Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

@aquadrunkard Basically the Only Good Dylan Album is the #BluSpec CD of Street Legal, by tylerw

#SpecLegal

#GottaSpecSomebody

great work itt everybody, appreciate it

are all those tracks on the set though? could you just make a playlist

― Greta Van Fleek (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, October 30, 2018 4:24 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

everything's been remixed, so you're not getting the OG BOTT on the new set. #OGBOTT

― tylerw, Tuesday, October 30, 2018 4:26 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, I don’t mean to come across insane. I just wanted an inexpensive way to hear the original album without having to buy the entire set and create a playlist I can’t hear in the car.

Though, Tyler, your article mentioned that Paul Griffin’s organ is now low in the mix, which is a crime.

don't think i say it's low in the mix? it's just differently mixed from the acetate version I've known forever, and maybe to its detriment.

article about the minnesota musicians from my local paper

http://www.startribune.com/minnesotans-finally-get-credit-for-playing-on-bob-dylan-s-1975-classic-blood-on-the-tracks/499161281/

nice -- didn't realize til recently that a lot of the same guys played on Kottke's Dreams and All That Other Stuff and various Cat Stevens recordings.

that is cool! they were usually framed as a sub-par band iirc

this is so weird, like it's hard for me to judge other version of stuff like "tangled up in blue" where so much of the phrasing etc of the released in burned into my brain

really like "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 5)" very nice low key groove

Kinda like it’s written in your soul, huh?

Just bought the one disc version. Couldn't bring myself to spring for the full monty. Look forward to listening later

a lot of the same guys played on... and various Cat Stevens recordings

interesting! Cat Stevens has always seemed weirdly isolated from the rest of the industry to me, like I look at the credits on those records and don't recognize a single name.

The guitar on Simple Twist..

The switch to first-person for the final version of "TUiB" sure was critical; not to mention some of the other lyric changes, and picking up the tempo from this sleepy strum...

(I mean, the first-person comes back in later, but the perspective works a lot better in the final version, IMO)

i dunno, i like the love triangle aspect of the original tangled. it's more tangled!
the chime 'n' jangle of the Minnesota version is great though.

On another note, I've always f-n' loved this verse:

Oh, the only decent thing I did when I worked as a postal clerk
Was to haul your picture down off the wall near the cage where I used to work
Was I a fool or not to try to protect your identity?
You looked a little burned out, my friend, I thought it might be up to me

that whole song is pretty amazing — any other songwriter would kill for it, and he didn't even release it for a decade.

Everything went from bad to worse
Money never changed a thing
Death kept followin', trackin' us down
At least I heard your bluebird sing
Now somebody's got to show their hand
Time is an enemy
I know you're long gone
I guess it must be up to me

also, this new set lets me say things like "i love the little riff dylan plays on take 2 (remake) of 'Up To Me,' which isn't present on other takes"

Say away Tyler!

I'm very happy with the one disc version. It's so much clearer than the bootlegs I've owned

"hunted like a crocodile, ravaged in the corn" -- sounds like a typical Friday night, amirite?

(I didn't dig the first two tracks on this disc very much at all, but some of these later takes are great.)

Is this take of "Idiot Wind" the same as was on a previous Bootleg Series release? I recognize the way he stumbles over "...wasn't enough to change my heart".

Yeah I believe that's the take that was on the original 3 lp biograph set

I’m not up on this topic (which was discussed above), but here’s what a Billboard article says(?):

It’s easy to forget that some of our ‘60s and ‘70s rock heroes’ records aren’t actually in Western tonality. In those days, it was common practice to speed up studio recordings to give them a little extra zest, and Blood on the Tracks is no exception. According to the liner notes, Dylan specifically asked Ramon to fudge the pitch and tempo for the radio and record market. That’s not the case on More Tracks; for the diehards, this is how this music really sounded as it was played.

The is the first time I’ve been seriously tempted to buy the big, honkin’ version of one of these sets... somehow I feel like getting lost in all these takes. (And this isn’t even my favorite Dylan album or anything!)

Hmm, ppl on Amazon are complaining that the booklet has a printing error (4 pgs. missing from the notebook reproduction); and also doesn’t have the “AutoRip” feature, like the previous sets.

i'm loving the sampler

what an absurdly good collection of songs

Sounds amazing. My bootleg was a vinyl rip, so the clarity here is revelatory

really like "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 5)" very nice low key groove
this was the standout for me on first listen

gave the set a listen yesterday. can't say my attention was full-on all the way and I admit to skipping the lily rosemary takes, but man there are some good recordings in there and tylerw is v otm here:

Blood on the Tracks is often thought of as one of the songwriter’s most personal works, but listening to him work out songs like “Idiot Wind,” I’m struck by his single-mindedness and overall intention; this isn’t autobiography, it’s art. He’s trying out different voices, phrasing and lyrics, all in the effort to get the heart of the composition across clearly to the listener. There may be real-life conflict behind the album, but Bob doesn’t just want to bare his soul. He wants to tell stories.

see they've posted a few videos too, I think I had a dvd with the full set this is from, nothing revelatory but nice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8GB8gnRj1A

He looks rough in that video

oh this is cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23JF5fTl1_U

live version of the album, mostly from 75-76

He looks rough in that video

idk I kinda love the striped pants + prom shirt look

It's not so much the outfit - more the bags under his eyes, sweaty face etc. He looks like he hasn't slept in weeks.

His munificence may have been engorged with snow, at this point

. . .yeah, those Minnesota winters, BOY!

Anyway, finally got the Blood on the Tracks "Bootleg Series" today (just the single disc version; I's po`) and it's as great as my expectations had in mind. What took them so friggin` long?

If you don't want to invest in the entire set, do what I did and download the 10 key tracks scattered throughout the 6-CD set. They're identified in this New Yorker article (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/bob-dylans-masterpiece-is-still-hard-to-find) thusly:

To assemble the original “Blood on the Tracks” from the eighty-seven takes on “More Blood, More Tracks,” select tracks 69 (CD 5, No. 3), 71 (CD 5, No. 5), 34 (CD 3, No. 3), 76 (CD 5, No. 10), 48 (CD 4, No. 2), 16 (CD 2, No. 5), 11 (CD 1, No. 11), 59 (CD 4, No. 13), 46 (CD 3, No. 15), and 58 (CD 4, No. 12).

Download from where?

The internet.

Is that the original track sequence?

I don't quite get this fetishization around the "original" (NYC) album, but then I've never heard it.

From that New Yorker piece:

Many Dylanists will disagree with me -- the second “Blood” has eloquent defenders

Uh, ya think? Weird understatement. (It's like his most highly rated album.)

I mean an album's not an album until it's released, right? The way Ross refers to the LP we all know as the "revised" version, in contrast to the (supposedly superior) "original," feels a bit precious.

I kinda stopped reading around this weird hyperbole:

It is a ten-song study in romantic devastation, as beautiful as it is bleak, worthy of comparison with Schubert’s “Winterreise.”

https://bobdylan.shop.musictoday.com/product/Y4CDBD68#collapse1_ProductDescriptionAdditionalComponent_ProductDetails_2

https://static.musictoday.com/store/bands/4065/product_large/Y4CDBD68.jpg