A Wrinkly Old rec.music.dylan Regular
Many people ask for a top ten of rare Dylan CDs, but it
really depends on your tastes and interests, my top ten may
include nothing of interest to you...
At the moment I might choose the following in order of
importance:
1. Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix / Bob Dylan [&
The Hawks] [17 May 1966]
2 CDs
[Scorpio], 51766A, 51766E, 1995
Matrix: GZ GB 1633 SIAE: 51766A, GZ GB 1632 SIAE: 51766E
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England, 17 May 1966. [151]
Between a rather vicious Tell Me Mama (8) and I Don't
Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) (9) the
harmonica begins and Dylan says, "This is called I Don't
Believe You. It used to be like that and now it goes like
this". He stamps his foot four times and the harmonica and
the Hawks "come in with the sort of immediacy you get from
tipping a whole table full of crockery and cutlery into the
sink all at once." - Paul Cable (1978).
Between Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (12) and One Too Many
Mornings (13) some of the audience follows the shouting with
slow hand clapping, Dylan mumbles into the microphone what
in retrospect are clearly nonsense words and syllables, the
clapping abates to catch the uncatchable words, and he
continues, "...if you only just wouldn't clap so hard.
[Cheers, clapping]"
Oldham Evening Chronicle - 25 May 1966: "So the knockers
are all stations go again. I am referring to the fantastic
performance given by Bob Dylan at the Free Trade Hall last
Tuesday night... I think Bob put his feelings over to the
knockers just great. When someone shouted out to him
'Judas!', he just calmly went to the microphone and quietly
drawled 'Ya liar'..."
Between Ballad Of A Thin Man (14) and Like A Rolling Stone
(15) lies this famous incident where a member of the audience
yells out "Judas!". Applause and other shouts ["...sing
Dylan songs?" and the like] are heard. Dylan responds, "I
don't believe you... You're a LIAR... [Robbie Robertson
says, "Quit talking Bob." but not audibly on the tape] Dylan
turns away from his mike to face the drummer Mickey Jones
and says, "Get fucking loud!" followed by a wall-of-sound
no-holds-barred crashing-cymbals rendition of Like A Rolling
Stone.
After Like A Rolling Stone (15) we hear a very Dylanesque
"Thank you." Hmmmm. Well some say he makes it sound more
like "Fuck you" but I can assure you the word is "Thank"
whatever the intention...
2. F*** The Playlist : Brixton II / Bob Dylan [29-30 March
1995]
2 CDs
Sterling Sounds, SSCD - BD01, SSCD - BD02, [1995]
The Thursday 30 March 1995 concert is held to be Bob Dylan's
best of 1995 by some. Sterling Sounds have the best quality
CD but much stock was lost by them at the 1995 Glastonbury
Fair...
3. Folksingers Choice / Bob Dylan with Cynthia Gooding [11
March 1962]
Yellow Dog Records, YD017, 1992
Made in Hungary
Artisjus
Matrix: YD 017
Probably the most interesting boot CD to ever surface,
because it was unexpected and because the quality is so
high. A complete one hour radio program in excellent
quality! The conversation and the songs are each given
individual track numbers so a CD player can be programmed to
play it as is, just songs, or just conversation. Very nice
touch indeed!
4. Manchester Prayer / Bob Dylan [and the Hawks] [17-27 May
1966]
The Swingin' Pig, TSP-CD-054, 1990
Matrix: TSPCD 054 01
This CD, together with Royal Albert Hall 1966 [T-121],
provide all the tracks on a complete set list of a 1966
show, though of course not one specific 1966 show.
5. The Genuine Basement Tapes Vols 1-5 / Bob Dylan [and The
Band] [1967]
Vol 1 BD 200 2
Vol 2 BD 200 3
Vol 3 BD-SC-1900
Vol 4 BD-SC-80-07
Vol 5 BD-SC-80-06
[Scorpio, 1992]
BUT buy After the Crash Vol. 1 [Stereo] [T-258] instead of
The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol 3 [Mono] [T-222]!!!
Essential Dylan. Absolutely essential. Dylan with his guard
down...
6. Live, Finjan Club, Montreal, Canada, July 2, 1962 / Bob
Dylan [2 July 1962]
Back insert title: Bob Dylan Live / Finjan Club, Montreal,
Quebec, Canada, July 2, 1962
Disc title: Bob Dylan Finjan Club, Montreal, July 2, 1962
Yellow Dog Records, YD 010, 1991
Luxembourg
Matrix: MULTI MEDIA MASTERS SWITZERLAND YD010 MIKULSKI
Jack Nissenson, an early admirer of Dylan had the foresight
to record this performance at the Finjan Club, Montreal, in
July 1962.
A decent copy of the Finjan Club tape, complete on CD, the
recording is continuous which gives the atmosphere of the
club rather well. This one is strikingly better then other
discs of the same material. [T-144/145, T-103, T-168/169, T-
170, T-322]
7. Now's The Time For Your Tears / Bob Dylan [7 May 1965]
Wanted Man Music, WMM 061, 1995
Manufactured in Germany
Monada
OSA
Matrix: WMM 61
There is perhaps no better bootleg available then this
one. This could easily be a commercial release. The CD
provides the complete concert with the exception of the
opening lines of Talkin' World War III Blues (8). This is
one of the last recordings of a purely acoustic live Bob
Dylan concert...
[Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears (The Swingin' Pig, TSP-
CD-057, 1990, Matrix: TSPCD 057 03) was always criticised
because it was digitally 'no noised' so here it is free of
that undesirable process.]
8. Talking Too Much / Bob Dylan [12 April - 26 October 1963]
Live in New York, 1963
World Production Of Compact Music, WPOCM 0888 D 003-2, 1988
Made in Austria by Koch-Digitaldisc
Matrix: Made by Koch 032.033.000.032.8
[= vinyl boot LP: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (TAKRL
1952 [1974])]
This CD corresponds to the unreleased 1963 live album
planned by Columbia: Bob Dylan In Concert (Col. CL-2302, CS-
9102). The boot is taken from the acetate produced for that
project.
[As the CD Bob Dylan In Concert (Capricorn Records, CR-2025,
1994) uses the cover of the unreleased 1963 live album
planned by Columbia: Bob Dylan In Concert (Col. CL-2302, CS-
9102) [062] you might expect it to be a CD of that album.
Especially as it uses those numbers -- Col. CL-2302 CS-9102-
- on the insert and on the spine. It is not!]
9. Songs That Made Him Famous / Bob Dylan [October 1962 - 27
March 1965]
Tuff Bites, T.B. 95.1012, 1995
Fabrique en Luxembourg
Bar code: 5 450222 950129
Matrix: DURECO [01] TB 95.1012
The Santa Monica (1-12) concert omits the fragment of The
Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll [11] but is otherwise a
complete copy of the incomplete circulating tape of the
concert. (Disc 2 of the 1965 Revisited [GDR9419] CD of the
concert includes it.) The authenticity of the recording is
stunning, but it is clearly an amateur recording with
tapers' interjections, splices, varying levels and more...
A record of the concert is wonderful to have, but as well
this must be the best tape for capturing the excitement of
the tapers too! It is difficult to make out all that they
say but we hear them during To Ramona (1) ([indecipherable
conspiratorial whispering] ...this is the actual recording,
...can you?); at the end of Gates Of Eden (2) (I can't tell
you, it's jumping [referring to the input level meter during
applause?], Hey man, this is fascinating.); It's Alright Ma
(I'm Only Bleeding) (4) (I want a flashlight darn it, one
look at a flashlight is all I need, I don't even know if
that's turned on yet, no, it is, you see what I... Jack, got
a match? Give me it. [and you can hear the matchbox]); Mr.
Tambourine Man (6) (These are all new songs.), the beginning
of Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (7) (Oh wow! Yay!!!),
before With God On Our Side (8) (What's he playin'?), It
Ain't Me Babe (10) ([indecipherable whispering]), It's All
Over Now, Baby Blue (12) (You wanna come backstage
afterwards? Jack's going backstage, so I guess you'll have
to. I'd be scared. You'd be scared? Are you kidding?
...backstage. Yeah... Gee I wonder if the songs are on the
record?). The audience is also alert and laughs in the right
places, they seem to catch every word and the songs are
fresh enough to surprise (If You Gotta Go, Go Now (3): "It's
just that I ain't got no watch, and you keep asking me what
time it is [audience laughter]" and many other points, they
clearly connect with the ribald thinly disguised excuses in
the song; It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) (4): That
somebody thinks, They really found you [taper laughs]; Love
Minus Zero/No Limit (5): "draw conclusions [pause] on the
wall [audience laughter]"); Don't Think Twice, It's All
Right (7): "Look out your window and I'll be gone [taper
laughs]"; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (12) "The empty-
handed painter from your streets, Is drawing crazy patterns
on your sheets [audience laughter]. At the end of If You
Gotta Go, Go Now (3) Bob Dylan says, "That was called Gates
of Eden. [laughter at intentional wrong name] Taper: "Wish I
had a flashlight". Dylan: "This is called It's Alright Ma
(I'm Only Bleeding). Taper: "Oh! Yayyyyy!!!! We heard this
one on a show, you know." Dylan: It's Alright Ma (I'm Only
Bleeding), ho, ho ho. [audience laughter]." At the end of
that song he introduces the next with, "...this song is Love
Minus Zero, uh, slash, over No Limit, end of quote, it's
kind of like a painting, the title, painted in purple." And
the wildly overdone hamming of All I Really Want To Do (11)
gets a great audience reaction.
10. The Dylan's Roots / Bob Dylan [1961]
Front cover of front insert title: The Dylan's Root
Skeleton, SKCD 1001, 1990
Made in Italy
Matrix: SKCD 1001 PHC 14
A nicely organized CD with two complete recordings of '61
Dylan tapes. The sound is very good overall, and better on
the East Orange cuts then the New York cuts.
Essential. Wise to have something early in order to
understand later Dylan...
8. The First Supper /Bob Dylan [16 November 1993]
2. Melbourne / Bob Dylan [1966]
10. Peco's Blues / Bob Dylan [1973]
Pledging My Time / Bob Dylan [1995]
