I recently posted this elsewhere, but this may be a better spot. The book accompanying the 35-CD set John Mayall - The First Generation 1965-1974 includes the following intriguing snippet. While most of it is well known, the last paragraph (and Hughie Flint's comment) is new to me: Meanwhile, Bob Dylan was in town, preparing for a tour to be filmed by D.A. Pennebaker. On Tuesday May 4th John was invited to dinner with Dylan, his manager Albert Grossman, Joan Baez and Marianne Faithful [sic]. The following day he travelled with Dylan and Baez to Birmingham for a sold-out appearance at the Town Hall. On Wednesday May 12th the Bluesbreakers were booked to back Dylan at a session at the CBS studios in Great Newport Street. Dylan was totally unprepared, spending more time drinking Beaujolais and chatting up folk singer Nadia Cattouse than rehearsing the musicians. Eventually, attempts were made to record 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now', all to no avail. Tempers became frayed. Hughie Flint asked Dylan, "You haven't worked much with bands, have you?" Shortly after, the session was abandoned and Dylan and his producer Tom Wilson left. Even so, that week's Disc announced, "Bob Dylan has asked the British R&B group John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers to appear on (two BBC television specials) with him. Twelve days later, on Monday May 24, with an audience in the studio waiting for his appearance, Dylan cried off at the very last minute, claiming he was suffering from a viral infection picked up during a brief holiday in Portugal. He was replaced by singer Oscar Brown Jr. Dylan remained in London and eventually taped his two BBC shows on June 1 - but without any guests. I have not seen this documented before. Do any forum members have any more information on this? Dylan's 1965 BBC acoustic performance might well have been an electric one - a tantalising glimpse
Dylan's solo acoustic 70 minutes at the BBC just might be his finest hour. A career-best performance.
Comparing I Wanna Be Your Lover [Take 6 (Mis-Slate)] on the box to the mix found on Biograph as well as the Biograph alt/advance mix. The Biograph mixes are rough, smeared, nowhere near as precise and clinical as the Cutting Edge mixes. I totally understand why the box was mixed the way it was, but listening to the Biograph mixes, I find myself more drawn in. There's something more exciting and it fits the material better. I'd love to see Sony Legacy put out a standalone Blonde on Blonde using alt takes + outtakes and mixing it to fit more of a vibe rather than the "in the room" sound they've been going for of late with these kinds of sets
This a link to an 80+ page pdf all about Dylan's 1965 shows. It can be downloaded and saved with the mp3 release of all of the 1965 shows Bob Dylan's 1965 Appearances.pdf
And for those interested in the period June 1966 through January 1968: Bob Dylan - June 1966 to January 1968.pdf Now all we need is the bit in the middle.
Rolling Thunder is well documented already. It’s the early years, up to 1966, that are a real mess as far as Dylan’s gigography is concerned. The online fan sites should not be taken at face value. I’ve done a fair bit of research on the years 1963 and 1964, going back to contemporary newspaper reports, and every time I go digging I turn up something that contradicts received wisdom.
Things That Have Been Hiding In Plain Sight And Sound For Fifty-Seven Years - Part 1 In his "Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions" opus, Michael Krogsgaard noted that there were two bass players present on 25 January, 1966, playing on "Leopard-Skin Pill-box Hat" and "One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)" The final take of the latter song made it all the way to Blonde on Blonde. Neither bass player was credited on the album and only Rick Danko was credited on The Cutting Edge. Had "The Krogs" got his knickers in a twist? Nope, far from it. Bill Lee is right there, playing upright bass alongside Rick Danko, who is playing electric bass. It is described here by the mighty @Roger Ford in a recent update to his Electric Dylan website:- BoB - What's New I'm grateful to (name removed by me in case he prefers not to be identified ion this forum) for pointing out that there is indeed a stand-up bass on this track as well as Danko's electric bass. 'William E. Lee' had been listed in Michael Krogsgaard's notes for this session, drawn from the studio records, but Lee had never been mentioned in any album credits, and his contribution was not an audibly obvious one as the two basses largely play the same notes. This style of 'tic-tac' bass, with an electric bass (or sometimes a baritone electric guitar) doubling an upright bass, emerged in Nashville in the late 1950s, where country music producers like Owen Bradley wanted to make bass lines more audible on low-fi audio equipment which couldn't adequately reproduce the traditional stand-up bass. The clicky top end of notes played with a pick on a bass guitar would cut through even on a cheap transistor or a car radio. A nice example is Patsy Cline's "Crazy", where the stereo mix even has the two bass parts on opposite sides. Tic-tac bass was also used on many of the Beach Boys' 1960s recordings – check out "Sloop John B" for one. Here on "One Of Us Must Know", the electric and stand-up basses do occasionally diverge: For example, Bill Lee plays a different note (C) than Danko (F) at 0:19, just before the vocal line "You shouldn't take it so personal"; and in the lead-in to the choruses Danko plays quavers while Lee generally plays crotchets (twice as long). This is all most easily heard on the separate guitar and bass track (or 'stem') for this song that was included in the Collector's Edition of The Cutting Edge. For those who don't have access to that gargantuan release, you can listen to it in the Jam Session area of bobdylan.com's Studio A Revisited Micro-site: having chosen this song, all you have to do is select the guitar and bass stem (green blob) and then keep the volume right down on the other three stems. And while you're listening, you may notice that the "Did you know?" snippets that appear somewhat randomly during the song mention both Rick Danko and Bill Lee as bassists, even though the credits in The Cutting Edge listed only Danko – and of course neither was included in the Blonde On Blonde album cover credits).
Very cool. Familiar with Bill only through Strata-East Another famous example of an electric bass and upright playing at the same time is Lou Reeds Walk on the Wild Side
Bill (father of Spike) played bass on Dylan's first Columbia studio recording for Carolyn Hester's third LP in September, 1961. Produced by John Hammond, the recording also featuring Bruce "The Future Mr. Tambourine Man" Langhorne on guitar. Bill, who is now 94 years young, was also at the sessions for Bringing It All Back Home.
Yes! He plays that great bass countermelody part on It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, and at least some of the electric songs on side one. Spike was born in ‘57, so lil’ Spike probably was at home waiting for his dad to return from these sessions.
I just received a recording of Newport 1965 that merits discussion. Should I start a new thread or post it here. Tape sources for Newport 1965, both released and unofficial, are inconsistent and confusing.
I would just post your comments on this thread AND on several other Dylan threads to get some exposure. There are already many Dylan threads. Adding another just reduces exposure and discussion
Evidently two recordings were made. A multi-track stereo recording and a separate mono recording. Both sources capture audience ambience, but not the same way. Another mono tape was mixed down from the stereo recording. Right ?
On Bitches Brew Dave Holland plays acoustic and Harvey Brooks electric. Interesting in that both Dylan and Miles shocked and horrified the respective Folk and Jazz purists for plugging in.
Sounds intriguing. To say the least. I believe Audio software these days can facilitate combining all sources into a cohesive whole - and not just a 'merge' where gaps in one source are filled in from another. Things can be layered together and a stereo soundstage retained, incorporating ambient sound from various sources. All two - or three? - sources could perhaps be sync'ed together in a way that was impossible a few years ago. I look forward to hearing any results!
It just so happens to be from 1965. It is easier to simply not read a post than to complain about a post
He asked "should I post it here?" soliciting opinions. You gave yours, why shouldn't I give mine? This thread isn't about 1965, it's about the studio box set - surely there are better threads to post that information in.
Actually, this thread is about 1965 and 1966. A "Live 1965" mp3 download, although atrociously curated, came with The Cutting Edge 18-disc deluxe box-set. If I recall correctly it only included 1 track from Newport 1965 because the tie-in release The Other Side of the Mirror DVD ostensibly covered Newport 1965. I say ostensibly because it did nothing of the kind. Anyhow, thanks for your input.
Does anyone have ISIS #135 and The Hypnotist Collector 2010? that you could share with me? Both contain research papers on the Newport 1965 concert. What is the best most comprehensive published account?
I don’t know if it’s the best or most comprehensive, but I thought Elijah Wald’s fairly recent book DYLAN GOES ELECTRIC: NEWPORT, SEEGER, DYLAN AND THE NIGHT THAT SPLIT THE 60s on this subject was quite excellent. Wald is a FANTASTIC writer and researcher of a number of highly respected, thoughtful and quite original music related books, and this one DYLAN GOES ELECTRIC: NEWPORT, SEEGER, DYLAN AND THE NIGHT THAT SPLIT THE 60s is certainly all of those things, with especially great interviews and takes on the subject. I really like his work and I found this book a worthy edition to my Dylan bookshelf and a fresh take on a subject that had been more covered as legend than the facts and witnesses and participants as presented here.
Thanks for the heads up. I did not know about this book. I'll look for it on amazon. Does the author do a break down of the recordings? I wonder if the Dylan camp has seen this pdf. How can they look through this and not realize the value of his 1965 concerts and the necessity to properly master and release them?
Okay I bought it. In his intro, available to read on amazon, the author says he listened to all the original tapes. So this must be the book. Again thanks for the alert. Considering it's importance, it's just insane that after all these years there isn't a definitive release of Dylan's historic concert at Newport in 1965. The tapes exist and apparently so does more film footage. I think Murray Lerner's film is inept and a mess in terms of its assembly. It's incomplete, too. He drops an entire song out of the set.
