17/1966) Breakdown.
10. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 4 (mis-slate) (2/17/1966) False start.
11. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 5 (2/17/1966) Released on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7, 2005.
12. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Takes 6-8 (2/17/1966) False starts.
13. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 9 (2/17/1966) Breakdown.
14. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 10 (2/17/1966) False start.
15. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Takes 11-12 (2/17/1966) Breakdown.
16. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 13 (2/17/1966) Breakdown.
Disc 15
1. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 14 (2/17/1966) Complete.
2. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Take 15 (2/17/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
3. Absolutely Sweet Marie – (3/07/1966) Rehearsal.
4. Absolutely Sweet Marie – Take 1 (3/07/1966) Complete.
5. Absolutely Sweet Marie – Take 2 (3/07/1966) False start.
6. Absolutely Sweet Marie – Take 3 (3/07/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
7. Absolutely Sweet Marie – (3/07/1966) Insert.
8. Just Like A Woman – Take 1 (3/08/1966) Complete.
9. Just Like A Woman – Take 2 (3/08/1966) Complete.
10. Just Like A Woman – Take 3 (3/08/1966) Complete.
11. Just Like A Woman – Take 4 (3/08/1966) Complete.
12. Pledging My Time – Take 1 (3/08/1966) Breakdown.
13. Pledging My Time – (3/08/1966) Rehearsal.
14. Pledging My Time – Take 2 (3/08/1966) False start.
15. Pledging My Time – Take 3 (3/08/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
16. Just Like A Woman – Take 5 (3/08/1966) False start.
17. Just Like A Woman – Take 6 (3/08/1966) Breakdown.
Disc 16
1. Just Like A Woman – Take 8 (3/08/1966) Complete.
2. Just Like A Woman – Takes 9-10 (3/08/1966) False start, breakdown.
3. Just Like A Woman – Takes 11-12 (3/08/1966) Rehearsal.
4. Just Like A Woman – Take 13 (3/08/1966) Breakdown.
5. Just Like A Woman – Takes 14-15 (3/08/1966) Rehearsal.
6. Just Like A Woman – Take 16 (3/08/1966) Complete.
7. Just Like A Woman – Take 17 (3/08/1966) Breakdown.
8. Just Like A Woman – Take 18 (3/08/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
9. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) – Take 1 (3/09/1966) Complete.
10. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) – Take 2 (3/09/1966) Rehearsal.
11. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) – Take 3 (3/09/1966) Rehearsal.
12. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) – Take 4 (3/09/1966) Rehearsal.
13. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) – Take 5 (3/09/1966) Breakdown.
14. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) – Take 6 (3/09/1966) Released on Blonde on Blonde, 1966.
15. Temporary Like Achilles – Take 1 (3/09/1966) Complete.
16. Temporary Like Achilles – Take 2 (3/09/1966) False start
17. Temporary Like Achilles – Take 3 (3/09/1966) Complete.
18. Temporary Like Achilles – Take 4 (3/09/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
19. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 – (3/10/1966) Rehearsal.
20. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 – Take 1 (3/10/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
Disc 17
1. Obviously Five Believers – Take 1 (3/10/1966) False start.
2. Obviously Five Believers – Take 2 (3/10/1966) Breakdown.
3. Obviously Five Believers – Take 3 (3/10/1966) Complete.
4. Obviously Five Believers – Take 4 (3/10/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
5. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 1 (3/10/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
6. I Want You – (3/10/1966) Rehearsal.
7. I Want You – Take 1 (3/10/1966) Complete.
8. I Want You – Take 2 (3/10/1966) Breakdown.
9. I Want You – Take 3 (3/10/1966) Rehearsal, false start.
10. I Want You – Take 4 (3/10/1966) Complete.
11. I Want You – Take 5 (3/10/1966) Released on Blonde On Blonde, 1966.
12. I Want You – Take 5b (3/10/1966) Insert, guitar overdub.
Disc 18
1. Remember Me – (5/04/1965) Savoy Hotel, London.
2. More And More – (5/04/1965) Savoy Hotel, London.
3. Blues Stay Away From Me – (5/04/1965) Savoy Hotel, London.
4. Weary Blues From Waitin’ – (5/04/1965) Savoy Hotel, London.
5. Lost Highway – (5/04/65) Savoy Hotel, London.
6. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – (5/04/1965) Savoy Hotel, London.
7. Young But Daily Growing – (5/04/1965) Savoy Hotel, London.
8. Wild Mountain Thyme – (5/04/1965) Savoy Hotel, London.
9. I Can’t Leave Her Behind [1] – (5/13/1966) North British Station Hotel, Glasgow, Scotland.
10. I Can’t Leave Her Behind [2] – (5/13/1966) North British Station Hotel, Glasgow, Scotland.
11. On A Rainy Afternoon – (5/13/1966) North British Station Hotel, Glasgow, Scotland.
12. If I Was A King [1] – (5/13/1966) North British Station Hotel, Glasgow, Scotland.
13. If I Was A King [2] – (5/13/1966) North British Station Hotel, Glasgow, Scotland.
14. What Kind Of Friend Is This – (5/13/1966) North British Station Hotel, Glasgow, Scotland.
15. Positively Van Gogh [1] – (3/12/1966) Denver, Colorado Hotel Room.
16. Positively Van Gogh [2] – (3/12/1966) Denver, Colorado Hotel Room.
17. Positively Van Gogh [3] – (3/12/1966) Denver, Colorado Hotel Room.
18. Don’t Tell Him, Tell Me – (3/12/1966) Denver, Colorado Hotel Room.
19. If You Want My Love – (3/12/1966) Denver, Colorado Hotel Room.
20. Just Like A Woman – (3/12/1966) Denver, Colorado Hotel Room.
21. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands – (3/12/1966) Denver, Colorado Hotel Room.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.“I’ll do this one more time and if I can’t do it, we’ll do another song. I’ll do any song as good as I can do it the first time.” Bob Dylan says these words once his first solo take of “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” breaks down after a minute.
Dylan’s definition of “good” is fluid, of course.
Sometimes, a first take satisfied him — “Maggie’s Farm” and “Gates of Eden” are two prime examples — but often he’d find he could do a song better or at least do it differently, swapping out words, speeding up the tempo, and changing the feel, occasionally radically transforming his song.
Sometimes, these radical transformations are the versions that found their way to the finished record, so they’re now seen as etched in stone but The Cutting Edge 1965-1966, the 12th volume of…
The Best of ** 320 kbps | 339 MB UL | MC ** FLAC Deluxe Edition ** 320 kbps | 995 MB UL | UP ** FLAC
…The Bootleg Series, shows Dylan didn’t enter the studio with posterity in mind when he went to cut Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde: he was making music of and for the moment.
Familiarity hasn’t necessarily dulled the impact of these three records, all written and recorded within a span of 14 months — a period of time when Dylan also filmed Don’t Look Back, electrified the Newport Folk Festival, and was declared a Judas at the Royal Albert Hall — but they have made them seem inevitable, works carved out of granite whose fates were preordained. The gift of The Cutting Edge is that it makes this, the greatest run of creativity in Dylan’s career and perhaps in rock & roll in general, once again seems wild, nervy, and quicksilver, upending expectations and undercutting conventions. Within one of the three sets of liner notes, Bill Flanagan calls these six discs of outtakes, alternates, and rehearsals “work tapes,” which is technically true, but undersells how this music crackles as it shape-shifts, sometimes soaring, sometimes stumbling, but always feeling fiercely alive. If it’s difficult to claim that a solo “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” and a locomotive “Visions of Johanna” recorded with the Band are superior to the versions on Home and Blonde, they’re nevertheless magnificent in their own right while also shedding light on how Dylan worked; with producer Tom Wilson, the singer/songwriter wasted no time, while Bob Johnston allowed Bob to twist and test his songs, letting him discover the soul that lay within. Along the way, Dylan was truly fearless — he’d goose a tempo to see if it gave a ballad life, he’d let Mike Bloomfield and Robbie Robertson run wild; the fact that he abandoned a song as wonderful as “She’s Your Lover Now,” possibly because it never quite withstood such stress tests, speaks volumes — and among the many gifts The Cutting Edge has to offer is that it illuminates these three great records while also illustrating that they were just mere snapshots in time. By breaking down the barriers that separated these three albums, The Cutting Edge shows how for Dylan during this blinding, brilliant peak his music was a living thing, evolving from song to song, take to take, where the quest itself was as transcendent as the final destination.
The Best of the Cutting Edge
CD 1
Love Minus Zero / No Limit (Take 2, Acoustic)
I’ll Keep It with Mine (Take 1, Piano Demo)
Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream (Take 1 & 2, Solo Acoustic)
She Belongs to Me (Take 1, Solo Acoustic)
Subterranean Homesick Blues (Take 1, Alternate Take)
Outlaw Blues (Take 2, Alternate Take)
On the Road Again (Take 4, Alternate Take)
Farewell, Angelina (Take 1, Solo Acoustic)
If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Take 2, Alternate Take)
You Don’t Have to Do That (Take 1, Solo Acoustic)
California (Take 1, Solo Acoustic)
Tambourine Man (Take 3 with Band, Incomplete)
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Take 8, Alternate Take)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 5, Rehearsal (Short Version))
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 11, Alternate Take)
Sitting On a Barbed Wire Fence (Take 2)
Medicine Sunday (Take 1)
Desolation Row (Take 2, Piano Demo)
Desolation Row (Take 1, Alternate Take)
CD 2
Tombstone Blues (Take 1, Alternate Take)
Positively 4th Street (Take 5, Alternate Take)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window (Take 1, Alternate Take (Short Version))
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Take 3, Rehearsal)
Highway 61 Revisited (Take 3, Alternate Take)
Queen Jane Approximately (Take 5, Alternate Take)
Visions of Johanna (Take 5, Rehearsal)
She’s Your Lover Now (Take 6, Rehearsal)
Lunatic Princess (Take 1)
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Take 8, Alternate Take)
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) (Take 19, Alternate Take)
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Take 13, Alternate Take)
Absolutely Sweet Marie (Take 1, Alternate Take)
Just Like a Woman (Take 4, Alternate Take)
Pledging My Time (Take 1, Alternate Take)
I Want You (Take 4, Alternate Take)
Highway 61 Revisited (Take 7, False Start)
All tracks previously unreleased except for:
Disc 1, Track 2 originally from Biograph (Columbia LP CSX 38830, 1985)
Disc 1, Track 8 originally from The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3: Rare and Unreleased (Columbia CD C3K, 47382, 1991)
Deluxe Edition
CD 1
Love Minus Zero / No Limit (Take 1, Breakdown)
Love Minus Zero / No Limit (Take 2, Acoustic)
Love Minus Zero / No Limit (Take 3 Remake, Complete)
Love Minus Zero / No Limit (Take 1 Remake, Complete)
I’ll Keep It with Mine (Take 1, Piano Demo)
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Take 1)
Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream (Take 1, Fragment)
Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream (Take 2, Complete)
She Belongs to Me (Take 1, Solo Acoustic)
She Belongs to Me (Take 2 Remake, Complete)
She Belongs to Me (Take 1 Remake, Complete)
Subterranean Homesick Blues (Take 1)
Subterranean Homesick Blues (Take 1, Alternate Take)
Outlaw Blues (Take 1, Complete)
Outlaw Blues (Take 2, Alternate Take)
On the Road Again (Take 1, Complete)
On the Road Again (Take 4, Alternate Take)
On the Road Again (Take 1 Remake, Complete)
On the Road Again (Take 7 Remake, Complete)
Farewell, Angelina (Take 1, Solo Acoustic)
If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Take 1, Complete)
If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Take 2, Alternate Take)
You Don’t Have to Do That (Take 1, Solo Acoustic)
CD 2
California (Take 1, Solo Acoustic)
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (Take 1, False Start)
Tambourine Man (Takes 1-2, False Starts)
Tambourine Man (Take 3 with Band, Incomplete)
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Take 1, Complete (6/15/65))
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Take 8, Alternate Take)
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Take 3, Incomplete)
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Take 3 Remake, Complete)
Sitting On a Barbed Wire Fence (Take 2)
Tombstone Blues (Take 1, Alternate Take)
Tombstone Blues (Take 9)
Positively 4th Street (Takes 1-3, False Starts)
Positively 4th Street (Take 4, Complete)
Positively 4th Street (Take 5, Alternate Take)
Desolation Row (Take 1, Alternate Take)
Desolation Row (Take 2, Piano Demo)
Desolation Row (Take 5 Remake, Complete)
From a Buick 6 (Take 1, False Start)
From a Buick 6 (Take 4)
CD 3
Like a Rolling Stone (Takes 1-3, Rehearsal)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 4, Rehearsal)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 5, Rehearsal)
Like a Rolling Stone (Rehearsal Remake)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 1 Remake, Rehearsal)
Like a Rolling Stone (Takes 2-3 Remake, False Starts)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 4 Remake)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 5 Remake, Rehearsal)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 6 Remake, False Start)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 8 Remake, Breakdown)
Like a Rolling Stone (Takes 9-10 Remake, False Starts)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 11, Alternate Take)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 12 Remake, False Start)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 13 Remake, Breakdown)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 14 Remake, False Start)
Like a Rolling Stone (Take 15 Remake, Breakdown)
Like a Rolling Stone (Master Take, Guitar)
Like a Rolling Stone (Master Take, Vocals, Guitar)
Like a Rolling Stone (Master Take, Piano, Bass)
Like a Rolling Stone (Master Take, Drums, Organ)
CD 4
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (Take 1, Alternate Take)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (Take 17)
Highway 61 Revisited (Take 3, Alternate Take)
Highway 61 Revisited (Take 5, Complete)
Highway 61 Revisited (Take 7, False Start)
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Take 1, Breakdown)
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Take 3, Rehearsal)
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Take 13, Complete)
Queen Jane Approximately (Take 2, Complete)
Queen Jane Approximately (Take 5, Alternate Take)
Ballad of a Thin Man (Take 2, Breakdown)
Medicine Sunday (Take 1)
Jet Pilot (Take 1)
I Wanna Be Your Lover (Take 1, Fragment)
I Wanna Be Your Lover (Take 6, Complete)
Instrumental (Take 2, Complete)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (Take 6, Complete)
Visions of Johanna (Take 1, Rehearsal)
Visions of Johanna (Take 5, Rehearsal)
CD 5
Visions of Johanna (Take 7, Complete)
Visions of Johanna (Take 8)
Visions of Johanna (Take 14, Complete)
She’s Your Lover Now (Take 1, Breakdown)
She’s Your Lover Now (Take 6, Rehearsal)
She’s Your Lover Now (Take 15)
She’s Your Lover Now (Take 16, Complete)
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) (Take 2, Rehearsal)
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) (Take 4, Rehearsal)
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) (Take 19, Alternate Take)
Lunatic Princess (Take 1)
Fourth Time Around (Take 11, Complete)
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Take 3, Complete)
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Take 8, Alternate Take)
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Take 1, Rehearsal and Finished Track)
CD 6
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Take 1, Rehearsal)
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Rehearsal)
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Take 5)
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Take 13, Alternate Take)
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Take 14, Complete)
Absolutely Sweet Marie (Take 1, Alternate Take)
Just Like a Woman (Take 1, Complete)
Just Like a Woman (Take 4, Alternate Take)
Just Like a Woman (Take 8, Complete)
Pledging My Time (Take 1, Alternate Take)
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) (Take 1, Complete)
Temporary Like Achilles (Take 3, Complete)
Obviously Five Believers (Take 3, Complete)
I Want You (Take 4, Alternate Take)
Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands (Take 1, Complete)
All tracks previously unreleased except for:
Disc 1, Track 5 and Disc 4, Track 13 originally from Biograph (Columbia LP CSX 38830, 1985)
Disc 1, Track 6, Disc 2, Track 11, Disc 5, Track 2 and Disc 6, Track 3 originally from No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (A Martin Scorsese Picture) (The Bootleg Series Volume 7) (Columbia/Legacy CD 93937, 2005)
Disc 1, Tracks 12, 20 and Disc 5, Track 6 originally from The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3: Rare and Unreleased (Columbia CD C3K, 47382, 1991)
Disc 2, Track 19 from Highway 61 Revisited (First Pressing Only) (Columbia LP CS 9189, 1965)
Disc 3, Track 7 originally from Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia LP CS 9189, 1965)
Disc 4, Track 2 originally from Columbia Single 4-43389, 1965 (Error First Pressing Only)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Taking the first, electric side of Bringing It All Back Home to its logical conclusion, Bob Dylan hired a full rock & roll band, featuring guitarist Michael Bloomfield, for Highway 61 Revisited.
Opening with the epic “Like a Rolling Stone,” Highway 61 Revisited careens through nine songs that range from reflective folk-rock (“Desolation Row”) and blues (“It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”) to flat-out garage rock (“Tombstone Blues,” “From a Buick 6,” “Highway 61 Revisited”).
Dylan had not only changed his sound, but his persona, trading the folk troubadour for a streetwise, cynical hipster. Throughout the album, he embraces druggy, surreal imagery, which can either have a sense of menace or beauty, and the music reflects that, jumping between soothing…
…melodies to hard, bluesy rock. And that is the most revolutionary thing about Highway 61 Revisited — it proved that rock & roll needn’t be collegiate and tame in order to be literate, poetic, and complex.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Bob Dylan’s Planet Waves became an event even before the album was released and revealed itself as an understated masterwork. His first studio recording in nearly four years, the homespun 1974 effort finds him reuniting with the Band, by then firmly established as virtuosos. The chemistry is obvious on every song. And the modest and spare production only magnifies the honesty and purity of the collaboration. Mobile Fidelity’s hybrid SACD deepens the music’s emotional connection and rustic warmth to the fullest possible extent.
Recorded in just three days time, Planet Waves is at its core an exhibition of the inimitable folk-rock honed by Dylan and the Band. Recalling the Americana spirit of The Basement Tapes while adding a domesticated edginess and…
…subtracting a degree of wildness, the set personifies simple charm and scraggly sweetness. Couched in the context of Dylan grappling with the chasm between family life and the road, Planet Waves fittingly encompasses myriad moods and contradictions, with tunes ranging from unquestionably devotional to overtly dark. In between, the singer attempts to navigate peace, catharsis, and resolve.
Per Dylan’s hallmark, many tunes on Planet Waves involve twists and subterfuge. Not, however, the best-known offerings—the often-covered wish “Forever Young,” celebratory roll-and-tumble “On a Night Like This,” devotional “You Angel You,” which spark with love, romance, and prayer-like tenderness. Yet the seeds that blossomed into 1975’s traumatic break-up album Blood on the Tracks are also planted here. Complex feelings and deep-seated personal confusion surface on “Wedding Song,” the hardscrabble “Tough Mama,” piano-centered “Dirge,” and knocking-on-heaven’s-door darkness of “Going, Going, Gone.”
Throughout, Dylan’s voice supplies subtle hints about his mindset and intent as the Band shadows him step for step, adding to the thematic ambivalence and contributing to a debate over meaning that continues today. Indeed, such relevance confirms the significance of Planet Waves 40 years after its original release. Mobile Fidelity’s SACD version digs beneath the surface and helps expose the record’s buried strains.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Bob Dylan returned from exile with John Wesley Harding, a quiet, country-tinged album that split dramatically from his previous three. A calm, reflective album, John Wesley Harding strips away all of the wilder tendencies of Dylan’s rock albums — even the then-unreleased Basement Tapes he made the previous year — but it isn’t a return to his folk roots. If anything, the album is his first serious foray into country, but only a handful of songs, such as “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” are straight country songs. Instead, John Wesley Harding is informed by the rustic sound of country, as well as many rural myths, with seemingly simple songs like “All Along the Watchtower,” “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine,” and “The Wicked Messenger” revealing several layers of meaning with repeated plays.
Although the lyrics are somewhat enigmatic, the music is simple, direct, and melodic, providing a touchstone for the country-rock revolution that swept through rock in the late ’60s.
Mastered on Mobile Fidelity’s world-renowned mastering system and pressed at RTI, this restored version presents the 1967 album with the finite details and impressionistic tones. Immediately notable for the slimmed-down instrumentation, brisk flow, and simple approach, the record continues to endure via a rustic, era-defying naturalism tied to the organic sounds and warm production swathing Dylan’s acoustic guitar, mellow voice, breezy harmonica, and minor accompaniments. All of these traits translate with incredible realism and lifelike air on this reissue, which also brings out the low end of Charlie McCoy’s bass with a previously unheard supple character.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It does seem strange, very strange indeed, to be hearing an official release of this historic concert, which has been available as a bootleg for decades. The Halloween gig at Philharmonic Hall in New York was a special part of the tour for Another Side of Bob Dylan, arguably his greatest acoustic recording. What’s more poignant, however, is how it previews the material on Bringing It All Back Home. While the songs on Another Side hinted at things to come, nothing could have prepared audiences for the dreamy surrealism of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” or the nightmarish abstract poetry of “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” and “Gates of Eden” — all of which appear on Disc One. The remainder of the material comes from…
…Dylan’s preceding catalog; there are stirring protest and topical songs, folk songs, humorous narratives, love songs, great wisecracks, and talking blues — “Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues!”), most of them classics — “With God on Our Side,” “Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” “Times They Are A-Changin’,” “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” “Mama You’ve Been on My Mind,” “All I Really Want to Do,” “It Ain’t Me Babe” — all of these songs and many others (there are 17 in all) are delivered with the confidence of the seasoned performer; a man who knows his audience and how to handle them. It’s not cynical, not detached, just masterful. For those unfamiliar with this set, Joan Baez makes an appearance near the end of the show, and duets with Dylan on four cuts including an amazing read of “Silver Dagger.” It is true that if you possess the boot, you have all the music here, and chances are, it has some pretty good sound. But you’ll need this version, too. For starters, the sound is spectacular, wonderfully warm and immediate, and the transfer is extremely clean with wonderful dynamics. Secondly, the package is deluxe. In addition to a fine essay by Princeton historian and author Sean Wilentz (he made the gig when he was 13), there are a truckload of killer photos from the show and the period, along with complete discographical information that puts the bootleg packages to shame. For those interested in the acoustic Bob Dylan, this concert is like the grail; his voice is in impeccable shape, and his delivery is revelatory. For those interested in the transition from acoustic to electric, this show is the seam, and for those who are die-hard fans, this is another welcome item in the official catalog. — AMG
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Fallen Angels is the second volume in which Bob Dylan sings the Great American Songbook, recorded at the same time (and with the same core band) as Dylan’s 2015 album Shadows in the Night. Those who hated that record are gently advised: Please move along. Nothing on this set is likely to change your impression. Those remaining, and at this point that may be a handful, you already know what kind of scene awaits when you drop in: Lights are low. There’s an ashtray that needs emptying on the table. Fading neon signs blink behind the bar. The band is tuned up, the amps are set to Maximum Torch. And, as before, our star is a touch road-worn, grizzled in a way that may only seem charming to immediate family. It’s a tableau rich in period details, the ideal setting for a singer whose…
… mission is to interpret some of the most elegant melodies in pop-music history.
Even if that singer is Bob Dylan, who will celebrate his 75th birthday four days after Fallen Angels is released. Dylan isn’t exactly known for having nimble pipes; a recurring knock against Shadows, which concentrated on songs recorded by Frank Sinatra, was that a voice with such a high gravel quotient should stay away from the sleek, graceful, demanding lines within songs written by Richard Rodgers and Cole Porter.
But possessing a pleasing vocal tone is really just one element of the singing business. The larger challenges involve personalizing a melody, shaping each phrase so it rings true. This is where Sinatra towers above mortals: His sighs, small gestures and nuance-rich asides tell — or, more accurately, hint at — stories inside of stories.
Dylan, a storyteller from way back, understands this. In spite of the limitations of his vocal instrument, he has created a whispery, willfully idiosyncratic phrasing style, a way of ambling through tunes (his own on recent records, those written by others here) that feels disarmingly believable, at least most of the time.
On Fallen Angels, Dylan sings as though he’s deep within a reverie — seized by the memory of some “pug-nosed dream” from 30 years ago, unable to fully bring himself into the present. He evokes heartbreak, or recollections of heartbreak, with a convincingly unsteady tremble. He sings lighter love songs with a vaudevillian’s panache. And even when he’s rendering something that requires a more philosophical tone, like “Young At Heart,” he invests the lines with some personal meaning, some trace awareness of his own fragile state. In this way, he’s turned advanced age, with its endless backward glances, into an advantage: These are old songs sung by an old guy who is fully owning the oldness, the melancholy, the spontaneous outbreaks of gushy sentimentality.
Naturally, fittingly, the accompaniment is aimed at the older set; somehow, Dylan and his band catch the grace of a bygone era without descending into despair or corniness. The foundational rhythms are foxtrot and what jazz drummers derisively call the “businessman’s bounce” — pleasant ballroom-dancing rhythms that have aged out of relevance. Atop that is the steadying presence of rhythm-guitar strumming in a Western swing mode. Atop that sits wonderfully wistful, sloping leads from pedal-steel master Donny Herron — the hero of these sessions, whose lines frame and animate Dylan’s vocals without getting in the way. Check out “Polka Dots And Moonbeams,” the Jimmy Van Heusen/Johnny Burke ditty that was Sinatra’s first hit with the Tommy Dorsey band way back in 1940. It’s a song about a moment on a dance floor, and Herron opens it with a gracious, entrancingly spare instrumental chorus. By the time Dylan sings the opening line, “A country dance was being held in a garden,” the mood is fully established; the band sounds as if it’s been entertaining dancers for hours. Unfortunately, not everything coalesces to that degree: “Skylark” feels unnecessarily hurried, while “All Or Nothing at All” never really finds a comfort zone. For all its surprising spryness, the album’s lone barn-burner, “That Old Black Magic,” has a moment or two where the music nearly goes flying off the rails.
It is folly, everyone knows by now, to ponder the motivations and intentions of an artist like Bob Dylan. Still, the presence of a second volume of standards sparks an inevitable, “What is the Bard trying to teach us?” kind of curiosity. Heck, even the volume’s title invites parsing. Who, exactly, are the “Fallen Angels” here? The lovers from a bygone age of decorum and earnestness, whose amorous exploits are detailed in these songs? The romantics who immortalized those lovers, in language bright with innocence? Of course, Dylan could be referring to the songs themselves, artifacts from an also-bygone age. Maybe it’s a sly commentary by comparison, with Dylan holding up a structurally brilliant and musically inspired peak moment in the history of songwriting — like “Polka Dots And Moonbeams” or “Skylark,” or really any of these tunes — as if to suggest that this crystalline achievement was routine not so long ago.
01. Young At Heart (3:00)
02. Maybe You’ll Be There (2:56)
03. Polka Dots And Moonbeams (3:36)
04. All The Way (4:02)
05. Skylark (2:57)
06. Nevertheless (3:27)
07. All or Nothing at All (3:04)
08. On a Little Street in Singapore (2:16)
09. It Had to be You (4:02)
10. Melancholy Mood (2:53)
11. That Old Black Magic (3:03)
12. Come Rain or Come Shine (2:39)
Arriving in 1967, Greatest Hits does an excellent job of summarizing Bob Dylan‘s best-known songs from his first seven albums. At just ten songs, it’s a little brief, and the song selection may be a little predictable, but that’s actually not a bad thing, since this provides a nice sampler for the curious and casual […]
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The title of The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert is a nod to the fact that the famous bootleg known as The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert was actually recorded at the Manchester Free Trade Hall on May 17, 1966. The historical record was corrected when the concert was released as the second installment in Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series in 1998 (it’s labeled the fourth volume, but the first three editions were all rounded up in a 1991 box), so when it came to release a sampler album from the mammoth 36-disc set The 1966 Live Recordings, the only option was to release The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert, a show given on May 26, 1996. This double-disc set follows the same contours of the Manchester Free Trade Hall show, offering the acoustic set on the first disc and the electric on…
…the second. Furthermore, the set lists are identical, so The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert feels a bit like a mirror image of the Manchester Free Trade Hall. Like on Manchester, the acoustic set is quite good, but it’s overshadowed by an electric set that feels wild and alive. Perhaps the performance isn’t as epochal as The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert, but it offers similar thrills and pleasures, and that’s enough for any Dylan fan who wants to hear more music from this rich period.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Something of a companion to the 2015 studio set The Cutting Edge — the 12th volume in Bob Dylan’s ongoing Bootleg Series that contained all of his studio recordings from 1965 and 1966 — The 1966 Live Recordings rounds up every known recording Dylan made during the pivotal year of 1966, pairing audience tapes with soundboard recordings. If this isn’t precisely the year Dylan went electric — he released two albums of rock & roll in 1965 and he plugged in for a headlining set at the Newport Folk Festival that wound up polarizing the crowd — it is the year that produced the most famous document of how divisive his decision was to embrace loud rock & roll: a concert given at the Manchester Free Trade Hall on May 17, 1966 and bootlegged for years as his…
…”Royal Albert Hall” performance. Praised as one of the great rock & roll albums years before its official release in 1998 as the second installment in The Bootleg Series, it was marked by somebody in the audience yelling “Judas” at the notion of Dylan playing electric. On its own, the story would be legendary but the music was wild, raw, and vital — and it just happened to be one night of many in 1966.
All those nights are gathered on The 1966 Live Recordings, a 36-disc box set that’s not an installment in The Bootleg Series. That decision makes sense: The Bootleg Series is curated but this is a clearinghouse of every known recording from that year, a move that is quite clearly driven by Sony’s need to release this material in order to preserve the copyright. This winds up being a blessing for the hardcore Dylan fan because The 1966 Live Recordings simply winds up offering an enormous amount of a very good thing. All the shows follow the same structure as the Manchester Free Trade Hall — there is an opening acoustic set, then Dylan moves to playing electric with the Hawks, the backing group that later became the Band; not every recording contains a complete concert, and the set lists are often very similar. Manchester Free Trade Hall also offers a good indication of what’s good on the box: the acoustic performances are often solid but the performances with the Hawks are where it’s at. There, Dylan and the Hawks tap into a life source that’s primal yet complex. It’s as much how they’re playing as the songs themselves, and that’s why a deep dive into this box set is so rewarding: the songs may remain the same but the performances are vibrant and alive. For the serious Dylanphile, that’s reason enough to acquire this hefty box.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Live from a broadcast recorded at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Sydney, Australia, on 24th February 1986; featuring the entire program across almost three hours. Bob Dylan and Tom Petty were just three weeks into their 1986 True Confessions world tour when they brought in a professional camera crew to film a two-night stand at Sydney, Australia’s Entertainment Centre. Dylan had made the mistake of chronicling a tour too early in the past (1978’s Live at Budokan springs to mind), but this time around, they captured a pretty great night for an HBO concert special.
The audience saw a pretty great show featuring classics like ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ and ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ mixed in with newer songs such…
…as ‘When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky’ and covers including ‘That Lucky Old Sun’, Hank Snow’s ‘I’m Moving On’ and the sublime John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson number ‘Across the Borderline’, which gives this CD it s title. The show ended with ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’.
CD1
1. Justine [05:20]
2. All Along the Watchtower [04:09]
3. Positively 4th Street [05:15]
4. Clean Cut Kid [03:32]
5. I’ll Remember You [04:43]
6. Trust Yourself [03:23]
7. That Lucky Old Sun [03:26]
8. Masters of War [05:19]
9. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Bye Bye Johnny [03:47]
10. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Straight Into Darkness [05:33]
11. A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall [08:59]
12. Girl of the North Country [05:15]
13. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) [07:23]
14. I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know [03:52]
15. Just Like a Woman [05:16]
16. I’m Moving On [02:38]
CD2
1. Lenny Bruce [06:34]
2. When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky [06:18]
3. Lonesome Town [05:52]
4. Ballad of a Thin Man [04:18]
5. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – So You Want to Be a Rock ‘N’ Roll Star [03:56]
6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Refugee [06:00]
7. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 [03:24]
8. Seeing the Real You at Last [04:56]
9. Across the Borderline [05:05]
10. I and I [06:16]
11. Like a Rolling Stone [07:07]
12. In the Garden [06:38]
13. Blowin’ in the Wind [03:57]
14. Uranium Rock [03:28]
15. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door [08:02]
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.For an artist whose career is flush with enigma, myth, and disguise, Nashville Skyline still surprises more than almost any other Bob Dylan move more than four decades after its original release. Distinguished from every other Dylan album by virtue of the smooth vocal performances and simple ease, the 1969 record witnesses the icon’s full-on foray into country and trailblazing of the country-rock movement that followed.
Cozy, charming, and warm, the rustic set remains for many hardcore fans the Bard’s most enjoyable effort. And most inimitable. The result of quitting smoking, Dylan’s voice is in pristine shape, nearly unidentifiable from the nasal wheeze and folk accents displayed on prior records.
Mastered on our world-renowned mastering…
…system and pressed at RTI, this striking SACD version zeroes in on the shocking purity and never-again-replicated croon of Dylan’s vocals. Enhanced, too, are the images associated with the calmly strummed and picked acoustic guitars and decay connected to the fading notes. The dimensions and ambience of the Columbia studio translate via subtle echoes and natural blend of instruments melding with one another, akin to honey integrating with tea. Providing comparably soothing effects, relaxing vibes pour forth from this reissue, which affords this masterpiece the fidelity it’s always deserved.
“Is it rolling, Bob?,” Dylan famously queries producer Bob Johnson at the beginning of “To Be Alone with You,” indicating the laissez-faire feelings that surrounded the sessions and helped yield the laidback, convivial music defining the album — arguably the most unique in the artist’s vast catalog. While he dipped his toes into country waters on the preceding John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline throws its collective arms around the style in bear-hug fashion and drops any obvious folk references. Everything from the songs’ moods to the amicable arrangements reacts against the era’s turmoil and popular sounds.
This beautiful and beautifully executed effort might stand as Dylan’s most effective protest ever, even if many missed the point upon original release. Advocating peace, love, and old-world allure without calling attention to any characteristic in an overly forward manner, Dylan frames the songs as ballads, rags, lullabies, and gentle honky-tonk dances. He adheres to expeditious brevity, keeping the arrangements tight and free of any filler, thus allowing the melodies to immediately work their magic and place hummable memories inside listeners’ heads.
Indeed, if any Dylan masterpiece is overlooked, it’s Nashville Skyline. In addition to his superb singing and infallible songs, Dylan enjoys backing from a crackerjack assembly of Nashville session musicians including Charlie Daniels, Marshall Grant, W.S. Holland, Charlie McCoy, Ken Buttrey, and Norman Blake. Country pros, and their respective performances, don’t come any better.
As much as on any of his records, Dylan resides in a good place, mentally and emotionally. The idyllic, warmhearted environs of Nashville Skyline stand apart now just as they did in the late 1960s. The sincerity conveyed on the inviting “Lay Lady Lay,” relief sighed on the romantic “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You,” and unlimited promise expressed on the jittery “To Be Alone with You” parallel the lessons-learned yearning and genuine desire found on “One More Night,” bracing “I Threw It All Away,” and eternal “Girl from the North Country,” performed to perfection with Johnny Cash.
The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete is a compilation album of unreleased home recordings from 1967 by Bob Dylan and a group of musicians that would become The Band, released on November 3, 2014. It is the latest addition in the series of official “bootleg” recordings issued by Columbia Records.
