Bob Dylan "The Bootleg Series" – overview and possible future projects

Possibly, although it depends how one is to interpret "... a while back." Last year is a while back to me, for example, but I accept that last year might be recent to some people.

We are as sure as we can be that Chris Shaw engineered the two new-to-us songs and that he's being coy about giving up any information about them. Smells to me very strongly of a new record featuring both these songs. I know digital-only releases are not a new concept for Bob - we've had several over the years - but these two seem, oh, I don't know, too important not to be on a physical album. But you could be right...


It'd be great for him to do a solo lockdown performance. "Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues" from his bathroom, perhaps?

 

Cue 100 pages of people arguing over which brand of toilet paper he uses, and the lyrical allusions to “Floater (Too Much to Ask)”.

 

I'm not even sure how much stock I put into my theory. Murder Most Foul sounds like the kind of arrangements he was playing on the most recent tour. And as far as rumors of sessions, the most substantiated ones are the most recent ones. I'm just blindly speculating because I can.

I wouldn't be surprised if a new album, regardless of what songs it features, gets dropped out of the blue. Perhaps even as a digital-first release, with CD and vinyl to come later. I don't expect that to happen with a Bootleg Series release though.

 

i think that we'll see an album with "I Contain Multitudes" (since there was no accompanying description) and not "Murder Most Foul." maybe they can do a little bonus edition CD/vinyl with an extra CD/7" with MMF. i just think talking about only DITG having old songs, whether Bob does digital-only releases, etc. is meaningless when trying to figure out what's going on here.

 

Whatever brand he uses, I guarantee it’s not as good as the brand he was using in (insert year of your choice here... 1963, 1965, 1966, 1975, 1978, 1983, 1989, 1997, etc...)!

And if you think otherwise, you’re wrong!

 

Dylan uses low grade toilet paper to be ironic and to mess with people. Everybody knows that.

 

You're old enough to remember when Royal Albert Hall 1966
wasn't happening, aren't you? And numerous others.

 

Sorry, I was too excited to get it earlier, methinks!

 

Hey guys
Know it's sort off topic, but as I missed it, the question goes:
Has anybody made a mp3 transfer out of BOTT test pressing?
Please contact me inbox!

 

Do you mind describing the article's content with more detail, please?

thanks

 

I'm sure you've seen this before, but I hadn't. Was googling and I stumble across the article:
Bob Dylan recording new album | UNCUT

Bob Dylan is recording a new studio album.

According to the Aspen Times, the folk legend has been working on new material at a studio in Los Angeles owned by US singer-songwriter Jackson Browne.

In an interview with the newspaper, musician David Hidalgo – who contributed to Dylan’s last studio album, the festive-themed ‘Christmas In The Heart’ in 2009 – said that he had been working with the singer on a new record.

Speaking about the material, Hidalgo, who is also a member of the band Los Lobos, said: “It was a great experience. And different. Each one has been different, all completely different approaches. It’s an amazing thing, how he keeps creativity. I don’t see how he does it.”

Although it is not known when the album is released or what its title will be, Hidalgo did reveal that it could have a Mexican-influenced sound as he had played an accordion and a Tres – which is a guitar-like instrument – during the sessions. “He’d [Dylan] would say, ‘Wow, what’s that?” said Hidalgo. “He liked the sound. So we’d get it in there.”

Bob Dylan has released 34 studio albums in his recording career. Earlier this year, a charity album ‘Chimes Of Freedom: Songs Of Bob Dylan Honouring 50 Years Of Amnesty International’ was released featuring artists covering some of their favourite Dylan songs including Adele, My Chemical Romance and Queens Of The Stone Age. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to watch Ke$ha’s rendition of his track ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright’.

Please fill in our quick survey about the relaunched Uncut – and you could win a 12 month subscription to the magazine. Click here to see the survey. Thanks!


I was wondering...he'd just put out 2 tracks and there're reports of recording a new album. Wouldn't be a sign that it's still due this year?

 

Isn't this the reason Dylan completely cut Hidalgo out of his life?

 

Sorry, I think this is an old article. Please, ignore it.
I think UNCUT messes about dates when you do a search and it appears the current date.

 

I'd like to apologise again. I misread it. The main date above says Uncut June 2020 but the small captions points out 2012.

Do you think I'm antecipating the album too much?

 

Yes that article is about Together through Life

 

For a few minutes I could dream!

 

The point is the 1965 stuff has been released as a copyright extension digital download. It’s not going to come out on a cd box set when there planning for other things somewhat into the future.

In 20 years time, who knows. But for the foreseeable future - not happening.

The Royal Albert Hall 1966 wasn’t officially put out in any form until 1998, but was slated for release in both 1974 and 1996. There weren’t digital options at all during these eras, and the 1974 release would only have happened as part of CBS’s plan to push out archival Dylan stuff after he jumped labels. Think it’s always been on the cards or at least perceivable that this would be released at some point, however if it had happened now, and there wasn’t an EU 50 year copyright directive, there’s no guarantee it would be on physical media if it was something they thought it wouldn’t sell in numbers significant enough to turn profit or break even, as was the case with the ‘65 stuff.

 

I'm sure it's been said before. But I would love to see them revisit Infidels/Empire Burlesque/Knocked Out Loaded in the same way they did the Christian trilogy. And give us a perfect, complete show with the Heartbreakers. 1986. Before he started to get bored.

 

My comments here refer only to the official recordings of the April-May
1965 tour of the U.K. which was in effect the "Bringing It All Back Home"
tour. The album had been released the week before, on March 26 and
U.K. audiences were hearing songs from the album be performed live
for the first time. It was a significant tour both from the standpoint of
Dylan's career and as a cultural event of the 1960s. The U.K. concerts
were professionally recorded.

The digital download does not constitute a professional release. It sounds
like a home-made hobby project. There is 1) no mixing, 2) inconsistent
speed, 3) low distant volume, 4) gaps and fades imposed between tracks
cutting off starts and stops of songs, and 5) excised moments of Dylan
chatting and interacting with the audience. The enthusiasm of the audience,
the spontaneity and quality of Dylan's performances are dampened by this
fast, cheap, throw-it-away, amateurish download. It actually makes good
quality professional recordings sound bad. Jeff Rosen and his team should
be ashamed of the digital download and put it right.

They should reconsider their position.

Releasing the 1965 tour of England on hard media does not preclude
nor override other projects. They can do both. Since Live 1966 was
not part of The Bootleg Series, the 1965 tour can be released apart
from The Bootleg Series as well.

I don't buy into this self-defeating false choice of we can't do this
because we'd rather do that.

I don't know this history of Royal Albert Hall 1966 for a fact, but your
assessment sounds reasonable. It does not disprove the larger point that
classic Dylan recordings were never going to happen in the past, and
then they happened.

If Jeff Rosen and his team continue to disregard the 1965 U.K. tour they
will certainly insure that the audience who lived through it and would
like to hear it in professional quality never will. But I have sufficient
faith in the performances each night to believe that a proper release will
always be well-received by the public. It's a small project, after all, not
a big major expense.

Here is the link for Dylan fans to request the 1965 U.K. tour on CD:

Sony Music

 

My request submitted Richard. Far too young to have attended in person (although my Dad was present for Manchester) but agree with you 100%

 

The thing is - it was only released to keep these recordings under copyright in the EU. There’s no intention to produce something like a physical product out of this. There’s ‘Don’t Look Back’ from that tour. That’s it. There’s a lot of other stuff that’s been on the pad for a long time that is going to get the time and expense of production put into it before any of that gets touched again. The physical box sets - the 1966 and 1975 ones and the 1966 set - are a combination of need in terms of EU Copyright and greater commercial opportunity. This is also driving the Bootleg Series and other smaller archival releases that are serving the function of maintaining copyright and generating sales that justify the expense. It’s more likely that a single show might end up as a limited RSD release or something similar on Vinyl - I’d think the 1964 Royal Festival Hall snow is actually more likely. But beyond that...no 1965 box set is happening and even if it gets mentioned or thought about in the immediate future it certainly won’t jump ahead of the other stuff planned.

 

Yes, I know. Understood.
Unreasonable, unfair and unacceptable.
This is a question of attitude, not money.
Rosen is disdainful of the folk years, so he rationalizes that everybody else is, too.
And what makes him think that a copyright protection doesn't need to be mixed
and mastered like any other release he's charging money for?
Sales for a small Live 1965 set will justify the expense.
It will sell as well and better than other archival releases.
If they are only thinking in terms of copyright protection, they need to reconsider.
If they hadn't screwed up in the first place they wouldn't have to double back now.
Customers had to spend $600 to get access to the download, and then it was a rank
amateur production that made Dylan sound bad and diminished the event.

I don't believe they'll ever release a single show for RSD. Rosen closed the
book on Dylan's early acoustic concerts and 1965 when they released this
sampler:



which only has the effect of whetting the appetite and increasing
the demand for complete shows. Compare the mixing / mastering
on the 1965 tracks to the download.

Here is the link for you to request the 1965 U.K. tour on CD, Mbd77:

Sony Music

 

The cost involved - time, material, electricity and wages - for something that they’re not marketing on their terms. The production runs are also the absolute minimum. This is to reduce cost. If the record company or Dylan isn’t interested in putting up the capital when other projects are on the table which will make more money, they’re not going to drop it to pay for someone to spend even a week mix 20 takes of ‘To Be Alone With You’ which would normally never be considered for even an outtakes release.

 

With respect, I disagree. ‘Don’t Look Back’ has been the document of that tour and has made plenty of money. A box of 1965 recordings doesn’t justify the production expense in the current climate (discounting the current Covid situation). It’s a business, not a public service. That’s not to say artistic merit doesn’t come into it, but no business is going to spend time and expense investing in something they don’t think is going to add immediate value. There’s a lot of other stuff wayyyyyyyy before that ever happens.

There’s no ‘doubling back’ nor perception of any kind of mistake or screw up. They released this stuff as a download to cover copyright as it wasn’t considered commercially viable to produce this in another way. As this was only a few years ago and copyright is secured, it is what it is for the foreseeable.

 

If they can redeem Empire Burlesque and Knocked Out Loaded to the same degree that they have redeemed Self Portrait and the Christian trilogy, more power to them. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I’ll believe it when I see it.