You're not wrong, but there are some other factors. First of all, I believe the "electric era" has a critical and commercial potential that the earlier "copyright extension" material lacked. So it wasn't as imperative to delay ASP over a '63 set, for example. Also, after we get through the '65/'66 stuff, there is very little known vault material up until Dylan starts touring again in '74 (we're nine years before that becomes an issue, assuming European copyright law doesn't change before that). The Dylan/Cash sessions will be an issue, as will the Pat Garrett stuff but I'd be surprised if Dylan's office is losing too much sleep over it. (I'm particularly looking forward to the still unheard New Morning sessions covers finally falling into circulation.) Some odds and ends, but nothing that I could imagine dictating future decisions about the Bootleg Series. I can't deny it will be "fun" once we get beyond the obvious stuff like '65/'66 or BOOT (which isn't threatened by imminent loss of copyright, but has been postponed three times now!). At that point I think Dylan's folks will have much more leeway in what they choose to release.
Actually, if these forthcoming collections mop up 1965 and 1966, and 1967 was already covered by the Basement Tapes release (and the apparent absence of material relating to John Wesley Harding), then it will be a few years before copyright expiration places any particular pressure on the Bootleg Series, so 13 could be Blood on the Tracks' lucky number after all. After that, unless there are some hitherto unsuspected riches associated with Nashville Skyline, Dylan and his folk could have several years of free reign . I doubt they're going to do Self Portrait / New Morning a second time, and things go pretty quiet after that. EDIT: I see Dee snuck in and said basically the same thing before I finished writing this post!
I guess the same kind of "logic" plays into why he puts aside some of his best work, like Blind Willie McTell. Either there is some very good explanation for it, or there is no explanation at all. Guess we'll have to keep on guessing...
Don't worry, from now on they will just have to release at least two each year. This year we will get a 66 set and an 83 set, next year a 67 set and an 92 set, it's all good. And God - or whoever he believes in nowadays - knows there should be enough material to actually do this. [Don't quote me on any of this].
Oh, but there was a plan. It took me a while to realize it (and who knows, maybe it's just coincidence) but Chronicles is about beginnings. There's the beginning of Dylan's career, then there's the New Morning period which was a new beginning after the "amnesia", and finally, there's Oh Mercy. That chapter starts with Bob saying how, after the 1986 tour, he felt like "an empty burned-out wreck" and that he was planning to retire. And then goes on to chronicle how he came out of that feeling and got back the connection to his art. Yet another new beginning. Looking forward to any new Bootleg Series (though I was hoping for BOTT...).
Anyone think that the overdub session that Tom Wilson oversaw in December of '64 (perhaps without Dylan's knowledge) to add electric instrumentation to previously recorded tracks ("Mixed Up Confusion;" "Rocks And Gravel;" "House Of The Rising Sun;" "Corrina Corrina") will be represented on this set, despite falling slightly out of the rumored date range of this set? Back when the electric "House of The Rising Sun" was released on the H61 CD-ROM, it was treated as a big event (as I recall, it was presented as a genuine example of "Dylan going Electric!" in 1962"--which it clearly wasn't).
I think that would be a really interesting angle for a comprehensive set to explore. And let's not forget that those copyright protection releases were copyright protection releases: the whole point of them was to secure copyright on those recordings so they could enjoy possible subsequent commercial release. This sounds like a great opportunity to exercise the right they went to such trouble to secure.
Heylin lumped in the '64 overdubs with the Bringing It All Back Home sessions, but I'm not sure they belong there, and as you say, I'm not sure how involved Dylan was with this strange project. For the sake of posterity, I hope they do come out on one of the Bootleg Series releases. I was gonna post this another thread, but I'll put it here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- POSSIBLE DYLAN SINGLE?: HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN House of the Rising Sun by the Animals became a #1 hit in both the U.K. and U.S. in the summer of 1964; the group's lead singer, Eric Burdon, would later "refute" the notion that they based their "electric" version of the old American folk song on Dylan's earlier recording, and claimed that they first heard the song from a British performer named Johnny Handle; Dylan himself had borrowed the arrangement from his friend, singer Dave Van Ronk, who reportedly wasn't pleased that Bob had recorded it for his first album. In December of 1964, several months after the Animals single topped the charts, Columbia producer Tom Wilson assembled session musicians to add overdubs to Dylan's original solo version of House of the Rising Sun, the same basic arrangement of which had been used by The Animals; Wilson also selected outtake versions of Rocks and Gravel, Corrina, Corrina and Mixed Up Confusion, which had all been recorded by Dylan with backup musicians in 1962, for additional overdubs. Columbia may have planned to release these reworked tracks as singles, or possibly as an E.P.; none of them were issued commercially, although House of the Rising Sun was later included as a bonus track on the Highway 61 Interactive CD-ROM, and one of the versions of Rocks and Gravel eventually surfaced in an episode of True Detective on the HBO cable network; acetate copies of several of the overdubbed tracks (along with two takes of That's All Right Mama from the 1962 "band" sessions) first came into circulation among collectors in the early 1980s. In mid-1965, Tom Wilson would add overdubbed backing vocalists onto Dylan's studio version of If You Gotta Go, Go Now (which was finally released as a single in 1967, but only in Europe), and the producer also added backing musicians to Simon & Garfunkel's acoustic version of Sounds of Silence, which became a huge hit single by the end of 1965. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
@HominyRhodes I was just gonna mention the True Detective connection. I think that alone is an indication that something could happen with these tracks. They are certainly a novelty, but in such a small quantity, they could be fun.
I remember watching that episode, in a bar scene, IIRC, and thinking "Naw, is that Dylan playing in the background? Wow."
I knew it was Dylan when I heard it on the show but didn't know it was a rarity! That show was damn good.
A COMPLETELY IMAGINARY tracklisting. Just for the fun of seeing what such a set COULD look like (including the inevitable non-chronological sequencing and a few frustrating omissions): Disc One Brand New Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat (unreleased early version) Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream (acoustic) Positively 4th Street (alternate version) I Still Miss Someone (Hotel Tape) Like A Rolling Stone (alternate version) I Want To Be Your Partner Visions of Johanna (alternate ’66 studio version) What Kind of Friend is This (Hotel Tape) I’ll Keep It With Mine (’66 version) Long Distance Operator (live '65) Rocks And Gravel (electric) Can You Crawl Out Of Your Window (misspressing version) California It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry (early version) From A Buick 6 (mispressing version) One Of Us Must Know (early version) On The Road Again (acoustic) She’s Your Lover Now (solo version) Keep It With Mine (instrumental) DISC TWO I Want To Be Your Lover (alternate version) Tell Me Mama (live, Sheffield) Just Like A Woman (early version) If You Want To Go, Go Now (alternate version) Medicine Sunday I Can’t Leave Her Behind/Does She Need Me (On A Rainy Afternoon) (hotel tape) The Painting By Van Gogh House Of The Rising Sun (electric version) Number One (instrumental) Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands (alternate version) Outlaw Blues (Itunes version) Farewell Angelina (alternate version) Love Minus Zero/No Limit (acoustic) I Want You (early version) Desolation Row (NDH version) Co 86449 (Hat Full Of Gasoline) She’s Your Lover Now (Alternate Hawks version) Like A Rolling Stone (Live Royal Albert Hall w/band intro)
I wish... this looks great. Disc 1 track 12 is my go to version. Absolutely love it! This version has to make the album or I'm am pissed.
To clarify: #16. Co 86449 (Hat Full Of Gasoline) = Why Do You Have to Be So Frantic - right? It's a great list you've prepared, BUT...I still don't think that the overdubbed version of House of the Rising Sun (or any of the other O.D.'d tracks) belong on a '65-'66 collection, simply because Dylan's original performances were done during the Freewheelin' sessions two years earlier. I still hope that they're planning on giving the earlier Copyright Extension sets a wider commercial release. If they don't, then at the very least I'd like to see some, or even ALL, of Dylan's performances with the backing group, i.e. Mixed-Up Confusion, Corrina, Corrina, Rocks and Gravel, That's All Right Mama, and the overdubbed House of the Rising Sun, released in a separate package, possibly even as a Records Store Day limited edition. (I would like to have ALL the takes of those songs, even Mixed Up Confusion, but I would settle for a representative sampling of just a couple versions.) ALSO: It's odd, but bjorner.com seems to have removed the info for Tom Wilson's overdub session in December 1964, where some of those tracks were modified. What's going on?? http://www.bjorner.com/DSN00630 (64).htm
Yep. CO 86449 also sometimes goes under the name "Lunatic Princess Revisited" (not to be confused with "Lunatic Princess," the working title of "From A Buick 6"). But I like the Hat Full of Gasoline title best, so I went with that. You're certainly right that the overdubbed tracks don't seem to belong on this set (though we've seen the BS team fudge chronology before, such as including the "Minstrel Boy" Basement Tape on ASP), especially if they think it helps "tell the story," which this session arguably could. Frankly, I'd much rather devote the space to more genuine outtakes from this era. But it's at least *plausible* they could used, and I wanted my track listing to draw from a wide-range of potential material. And since the actual set will no doubt include a few selections that annoy me, I might as well build that into my own speculative track listing too! To be clear, it was NOT meant as my IDEAL 2CD set (though I wasn't shy about including many personal favorites). If you can't find 'em on Bjorner's site, you can access the original Krogsgaard here: http://www.punkhart.com/dylan/sessions.html
I like Hat Full of Gasoline, too, much more evocative. And it goes with "handful of rain." And I agree with your excellent point that the compilers of the Bootleg Series often overstep their supposed boundaries (Minstrel Boy was one thing, but the Dylan-Happy Traum outtake should have been saved for another edition.) I still think they should hire some of us here at the SH Forums to maximize the excellence of the set. I'll be happy to clear my schedule if they call. The punkhart site is a great alternative, but I'm just worried that Olof/Krogsaard may have gotten new, or conflicting, information about the '64 overdub sessions, and decided to pull it from bjorner.com. Makes me nervous... Finally, I don't know if you recall, but noted Columbia Records engineer Don Meehan mentioned in a Simon & Garfunkel thread that he did some of the mixes for the Dylan/Wilson overdubs: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...sounds-of-silence.365969/page-9#post-10746030 I wish he would have elaborated.
A while back, I saw a version of You're No Good on youtube, with overdubs, claiming to be from the 1964 session. Can't find it now, and it was probably pulled. I have no idea if it was fanmade or legit, but it would be interesting if it was real. What if Tom Wilson/Columbia thought they could turn Bob's early works into something popular and profitable? Surely, if they knew what he was about to do, they wouldn't have even bothered, but perhaps for a time, they thought this would be the best way to make him a pop/rock star
I'd like to hear an O.D.d You're No Good! I bet it rocked. I'm not sure how Dylan felt about that whole thing, but Wilson later tried it again with If You Gotta Go (which wasn't released until 1967) and then he finally hit paydirt with Sounds of Silence by S&G. It may have all been legit with the Dylan tracks, or just experimental, as you point out. Too bad Mr. Wilson is no longer with us.
The funny thing is, I've never felt like Wilson really captured Dylan's electric sound too well. I mean, there would be other factors, but I feel like Bringing It All Back Home sounds more dated than HW61. It's ironic, then, that he produced one of the finest electric Dylan moments in Like A Rolling Stone.
I think there may have been two key factors: Kooper and Bloomfield. Their energy and imagination were all over Highway 61, while the session guys on Bringing It All Back Home were a little more laid back, I think, and it does sound lamer in comparison. If that was Wilson's "ideal" sound, then I can see why Dylan later went with Johnson, who had a more hands-off approach. (Wilson was originally a jazz producer, IIRC.)
I appreciate that the list above is just a fan made list but, seriously, why include two instrumentals in there? It strikes me as filler when there must be much better things available. There aren't many, if any, completely NEW unheard songs either, just alternate takes. I know with ol' Bob an early version of any song could be lyrically closer to another completely different song from the same sessions (think BOTT and Time Out Of Mind etc) but if the 2 disc set is, for the sake of argument, very similar to that proposed above, what in God's name will they pad out the 5CD version with?
