Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks (2 Nov 2018)*

Awesome Dee! Thanks for finding this. To me it seems the that the Rolling Thunder film might be delayed. Given Scorsese’s involvement, I think we should have been hearing a lot more about this potential fall release. All speculation of course.

 

Definitely too early to draw conclusions. These reports all seem credible (if fragmentary) and have common elements (Blood on the Tracks is always in the mix) but I feel like there is a missing piece of information to tie it all together.

 

i see no reason the Gaslight release couldn't just be a really low key live release (NOT a Bootleg Series or Copyright Extension). something on the level of like when they re-released the formerly exclusive Brandeis disc at a later date. certainly no need for a huge promotional push like they'd give the documentary/Bootleg Series. i've got no inside information at this time but that certainly feels like what it could be based on the information. this would seem to nix the "coffeehouse days" Bootleg set as certainly the Gaslight would have been a crown jewel of that for many of the less diehard Dylan consumers.

despite making BOOT sounds like a deluxe box set of the album, i feel certain it will still be a Bootleg Series regardless of how they configure it.

 

the Gaslight release bundled with Bob's new whiskey?

 

The prospect of 3 archival sets at the same time brings back memories of 2010, which saw BS9: The Witmark Demos, The Complete Mono Recordings (plus the 1CD Best Of), and In Concert-Brandeis University 1963. So at least there is a precedent.

 

where where where?!

And who's Alderson?

 

Might be almost exactly like that. I've been assuming it's the full Gaslight '62 Tape, but maybe it's just a re-release of the Starbucks track listing, remastered from Alderson's original tapes?

 

Dylan's soundman from the '66 tour, the man responsible for a lion's share of the treasure trove of recordings in the 1966 Live box. He previously recorded Dylan at the Gaslight club in '62.

The quotes from him were publicized in this article:

Archival albums by Bob Dylan, the Band, rumored to be released this year

 

well, i meant the entire extant Gaslight tapes (not just Starbucks reissue) but still low key like the Brandeis reissue. low-key because they have the documentary and Bootleg series coming and if it fits on one CD (i forget, should it?), i just can't see them pushing it that hard especially given the precedent for doing a partial Gaslight release as a Starbucks-only deal.

 

My wild wolf and starbucks CDs sounds pretty darn good but I'd buy an upgrade!

 

I hope it’s not like the 2010 years. I think they bumbled every archival release from 2003-2011 or so. They’ve been finally getting it right, more or less. I hope they don’t backslide. Gaslight is great and needs to get proper love, but what about Finjan? hotel tapes? Carnegie and Town Hall and London 64? Complete Newports? 62-63 broadcasts? Complete outtakes from first three/four albums? There is lots from the first 3-4 years that needs the Cutting Edge/Live 66/Basements treatment. Gaslight is very very important, but it’s part of a bigger story.

 

I take Richard Alderson's quote to mean the Gaslight tapes are being prepared for release. I do not draw any conclusions about a timetable:

"My original recordings of Bob from the Gaslight in October 1962 will be released on Sony in the near future… very, very few have heard them in their pristine sonic glory. Soon (to) come with the correct provenance and my story about recording them.”

These quotes were taken from a Facebook post which is private among Alderson's friends. (At least I can't see them! Maybe someone else can.) So with the quotes from the article as the only context, we don't know what Alderson means by the words "soon" or "near future", could be this year, could be next year, could be whenever; he could be speaking definitively or he could be an unreliable narrator about Sony's actual release plans. My hope is that it's part of a larger Bootleg Series (or Dylan Live box) that rounds up all of Bob's coffee shop/private audience performances. Perhaps in 2019 or 2020.

Like, couldn't you imagine a live box like the '66 set except covering the years 1960-1964, each little show or private audience recording getting its own little sleeve? Seems the absolute best way to present that material, now that I think about it.

 

I would love a set like that especially if a small paragraph about the re wordings, shows and venues were printed on the sleeves. Nothing major, just a small paragraph.

 

I had a brief email correspondence with Richard yesterday, following on from our correspondence from last year (published on the Live 66 thread). I asked him if he had found the original tapes. He says:- "Yes I found excellent one-offs made by me at the time, that sound truly amazing. The exact, correct, & true story will accompany them and will also be in my book “Open The Door, Richard”. My stories will be told in a stream-of-consciousness style. I am a great admirer of “Chronicles”..."

The book has been co-written by someone named Joe Hagan who, I see, wrote "Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine". One of the stories from Richard's memoir, involving Richard, "Pet Sounds", Bob, The Fab Four and Mick Jagger is told in the "Now We're 64" column in Goldmine Magazine dated June 2018.

There is a coyness about a release date for the Gaslight Tapes, but "soon" and "Sony" and "Legacy" are the three words being used at the moment. I'm most excited about the book - I didn't think it would happen. Soon, it seems, we'll finally get to learn exactly how Richard miked the piano for Nina Simone's concerts at Carnegie Hall, and perhaps find out about other important things too.....






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Wonderful post, Percy Song.

Long live Richard Alderson!

I seriously doubt if three discs can be gleaned from the entire sessions for Blood On the Tracks. If they include the album perhaps four discs.

You simply what?
You must be low on vitamins or something.

 

Fantastic news. Thank you for sharing it.

 

Thank you!

 

My wife's rule is that it should go out in the next garage sale. At $1 per CD, I'd even let you keep the change from my $20 bill. You could get something useful for that, like a hamburger.

 

hummina hummina hummina

 

If this is correct, and there’s no reason not to doubt it, then I think we need to get back to the original information and stop the speculation regarding ‘Planet Waves’ and ‘Desire’ material and so on.

I’m going to call my original information as *possibly* still being accurate:

‘Blood On The Tracks’ - the usual configurations: multi-cd box set (it won’t be 26cd or anything like that, more like 6cd) plus a 2cd version.

A ‘Live 1975’ box in the same style as the 1966 one. Probably not at the same time but who knows?

‘Planet Waves’, ‘Desire’ etc...not this time.

‘Gaslight’ - don’t know anything about it.

Of course, as ever THIS MAY NOT END UP BEING ACCURATE - wait and see, but I’d still say this is MOST LIKELY even at this point despite all the speculation.

 

Agreed, based on this latest information it does seem that the focus will be be solely on BOTT. However the quote from the article does raise a couple of thoughts for me :

1. This sounds like an expanded reissue of the album which would be a change to the usual bootleg series practice. Do we even know if it will be part of the bootleg series?

2. The emphasis on the New York sessions suggest they haven't found those lost Minnesota tapes.

3. Has the Rolling Thunder film been delayed?

I am up for an expanded Live 1975 wherever the film gets released. However I am hoping the Gaslight curveball suggests that a collection of all known early live shows is on the way and that this will be a similar format to the 1966 box. Time will tell.

 

Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes; most likely (and most desirable for some of us ). I still hope for, but don't realistically expect, an "every note" BOTT; but a 6 CD set would contain plenty of treasure. We know there were, what?, 60 complete takes over the sessions. 6CDs should give us all of those and more, although some BS CDs in the past have not been packed to the gunwales, of course.

"Dylan at the Gaslight" is definitely happening. Richard Alderson's words to me this week were, "Be patient...", and the June 2018 Goldmine column he sent to me ends with this paragraph:-

"Richard Alderson has had an amazingly full life and you
can read all about his incredible musical journeys in his
forthcoming new book, co-written by Joe Hagan (the
author of "Sticky Fingers, The life & times of Jann Wenner
and Rolling Stone Magazine"), called "Open The Door,
Richard!" Alderson also produced the soon-to-be-released
CD set, "Dylan at the Gaslight" on Sony Legacy."

I don't think Richard's got it in for anybody; I don't think he would plant stories in the press. I'm going for a release before the end of July. Note: The term used above to describe "Dylan at the Gaslight" is "CD set..." A double? Almost certainly.

Time to revisit the first few minutes of this, I think:-




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I don't think the "Dylan at the Gaslight" release is necessarily a precursor to a "coffeehouse" box, although JR has talked about the possibility of such a beast, albeit in context of the Bootleg Series, in previous briefings to "Rolling Stone". I'm sure @Sean Murdock can supply us with the exact quote...

I think this has come about because Richard Alderson found his original Gaslight tapes, or at least what he calls "...excellent one-offs made by me at the time..." (that is, I guess, "safety copies") last year. Thus, we can expect a significant upgrade to the quality of the boots and the copyright collection of this material which JR thinks is worthy of a mainstream release. If it sells, it might open the door for similar one-off releases ("Finjan Club", for example) outside of the branding of the Bootleg Series, like "Brandeis" was, a few years ago, given a "Performance Series" branding. You can't help feeling, though, that the success of such a venture depends on finding, or producing, better quality audio than we already have of these early gigs. I mean, I'll buy anything and everything that's official, if only for the superior packaging that usually comes with official releases, but there's plenty who would just stick with what they already have, I suspect.

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Took the words right out of my mouth - I had a thought upthread that this could be a time when the BS splits into a semi-occasional Performance Series (either one-offs like the Gaslight, or bigger boxes like Live 1966) and what the BS has become, with a greater focus there on a mixture of studio/rehearsal and live material to give context to a period.

One thing seems to be for sure, no new album of originals (or, indeed, covers) this year, if there's the chance of three sets of varying size being issued.

 

I think that, by now, Dylan fans would be sure that nothing with Dylan is for sure....