Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks (2 Nov 2018)*

Yes, engineer Phil Ramone said it was sped up accidentally (by about 2–3%). The Mastersound LP version from the early 1980s is the only official version that plays at the correct speed.

 

Really? I never heard it said that it was an accident, but rather that Dylan (or someone) thought it worked better that way.

 

Ideally speaking, I would like the box to be similar size-wise to the '66 Tour box rather than The Cutting Edge box. I think we could all use some affordability. Plus, I'd like to be able to put it in my CD shelves rather than in a separate place for my oversized box sets.

 

I hope it’s a 5-6 LP set.

 

sorry if its a silly question, but how would one spot this pressing.

 

It says half speed mastered on the top in a light blue bubble with white letters. I think there’s two on discogs right now.

 

I'll have to pass at that price

 

It also floats around the underworld as ones and zeros, for those currently unmillionaired.

 

Yeah that is considerably more than I just paid for it.

 

Having taken a good look at my bank account balance, I like this one a lot although I think I'd lose the live component and be happy to wait for the Rolling Thunder box(es) for that. Like you, I'm realistic enough to be virtually certain that Big Red Complete won't happen.

I've been skimming through various books and articles this last week or so trying to figure out what might be included and I'm struck by the differing accounts of the New York sessions. The Larry Sloman piece, published in Rolling Stone in November 1974, mentions a solo session prior to the players arriving at 6 p.m.:-

"Dylan had been recording alone for a few hours. He played back those songs but then wanted to do some new ones, and Deliverance was forced to pick up the tunes cold."

Clinton picks up on this snippet and runs with it in his books indicating that the tapes and information for this mystery afternoon solo session were "mislaid" by Columbia. He speculates (or hopes) that Bob might have tried out songs that appear in his notebook at this time:-

"There Ain't Gonna Be A Next Time"
"Bell Tower Blues"
"Where Do You Turn"
"It's Breaking Me Up"
"Don't Want No Married Woman"
"Ain't It Funny"
"Little Bit Of Rain"

There doesn't appear to be any corroborating evidence for this "rumoured" mystery session. It isn't mentioned in Gill's book "A Simple Twist of Fate", and Glenn Berger, in his BOTT chapter, doesn't indicate that anything happened at A&R Studios prior to the session players arriving and the setting up of microphones and whatnot for the 6 p.m. start in Studio A-1. If there was something solo going on, say in the smaller A-2 studio, before anyone else arrived, I don't believe Phil ever mentioned it.

Nonetheless, Larry Sloman got his information from somewhere and his report is contemporary. Contemporary reports can often be more valuable than half- or not-remembered stories years after the fact.....

In the same article, for example, Larry describes the scene: "It looked like old times at Columbia's A&R Studio September 16th. John Hammond Sr. was there, Phil Ramone was working the board. Eric Weissberg and Barry Kornfeld, two old Gaslight regulars, were unpacking their guitars."

In "A Simple Twist of Fate" we have the statement: "Although some published versions of a purported studio cue sheet also listed Barry Kornfeld on guitar, he was not in attendance and did not play on "Blood on the Tracks" with Eric Weissberg's group." End of statement. (Barry does seem to have been paid, though!)

More recently (2014) we have a "source" telling Rolling Stone: "During the first couple of days in New York, Bob played the songs solo on acoustic guitar. They're very different than anything that's been heard before and they're very special."

This statement isn't necessarily alluding to a mystery session prior to the players arriving; this could just be describing the first takes of each song during which, according to Weissberg, "We scrambled for papers and pencils to try and scribble down the changes and the road map, etc."

So, in summary, if we are not going to get a "Big Red" concept as described by @matt79rome89 then CD 1 for me would be all the (apparently) solo performances from across the New York sessions, in the order they were performed.

 

Something interesting came up today on Spotify (sorry for using spotify). I was listening to Up To Me from Side Tracks and the title changed and showed that it’s take 2 remake 3. It never used to say that. I wonder if this has anything to do with the new set. It's similar to the info written next to the tracks from the Cutting Edge set.

 

Very interesting indeed. Good eye!

 

Pulling up "Side Tracks" on Amazon, it has the same information, and also lists "You're a Big Girl Now" as "Take 2, Remake". I don't own "Side Tracks". Can anyone who does see if this information is contained in the packaging?

 

The Side Tracks from the Complete Albums box set does not contain that verbiage. It just says it's an outtake from Blood on the Tracks.

 

As noted above.

 

This is a VERY good sign...

 

What does "Remake" mean?

 

To make again.

 

It means the same thing as "Alcatraz to the 9nth Power".

 

Just to to be comprehensive, this same verbiage is used on the 3LP set as well. I suspect this "re-tagging" all but guarantees a Blood On The Tracks Bootleg Series is forthcoming.

 

Seems like wishful thinking to me that all of those 'unknown' songs were recorded...

FWIW, If You See Her, Say Hello was the first thing recorded according to Bjorner's session listing. And that is solo acoustic (no bass, released on BS 1-3). So I'd say that the first part of that session might be the solo stuff.

EDIT: Plus there's 'Lily' also recorded early in that first session which sounds like it has no bass on it.

So I think the 'solo stuff' is probably already accounted for. Then again, wasn't there a reference a while ago that a version of Spanish Is The Loving Tongue was recorded at the BOTT sessions? Or was that a mistake?

 

That is so cool, great find. I can't imagine a better way of learning about the forthcoming box set. This is it. I think the box will be extensive, if not exhaustive. I am a true believer...with my fingers crossed.

 

I posted this over in Expecting Rain and it's doubtful that this is a definitive sign as Live 1975 was also properly tagged recently with specific dates. However, it could be a Blood/Thunder box which would be monumental and huge wealth of Dylan material for the year 2018.

You're a Big Girl Now also says Take 2, Remake.

We shall see.

 

I think it goes something like this:

In Bob's recording career with Columbia it often means that a song which was recorded at an earlier session is tried again but is given a new CO number.

In the case of "Up To Me", it was recorded in a single complete take (probably solo) on 16 September. That was Take 1 Complete (according to Krogsgaard).

Then, on 19 September there was an incomplete take. As this was a new day, it was logged as "Take 1 Incomplete". This was followed by 2 complete takes and then, later in the day, two more takes, the last of which is the "Biograph" / "Sidetracks" version. In this way, we can define the officially released "Up To Me" as Take 2, Remake 3.

This is very good news and points to a not-insignificant Box of Blood, I think...

 

It usually means that a song was attempted, but then other songs were tried before the original song was revisited.

In some cases, the studio engineers would just continue on with the take numbers, picking them up where they were left off. If they didn't feel like getting the take number, or if it was different day, or a fresh arrangement, they'd refer to the next take as "Remake, Take 1".