Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

Sorry---THE BOOTLEG SERIES, that is.

listening to that pat garett release now

nothing special but very enjoyable

I meant to acknowledge that the *unreleased* jamz were where embryonic "Wagon Wheel" came from.

(duh, sorry)

Dow. This Pat and Billy Boot. Or something else?

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/10/10/diamonds-from-the-deepest-ocean-bob-dylan-pecos-blues-or-lucky-luke/

Ahh. Shit. The version on AQ has been taken down. But it’s available.

I think dow may be referring to the 28-disc set in the link above(?)

Word. The “embryonic Wagon Wheel” is on the Pecos Blues version that I have. I guess the thing with bootlegs is that sometimes they are inconsistent.

Oh I may be mixing posts up, sorry. The whole “Wagon Wheel” thing is bizarre… I’ve never actually seen the song performed, but I understand it’s a popular choice for bands to play.

yeah, didn't know the story tbh

from that rs article:

The 1973 collection that just hit will be largely familiar to Dylan fans since the Pat Garrett sessions leaked several decades back. Former Old Crow Medicine Show singer/guitarist Chris “Critter” Fuqua picked up a copy of the bootleg during a family trip to London when he was in high school, which he passed along to bandmate Ketch Secor. He became enamored with the song fragment “Rock Me Mama,” which is little more than Dylan and his bandmates messing around shortly after cutting “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.”

Secor fleshed out the composition into a finished work and eventually released it as “Wagon Wheel” on Old Crow Medicine Show’s 2004 self-titled LP. It became the group’s signature song and found an even bigger audience in 2013 when Darius Rucker took it to #1 on the Country chart.

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

the "new" set is called "50th Anniversary Collection 1973"

further to the strange second life of the song, Nathan Carter's version of Wagon Wheel was voted "Ireland's All Time Favourite Country Music Song" at the Irish Country Music Awards a few years back

Even though the song (and the singer) isn't remotely Irish

But then the whole Country & Irish thing is deeply weird anyway...

Yeah, thanks for the clarification---rs ads etc were too much for my old computer to paste that excerpt, but should have summarized better. As for the Irish-Dylan affinity, he hung out and was maybe sometimes on the same bill with the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem in early 60s Village, and one of 'em turns up in Howard Soules' Dylan book many years later, accusing Dylan, "a notorious philanderer," of shagging his gurl back in the day (may have been same Clancy in No Direction Home, supposedly grossing out some UKers and Irish with his beard, cigs, dental situation, speaking voice etc.---although online push-back: "That's like my uncle!" "That's like me!")
Was thinking that the melody for "Tempest" was cited as actually Irish, but maybe it was just the feel of the track---Dylan volunteered (in RS, I think) that he lifted it from Carter Family obviously one they trad.-arrd.---as for some of the words, I haven't heard the Carters':

These days, as Dylan continues to wend his way through the world playing over 100 gigs a year, he spends more time in hotel rooms than he does on any of his properties. One night, perhaps rifling through a minibar, he stumbled upon James Cameron’s ultimate Hollywood disaster pic. Early in the film, Leonardo DiCaprio says, “When you got nothin’ you got nothin’ to lose,” a line from “Like a Rolling Stone” evoking a 1965 sentiment plausible for a roustabout of 1912. Dylan, who has, in this century, shown an almost pathological tendency for using other people’s words, must have seen DiCaprio throwing his own words at him and then thought of the Carter Family’s “The Great Titanic.” Then he thought that the world needed a song for the centenary, in which he even refers to DiCaprio, not by the name of his character—just plain Leo. “Tempest” is a doomed sea chantey, with David Hildago’s violin adding an Irish lilt, and while it runs 14 minutes, you get the idea pretty quickly.

I can't say the new copyright set interests me, but it's a good sign that they were willing to do one given the material. Probably means there will be one next year, though we'll see if it includes professional quality recordings from the tour. (As for studio material, it would be great if a better outtake of "Nobody 'Cept You" exists, but most likely not. The solo renditions he did during the first week of the tour were amazing - if a good professional recording of one exists and they release it, that would be a godsend.)

Haven't heard of that song, thanks. Which tour?

It’s a Planet Waves outtake (on the OG Bootleg Series set)! And yes, it’s excellent…

Correct! (The tour with the Band in 1974.)

Also this was posted on another forum - great info:

On October 5, 2023 Clinton Heylin read from his new book at the Pigeon Loft at The Robin Hood in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. The reading was followed by a Q & A, during which Heylin was asked about the future of the Bootleg Series. Now, this being Heylin, you have to take what he said with a huge pinch of salt, but the gist of what he told the audience is this:

- At least two more Bootleg Series sets that were overseen by Jeff Rosen [note: producer/curator of the Bootleg Series] are planned. Jeff Rosen's role is winding down.
- After that the Bootleg Series will no longer be a Dylan office project and it will be up to Sony, because they now own the rights to the recordings [note: acquired from Dylan in early 2022].
- The Tulsa Archive owns the actual recordings [note: the physical objects on which the recordings were captured – tapes and hard drives]. The people at Tulsa store, restore, transfer/digitize and catalog the recordings. Every time Sony want to release something from the vault (since they now own the rights to do so) they have to pay Tulsa for the transfers of the recordings. [note: The publishing rights to the songwriting are a separate thing, they were sold to Universal in 2020.]
- It is unclear which path Sony will take with future releases: big deluxe sets or more affordable, smaller CD sets.
- Heylin says that "Jeff Rosen has a blind spot for 1978."*
- The 1978 material includes a dozen unreleased songs. [note: According to Michael Chaiken from the Tulsa Archive they also have the Street Legal "piano demos".]
- "The Complete Budokan" was a project by Sony Japan and had nothing to do with Jeff Rosen.

*This contradicts what Rob Stoner posted on Facebook in 2020: "The Rundown rehearsals are killer. I remixed and edited many of them for Jeff Rosen and they'll be out eventually. Bob and I came up with some wack arrangements, most of which have never been heard."

If Heylin is right and there will not be an additional release covering 1978, then the only still unreleased projects on Jeff Rosen's most recent list of future Bootleg Series sets as outlined in an interview with rollingstone.com (February 3, 2023) are "The Villager/pre-fame recordings" and the "Oh Mercy" sessions. If Sony release a 1974 Live Recordings set it will not involve Jeff Rosen – again from rollingstone.com (February 3, 2023): 1974 tour with the Band – Could we see a huge box set of recordings from that tour? “That’s going to be up to Sony,” says the source. “We’ll see what they want to do.”

The glaring omission of course is anything with substantial NET material and not just a handful of selections, but I think they covered that in earlier interviews - basically it's not something Bob wants while he's 1) still touring and 2) still alive.

(Also it was mentioned that a lot of their own NET recordings don't sound great, which is why they used actual audience bootlegs for certain officially released tracks.)

Always first read that as NFT

Have they tapped into the Desire studio sessions any more than what they included on Biograph and the original Bootleg box?

The Desire sessions are the big gaps in his archives, with many masters from those sessions MIA

Always first read that as NFT

You're A Bored Ape Now

The only outtake I know from the xpost Desire sessions: another reminder of how crazy he can be, to leave songs/tracks this good in the can, man, esp. considering some of the stuff that did make the cut---I like Maria Muldaur's cover even better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv_ERkjVej8

^^The Dylan version of that one is on the first bootleg set, alongside "Catfish", which he gave to Rolling Thunder accomplice Kinky Friedman. "Abandoned Love" (which the Everly Bros. covered in the '80s) appeared earlier on Biograph, and another song called "Rita May" appeared earlier still on the live "Suck Inside of Mobile..." single in '76 (and inspired a cover by Jerry Lee Lewis in '79).

It's interesting that all the known surviving Desire outtakes all had notable contemporary-ish covers.

“Abandoned Love” is a cool-ass song

Imagine writing a tune like that, and lyrics like this, and it doesn’t even make the album!

Oh, and then there's "Seven Days", which appeared briefly during the Rolling Thunder tour with a live take appearing on the first Bootleg box.

Studio "Rita May"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdJ0xLV1ULI

Only live version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fizmkogBv50

Imagine writing a tune like that, and lyrics like this, and it doesn’t even make the album!

...and furthermore only playing it live once before taking it into the studio...and then never ever playing it again!

Thanks for all that! Because of the Jerry Lee-style "To Be Alone With You," I'd thought "Rita May" was from the Nashville Skyline sessions---always enjoyed JL's version(s)(studio/live).
I knew "Abandoned Love" was in the early-middle 70s, didn't know it was from Desire---here's the best audio of that impromptu live performance I've heard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNeZVC2sn4A

In case that goes away, dig poster Swingin' Pig's notes, incl quotes, especially:

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Nov 20, 2018
Some Dylanologists say this is Bob's best live performance. Although I personally don't think it's his very best, I can understand why some think so. It's a positively breathtaking moment of his career. Furthermore, the song itself if probably one of my favorite Dylan songs. In my opinion, it was a huge mistake to leave off Desire.

There are a lot of versions on YouTube, but I thought they were all very bad quality; the hiss in the background was unbearable. I ripped this version off of a bootleg disc, then cleaned up the lossless audio as best I could.

Here's a very interesting account by Joe Kivak of the night it was recorded at The Other End (now The Bitter End), a little club in Greenwich Village:

"On a Thursday night in July 1975, I headed out to see Ramblin' Jack Elliott at The Bitter End in New York City. Because I wanted to learn his technique, I got there early enough to get a seat near the front so I could watch him play guitar. After the first set, a P.A. announcement told us we were welcome to stay for the second set if we honored the two-drink minimum. As the lights flashed on and I got up to leave, I glanced around the club and was stunned to see Bob Dylan seated toward the back with Jack, wearing the same striped tee shirt and leather jacket he had on in a photo with Patti Smith on the cover of the then-current Village Voice.

Naturally, I sat right back down. There was absolutely no way I was leaving at that point. Soon, others began to notice him, too, so Jack and Bob left their seats and went backstage. But when the engineer set up another microphone, we knew Bob was going to sit in. The electricity in the room was tangible as the club began filling up with more bodies. Finally, Jack came out and started his set. After a couple of songs, he began "With God on Our Side." After the first few lines, he turned his head toward the back of the stage and said, "Bob, you want to help me out on this?" The place went nuts as Dylan walked onstage. I can still see that shy look on his face as he nervously squinted out into the audience. He was so nervous, in fact, that he didn't notice that the capo on his guitar was crooked and buzzing badly.

Their first song was "Pretty Boy Floyd," with Bob singing harmony and his guitar buzzing right along. Then Jack started "How Long Blues." After the first verse, he looked at Bob in a way that seemed to ask him to sing a verse. Bob simply shook his head and mouthed something inaudible. When the song finished, however, Dylan began strumming his guitar. But since it was still buzzing, he asked Jack to trade instruments with him [this can be heard in the video at . At that moment, everyone in the room was in a trance; it's not every day one gets to hear an impromptu Bob Dylan performance in a tiny club. After a couple of lines, we realized he was performing a new song, with each line getting even better than the last. The song was "Abandoned Love," and it still is the most powerful performance I've ever heard.

Ramblin' Jack started strumming along in the beginning, but he soon realized the rarity of the moment and stopped and stepped to the side. As Bob sang, the nervousness so evident earlier vanished completely. He was so moving. There he was, hitting us with new material, with everyone hanging on his every word. It was an incredible feeling to be in that small club listening to Bob Dylan perform a new song. We all felt we were watching history in the making. After he finished, he returned to his seat near the back of the club and quietly watched the rest of the show. Jack appeared so speechless and overwhelmed by Dylan's performance that he started his next song with Bob's buzzing guitar.

Later, as we began filing out into the night onto Bleecker Street, we could see Bobby Dylan through the outside windows, leaning over his table and deep in conversation with someone, the candle in front of him highlighting his face. It's a moment I'll never forget."

Enjoy this gem while you can!

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