BOB DYLAN: Outtakes, Alternates & Live Recordings, 1965-1966

To make this thread more of a one-stop-shop, here is a basic list of Dylan's officially released recordings during 1965-1966:

Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home (March '65)
Subterranean Homesick Blues 2:17
She Belongs To Me 2:48
Maggie's Farm 3:51
Love Minus Zero / No Limit 2:47
Outlaw Blues 3:00
On The Road Again 2:30
Bob Dylan's 115th Dream 6:29
Mr. Tambourine Man 5:25
Gates Of Eden 5:42
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) 7:30
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue 4:13

Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (Sept. '65)
Like A Rolling Stone 5:59
Tombstone Blues 5:53
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry 3:25
From A Buick 6 3:06
Ballad Of A Thin Man 5:48
Queen Jane Approximately 4:57
Highway 61 Revisited 3:15
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues 5:08
Desolation Row 11:18

(Singles w/non-LP tracks)
SINGLE: Sep '65: Positively 4th Street 3:50 / From A Buick 6 3:06
[a few copies contained the "slow" version of Crawl Out Your Window instead of 4th Street]
SINGLE: Dec '65: Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? ("fast" version) 3:27/ Highway 61 Revisited 3:20
SINGLE: Jun '66: I Want You 2:57/ Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (live, Liverpool, 1966) 5:36

Bob Dylan – Blonde On Blonde (June '66)
Rainy Day Women Nos 12 & 35 4:35
Pledging My Time 3:46
Visions Of Johanna 7:31
One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) 4:53
I Want You 3:06
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again 7:03
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat 3:57
Just Like A Woman 4:51
Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine 3:27
Temporary Like Achilles 5:03
Absolutely Sweet Marie 4:55
4th Time Around 4:33
Obviously 5 Believers 3:34
Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands 11:20

 

That's where two of the versions I list come from - I'd completely forgotten the source - they don't add a lot, but it's nice that everyone was having fun!

The additional stuff in NDH was a take of It Takes a Lot to Laugh... that isn't the one on the soundtrack, I think. I'll have to listen to all this more closely. As I will do with the Barbed Wire Fence versions.

 

Definitely two distinct takes.

 

I agree, it sounds like the drummer (Sandy Konikoff?) can't hold the groove together and that it falls apart entirely during that line, not because of Dylan's lyric mistake as I believe Paul Williams suggested. (Compare the alternate "Stuck Inside Of Mobile" where the take continues even when Dylan gets lost and stops singing entirely for part of a verse.)

 

Yes there are. (Thanks for bringing it up, lou.) The take of Barbed Wire Fence that circulated for many years (with the noticeable volume drop halfway through) was the same take included on Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3, in perfect quality. Consulting one of Clinton Heylin's books, I learned that another earlier take of the song showed up on the "Goldmine Acetates" in the early '80s, and finally came into circulation among collectors. Heylin quotes some of the lyrics to this alternate version:

I was walking down the street one day
And saw her sitting all alone on the shelf
Right away she gave all my shoes to her mother
But she kept all the bread for herself.
(from: Revolution In The Air by Clinton Heylin)

 

Anybody out there with more live favorites from 66? That "Tell Me, Momma" is a real hair-curler.

 

Manchester 1966 - curl your hair a little more.

 

As another example of multiple takes of the same song from '65-'66, here's the studio version of I Wanna Be Your Lover that was in wide circulation prior to the release of Biograph in 1985:

 

...and here's the alternate take of I Wanna Be Your Lover that was first heard on Biograph, in much, much, much, much better audio quality:

 

That one I know!

 

I really appreciate all the information and tips that I've received about the deep well of mid-'60s Dylan material that's now in circulation in digital format, and I've taken a refresher course in those old favorites from the Golden Age of physical media. Here's a combined album/"bonus track" playlist for Bringing It All Back Home; I hope to follow it up with additional playlists for Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde, and then, after everyone's had the chance to critique or improve them, I'll post a combined list of only the outtakes and alternates. With only a few exceptions, most of the tracks are readily available for purchase, or can be accessed on YouTube.

Also: I've learned that organizing everything in strict chronological order does not always make for the best listening experience. Taking into consideration that many of the alternate takes included on "completist" boot CD collections are incomplete or fragmentary recordings (as subtr & JohnS noted, two of the "alternate takes" of Highway 61 Revisited are each less than a minute long, and there are soooo many takes of Like A Rolling Stone) , I plan to list them as a separate group, along with the tracks that are unique only because of a mono/stereo/mixing variation, like all those versions of Crawl Out Your Window.

Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home (March '65)
SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES 2:17
SHE BELONGS TO ME 2:48
MAGGIE'S FARM 3:51
LOVE MINUS ZERO/NO LIMIT 2:47
OUTLAW BLUES 3:00
ON THE ROAD AGAIN 2:30
BOB DYLAN'S 115TH DREAM 6:29
MR. TAMBOURINE MAN 5:25
GATES OF EDEN 5:42
IT'S ALRIGHT, MA (I'M ONLY BLEEDING) 7:30
IT'S ALL OVER NOW, BABY BLUE 4:13

(Outtakes/Alternate takes, Bringing It All Back Home album sessions, January 1965, NYC)
I'LL KEEP IT WITH MINE (I) Biograph
FAREWELL ANGELINA Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3
SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES (alt. acoustic) Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3
IF YOU GOTTA GO, GO NOW (alt.) Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3
SHE BELONGS TO ME (alt.) No Direction Home CD
IT'S ALL OVER NOW BABY BLUE (alt.) No Direction Home CD
CALIFORNIA (outtake) NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack - Vol. 2 CD
OUTLAW BLUES (alt. acoustic) iTtunes "exclusive" release/ YouTube

LOVE MINUS ZERO/NO LIMIT (alt.) [officially unreleased]/ YouTube
YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THAT [officially unreleased]/ YouTube

STUDIO May 12, 1965, London
IF YOU GOTTA GO, GO NOW /"MIAMI SALES MESSAGE" [officially unreleased]/YouTube
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

And I still think this take is superior to the one released on Biograph. Much better vocal here. Thanks for posting this.

 

It's funny, I think this is the one that Bob chose back in '65, and had mixed, before he decided not to release it. The one on Biograph (which I do like equally) was probably one of his rejects.

 

This is definitely in need of official release...along with the H61 "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?".

 

Here's Dylan with the Band - 1966? LIVE - One Too Many Mornings
It starts with Bob and JOHN LENNON in a car ride

Dylan, Lennon and One Too Many Mornings - YouTube
▶ 2:53
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BXKC-EYw-0
Sep 8, 2011 - Uploaded by drumgold23
Dylan has a whitey, Lennon tries to lift him out of it and Dylan and The Band perform One Too ...

 

Back in my misspent youth I recall hearing a 66 show where Dylan really seemed in a different time zone from the rest of the world--slow, pharmaceutically enhanced, dragging each word to the outer reaches of the atmosphere. One of the Australia dates, perhaps?

 

What a great discussion !!!

 

Here's Maggie's Farm, live, electric, 1965 when Dylan busted out electric at the Newport Folf Festival!

Anyone know if these shows are on CD, officially or unofficially? Is my memory correct that either/and a movie/DVD was released of these?

Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival - YouTube
▶ 5:10
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8yU8wk67gY
Jan 21, 2015 - Uploaded by ROCKFMTV
Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival. ROCKFMTV ... Ma alienando i puristi, ha costruito la sua fama e ha posto le basi per il rock folk.

 

There were several '66 live recordings from Australia and the U.K. that captured Dylan coughing and slurring his words during his song intros and guitar-tunings. A prime example is the version of Fourth Time Around from Melbourne.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=15QFTevn8BU

 

The version of "Desolation Row" off of that Hollywood Bowl 65' show is amazing.

 

I remember the Sheffield 66' show where he hangs on every syllable... especially dig the acoustic set, fantastic stuff.

 

re: If You Gotta Go, Go Now

We've already posted three Dylan versions of this song in this thread so far:
- The 45 single, with overdubbed backing vocals, which wasn't released until 1967, and then only in Europe.
- The alternate take that appeared on Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3, with no overdubs or backing vocals.
- The brief "Miami Sales Convention" vocal/piano take, recorded in London in May 1965, which hasn't been "officially released," to the best of my knowledge.

Writer Clinton Heylin thinks that Dylan may have been inspired to come up with more of a rock-oriented number after meeting The Beatles in New York in 1964, and the song did, in fact, become a hit in the U.K. for Manfred Mann the following year. Dylan recorded it himself, both acoustically and with band backing, during the Bringing It All Back Home sessions in January 1965, and as late as May of that year he was apparently still interested in releasing it, as his sales convention mini-version shows. Heylin thinks that once Bob concocted Like A Rolling Stone a short time later, he lost interest in If You Gotta Go, which may have been the case. Bob did, of course, return to this brand of lighter fare with You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, Rita May, and so many others.

It appears that Dylan took no part in the vocal overdubbing session on May 21, 1965 (in which some tape splices or inserts were also done) for the single release, which was overseen by producer Tom Wilson, who later arranged the overdubbing of Simon & Garfunkel's acoustic Sounds of Silence, giving it a "folk rock" sound, using some of Dylan's own session players. Personally, I think that Bob never cared for the sound of the chirpy backup singers (The Poppies) who were added to the track by Wilson, which is why it wasn't released until eighteen months later, after Dylan was in hibernation following his motorcycle crack-up. And so far, that O.D. version has never been re-released. (There's also speculation that the vocal O.D.s were done by some other producer as late as 1966, which would mean that the 5/21/65 session may have been held for some minor overdubbing or tape splicing only.)

Evidence indicates that the alternate take of If You Gotta Go released on Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3 was slated for inclusion on Biograph in 1985, but didn't make the final cut. The track first came into circulation on a Biograph "preview tape" circa 1984, but at that time it had a much hotter-sounding mix than it did when it was officially released in 1991. The preview tape featured louder drums and keyboards, while the released mix is somewhat lackluster, IMO.

According to bobdylan.com, Bob played this song live exactly nine times, between October 24, 1964, and May 9, 1965, in London, a few days before his sales convention "message." This link is for a version from Manchester, May 7, 1965, a deleted scene/extra on the Don't Look Back DVD:
http://www.eyeneer.com/video/rock/bob-dylan/if-you-gotta-go-go-now

And, finally, the live solo version of If You Gotta Go, from Halloween 1964, included on Bootleg Series Vol. 6:

 

TWO MINUTES OF FUN!!

 

You could almost do The Twist to that one.

 

When I was ten my parents took me to a store that was a sort of everything store. They agreed to buy me a single. I picked out a picture sleeve copy of Positively Fourth Street and was pretty excited. I got home, played it, and it wasn't that song at all. I waited for my parents to take me back to exchange it, but I waited so long, I got to love it. It was of course Crawl Out the Window. Later, in my twenties, I was burned out on Dylan and gave it to a friend who said he could sell it for me. I never got any money and of course I wish I had kept it. I still like that version best, and when I hear the other one, I'm disappointed. Record-wise, one of my biggest, if not the biggest mistake ever.