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

Dylan’s farmhouse in Minnesota.

 

That's what I thought Percy Song was going to say.

 

It’s the correct answer no matter who says it.

 

Sure. No offense. Many thanks.

 

No worries. No offence taken.

I don’t post much in the Dylan threads, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know my shiz.

 

In the meantime, we've got this from Japan...
Live: 1962- 1966 [Blu-spec CD2] Bob Dylan CD Album

 

Dedicated thread here:

Bob Dylan Live 1962 - 1966 (Sony Japan)

 

Still hoping BS 14 is a a big blood-red box. Here is a mash-up of verses from the opening song, from one page of one of the notebooks:-



#

 

Personally I think it will be complete. After the cutting edge/ 1966 live box/ and basement tapes, whatever dylan and co. Come up with will be complete. Like those other sets one booklet will hold the cds with another booklet for photos essays and memorabilia.
The gospel era is not as well liked so that is why that set got curated the way it did. My personal opinion of course.
Just hope they avoid the pricing debacle of big blue. That was almost as much as my rent.

 

I am now inclined to believe it will be BOTT only and that the Scorsese doc / RTR has been delayed and will come in 2019.
BOTT only means the complete sessions. And a 2CD best of outtakes. Which will be 3 or 4 LPs as well.
Gaslight could be a bd.com exclusive to this set, but hopefully a stand alone earlier.

All speculation of course

 

I do hope you're right. I want the title to be simply: "The Bootleg Series Vol. 14. Blood on the Tracks : The Complete Sessions".

The "complete" bit will always be contentious. How much banter? How many false starts? Frankly, my expectations are low when it comes to these, given that it won't be a copyright collection if it is released this year. But surely we can't be denied every complete take?

Of course, there is the issue with the missing tapes which was one reason given previously for the delay. I can't remember which tapes were missing - presumably some from the Sound 80 sessions in Minnesota. Were they ever found, I wonder?

 

Has anyone asked David Zimmerman?

 

I’ve been wanting to ask this question for the longest time. Do you think the missing tapes account for this set not coming out sooner?

 

I’m struggling to see the link between BOTT and Gaslight. They just don’t fit together. My guess is it that Gaslight gets its own release- either Black Friday or beyond.

 

This is amazing. Do you have any more of these pages? I mentioned earlier in the thread that I was hoping the box will include the original handwritten lyrics, as I want a tattoo of "Tangled Up In Blue" in Bob's hand. This page seems to be just the type of thing I'm looking for, except the title phrase seems to be absent from this draft!

Incidentally, I note that he writes "We just saw it from a different point of blue" - maybe it was playing around with the word "blue" that eventually gave him the idea for the title!

 

I'm not convinced that there will be a 2CD best-of edition for a BOTT Bootleg Series if there is a big box containing the complete sessions. Although there were multiple takes, as documented by Krogsgaard, we know of only 12 original songs that were attempted at the sessions. It stands to reason, therefore, that even a modestly-filled 2CD set would likely have to contain two takes (or perhaps more) of each song. The 2CD versions of the other big sets in the BS series have been carefully curated to mostly avoid multiple takes of the same song. I'd posit that an edition released for general consumption rather than the fanatics among us, would be less appealing if there are multiple takes of the same songs.

Better perhaps, therefore, to consider releasing a single CD of an alternative "Blood on the Tracks". A "Blood On The Tracks - Naked", if you like, or "Another Blood On The Tracks" containing complete alternate takes, in order, and with an alternative "Up To Me" and an alternative "Call Letter Blues" tacked on at the end. This configuration might reignite interest in the original album (= increased sales) and also generate interest in the deluxe edition from those who normally only buy the smaller edition (= increased sales). Obviously, I'll buy both because I'm ever so slightly mad...

Or, thinking aloud and on the hoof here, there could be a single CD set as described above, and 2CD set containing the single CD version coupled with a unique (i.e. not included in the deluxe set) CD of the master takes at the correct speed, a la the half-speed mastered LP. This configuration would ensure maximum sales of the deluxe edition, the 2CD edition and the regular single CD edition.

There is a sort-of precedent in BS Vol.8 which had a single CD edition as well as the 2CD and 3CD versions, although it's fair to say that there was no unique music on either the single CD or 2CD sets.

#

 

I think the obvious 2CD version would be the withdrawn NY album on one disc, outtakes on the other.

 

Waaaaaay too logical.....

 

Well, to be fair, there was no specific link between "Brandeis" and BS Vol. 9 or The Original Mono Recordings, but it was given away with both those titles.

Richard Alderson did mention that the BOTT NY sessions were going to be released. I wonder now why he would have that information, and transmit it, if the release of his baby, "Dylan at the Gaslight", was not somehow linked to a BOTT release. Could we be in for another Sandbag-ing in November (as with BS Vol. 13 last year), with "Dylan at the Gaslight" only available from the website as a so-called freebie with the deluxe edition of BS Vol.14?

I'm still thinking (hoping) there's time for "Dylan at the Gaslight" to be released this summer. If Richard's book is ready to publish by then.

 

A bit of an update on Gaslight. On Alderson’s Facebook page, in response to a question about if there were any previously uncirculated performances included on the upcoming set: “The Gaslight tapes are coming on Sony. The same songs as on the complete bootlegs, but in amazing pristine sound.”

It’s a slight disappointment (though expected) to get confirmation there won’t be anything previously unheard, but I’m very glad to hear the set is not limited to the tracks that were included on the Starbucks CD. I hadn’t completely dismissed the possibility this was just a remastered, general retail release of that previous set. The inclusion of “Black Cross” in particular seemed questionable due to its language, but that no longer seems to be the case.

 

Nope, that's pretty much it until the box comes our way, I think, unless someone else knows differently.

I recall Clinton saying somewhere that "Simple Twist of Fate" was subtitled "4th Street Affair" in the notebook.

 

That's a shame, but thanks for letting me know! May I ask where you got this one?

I found this list of all the notebooks/manuscripts in the possession of the Dylan Archive:

http://bobdylanarchive.com/wp-conte...lan-archive-public-finding-aid-2017-11-04.pdf

It seems there were a number of drafts of Tangled. I'm hoping at least one will be featured in the forthcoming box.

 

Yes, and possibly (more) about Suze Rotolo (according to Heylin).

I have been wondering lately just how many (or few) of the BOTT songs are about Sara...

 

Pure speculation here like everyone else but a few thoughts on the upcoming release.

One of the great virtues of the original BOTT is the perfection of its concept and execution, where every song is a gem and the whole greater than the sum of its parts. I’m wondering whether that potentially presents a problem which the BS team hasn’t faced before. Unlike say Self Portrait, or the Gospel albums where the purpose of the BS version was wholesale reappraisal, or BS 4 5and 6 where the periods were simply uncovered, the original here is a widely acknowledged, irreducible masterpiece, up there with the greatest art of the C20th, and that makes the task in some ways harder. Columbia/ Sony will have to make sure that what they issue enhances rather than dilutes the original. Admittedly, 65-66 and The Cutting Edge presented a similar dilemma/ opportunity, but that involved three albums worth of alternates and outtakes not one, so the multiple versions and massive coverage felt justified.

Despite all the enthusiasm here for every note played on every outtake, I’m personally finding it hard to get my head around a multi disk set with so few songs on it, however different the multiple versions might be - especially when BS 11, 12 and 13 covered such a vast array of material and showcased such enormous creative output over their chosen periods. With a multi disc box of all available takes and outtakes you’re still looking at a maximum of probably no more than 12 songs – the ten on BOTT plus Call Letter Blues and Up to Me (excluding any we don’t know yet know about of course.) Agreed these are amongst the greatest songs ever written and performed - but the Dylan camp would have to market it exclusively on that concept and much as I’d like to hear all of it I personally think that approach runs the risk of overkill.

I’m also finding it hard to imagine Columbia / Sony seeing great commercial potential in a large multi disk set such as I’ve just described - unless they’re about to redefine the Bootleg Series yet again and skew it away from broadly commercial versions of alternative history towards the seriously academic/ fanatical.

So I’m going to go out on a limb and against the grain and revert to the earlier BOTT plus Rolling Thunder concept, taking as its central concept the BOTT songs and their development in studio and on stage as the cornerstone of Dylan’s 70’s creative renaissance - which still makes most sense to me. In which case the various versions could look something like this.

BS 14 Blood and Thunder
Discs One and Two
A full alternate BOTT utilizing multiple takes from both sessions including some, - hopefully lots- of renditions that we haven’t heard before including perhaps one or more unknown songs. There would inevitably be some, but not masses of song duplication here. This would be the equivalent of Discs One and Two on Trouble No more and thus also be issued as the smaller, 2 disc version of BS 14.

The Deluxe package would then go on to include.
Disc 3
The original BOTT remastered at the correct speed – precedent for this would be the re-master of the original Self Portrait as disc 4 of BS 10.

Discs 4 and 5 (equivalent to discs 3 and 4 of Trouble)
A possible grab bag of Desire outtakes, rehearsals for Rolling Thunder 1 and 2 (eg the Lily Rosemary rehearsal duet with Baez that surfaced briefly last year), the remainder of the essential BOTT recordings from both NY and Minnesota sessions for the serious fans and perhaps select soundboards/ 24 track recordings of previously unissued RT songs from both legs, especially those relating to BOTT material eg: You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome, Tangled from Fort Collins and (please God) Lilly Rosemary from Salt Lake City or others BOTT renditions we haven’t heard yet from sound-checks or rehearsals.

Discs 6 7, 8 and 9
2 RTR concerts one each from 75 and 76 - perhaps Montreal from 75 and Fort Collins complete or Salt Lake City from 76. (The inclusion of 75 material to my mind is the thing that most strongly derails the BOTT concept at the heart of this BS. Maybe that plus replication of BS 5 argues for its exclusion in favour of a complete box set like 66 live next year But that doesn’t apply to 76 which is more BOTT reliant. )

Discs 10 (and maybe 11) –
The Scorsese RTR documentary which would also be on sale separately, I’m guessing.

If the above is completely wrong then I guess one has to separate BOTT from RTR completely as many here would prefer. But I still find it hard to imagine a pure BOTT BS that runs to more than 4 or 5 discs, which puts it at odds with the recent multi disc releases. Then again, perhaps Columbia will make that call in this case and delay RTR in all its possible incarnations to next year.

 

One verse of the (as far as we currently know) unrecorded “Bell Tower Blues” appeared in the 2004 edition of Lyrics (page 31o). Anyone in a position to reproduce and post it here?