Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

From bobdylan.com newsletter: This must-own box serves as a companion piece to the new film, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, premiering on Netflix on June 12. Every one of Dylan's performances in the movie can be found in the new box set.
Also bringing back the 2003 three-LP version of the 2-CD Rolling Thunder, which I still haven't heard (the single-LP Hard Rain, which came out soon after the network TV concert doc of the same title, though maybe with some different performances, is real good, an improvement over studio originals in several cases, like "Oh Sister," "Shelter From The Storn," "Memphis Blues Again," "Lay Lady Lay" ["let's take a chance, who really cares."]).

someone should make a doc about the Christian period

They did, it accommpanied the Trouble No More set

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awo55I-9D-4

Yup, the Hard Rain version of "Shelter From the Storm" is astonishing--a top 5 Dylan performance for me. That's from the 1976 leg of the tour tho. Looks like he didn't even play that song on the '75 leg.

(xposts)

hey, i'm grateful for the 18-disc the cutting edge no matter how long it took to slsk

― difficult listening hour, Thursday, April 25, 2019 7:40 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Managed to get a DVDr off ebay.

wife got me the Trouble No More box for Father's Day!

that is great, I am still playing my own distillation of that all the time

Penn Gillette as the lead piece in the book is lol

like why would I care about that doofus' musical opinions

srsly

for those that got the mondo box set -- VG did...assuming tylerw did?

is it worth it?

I haven't ripped the CDs or watched the doc yet, just thumbed through the book

you talking about the Rolling Thunder set or the gospel set ums?

I have it digitally and have so far listened only to the three rehearsal disks, the "rare versions" and the Montreal show

tbh I'm a little disappointed in the rehearsals...they don't touch the Rundown rehearsals from a few years later. It seems like this band's gretest asset was *energy* and to hear these songs arranged for Dylan's shouty voice but without a lot of gusto...eh. I don't know maybe they'll grow on me.

The Montreal show is extraordinary.

xpost the new rolling thunder box

I have the 2cd Trouble No More

counterpoint — i think the rehearsals are awesome! especially the first disc ... pretty amazing that they were only a week or so away from the first show.

I need that jaunty Simple Twist of Fate from the mahjong parlor. Incredible!

yeah that was amazing

it's on disc 14

I know, but I’m kind of all in on vinyl right now.

I'm genuinely considering the RTR box. It's about 45 euros and I think I'd like to dip into the different shows

next up: Johnny Cash Wesley Harding Skyline!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-bootleg-series-update-nashville-849134/

Unlike recent Bootleg Series packages that compiled every song in the vaults from key albums Blood on the Tracks, The Basement Tapes, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, this new set will only contain select tracks from the sessions. “I think we did repeat versions of songs to death on The Cutting Edge,” says the source. “We’re trying to find one really good takes of each song. The giant dumps of everything like we’ve done in recent years really aren’t my preference. I like stuff that is more curated.”

This seems like a good idea. Somehow I doubt there are revelations buried in the rehearsal sessions for "Country Pie."

So, this won't get a deluxe box version? A bit like the Whitmark demos, then..

...or any of the sets prior to, what, Vol. 11(?)

Nice - this one I'm really looking forward to, esp the JWH stuff.

interesting to hear what they dig up there — plenty of the period was on Another Self Portrait. The Cash stuff is not great. John Wesley Harding outtakes are the most interesting ...

agreed

but man I would LOVE to hear Infidels and Empire Burlesque dried out and remixed + outtakes

that (and the time out of mind sessions) seem more exciting, but maybe they can't resist the press that a collab w/ Johnny Cash will generate ... even if that collab kinda sucks. (though maybe there's better stuff than what has already circulated?)

I'm sure and I guess also there's no hurry on the copyright front to get that 80s stuff out

I hope the Dylan camp doesn't think Time Out Of Mind was "already covered" by Tell Tale Signs; that set really needs to be expanded into a box each for Time, "Love and Theft", and Modern Times (the latter I would particularly love to hear).

xp

Bought the RTR box. I've skimmed the 3 rehearsals discs and they seem unnecessary. Poor quality and ramshackle. Looking forward to the 5 full concerts. So it's 60 euros for 10 discs of five gigs. Not a massive bargain but an ok price.

I need that jaunty Simple Twist of Fate from the mahjong parlor. Incredible!

― Rolling Thunderdome Revue (PBKR), Monday, June 17, 2019 3:52 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is so amazing, I played this a dozen times today...it's a shame the mix is p much just voice+drums

also the Hattie Caroll on that Montreal show is thrilling

Still dying to hear the rest of the 20+ songs that skookum band recorded for Masked and Anonymous.

Trouble No More film/live footage DVD is surprisingly entertaining, that was really a great band he had on those tours

Hackett had such a funny 70s-Lit-professor-turned-lead guitarist vibe, did he ever perform w leather elbow patches

ha yes the robert quine of that band

xxxposts
Seconded for Infidels.
Especially since it's well known that the released version of the album was rushed and unfinished.
I have made my own version of the album, basically removing the "rock" stuff and replacing them with some of the songs that were cut out.
It's pretty good (for a Dylan 80s album !).

There’s an (actual) bootleg of Infidels outtakes called Rough Cuts that you can get, if they never release that stuff officially.

are y'all taking about the movie on some thread I can't find?

just finished watching last night, so cool

Over here: Scorsese's movie about Dylan

https://www.bobdylan.com/news/bob-dylan-featuring-johnny-cash-travelin-thru-1967-1969-the-bootleg-series-vol-15-released-nov-1/

Looking forward to the JWH outtakes

yeah, that early version of "Immigrant" they've posted is great ... almost a completely different melody/approach. the Cash stuff I've heard is ehhh, but oh well.

Yes, I don't care about the Cash material

I'm gonna get this one for sure... Nashville Skyline is one of the few "classic" Dylan albums that I've never owned (only heard it once or twice); and I feel like I've never appreciated JWH enough, maybe this will give me a different way into it.

Me neither but JWH outtakes are like a holy grail

From today's Rolling Stone update on this (says don't expect too much from JWH outtakes btw):

Future plans for the Bootleg Series are unclear, but a Time Out of Mind set and one that chronicles Dylan’s pre-fame folk period in Minnesota and New York are both in contention. “We’ve collected all these early tapes of him like the Minnesota Hotel Tapes and all the tapes that Tony Glover recorded,” says the source. “We have all these things in beautiful quality along with the Town Hall concert [in 1963] and the Carnegie Hall concert [in 1963]. Some day we’ll put these all together and put them out, but it’s not like people are clamoring for it. There are probably a few other areas to explore before that.”

There are no immediate plans to end the Bootleg Series, but the steep decline in the market for physical product does put its future in some jeopardy. “We have to also see how long people keep buying these things,” says the source. “We’ll see what happens. Right now, there’s a certain amount of physical that still gets sold, so we’d like to keep doing them.”

Looking forward to this one and I'm glad it's a reasonably sized/priced entry and not some 18-disc behemoth.