Bob Dylan Listening Club Spin-Off: The Bootleg Series | Wk 6: Tell Tale Signs – Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006

Music
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I’m focusing on one disc at a time - I’ve given the first disc a couple of listens now and it’s lovely to hear younger Dylan’s voice so full and warm again again after having spent such a long time with the ‘older Dylan voice’ recently.

Highlights from disc one so far for me: House Carpenter (awesome), Let Me Die In My Footsteps & Hard Times in New York Town.

His early guitar playing is a lot better than his early piano playing, and I’m not sure he really pulls the piano off on The Times… or When The Ship comes in, though his voice sounds great on both.

I enjoyed Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie is too - I thought it was interesting hearing him do something so heartfelt and earnest, but still doing it his way.

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The two most fascinating ones for me on this first volume(s) are the NYC recording of Idiot Wind, more resigned than the angrier version we got on Blood on the Tracks, and Blonde on Blonde outtake She’s Your Lover Now, which Dylan spent one day on trying to record, and never got a complete take in, and after that he never went back to it again

And Series of Dreams is amazing obviously

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23

fucking sublime :heart_eyes:

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24

A few plays through Disc 2. The first few tracks aren’t that interesting apart from the big highlight in Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind.

It then gets really good hearing the works in progress for Highway 61 Revisited onwards though - I know we picked up on it in the main listening club, but it’s even more pronounced over the few tracks here how insane the progression in his sound in 1965-67 was!

I enjoyed the stripped back piano led Like A Rolling Stone, the bluesier take on It Takes A Lot To Laugh… is good fun, it’s ridiculous he never bothered recording his own full version of a song as good as I’ll Keep It With Mine and it’s always great to hear I Shall Be Released.

Good disc!

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I haven’t listened properly to Vol 3 yet (will do over the weekend), but some polls for Vols 1-3 (Rare & Untitled).

Bootleg Series Volume 1-3 Rating

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As there are about a million tracks across the three volumes, there’s one for each:

Volume 1

  • “Hard Times in New York Town” (December 22, 1961)
  • “He Was a Friend of Mine” (traditional) (November 20, 1961)
  • “Man on the Street” (November 22, 1961)
  • “No More Auction Block” (traditional) (October 1962)
  • “House Carpenter” (traditional) (March 19, 1962)
  • “Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues” (April 25, 1962)
  • “Let Me Die in My Footsteps” (April 25, 1962)
  • “Rambling, Gambling Willie” (April 24, 1962)
  • “Talkin’ Hava Negeilah Blues” (April 25, 1962)
  • “Quit Your Low Down Ways” (July 9, 1962)
  • “Worried Blues” (traditional) (July 9, 1962)
  • “Kingsport Town” (traditional) (November 14, 1962)
  • “Walkin’ Down the Line” (1963)
  • “Walls of Red Wing” (April 24, 1963)
  • “Paths of Victory” (August 12, 1963)
  • “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” (October 26, 1963)
  • “Who Killed Davey Moore?” (October 26, 1963)
  • “Only a Hobo” (August 12, 1963)
  • “Moonshiner” (traditional) (August 12, 1963)
  • “When the Ship Comes In” (1963)
  • "The Times They Are A-Changin’ " (1963)
  • “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie” (April 12, 1963)
0 voters

Volume 2

  • “Seven Curses” (August 6, 1963)
  • “Eternal Circle” (October 24, 1963)
  • “Suze (The Cough Song)” (October 24, 1963)
  • “Mama, You Been on My Mind” (June 9, 1964)
  • “Farewell, Angelina” (January 13, 1965)
  • “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (January 13, 1965)
  • “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” (January 15, 1965)
  • “Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence” (June 15, 1965)
  • “Like a Rolling Stone” (June 15, 1965)
  • “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” (June 15, 1965)
  • “I’ll Keep It with Mine” (January 27, 1966)
  • “She’s Your Lover Now” (January 21, 1966)
  • “I Shall Be Released” (Fall 1967)
  • “Santa-Fe” (Fall 1967)
  • “If Not for You” (May 1, 1970)
  • “Wallflower” (November 4, 1971)
  • “Nobody 'Cept You” (November 2, 1973)
  • “Tangled Up in Blue” (September 19, 1974)
  • “Call Letter Blues” (September 16, 1974)
  • “Idiot Wind” (September 19, 1974)
0 voters

Volume 3

  • “If You See Her, Say Hello” (September 16, 1974)
  • “Golden Loom” (July 30, 1975)
  • “Catfish” (Bob Dylan / Jacques Levy) (July 28, 1975)
  • “Seven Days” (April 21, 1976)
  • “Ye Shall Be Changed” (May 2, 1979)
  • “Every Grain of Sand” (September 23, 1980)
  • “You Changed My Life” (April 23, 1981)
  • “Need a Woman” (May 4, 1981)
  • “Angelina” (May 4, 1981)
  • “Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart” (April 25, 1983)
  • “Tell Me” (April 21, 1983)
  • “Lord Protect My Child” (May 3, 1983)
  • “Foot of Pride” (April 25, 1983)
  • “Blind Willie McTell” (May 5, 1983)
  • “When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky” (February 19, 1985)
  • “Series of Dreams” (March 23, 1989)
0 voters
26

Think I’ve listened to the volume 1 stuff quite a lot, the volume 2 stuff a decent amount and the volume 3 stuff very little. Haven’t got round to a full relisten yet.

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27

Ooh, the two Desire outtakes on Vol 3 are good! Awesome to have another couple of tracks from that period given how shortlived it, and distinctive the style was.

Followed by an excellent live track I hadn’t heard before (Seven Days apparently being a prelude to Senor) - and then a stodgy Slow Train Coming outtake souring the vibe. Urgh!

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Very hard to choose between Series of Dreams and Blind Willie McTell. I went with the former today but could as easily change tomorrow

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The Bootleg Series Volume 4: Live 1966 “The Royal Albert Hall Concert”

JUDAS!!!

Uncut Bootleg Series Ranking: 2nd (/16)

Dylan’s 1966 world tour was a nightly contest between the artist and fans made angry and perplexed by his new music. Loud electric blues for the most part, not a Scottish ballad or protest song in sight. English crowds were especially vocal in their disapproval. Things came to a head on May 17, 1966, at a concert at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, for years thought to have been recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall, a bootlegger’s mistake. The acoustic first half of the show was well enough received, the audience listening politely to even recent songs like “Visions Of Johanna” and “Mr Tambourine Man”. After an interval, Dylan and The Band plugged in, blasted off. Large parts of the crowd recoiled. There was slow-handclapping, booing, a notorious cry of “Judas!” Dylan and The Band replied with some of the most brain-shredding live rock music ever heard. Play fucking loud, indeed.

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Let’s check out the contemporary reviews:

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31

I’ve just listened politely to the first half, and am treating myself to a small, overpriced tub of ice-cream in the intermission.

Second half tomorrow as everyone else is back home and I can’t spend the next 45 minutes loudly booing and slow-clapping now without having some awkward explaining to do…

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33

Vol. 4 is absolutely butchered on streaming, all the between song chat is cut. Doesn’t detract from one of the best performances ever recorded though.

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34

I’ve only had the chance to listen to 1-3 once all the way through.

It’s got some all timers and works really well as a career retrospective but it’s probably the Bootleg album I revisit the least. I think it works best as a taster of what’s to come because most of what’s on here is better covered by other releases.

The next one though could be my favourite ever album. Can’t wait to give it a spin

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35

4 is my favourite of any Dylan release. Thrilling as the electric half of the set is, the highlight for me is the spellbinding acoustic rendition of Visions Of Johanna. But the whole thing’s an incredible document of someone at the peak of their powers.

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36

Woah, the live version of Just Like Tom Thumb Blues on here is stunning!

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37

Quite funny that the acoustic set is all recent material and then when he dips back into the earlier albums it’s for electric reinventions. Good trolling.

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38

Didn’t get chance over the weekend, but let’s wrap up Volume 4:

Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert Rating

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Song Poll:

  • She Belongs to Me
  • 4th Time Around
  • Visions of Johanna
  • It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
  • Desolation Row
  • Just Like a Woman
  • Mr. Tambourine Man
  • Tell Me, Momma
  • I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
  • Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
  • Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
  • Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
  • One Too Many Mornings
  • Ballad of a Thin Man
  • Like a Rolling Stone
0 voters
39

I’ll try and post more thoughts on vol 4, but for now moving on:

The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue

Uncut Bootleg Series Ranking: 8th (/16)

Apart from two Rolling Thunder tracks on Biograph, the only record of Dylan’s fabulous Bicentennial caravan prior to this 2-CD set was his 1976 live album, Hard Rain, recorded on the unhappy second leg of the tour, the one Dylan played to pay off the production costs of Renaldo & Clara. The hats and scarves were gone, the music mostly sour.

Live 1975 was a 22-track compilation, culled from tapes of five concerts professionally recorded by a mobile unit on the tour’s first leg, assembled to run as if according to the show’s set list. It was thrilling stuff. “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You”, with re-written lyrics and a rampaging new arrangement, “A Hard Rain” recast as a storming roadhouse blues, many more. For the real beef, however, you needed the 14CD The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings, two discs of rehearsals, 10 from shows, one of rarities.

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incredible version:

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