Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

And speaking of xpost going back to the beginning for the end of The Bootleg Series, here's another Swingin' Pig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ZlUjQ2bQ0

As promised, here is the complete "Minnesota Party Tape 1961", a mysterious bootleg with a colorful history. It shouldn't be confused with the "Minnesota Hotel Tape" (also recorded at Beecher's home but several months later) or the "Minnesota University Tape" (recorded a year earlier). However, these tapes go by many different names, so I recommend you look over Olof's files if you're interested in Dylan's timeline: http://www.bjorner.com/DSN00020%20196.... According to his database, this tape was recorded at an unidentified coffee house at Minneapolis, MN in May 1961.

Below is a tracklist with timestamps, and below that is an amazing backstory about "Bonnie, Why'd You Cut My Hair?" told by Jaharana Romney (wife of Hugh Romney/Wavy Gravy), formerly Bonnie Beecher, the subject of this song.

TRACKLIST:
0:00 - Ramblin' Round (W. Guthrie)
4:15 - Death Don't Have No Mercy (G. Davis) [Amazing rendition, wish he finished it]
6:40 - It's Hard To Be Blind (trad.)
9:35 - This Train Is Bound For Glory (B.B. Broonzy, arr. by W. Guthrie)
12:50 - Harmonica solo [Fun little jig to wake you up in the morning]
16:44 - Talkin' Fish Blues (W. Guthrie)
22:56 - Pastures Of Plenty (W. Guthrie) ["I learned this from Woody", Dylan says, referring to his meeting with him in January 1961. Can't tell what he says after that--Can anyone transcribe it?]
29:05 - This Land Is Your Land (W. Guthrie)
33:00 - Two Trains Runnin' (M. Morganfield)
36:14 - Wild Mountain Thyme (trad.)
39:00 - Howdido (W. Guthrie)
40:45 - Car, Car (W. Guthrie)
42:55 - Don't Push Me Down (W. Guthrie)
44:37 - Come See (W. Guthrie)
47:09 - I Want My Milk (W. Guthrie)
50:17 - San Francisco Bay Blues (J. Fuller)
52:57 - A Long Time A-Growin' (trad.)
57:32 - Devilish Mary (B.L. Hawes)
59:13 - Railroad Bill (trad.)
1:03:26 - Will The Circle Be Unbroken (A.P. Carter)
1:04:30 - Man Of Constant Sorrow (trad.)
1:07:40 - Pretty Polly (trad.)
1:13:12 - Railroad Boy (trad.)
1:16:00 - James Alley Blues (R. Brown)
1:19:35 - Bonnie, Why'd You Cut My Hair?

"He came to my apartment and said, 'It's an emergency! I need your help! I gotta go home an' see my mother!' He was talking in the strangest Woody Guthrie-Oklahoma accent. I don't know if she was sick, but it was an unexpected trip he had to make up to Hibbing and he wanted me to cut his hair.' He kept saying, 'Shorter! Shorter! Get rid of the sideburns!' So I did my very best to do what he wanted and then in the door come Dave Morton, Johnny Koerner, and Harvey Abrams. They looked at him and said, 'Oh my God, you look terrible! What did you do?' And Dylan immediately said, 'She did it! I told her just to trim it up a little bit but she cut it all off. I wasn't looking in a mirror!' And then he went and wrote that song, 'Bonnie, why'd you cut my hair? Now I can't go nowhere!' He played it that night in a coffeehouse and somebody told me recently that they had been to Minnesota and somebody was still playing that song, 'Bonnie, Why'd You Cut My Hair?' It's like a Minnesota classic! And so I've gone down in history!"
~Jaharana Romney (Bonnie Beecher)

"Bonnie, Why'd You Cut My Hair?" is one of the earliest recorded Dylan originals, only preceded by a few tracks recorded from 1958-1960.

Credits to Olof Björner for information and backstory.

Peace & Love,
~SP

As speculated: “Sony Entertainment this year will be releasing a box set of 1974 Dylan/Band tour concerts.”

Per Harvey Kubernik: https://www.musicconnection.com/kubernik-robbie-robertson-testimony-autobiography/

I forget which Dylan thread gets used the most. Here’s drummer Jon Wurster re 2 recent Dylan gigs he saw , and Dylan on the St Patrick’s Day show doing a song he hadn’t done live in 20 years . An Irish folk song

https://www.flaggingdown.com/p/notes-from-the-road-in-north-carolina

I think the “Overrated” thread is most used for general purposes…

Is there a Dylan site, comparable to Sugar Mountain for Neil Young, which documents the performance history of all songs? I know about boblinks.com but it doesn't go into that level of detail.

the official site!

Thanks, I'd never have thought to look there...

Setlist.fm also has Dylan concert information

Irish folk song “The Roving Blade”

https://www.setlist.fm/stats/songs/bob-dylan-1bd6adb8.html?songid=5bcf6314

https://www.flaggingdown.com/p/guitarist-jj-holiday-talks-bob-dylans

Guitarist Jj Holiday and the bassist and drummer of the Plugz rehearsed a bunch with Bob Dylan 40 years ago and backed him on David Letterman. Holiday talks about the experience in this long q and a

You should post that to this thread as well: Bob Dylan's punk period

On producing the Hard Rain concert, incl. dealing w film crew:

The TV people grabbed our local carpenter. I'd known him since he was 12 years old. They started berating this guy about, they needed some table [built]. He didn't have any lumber available to build them a little table. They’d seen some scrap lumber around and said he should go get it. They pointed to what they thought was scrap plywood. He cut it all up and built them a little table.

Somebody right before showtime, “Wurpel! Wurpel!” “What?”

“Who the fuck cut up Bob Dylan's paintings of Christ?”

Furthermore:

Then the other craziness that was going on: this was Passover. Barry Imhoff comes running up to me. “Look, motherfucker, we need a blender. We need it right now."

Of course, when you're in the middle of producing a fairly substantial show and it's crazy anyway and there are lots of nuts running around, when somebody says they need a blender, it's not the top priority on your list. Barry Imhoff just went absolutely crazy because I wasn't being responsive to this request. I finally said, “What is it for?” He goes, “It's for the seder.”

I said to Barry, "Barry, I've been through a few seders in my life. I remember bones, and I remember horseradish. I don't remember a blender."

That really pissed him off. I said, “I'll find a blender, but what's it really for?" I think it was for daiquiris. The daiquiris at the seder.

Ah yes, the seder tradition handed down for generations: the daiquiris.

It was a circus, but it probably wasn't the worst show circus I've ever seen. One of my clients for years was Willie Nelson.