Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

Bruce is being too control freak about it. His archive releases keep getting finessed into essentially new albums, polished with new sessions. Several if not most tracks on "Tracks" included new vocals or other new additions; a least one track on "The Promise" is completely re-recorded. Neil is going about things his own way, which mainly means ... slow, and designed to satisfy no one. Dylan, or whomever he pays, is pretty much of the only one doing the official bootleg thing right, imo.

Pete Townshend did a good job with his Scoop series.

yeah, i mean, the bootleg series is a good argument for the artist not being involved in it at all. young and springsteen might just be too fussy.

Pete Townshend did a good job with his Scoop series.

Yeah, but the rest of the Who's reissue program is a fucking disgraceful mess.

Is it? Why?

There's a whole bunch of expensive 'deluxe' editions of stuff, but of you ignore those and keep to the 2cd versions, it seems alright.

Or not?

There are at least seven (but likely more) officially/professionally recorded full Moon-era live shows that have either not been released at all or, more commonly, only been released in dribs and drabs, scattered across multiple (and hard to find) releases.

The recent deluxe boxed sets are a perfect case in point. There are at least two 1973 shows that were officially recorded, but nothing from these appeared on the Quadrophenia box. Neither did the previously-released 1973 studio recordings "We Close Tonight" or "Four Faces" (to say nothing of any unreleased studio material, cf. "Bank Holiday").

The recent Tommy box boasted a "live bootleg of 1969 recordings!" These all came from a 1969 Ottawa show, with two exceptions: "I'm Free" and half of "We're Not Gonna Take It" were from a 1976 show (on the latter, the first half is from '76, the second half from the Ottawa show's "See Me, Feel Me" segment of "My Generation"). The 1976 recordings are not mentioned in the liner notes, but after this was released, the official Who website posted a "Hey, look what we 'just' found!" MP3 of a 1969 (Stonybrook, NY) recording of "We're Not Gonna Take It." For a week.

I will say that the recent 2CD The Who Sell Out and the 2003 2CD Tommy largely get it right: the former has the mono and stereo mixes, along with various outtakes, and the latter has some Who outtakes along with a handful of Townshend demos. But no Who reissue has been comprehensive -- along with the studio album, you get some demos or some live tracks, but never all the demos, never the whole live recording -- and they very easily could be.

My all-time favorite Who album is View From A Backstage Pass, a 2CD compilation of Moon-era live recordings that is, to put it mildly, mind-boggling. But you could only buy it by paying $50 for an "official" website membership, and Ebay auctions for the set were shut down. And now it's out of print.

there are 2 completely separate versions of Blood on the Tracks right? The mpls one and the NYC one? then they mixed them to form the released album?

still think A Tree With Roots needs to be done ASAP

I think in a lot of cases it's the quality of the tapes that are an issue. Something like Springsteen's "Nebraska," that's an anomaly. Major labels don't usually OK spending money to restore old shitty tapes for release. Stuff like A Tree With Roots, I'm fine with it existing as this sort of samizdat talisman. Maybe Garth has OK tapes, maybe not, but the principals don't seem terribly interested in that part of their history.

I wouldn't be surprised if the quality of the Who live stuff is an issue, too. Townshend is a compulsive archivist, and seems to have no problem dusting off stuff from the vaults, so there must be something up.

There are lots of acts, like U2 and Nine Inch Nails, that record every single show. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Dylan or Springsteen or whomever do, too. A lot of them record this stuff for reverence. But it seems a lot simpler to do what Pearl Jam does, in real time, going forward, then to go back and spend time on old stuff.

Frankly, I've always wondered what will happen with all the Prince stuff, Springsteen stuff, even Neil Young, all the cats who leave behind albums and albums of unreleased material. Will it just disappear? I guess if someone like Miles Davis can serve as an example, it's that someone will eventually go through, clean up and release everything.

still think A Tree With Roots needs to be done ASAP

when they do this it'll probably be in some giant box plated with 24 karat gold that contains a titanium flash drive on a red silk pillow. and it'll cost $7,500.

Garth Hudson will just start charging admission to his living room. You can only listen to it all at once, one person at a time.

curious as to whether there's actually anything else of note from the basement tapes that hasn't been bootlegged. I guess "Minstrel Boy" which showed up on "Another Self Portrait" had never been bootlegged as far as I know. there's supposed to be some other tune called "wild wolf" that no one's heard.

I've heard Wild Wolf it's just 45 minutes of the dudes stoned as hell howling like banshees

oh man can't wait

I wouldn't be surprised if the quality of the Who live stuff is an issue, too. Townshend is a compulsive archivist, and seems to have no problem dusting off stuff from the vaults, so there must be something up.

Townshend is indeed compulsive about archiving, but mostly (only) about his solo stuff. He hasn't expressed much interest in potential projects like a live Who box or a Dick's Picks-type series, and he's nixed two Who live releases (Philadelphia '73 and Woodstock).

I don't think quality (sound or otherwise) is an issue. In terms of performance, there are two profoundly crapulent live Who albums out there (Who's Last, Join Together), and the sound quality of the released Ottawa '69 and Isle of Wight shows is a little rough.

now i want that backstage pass who comp. i didn't even know it existed.

Parts of it have been released on the first disc of Greatest Hits Live, and other parts came out on the Hull 1970 show. A few songs on it were previously released: the live '76 songs on The Who By Numbers reissue and "Baby Don't You Do It" (b-side to "Join Together"). But even the latter song is edited on VFABP; the unedited version (an extra 3 minutes) is only available on a now out-of-print Japanese reissue of Who's Missing/Two's Missing.

lol confusing

lol internet

still think A Tree With Roots needs to be done ASAP
when they do this it'll probably be in some giant box plated with 24 karat gold that contains a titanium flash drive on a red silk pillow. and it'll cost $7,500.

― ★feminist parties i have attended (amateurist), Monday, January 13, 2014 9:17 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly though, that's another thing i like about the Dylan stuff, is that it's generally pretty reasonably priced...I got Another Self Portrait 2CD on sale for like 16 bucks

also if anyone on here for instance i dunno like knows anyone who is the proprietor of a popular classic rock bootleg blog or something and has a lead on that ol' tree w/roots (i lost my cd-rs a long time ago)...holla @ ya boy

Here's that great (stereo?) distillation:

h t t p ://100greatestbootlegs.blogspot.com/2011/12/bob-dylan-band-complete-basement-safety.html

Someone should check their facebook messages.

dylan bootleg seekers should register on the expectingrain.com forums. once yr signed up you have access to the rare recordings board which generally has everything you could ever want.
also this blog does a great job w/ dylan rarities: http://thousandhighways.blogspot.com/

that safety tape thing is my basement tapes standby now; all killer, no filler

ez - :)

honestly though, that's another thing i like about the Dylan stuff, is that it's generally pretty reasonably priced...I got Another Self Portrait 2CD on sale for like 16 bucks

― ilx snitch (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, January 13, 2014 10:24 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dat's true but they also come in ultra super mega deluxe editions with an extra CD that cost like $300

yeah the safety tape sound quality is 10x the tree w/ roots and other bootleg sets, and still better than the officially released basement tapes. which means that when we do get the "official" complete basement tapes there is no reason for it to sound anything but amazing

i love some of the folk ballads he does on the full basement tapes e.g. banks of the royal canal

jesus christ finding Dylan outtakes for free on the internet is next to impossible (and I am just trying to replace stuff that I bought and lost!)

http://thousandhighways.blogspot.com/

yeah I've been there

I was looking for a handful of tracks from Bootleg Series 1-3 and Biograph

http://www.bigozine2.com/ also has lots of Dylan from time to time: mostly shows these days, although I got several things that ended up on Another Self-Portrait, way before that was even annoiced, and some Basement Tapes tracks not on A Tree. However, the latter has lots of tracks not on that xpost safety tape (thanks for pointing me toward a chance for better audio, though).
PS: bigo's got the sounds for sure, but you might wanta avert yr eyes from the political shit.

Soulseek!

Oh, speaking of The Basement Tapes---behold The New Basement Tapes: mid-60s left-behind BD lyrics, with new music by---well, let's hope they rise to the occasion (fairly hopeful about Rhiannon Giddens, of Carolina Chocolate Drops): http://www.thenewbasementtapes.com/?cid=nl%3A990116528&utm_medium=email&utm_source=uscolumbia-bobdylan&utm_campaign=email|990116528|20140819&utm_content=nllink-3b04431e-thenewbasementtapes.com

Haven't brought myself to watch the video yet (bottom left of this page)

jesus christ finding Dylan outtakes for free on the internet is next to impossible

yessssssssssss

ineluctable really but that took long enough

it's happening???!?!

Apparently, Garth Hudson was closely involved with the restoration process for this set, and possibly the mastering (I think they were even his tapes?). Hope he gets some dough from it.

yeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssss

but why only highlights on vinyl and complete set on cd?

Considering the CD set is ... $148 (over a dollar a track!), I can only imagine what they would charge for vinyl.

yeah, you're right

I wonder if they make a lot of money on a release like this - believe I read somewhere that the original boots 1-3 (limited to 5000 copies on vinyl, couldn't be a big seller?) were more an idealistic project by some studio heads that were bobheads too - maybe the game done changed

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-complete-basement-tapes-bootlegs-released-november-20140826

Now that the Basement Tapes are finally being released, the Dylan camp is considering its next archival project. "We're thinking we'll revisit the 1975 era and Blood on the Tracks," says the source. "The unheard stuff from there is crazy. You can hear the first day of recordings before they put all that echo on. It's amazing." A question about a possible follow-up to Bob Dylan's 2004 book, Chronicles: Volume One, elicits a laugh and two words: "No comment."

oh wow, OK I will probably buy this at some point

If the mp3 version of the complete edition is less than 40 bucks I'll cough up for that. I'll never be able to afford the physical deluxe ed.

i already didn't pay for a bootleg copy, i'm surely not going to not pay again just to help major labels in their endless quest to profit from repackaging the music of the past in newer formats

That'll show them.

repackaging? it's never been released!!

; )

i.... don't know what that means

he's saying pay up, dude