Bob Dylan - 50th Anniversary Collection: 1963

just ordered from Canada for $133 plus shipping.

 

On the plus side, this is some really great material on this set. Also on the plus side, there's nothing here that sounds particularly bad.

On the negative side, the McKenzie tape seems to have bleed-through (I never noticed it on my Nth generation cassette tape way back when), like Dylan's performance was recorded over something (a la "Forever Young" on "Biograph", but more intrusive). Also on the negative side, the Town Hall performance is incomplete, leaving off the material that was not need in of copyright protection. That leaves the already pristine-sounding (and complete) circulating tape preferable. And I may be in the minority, but I prefer the Studs Terkel performances within the context of their conversation, rather than isolated in this fashion.

If you like early Dylan and you're unfamiliar with this material, I think you'll love it.

 

i also love the Terkel conversation. ideally this would include the complete show.

 

Given the current state of the Amazon US listing, I'm thinking that those of us who placed an Amazon order will shortly get cancellation notices.

 

The fact that amazon US has stopped taking pre-orders makes me feel a little more positive.... like they actually had an exact number of how many to sell and now they are gone... i guess we'll find out tomorrow!

 

Let's try and be positive, shall we?

 

That has definitely occured to me, also.

I am positive!

 

Unfortunately Japanese amazon.co.jp cannot supply its pre-orders.

 

It's back up on Amazon for $159.99.

 

The price for my pre-order is listed as $175.61. Should it be $159.99 now?

 

That inheritance must be nice!

 

I know it's a forlorn hope, but I really wish Sony would put some of this stuff out properly, like the Grateful Dead programme. 10,000 copies of the complete 'Town Hall' or something along those lines. Instead everything gets issued piecemeal, across several different packages. The Dylan fanbase could surely absorb 2 releases a year?

 

You don't suppose that this is some elaborate trick to make us pay more for a set they will issue 100,000 of?

 

"Temporarily out of stock" at .ca and .com.

 

Town Hall was, apparently, on the short list, some years ago, for a full Bootleg Series release. The complete tape surfaced in 2008, and was traded/bootlegged heavily at the time. I'm sure we'll see it officially released at some point.

 

Is Sony trying to bootleg the bootleggers with this? The Banjo tape, the TV performances, and Studs Terkel are not Columbia recordings, so I assume they just took these from the boots? I would prefer they stick to what they actually have in the vaults.

 

and yet the price keeps changing on Amazon.ca..??? now it's $136.92...

 

living in denial is nice

 

i'm wondering more about sources and quality now. is this an official release, albeit limited, or an elaborate bootleg?

 

It's Sony just getting the material out there in some form.

 

This is a legitimate release, with some of the material lifted from bootlegs.

I didn't get the opportunity to A/B the Columbia studio recordings (Side "A" of the new set) to the circulating tapes, but one quick listen left me with the impression that these aren't as ultra-clear as the "Freewheelin'" stuff from last year's set that clearly came from their masters. It may have been more convenient for them to gather the materials from bootlegs this time (since their clear goal was to ONLY include things that have already circulated). This policy leaves the Town Hall concert sounded a bit cut up and jumbled, which is a downer. The enjoyment of the listener is not a primarily goal of this set.

 

Has anyone received a shipping notification from Amazon yet? I ordered from Amazon Canada for $133. Nothing yet. I have a feeling it may be a while and I wouldn't be surprised if my order was cancelled.

 

The album box photo is up at Amazon

 

Interesting -

so let's see - record companies now legitimately release bootlegged material of their artists........ehmmm ok
and being a boot the sound ain't that good........
in a limited edition for big bucks that everyone goes mad for ...........ok.

See Beatles 1963 iTunes release for more info.........

 

People lucky enough to buy the Dylan set, though, are already flipping them for triple and quadruple the purchase price on Ebay. So someone is desperate to own these.