Bob Dylan corner

[Alexander]

How's that for irony? I'm reading Alex's post while listening to SELF PORTRAIT for the first time in my life.

And probably last time.

Clearly, this is a case where I should've just taken everyone's word for it. I mean, I generally can find something (anything) to like about even the worst records (siddown, Skid; I know where you're going with this!). Can't do it on this one.

Yeesh! At least Costello's "Goodbye Cruel World" was listenable.

BLEEAAHHH!!!!

I actually like "Self Portrait," although I freely admit that my first reaction was the same as yours when I first heard it waaaay back in the day. I've come to really enjoy it. I love his cover of "The Boxer" where his regular voice duets with his "crooner" voice.

How's that for irony? I'm reading Alex's post while listening to SELF PORTRAIT for the first time in my life.

And probably last time.

Clearly, this is a case where I should've just taken everyone's word for it. I mean, I generally can find something (anything) to like about even the worst records (siddown, Skid; I know where you're going with this!). Can't do it on this one.

Yeesh! At least Costello's "Goodbye Cruel World" was listenable.

BLEEAAHHH!!!!

LOL!!! You should hear "Dylan," which consists of... outtakes from Self Portrait!!

I found it (ahem) on-line not too long ago, just to round out my collection. I was surprised by how much I liked it. I had a cassette copy years ago and I thought it was horrible. Now I see it as a companion to "New Morning"...

[Alexander]

My wish list for future Bootleg Series issues:

1) Warfield Theatre, SF, 1979: The "Born Again" series of shows. Dylan's preachifying included.

2) 1961 - 1962: The Minneapolis tapes, Riverside Church broadcast, etc.

3) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers tour, 1985. Can include their smokin' set at Farm Aid.

4) The full Basement Tapes.

5) Late '80's on tour: the G.E. Smith band.

And on DVD:

6) Eat The Document

7) Renaldo and Clara (original uncut version)

All of these are on my wish list too. I have a boot of the Petty material. I have a few of the Minneapolis tapes on "The Great White Wonder" and the full Basement Tapes, but I'd love to have official releases of all of them. And I REALLY want some of the "Born Again" shows! I remember how much I HATED those albums when I first heard them. Now I LOVE them. "Slow Train Coming" is one of Dylan's all time best" and "Saved" is pretty damn good too...

[sal]

Isn't Quinn The Eskimo on Self Portrait? That song is awesome.

[jazzbo]

Yes. Yes!

[John L]

That was a remake of Quinn the Eskimo, althought the first "legit" release of the song. The classic version remains the one recorded earlier with the Band on the Basement Tapes.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

im gonna be groovin to bob live here in 3 weeks

[medjuck]

I'm just listening to Bill Frissell, Ron Carter and Paul Motian play "Pretty Polly" and it sure sounds like Masters of War (which Frissell has recorded a couple of times). Is Masters acknowledged to be based on Pretty Polly? At least one book I have suggests a different old English folk song but I don't have any other recordings of Pretty Polly for comparison.

Whenever I listened to this recording before I've always presumed they were playing Masters but I just now noticed the song title.

[Norm]

Nice to see this thread. As fate would have it, I pulled out my old CD of Blood on the Tracks for the first time in several years about a week ago and was blown away. I picked this up a decade ago, but for some reason it slipped under the radar for several years. The music is great but this is a pretty old copy and the mastering is just aweful.

I just checked Amazon and it appears there are two relatively new re-issues: a regular redbook CD issued in 2004 and a hybrid SACD issued in 2003. Noting that I don't have any SACD player, can anybody advise if either of these sound better than the old issue? Any preference? Both are about the same price in the very reasonable range of $9-$10 New.

[jazzbo]

I have the SACD and the CD layer sounds great. I've never heard the other. . . didn't know there was one.

Get it. One of my very favorite Dylan albums. That and Planet Waves mean a lot to me, nostalgically and on their own merit regardless of time and place.

[medjuck]

I love Blood on the Tracks and like it even better when I substitute the original NY tracks for those done in Minnesota.

[spinlps]

I have the SACD and the CD layer sounds great. I've never heard the other. . . didn't know there was one.

Get it. One of my very favorite Dylan albums. That and Planet Waves mean a lot to me, nostalgically and on their own merit regardless of time and place.

In general, the mastering on the hybrid SACD/CD releases in the digipacks provide a much more involving "performance" to my ears. Love the whole series. Much better than past masterings and even the most recent round of reissues.

[A Lark Ascending]

I'm just listening to Bill Frissell, Ron Carter and Paul Motian play "Pretty Polly" and it sure sounds like Masters of War (which Frissell has recorded a couple of times). Is Masters acknowledged to be based on Pretty Polly? At least one book I have suggests a different old English folk song but I don't have any other recordings of Pretty Polly for comparison.

Whenever I listened to this recording before I've always presumed they were playing Masters but I just now noticed the song title.

On Fairport Convention's 'What We Did On Our Holidays' there's a trad song called 'Nottamun Town' with the same tune as 'Masters of War'. I don't know if Fairport took the song intact from a folk source (I seem to recall a Davy Graham version) or just the words, applying the tune they knew from the Dylan. Though they were Dylan obsessives I suspect the former.

This source suggests Dylan got the tune from 'Nottamun Town':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottamun_Town

The letter from Jean Ritchie to Roger McGuinn here is interesting:

http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp/?p=6932

Edited October 14, 2009 by Bev Stapleton

[WorldB3]

Nice to see this thread. As fate would have it, I pulled out my old CD of Blood on the Tracks for the first time in several years about a week ago and was blown away. I picked this up a decade ago, but for some reason it slipped under the radar for several years. The music is great but this is a pretty old copy and the mastering is just aweful.

Have you ever heard the early acoustic sessions of Blood on the Tracks bootleg titled - Blood on the Tapes?

Well worth searching out. I actually prefer it to the official version.

A couple of these made it on the Biograph box set.

Edited October 14, 2009 by WorldB3

[Norm]

Nice to see this thread. As fate would have it, I pulled out my old CD of Blood on the Tracks for the first time in several years about a week ago and was blown away. I picked this up a decade ago, but for some reason it slipped under the radar for several years. The music is great but this is a pretty old copy and the mastering is just aweful.

Have you ever heard the early acoustic sessions of Blood on the Tracks bootleg titled - Blood on the Tapes?

Well worth searching out. I actually prefer it to the official version.

A couple of these made it on the Biograph box set.

No, I didn't even know such sessions existed. Thanks for pointing these out. Given the responses here, I'll probably first pick up the SACD and then look for these later on. These songs certainly merit it.

[medjuck]

Blood on the Tapes is great but I wouldn't call it acoustic. It has the original NY recordings that were substituted shortly after the Lp was released.

Edited October 14, 2009 by medjuck

[Quincy]

Nice to see this thread. As fate would have it, I pulled out my old CD of Blood on the Tracks for the first time in several years about a week ago and was blown away. I picked this up a decade ago, but for some reason it slipped under the radar for several years. The music is great but this is a pretty old copy and the mastering is just aweful.

Have you ever heard the early acoustic sessions of Blood on the Tracks bootleg titled - Blood on the Tapes?

Well worth searching out. I actually prefer it to the official version.

A couple of these made it on the Biograph box set.

No, I didn't even know such sessions existed. Thanks for pointing these out. Given the responses here, I'll probably first pick up the SACD and then look for these later on. These songs certainly merit it.

Aside from Biograph there are 3 cuts on The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3. The Bootleg Series 1-3 (it comes in one box) is highly worthwhile for what else it includes too. If you're into searching out unofficial releases thru downloads and such look for Blood On The Tapes or something that mentions the New York sessions. Such a collection ends up having 4 (I think) songs that are now official, along with the ones that haven't been officially released.

[WorldB3]

Blood on the Tapes is great but I wouldn't call it acoustic. It has the original NY recordings that were substituted shortly after the Lp was released.

Your correct I didn't see you post above. More of a John Wesley Harding sound though.

The NY sessions can be found on the "internets" for those interested.

[Niko]

On Fairport Convention's 'What We Did On Our Holidays' there's a trad song called 'Nottamun Town' with the same tune as 'Masters of War'. I don't know if Fairport took the song intact from a folk source (I seem to recall a Davy Graham version) or just the words, applying the tune they knew from the Dylan. Though they were Dylan obsessives I suspect the former.

This source suggests Dylan got the tune from 'Nottamun Town':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottamun_Town

The letter from Jean Ritchie to Roger McGuinn here is interesting:

http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp/?p=6932

thanks! fascinating reading... (though i still haven't understood whether nottamun town was forgotten in england until the fifties or whether it coexisted in the UK and the US)

[A Lark Ascending]

thanks! fascinating reading... (though i still haven't understood whether nottamun town was forgotten in england until the fifties or whether it coexisted in the UK and the US)

Probably forgotten, although it might have survived in some form in those area where a 'tradition' still existed. An awful lot of traditional British music was rediscoveded by way of American variants. I think 'Matty Groves', which became a Fairport showpiece, might first have become popular here via Joan Baez.

Subsequently, British folk musicians often sought out manuscripts or broadsides of these songs in the archives and came up with variants; or from older singers who had learnt the songs through their family or community where it had been locked up until interest really grew in the 50s and 60s.

One of the strangest things lies in Irish traditional music, which was largely marginalised by the mid-20thC. It was recordings of emigrant Irish musicians like Michael Coleman in America that kick started the Irish folk revival. I've read lots of accounts by people considered 'traditional' Irish singers and players who talk excitedly about first hearing a piece on a 78 brought back from Chicago or New York.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

recently got Freewheelin and Times they are a changin, Columbia monos, 3 bucks a pop. i was talkinbg to a record friend and told im im gonna pass on these mint stereo Bringing it all back home and Hwy 61 lps cause im gonna hold out for the monos and he just laughed at me....are those real harder to find?

[doneth]

So what do y'all think of the Xmas album?

[jazzbo]

Comments are on the Christmas Album thread Donald: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=54443

Alexander and I like it. Others enjoy making fun of it.

Edited October 23, 2009 by jazzbo

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

just got an orig. Hwy 61 mono, i passed on the mono bringing it all back home cause that was was 20, and Hwy 61 was only 7, but i kinda wanna get Subterrian Homesick Blues on 45rpm anyway....

[mjzee]

I just sprung for this; $13.99 + shipping from our good friends at ImportCDs, through Amazon. Looks like a good compilation of the original recordings of things Bob covered on The Minneapolis Tapes, etc., plus his formative listening experiences:

The Roots of Bob Dylan

[Norm]

Just watched "No Direction Home" for the first time this weekend. As a total Dylan neophyte, I found it extremely informative and well done. I mean, I feel I got a fairly good introduction to the early stage of his career and to the man himself.

Just a little question on chronology. As far as Dylan "going electric" (that's almost become a social meme), can someone clear up when this happened. Was this in '65, when or shortly after he released Highway 61 Revisited? Did it really take the folk-rock world by storm back then?

Not familiar with his catalogue, I always thought of Blood on the Tracks as this major turn in his career but in the past it appears that I conflated that with "Dylan going electric" I guess these were two separate processes. In the film, it seems there's quite a bit of resentment at least in England and I guess among folk artists here about his new approach and performance style. Actually, I found that resentment in the UK a little refreshing. You see, I've always been a little embrassed about how Americans went mad as in crazy over the Beatles and then, after Lenon's J.C. remark, went nuts in a different way, having record burnings and issuing death threats. Seeing that Dylan also received a death threat for incorporating electic musicians into his repertroire in England made me feel that we (as Americans) are not the only insane ones who have to tear down our idols.