Bob Dylan Bootleg Vol. 9 / Mono Box / Best of Mono News

I have a mono copy of Highway 61 and it has the common version.

 

I looked it up, all mono pressings had the common version, but some early stereo pressings had the alternate take.

 

And The Beach Boys

 

You also have the alternate version of "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" that inadvertently appeared on some 45s of "Positively Fourth Street."

Also, some of Dylan's post-JWH singles were issued on mono stock copy 45s in the U.S.:
"I Threw It All Away"
"Lay Lady Lay" / "Peggy Day"
"Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" / "Country Pie"
"Watching the River Flow" / "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue"

And if you want to get really complete, there were mono single edits of "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" and "Just Like a Woman," plus the promo "Part 1" and "Part 2" splitting of "Like a Rolling Stone."

 

We have a (mostly) full disc now.

 

I am sure I will buy both of these - there is so much stuff yet to be released that it is easy to gripe at the Whitmark demos but the DO deserve to be available legally. They are a fascinating body of work.

I have not heard mono mixes of anything so I look forward to the box. I am sure the last 4 will be interesting to hear - but the first four are (on everything but Corrina Corrina if I am not mistaken) just a guy and his guitar or piano with maybe a harmonica. How different of a listening experience can this be?

 

I felt the same way until I heard 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" in mono.
Now, I don't want to hear the lps in stereo anymore.
That one track was VERY different, but it seems the mono mixes "support the songs better" to my ears.

 

I think you will, unless you find Dylan less fascinating overall.

 

I am not a mono purist - plenty of great 60s stereo mixes out there. But Bringing It All Back Home has to be heard in mono. The mono mix is _complete_; in comparison, the stereo mix sounds like an afterthought.

 

Like a Rolling Stone has a very different mix in mono. I first heard the song on the radio in mono, and I was very surprised when I heard the stereo LP. It sounds very different.

 

Yes, the mono mix has the lead instruments (organ and guitar) somewhat in the background, with the piano prominent.

 

I think LARS is one of the few Dylan's 60s tracks that sounds a little better in stereo - maybe the sound of it is so ingrained in my brain, but the mono mix doesn't quite do it for me. Most of the other monos mixes are preferable though.

It would be a shame if we didn't get a few bonuses thrown in to the box - I would like to have the singles - especially Positively 4th Street. Would be better to have them collected on a separate CD.

 

A mono singles disc would be the only reason I would invest in the box, and I'd want to see 'Crawl Out Your Window' from the mis-pressed 'Positively...' 45 on there.

 

The acoustic stuff sounds much better in mono, and all the vinyl rips I have heard suggest that everything except JWH is essential. I'm very happy this is being released, hope the packaging is nice.

Witmarks are as everyone who has heard them has mentioned, fairly tame run throughs for the most part. There would have to be a stunning sonic upgrade for me to put it on more than once or twice.

 

ONE key track: Positively 4th Street. That's it.

 

Love this single so much I've got 3 of 'em!

 

Whoa! Dig that avatar! I saw Wayne and the CC Riders at the Miami Pop Festival in December, 1968 and I swear his pompadour was two feet high on its own!

 

When was stereo given equal weight mix-wise?

Q for the assembled SHF members: When did American producers/engineers start paying equal attention to stereo and mono mixes? I've heard that the US were well ahead of Britain in adopting stereo. If the last mono Dylan album was 1968, I've got to think that by the mid-60s, stereo was being taken seriously.

Comments and opinions please!

 

Aren't most of the tracks on GH the 45 versions? Or is that not the case with the mono?

They won't do it but maybe they can add the mono Positively as bonus on Highway 61. Or even better and an extra CD single f the mono with original sleeve replica. Of course that squarely falls in the range of impossibility from Sony would be my guess.


P.S. Would be Killer if this was done like the Beatles mono box. Since this product is for a niche audience compared to the normal stereo my hope is they make no attempt to modernize the sound. Especially since Dylan is a huge supporter of Dynamic range. If not there is always the mono's the Dr gave us

 

Forgive me, but I'm not excited by either project.

 

All usual full LP versions, stereo & mono. 4th St was a non-LP 45, the only cut not readily available anywhere (in stereo, at least) at the time (I know about the CBS sampler with the extended version, but I said "readily").

 

Most of the major labels stopped releasing mono LPs at the end of 1967, Columbia, Dunhill and Elektra released a few up to August of 1968. There are threads about this in the archives.

 

Contemporaneous accounts (from Billboard) show that all record companies were still releasing mono LP’s at the end of 1967 and into 1968. By the beginning of 1968 there was a movement afoot to charge the same price for mono LP’s and for stereo LP’s; a move designed to kill the mono LP.

I don’t think record companies started paying as much attention to stereo as much as mono until stereo started outselling mono and that did not happen until the end of 1967.

 

The mono mix has an effect on Dylan's vocal that makes it sound very different than the more straight forward stereo mix. Also the drums are very prominent on the mono mix.

 

After the tremendous upgrade of the Beatles IN MONO box, I'm eager to get my hands and ears on more dedicated mono mixes from the sixties.