Columbia Studio A
New York, New York
6 December 1962
("The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" session)
| 1. | Hero Blues (0:05/2:58/0:00) complete take (CO 77020-1) |
| 2. | Whatcha Gonna Do (0:23/2:05/0:04) complete take (CO 77021-1) |
| 3. | Oxford Town (0:05/1:55/1:58) master take (CO 77022-1) |
| 4. | I Shall Be Free (1:49/0:00/0:00) failed take (CO 77023-1) |
| 5. | I Shall Be Free (0:08/4:51/0:00) faded-out master take (CO 77023-2) |
| 6. | I Shall Be Free (0:04/2:47/0:06) incomplete take (CO 77023-3) |
| 7. | I Shall Be Free (0:06/0:14/4:47) false start (CO 77023-4), followed by faded-out complete take (CO 77023-5) |
| 8. | Hero Blues (3:00) complete take (CO 77020-?) |
New York Town Hall
New York, New York
12 April 1963
| 9. | You've Been Hiding Too Long (0:08/2:18/0:07) |
Columbia Studio A
New York, New York
13 January 1965
("Bringing It All Back Home" session)
| 10. | You Don't Have To Do That (0:05/0:43/0:04) (incomplete take: CO 85280) |
hotel room
Denver, Colorado
13 March 1966
| 11-12. | Positively Van Gogh (10:33) |
| 13. | Just Like A Woman (5:05) |
Columbia Studio B
New York, New York
1 May 1970
(sessions with George Harrison)
| 14. | Gates Of Eden (0:13/4:05/0:03) |
| 15. | I Threw It All Away (0:10/2:32/0:00) |
| 16. | I Don't Believe You (0:00/2:48/0:01) |
| 17. | Las Vegas Blues (0:09/1:36/0:13) |
| 18. | Fishing Blues (0:08/0:23/0:03) (incomplete take) |
| Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (0:02/1:59/0:02) |
total time: 59:03
Something like (a:aa/b:bb/c:cc) in the track list means that b:bb is the duration of the actual song. a:aa and c:cc indicate how much time of the track is due to introductions, tunings etc.
Review by Lonesome Sparrow
The first 8 tracks on this CD are all from the "Freewheelin'" session of 6 December 1962. Among them are two takes that are on the "Freewheelin'" album, "Oxford Town" and "I Shall Be Free". "Oxford Town" has some extra stuff before and after it, that is not on "Freewheelin'", notably Hammond's remark at the song's end, "Don't tell me that's all." "I Shall Be Free" also has some of this stuff before it, but it is faded-out at the same point as on "Freewheelin'". During these session Dylan did several consecutive attempts at recording this song, yielding besides the master take 1 other complete take, and there all on this CD. The alternate complete take has also a fade-out.
There are 2 complete takes of "Hero Blues" on this CD, between which there is very little difference. There were 2 more takes of this song in this session, one complete and the other a false start. Those are not on this CD.
There was 1, complete, take of "Whatcha Gonna Do" in this session. This is the only track on this CD that is also on the CD "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Outtakes".
The session ended with 1, complete, take of "A Hard Rain's A- Gonna Fall", the one that is on "Freewheelin'". It's not on this CD.
The sound quality of "Oxford Town" and "I Shall Be Free" is very close to that of the "Freewheelin'" album, just a tiny bit more of hiss. The other "Freewheelin'" session tracks have the same quality.
The index mark of track 6 is at the beginning of the song, not at the beginning of the stuff that leads up to it, as is the case with the previous tracks. The index mark of track 7 is in the middle of the stuff that leads up to the song.
Track 9 is also on the CDs "You Don't Know Me" and "The Genuine Bootleg Series". According to those CDs and this CD it's from the New York Town Hall concert of 12 April 1963. Paul Williams says in his book "Performing Artist" that Dylan did 15 songs at this concert and he names them all; this song is not among them. Thus far, however, I have seen nobody disputing it's from this concert. The sound quality is considerably less than that of the track from this concert that is on the official "The Bootleg Series", but still very good, though it's even better on "The Genuine Bootleg Series", where this track has less hiss.
Track 10 is an incomplete take of an officially unreleased song, of which there seems to be no complete take. It comes from the "Bringing It All Back Home" sessions and can be found on several unofficial CDs. The sound quality is good.
Tracks 11, 12 and 13 are from the tape that Robert Shelton made of Dylan and Robbie Robertson in a hotel room. You can hear "Positively Van Gogh" being still in the being written stage, for its performance is being stopped and then continued several times, Dylan figuring out how it should be played. Shelton recorded this song on a reel-to-reel tape recorder at a speed of 3 3/4 i.p.s., resulting in bad sound quality, which make it hard to enjoy it. But since it's the only existing recording from this period of this song, it's very interesting, and it's nice that's it complete on this disk. The only other CD I know where it's on is "The Genuine Bootleg Series" and that has less than the half of it. For some reason the last verse of this song has been assigned its own track.
Shelton hadn't brought enough blank tape, so after "Positively Van Gogh" he knocked the speed of the recording down to 1 7/8 i.p.s., resulting in even worse sound quality. The next songs that were played were "Don't Tell Him" and "If You Want My Love", but those are not on this CD. Instead we get "Just Like A Woman", a song that had been recorded 5 days earlier for the "Blonde On Blonde" album and which I don't care to hear in this quality.
The last song from this hotel session, "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands", is also not in this CD.
The last 5 tracks on this CD are from the sessions with George Harrison that were held on 1 May 1970. The CD says they're from a session from May or June 1969. The sound quality is very good, but it looks like they've picked these tracks randomly and not tried to select the highlights from these sessions, for if you would do that, you would we obliged to pick "Song To Woody". All these tracks together with almost all the other circulating tracks from these sessions can be found on the CDs "Possum Belly Overalls" and "Yesterday".
The keeper of the site "Songs For Johanna" rates this CD 3 out of 5 and writes:
"Nothing special here unless you really love "I Shall Be Free". "Positively Van Gogh" is a very good song but too inaudible here and I never really cared for "Hero Blues"."
>Subject: Re: Help With Dylan Boots >From: rcj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Craig Jamieson) >Date: 1995/06/08 >Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan >> 2. 7 Years of Bad Luck- Studio Outtakes > > >Only tracks 2 and 9 were previously available on CD, namely: >Odds & Ends [T-231] and track 2 on The Freewheelin' Bob >Dylan Outtakes [T-304]. > >csmsaxs@mvs.oac.ucla.edu (Arnie Stodolsky): >"Another great compilation of studio outtakes, a live >performance, and a better sounding Denver hotel. Add to that >a terrific packaging and you have an example of what could >be Bootleg Series Volume 4. The color cover has Dylan about >to alight onto that famous Triumph; the back has a color >photograph of him with acoustic guitar in front of a >microphone (can't place this picture [FUQ Steve?]). Inside >has two black & white photographs from '62 & '69 sessions as >bookends to the setlists with their notes including the CO >numbers (when available). The CD itself it silk screened >with a picture of Dylan, thumbs hooked in pockets, striped >shirt, circa 1962. Behind the CD is another color picture, >Dylan with sunglasses, guitar, harmonica holder and dangling >cigarette. Back cover, the track listings. > >The sound quality, overall is excellent, which it should be >given the sources of studio outtakes. The Denver hotel >tracks are better than the circulating tape that I have. The >five takes of I Shall Be Free, (my favorite Dylan 'nonsense' >song) kind of destroys the myth of Dylan walking into a >studio and doing an album of songs in a single session with >a single take of each song. If he put that much effort into >a throw-away, one wonders about the other songs on >Freewheelin'. While the Freewheelin' tracks were known (see >earlier posting to rec.music.dylan this year), the May/June >1969 Nashville studio session was unknown (and uncirculating >within my trading circle). The same goes for the Town Hall >song which doesn't appear on any list that I have. >[Available on CD Odds & Ends [T-231], but for less than a >year when this CD came out.] > >In summary, a lot of new and unknown material, not available >on any other source that I know of (with the exception of >Whatcha Gonna Do, which is on the Bob Dylan Freewheelin >Outtakes CD), excellent sound quality (Denver hotel is OK) >and superior packaging. The perfect companion to the Bob >Dylan Freewheelin Outtakes CD. I will be looking for future >releases from Spank Records." > >The Freewheelin' tracks (1-8) include more of John Hammond's >voice than is the norm on other CDs... "Don't tell me that's >all?" "Yeah, that's all," after Oxford Town (3). "Alright, >let, let, let's get it right, right?" and other dialogue >before I Shall Be Free (4)... > >The Denver hotel tracks (11-13) are recorded at 1 7/8 rather >than 3 3/4 in order to conserve tape, but of course the >sound quality suffered. The sound quality is notably below >the general standard of the disc as a whole. Having said >that the source tape has been 'no-noised' making it less >hissy and trebly than some of the circulating tapes. > >The Nashville tracks (14-18) are of course only a part of >the circulating Nashville tape. > >Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (18) opens with some >interesting "I'm a goin' fishin', you're a goin' fishin' I'm >a goin' fishin' too" oddness. Poor boy has too many lyrics >to remember ;-). Fishing Blues by the Holy Modal Rounders, >yes? > >This CD may be a very odd compilation of songs and dates, >but it works rather well, somewhat unexpectedly. > >Oxford Town (3) finds it's way onto Hammersmith Highlights >[T-293], unmarked in the listings there!