Bob Dylan: Complete Album Collection

No "Boogie Woogie Country Girl"?

 

Oversight, not editorial judgement! I think I had it there at some point! Guess its now a 44 track speculative set.

 

Amended speculative list:

DISC ONE:

1. Mixed Up Confusion
2. Corrina, Corrina
3. Baby, Please Don't Go
4. Tomorrow Is A Long Time (live)
5. California
6. Outlaw Blues
7. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
8. Positively Fourth Street
9. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window
10. I'm Not There
11. Spanish is the Loving Tongue
12. I Shall Be Released
13. You Ain’t Going Nowhere
14. Crash on the Levee
15. Watching The River Flow (single mix)
16. When I Paint My Masterpiece
17. George Jackson (Big Band)
18. George Jackson (Acoustic)
19. Rita May
20. Trouble In Mind
21. Let It Be Me
22. Don’t Ever Take Yourself Away
23. Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground

DISC TWO:

1. Band of the Hand
2. The Usual
3. Night After Night
4. Pretty Boy Floyd
5. Dignity (Touched By An Angel version)
6. Most of the Time
7. Ring of Fire
8. My Blue-Eyed Jane
9. People Get Ready
10. This Old Man
11. Train of Love
12. Things Have Changed
13. Boogie Woogie Country Gal
14. Return To Me
15. I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind
16. A Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache
17. Waitin' On You
18. Tell 'Ol Bill
19. Do Re Mi
20. Twas The Night Before Christmas
21. The Love That Faded

PS: I know the chronology might be a bit dodgy in several places. Any mistakes of that sort reflect my personal laziness and not a conscious choice!

 

No "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"?

 

No. It's just my gut feeling, but I don't think it will make the cut.

On the other hand, I fully expect there to be a handful of totally unexpected choices, both in terms of inexplicable (perhaps infuriating) omissions and happy surprises.

 

The poor guy can't win!

 

In general, I know I'm repeating myself, people are too obsessed by the 'rarities' thing over here. Please read the official communication, the word is absolutely not there! So I would be very very surprised to see tracks like This Old Man, Night after Night, Return to Me, Do Re Mi, Pretty Boy Floy, People Get Ready and several others on the compilation. If the idea is, as it seems to me, to concentrate on the official output, then I think that for starters several Biograph tracks not listed here are more likely candidates, I think the singles and outtakes that have joined the official catalogue will be the main focus (Percy's Song, Lay Down Your weary tune, I'll keep it with mine, Baby I'm in the Mood, I wanna be your lover, babe, Up to me, Abandoned Love, Caribbean Wind; Series of Dreams from Greatest Hits Volume III. Considering that the Bootleg Series are unlikely to be be included, I would not surprised at all if especially studio outtakes from the very first Bootleg Series vol I-III would still be on the 2 cd compilation, since these first three volumes were in there conception very similar to the Biograph 'extras': confirming songs we knew were there to the official catalogue (Only a hobo, Paths of Victory, Mama you been on my mind and... Blind Willie Mc Tell). Right, even though Dylan, the handy dandy who would never admit it if any bone in his body was broken, does not officially want to recognize on to this very day that it is a Major Song, I would not be surprised to see it on the compilation. (after all, doesn't he play it live since 1997?).
PS and yes, two version of George Jackson are unlikey, I would not even have a bet on ONE version.
PS 2 : seems very likely now that my guess that DYLAN (1973) would be included will be correct. I've been puzzled by all the reactions on this thread about the record, but maybe I've come to understand it somehow. Apparently the obsession is a very American thing. In Europe it has been out of print in recent years (say, ever since the cd industry completely collapsed), but in the past it has never been an issue: for all those many years it was a Dylan record like any other, as easy to get on cd as the other records. I would presume that whoever has been a Dylan watcher here since the late eighties, when cd had become the standard, does have a copy. What's more: there have been times when Shot of Love, Real Live and Dylan & The Dead were harder to get on cd than 'Dylan '73)

 

The Dylan album was easily available? I have absolutely no memory that that's the case. The first time I ever saw one was in 1993 and it was a Japanese import (that I still own to this day). That was the first CD pressing and it cost me standard import prices back in the day. (I think I paid $20-25 from Tower.) It was later pressed in Europe in the mid-'00s, IIRC, though it still seems as rare now as it ever was in the past.

 

I'd be quite surprised if 'Dignity' in its Touched By An Angel version was included. But otherwise that's a two-disc set I sincerely hope I can buy separately...

Edit: Also, someone upthread mentioned the Outtakes From No Direction Home download ep. This was something I had no idea existed, and I've just learned why - it's not available on the Australian itunes store (other countries seem to have it, as does Amazon downloads - in the UK, at least).

Anyone got this? Worth my looking for? Tracklist:

1. "Baby Please Don't Go" (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan outtake) – 1:56
2. "Mr. Tambourine Man" (Live) – 7:21
   • Recorded at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964
3. "Outlaw Blues" (Acoustic Version) – 2:15

 

I have a typical 'midprice' reissue edition from the late eighties, as they had the typical CBS/Columbia stickers back then. The inside of the jewel case is red (for some time these Columbia midprices had those red instead of dark grey). Even though CDs were comparatively more expensive then, it was cheap according to the standards of the times I have exactly the same edition of The Freewheelin', Desire, Saved and maybe even a few others but definitely those three. Unfortunately, I've just moved and it's still unpacked somewhere in a gigantic pile of boxes. Otherwise, I'd post a scan of the artwork.

 

as an addition to my previous reply:
this is what's on Wikipedia:
Dylan (1973 album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Dylan is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in November 1973 by Columbia Records. Dylan was compiled and issued with no input from Dylan himself, using outtakes—two from Self Portrait and the remaining seven from New Morning. It followed the artist's departure from Columbia for Asylum Records, and the announcement of his first major tour since 1966.
Although Dylan received very poor reviews, it managed to hit #17 in the US and become a gold record. Perhaps not surprisingly, it became his first album never to chart in the UK, where his albums generally charted higher than in the US.
It is the only non-compilation Dylan album not to be released on CD in the North American market; in Europe, the CD was called Dylan – A Fool Such as I."


The entry is very concise but read the last sentence closely: "not released in North America" but phrasing implies it was normally available on CD in Europe, even though, indeed, the addition 'a fool such as I' was frequently used. This info corresponds with both what I think to remember (but what, I admit, is not quite a scientifically valid argument) and what I do have, and have had for a long time, in its materialized form in my possession.

 

actually, you are right: there will be infuriating omissions. There always have been and there always will be. As for the 'totally unexpected choices', I expect those too, however contradictory the combination expected unexpected choices sounds. There might be one or two tracks from the vaults, that we've never heard, having the same function as the Positively 4th Street inclusion on the single disc mono version. So, chances are that unexpected omissions and unexpected inclusions will be equally infuriating...

 

Jonathan V., I do believe Dylan has been released only twice on CD – the 1993 Japanese edition, and the European edition subtitled A Fool Such As I. That's it. I was hellbent on acquiring every Bob album I could possibly get in the early '90s and Dylan was absolutely not in print on CD, unlike every other title in his canon.

I remember the red tray midline CDs you mention. I got my first copy of Infidels in that pressing run. Dylan was never one of them.

 

It's very possible you're right about "Dignity," but here's my thought process. Ever since the "alternate" (in truth, the original) version was bizarrely issued on the Touched By An Angel soundtrack, it has subsequently been included on at least three Dylan compilations, The Very Best of Bob Dylan Vol 2, The Essential Bob Dylan (the superior UK edition), and the 3Cd Dylan career overview. it seems pretty clear that the Dylan people consider this the "go-to" version, and just as I don't suspect we'll get unexpected versions of "Positively Fourth Street", "Rita May", or "Things Have Changed" I strongly suspect they'll stick with the alternate "Dignity" (though, perhaps ironically, the GHIII version may have a better claim to being the true "rarity" at this point).

As for the NDH outtakes, definitely. The previously unheard "Outlaw Blues" is a particular delight. Unlike the bootlegged acoustic versions of "She Belongs To Me" and "Love Minus Zero," in this instance the acoustic version has a substantially different feel than the previously released take (and, if I recall, several lyrical differences).

 

I second the kudos for "Outlaw Blues" - definitely worth seeking out. As far the set is concerned though, wouldn't it be perverse to include "No Direction Home" "outtakes" but not "NDH"?

 

God Hope Dylan and the Dead is dead and buried, never to be released again.

 

Not including ANYTHING (or letting anything of Dylan's go out of print) will just result in the creation of a demand for it, whatever it is. Witness "Dylan".

 

i think it's actually better than about 6 or 7 of his other albums...

 

yeah order from them and you might get it in 2019 maybe

 

Good points re 'Dignity'. In fact, it's the GHIII edition that I don't have...

And thanks for the NDH outtakes review. I guess I'll have to find it somehow.

And thanks also. I guess the rationale for including it - if they do - but not the NDH soundtrack proper in this collection would be that the latter is still readily available on its own.

 

i know but i'm one who liked DYLAN from when it was first released...and Self Portrait. There are a few of us.

 

If the Japanese are willing to give it their ultra high quality replica Mini LP CD treatment, I'm in.

 

I have always preferred "Dylan" to "Self Portrait". I also think Dylan's version of "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" is the best performance of the song ever recorded.

 

I will never understand why Dylan & The Dead was selected as a 2009 remaster over the much more worthy Hard Rain or Budokan.

 

You said it brother!!!