Bob Dylan's Street-Legal piano demos – are we actually sure these EXIST?

For me this would be one of THE Dylan holy grails (along with Good As I Been to You outtakes and the complete BOTT sessions).

But are we sure they even exist? Has anything ever been bootlegged? What actual evidence is there?

 

No idea (?) but the thought makes my mouth water!

 

Where did you even hear about this, "Dave"? They would certainly be...er...post Desire-able...

BTW...your avatar is a lot less cheeky, I noticed...

 

I thought someone said that they didn't exist in the bootleg series 13 thread?

 

Are these the co-writes with Helena Springs? Or something altogether different?

 

5/25/76 Salt Lake City sure would be sweet.

 

Sadly the girls were asked to cover up by a moderator.

I have definitely read of these demos. It was a while back that they were first mentioned. But it seems odd that mothing surfaced on the original Bootleg Series 1–3.

Expecting Rain • View topic - Piano Street Legal ... »

 

Different according to Clinton Heylin. From memory I think the Dylan/Springs songs were ( according to Heylin) written during the 78 tour.

 

We will know in 2028. Start eating healthy.

 

Looking at the book now and my memory was wrong! According to Heylin 3 of those songs were recorded during the SL sessions. I've got the timeline mixed up! The album was recorded after dates in Japan and Australia so that's when the songs will have been written.
Heylin refers to Dylan ' previewing' the album on piano to a couple of musicians months earlier.

 

Yes, @Mbd77 said they didn't exist, but that different tape with run-throughs including piano and bass did, but that it wasn't the same thing.

 

I wouldn't call these a tape of 'Street Legal piano demos'.
Such a thing doesn't exist. I always think that makes them sound like some kind of intentional demo tape and seems to be what this particular tape got called within the last 10 years via the Internet. It's not really true.

It's a Rundown rehearsal tape with some run-through versions of those songs.

 

Just to clarify the story about these, and a bit of 'exclusive' info:

A while ago a musician parted with a bunch of tapes to a particular individual. These then leaked out as 'The Rundown Rehearsal Tapes'.

The 1977 tape with some of the Street Legal songs was part of this batch of tapes, but was never circulated in the same way.

The musician still has even more Rundown material according to him that is undocumented and doesn't circulate, but obviously since the stuff he did part with leaked, is unwilling to copy.

It's unknown whether he has the only copies of this stuff or if they are dubs, but it is known that Dylan's office has tons of Rundown tapes. Are there more tapes with Street-Legal songs? Maybe. The one incorrectly referred to as 'The Street-Legal Piano Demos' is the one that's known - purely because it was provided to somebody. I do know that there are some Rundown reels with 'unidentified' songs on them that might be Dylan originals as well.

 

I for one appreciate this clarification!

 

Great to have this information. Thank you!

 

Sorry to revive this thread, but since Clinton Heylin's account of the so-called piano demos hasn't been invoked here yet, I'll quote it and ask:

Despite these imminent recording dates, the four months preceding the Street-Legal sessions rarely saw Dylan running fown one of his new songs for his touring band, though his next album was essentially already composed. However, at one remarkable post-rehearsal session the day after Christmas 1977 he sat at the piano and played almost the entire album to a stunned Rob Stoner, Stephen Soles, and Joel Bernstein. This December 26, 1977, run-through for most of Street Legal was not something Dylan intended to preserve. After warming up with a couple of half-formed tunes (the second of which has just one intelligible line: "Can you feel those lonely eyes staring across the room?"), Dylan says, presumably to Bernstein, "Don't tape this one," and pushes the microphone away. Nevertheless, the tape keeps running, bearing witness to an astonishing preview of an album he is some months away from recording.​

I'm sure most people interested in this thread have read the above, from Heylin's Recording Sessions book, and he sure writes it in a way that implies he heard the tape. So my question is -- is this a description of the so-called "Street-Legal piano demos," or is it something else -- or did Heylin hear something second-hand and let his imagination run away with him?

I guess this question is primarily for @Mbd77 -- who I thank, always, for his information and insight.

 

Yes.

 

Thanks. So they do exist!

 

OK, thanks -- so now your earlier post makes more sense. The actual physical object (tape of piano demos) DOES exist, but it was just a casual performance that happened to be taped (as described by Heylin), and not a "proper" demo session. Of course, if the performances are great, as implied by Heylin, the distinction doesn't really matter, does it?

 

They've been described as a series of brief samples of the songs, one verse-one chorus-type-performances generally (and not even of all the album tracks). I think @Mbd77 has been trying to deflate expectations that there are stripped down versions of the full songs just waiting to be presented to the public (what many of us imagine when we hear the word "demo."). These recordings might not work as well in the context of a Bootleg Series installment as we might hope, even if they would undoubtedly be fun to hear in their entirety.

Incomplete demos are not unheard of from Dylan. "Desolation Row" and "Dignity" both had recordings done of that nature, and both were very worth hearing. But from the available descriptions (I've certainly not heard them), I suspect they are even more abbreviated.

 

Got it, makes sense. Like the other examples you noted, a few of these might be informative for a larger Street-Legal / 1978 tour Bootleg Series, but they probably would never want to release the entire tape as is, because it just wouldn't hold up for casual fans. Perhaps a good comparison might be the 1978 soundcheck version of "Slow Train" on BS13 -- makes perfect sense in this context, but you wouldn't call it amazing or essential on its own.

 

Personally, I'd welcome the release of the entire tape, whether the songs are abbreviated or not. Wouldn't it be absolutely fascinating to hear intimate, advance versions of that album's material?

 

Exactly. They're not demos. Nowhere near anything that will get any kind of official release. Just a run through on a rehearsal tape with some distant vocals. Not comparable to the 'demos' of stuff like 'Dignity'.

 

I didn't even know the "distant vocals" part.

 

Heylin does describe Dylan pushing the mike away, so I'm not surprised.