Bob Dylan: The 1966 Live Recordings - Sony 36-CD box-set - November 11th 2016

You may have hit on a good idea there. No, not the wife. The monthly withdrawal from the bank. If the Dylan organization wants to start a subscription service where they release say, perhaps, one archival tape per month on disc, I think my card could handle it providing the price isn't punitive.

 

You're right. It starts with one archival tape a month, then you start to spend the weeks in between just waiting for the next one so you get another two weeks later, just this once. It's not a problem, you just had that work bonus, you deserve a treat. But then that really, really special tape appears a week layer and you just have to have it. So the roof needs repairing, it's mid-summer, it's not going to rain, it can wait a month. Soon you're buying one tape a week, then every day until finally you're starting to play one tape before the last one has finished, rain is pouring down the walls and your tapes are the only thing floating around the room in plastic crates. Then you have to abandon the house and you end up being found face down in a dumpster clutching your San Francisco 1965 recording to your chest. Still, it was worth it.

 

my thing is.. why has it taken this long for this to happen (i mean with virtually everything being officially released when they have had it vaults for decades) . I mean for the people who have time and can slog thru 36 concerts from one year its great. WOuld of been a lot better if these were releasded in 1972 or the 80s. Im like this with a lot of the stuff you see on youtube also. Why is this stuff only seing the light of day now. just baffeling

 

I think it's a combination of money, technology and a changing audience. The fact is that copyright laws are forcing the hands of record companies to release things from the 60s or lose it. CDs are also dying off and add to this the fact that the biggest audience for much of this stuff is not getting any younger, and you have the reason why you are seeing these massive box sets by artists like Dylan, Beatles, Pink Floyd, etc.

 

That makes sense, though if there hands werent being forced, would this stuff ever been released. What is the end game with this stuff, wait for everyone to die and hope someone from this techno hip hop generation to goes, HELL YEA ALL THE CONCERTS from BOB DYLAN in 66. Its like im 47 and have no desire to listen to 36 concerts from 66 of the same stuff but when I was 25 I would be all in. I just dont knwo what the end game of all this vault stuff is expecially for stuff in 60s, you guys have to be close to 60 now

 

CirculationUnderflow: are you kidding?

Dylan's audience spans every generation. His songs are like Shakespeare's plays. Just because the plays are four hundred years old doesn't mean people will lose interest. People in their teens and twenties go to Dylan's concerts and listen to albums, too. A younger generation also sings and records his songs.

In fact, people who listen to music generally start listening to music that was recorded before they were born.

As you go through life you will constantly be exposed to music from different periods that interests you. But music isn't a game of chess nor an exit strategy after a war. There is no endgame because the interest in music never ends. People will always be discovering old music as well as new music.

 

I remember when I was close to 60, a few years ago, and thinking, "I'm still alive, how did this happen?" I still am close to 60 but not in the way that you mean..

It is, pure and simple, the EU copyright laws that have enabled us to immerse ourselves in the 50th Anniversary Collections from '62, '63 '64, Big Blue18, the Live '65 download and The Live 1966 Recordings over the last few years. The releases would not have happened otherwise, and I for one am loving it. Protection of copyright seems to be paramount for Bob Inc. I'm as certain as Bob Inc. is that future generations will be buying this stuff. Even now, 3 generations are buying Bob's recorded output and attending his shows.

I'll admit that I don't listen to the '62, '63, and '64 collections much, or the '65 live collection, but Big Blue and The 1966 Live Recordings are being played a lot around here. The latter is the same songs, sure enough, but they are all different...

Having said all the above, it has been strongly indicated that the John Wesley Harding outtakes will not be released specifically to protect the copyright this year.

 

It doesn't make sense for them not to want to protect the copyright on the John Wesley Harding outtakes . The only reason I can think of for them not wanting to is that they're positive there's never going to be a physical release of them. Which seems kind of shortsighted. Maybe someday whoever's running Sony, and Bob's descendants, might want to release them.

 

Perhaps the Dylan organization is confident that the John Wesley Harding sessions never leaked out.

 

They are confident of that, and said as much when indicating that the outtakes would not be released in any form. We do know the outtakes are at the Tulsa Archives.

 

Where and when did they say this?

 

I'm in.

 

From "a source close to Bob..."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... et-w444654
October 17, 2016

"Next year marks the 50th anniversary of John Wesley Harding, but there won’t be any copyright-protection release of the raw sessions for a simple reason: bootleggers never got their hands on the session tapes."

 

I'd pay a subscription fee just to have access to the library of scanned documents. I know that they're not planning to do something quite like this, at least o but I'd like to think that subscriptions from people like me (surely not JUST me?) would help subsidize the operation.

I'm 10 years older than you, and can't get enough of this. I know that plenty of folks on this thread are 10 or more years older than ME.

I'll also note that I'm by no means the biggest Bob nerd I know, and I've already heard pretty much every show from most of my favorite years -- especially 2001-2003, just over 300 shows. Part of the pleasure of those that there was never a repeated setlist, but it's not like these 1966 shows are by any means identical, even when the setlists are.....but I'm now at the point where if we're gonna have a tour or recording session documented, I want it freaking documented.

I'll pause once again to remind everyone at Sony that I'm still waiting to pay for my Big Blue BANTER Box, featuring nothing but the talking bits that were excised from Big Blue.

 

Sign me up for the Big Blue BANTER box.

Dylan is by no means the only one; Neil Young, the Stones, to some extent the Beatles, Johnny Cash, Springsteen, the Doors, and of course Elvis Presley to name a few have all reached into their archives to satisfy public demand. We have entered a new reality in popular music, which is the interest in music history, in the creative process of sessions and tours.

Way to go! Thanks for looking that up. I remember reading it now but could not recall it to mind before.

 

I'll throw in Pearl Jam and The Allman Brothers Band, who'd at one point been releasing every show for their tours on CD around the turn of the century. (I still have one from the Allmans from 2003, with "We'd like to play a Duane Allman song for you" as they launch into "Layla". )

Do people still do this? They should, or some variation of it. Now that it's so easy with downloads, I have no idea why any band with a team of any size isn't making every show available for sale. Do it at the venue if that's how you'd like to preserve the value for the live experience, but do it. I'd happily buy every show I attend instead of hitting the reload button at [sitename here] like a monkey on crack praying that somebody in the audience got something halfway decent.

I do get why some people don't want to share every detail of the studio. I know that Bob's not nuts about it, but felt pressured into it by bootleggers. (Well done, lads. ] I also have some sympathy for Sony still trying to figure out what people will pay for, and how to package it. I think they gave away the 65 downloads because it solved a problem (copyright extension) without creating a new one (uhm, how the hell do we sell this?). I don't think they were prepared for the demand for Big Blue, and I think they have to be more than a little pleased by the reaction to this set.

This one is the right compromise between giving us everything for free, and the premium Bootleg Series: give us everything in solid, professional package, streamlined for economy, let us buy the books separately if we want, and trust us to build something magnificent as a community.

I really do think that this thread is one of the great achievements of the internet age, my contributions to which largely consisting of saying how much I love the work that people like you, @Percy Song, @Somebody Naked, @notesfrom etc etc etc are doing...but "magnificent" almost feels too faint. I'll go with miraculous.

My greatest hope is that it emboldens Sony to really get how serious we are about wanting all of it, and how ready we are to pay for it, especially when it's priced like this for 36 or more disks, with opportunities for carefully curated and researched premium efforts with fewer disks in the mix. I'm all-in on the subscription idea, but I'm also loving the concept of one "kit and kaboodle, priced to move" box AND one "curated premium" package every year, plus a new album every couple of years. Especially if the next one has some songs written by Nobel Bob.

Ain't none of us gonna be here forever. We've given y'all plenty of ideas, so what're you waiting on?

 

What a shame. JWH is my favorite Dylan album, I'd pay through the nose for a box set of outtakes

 

Perfect! Thanks for saying it for the rest of us.

 

Yes, it's probably mine too. Maybe. After Blonde on Blonde. Perhaps. Depending on the day and time of year. So many variables!

The daft thing is that it probably wouldn't have to be an expensive box; a double CD should cover it. I recall somewhere that Michael Chaiken, curator at Tulsa Archives, indicated that the outtakes were a more interesting listening experience than the list below suggests.

The sessions according to Michael Krogsgaard:-

There have been rumours of a September 1967 session prior to the actual recording of John Wesley Harding. There are no session dates in Bob Dylan's name in the Nashville log books prior to the three John Wesley Harding sessions. For the first two sessions, all details are available:


Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
Nashville, Tennessee
October 17, 1967, 9 pm - 12 midnight.

Produced by Bob Johnston


1. Drifter's Escape CO120927 Take 1C
2. Drifter's Escape Take 2C
3. Drifter's Escape Take 3b
4. Drifter's Escape Take 4b
5. Drifter's Escape Take 5C

6. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine CO120928 Take 1B
7. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine Take 2C
8. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine Take 3C
9. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine Take 4C

10. The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest
CO120929 Take 1C


Musicians: Charlie McCoy (bass) and Kenneth Buttrey (drums).


2, 9 and 10 released on John Wesley Harding.


Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
Nashville, Tennessee
November 6, 1967, 6:00 - 9:30 pm.

Produced by Bob Johnston


1. All Along The Watchtower CO120955 Take 1b
2. All Along The Watchtower Take 2C
3. All Along The Watchtower Take 3C
4. All Along The Watchtower (Insert) Take 1b
5. All Along The Watchtower (Insert) Take 2C

6. John Wesley Harding CO120956 Take 1C
7. John Wesley Harding Take 2C

8. As I Went Out One Morning CO120957 Take 1C
9. As I Went Out One Morning Take 2C
10. As I Went Out One Morning Take 3B
11. As I Went Out One Morning Take 4b
12. As I Went Out One Morning Take 5C

13. I Pity The Poor Immigrant CO120958 Take 1b
14. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Take 2C
15. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Take 3b
16. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Take 4C
17. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Take 5B
18. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Take 6B
19. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Take 7b
20. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Take 8B
21. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Take 9B
22. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Take 10C

23. I Am A Lonesome Hobo CO120959 Take 1C
24. I Am A Lonesome Hobo Take 2b
25. I Am A Lonesome Hobo Take 3C
26. I Am A Lonesome Hobo Take 4C
27. I Am A Lonesome Hobo Take 5C


Musicians: Charlie McCoy (bass) and Kenneth Buttrey (drums).


A splice of 3 and 5, and 7, 12, 22, 27 released on John Wesley Harding.


For the third session, the session tape has been located but not been available for examination yet:


Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
Nashville, Tennessee
November 29, 1967, 6:00 - 9:00 pm and 9:00 - 12 midnight.

Produced by Bob Johnston


1. Wicked Messenger CO120960

2. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight CO120961

3. Down Along The Cove CO120962

4. Dear Landlord CO120963


6-9 pm: The Wicked Messenger and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight recorded.
9-12 pm: Down Along The Cove, and Dear Landlord recorded.


Musicians: Charlie McCoy (bass) and Kenneth Buttrey (drums).
9-12: Pete Drake (steel guitar).


All tracks released on John Wesley Harding.

#

 

The story goes that after the JWH sessions Dylan approached Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson asked him they would dub some enhancements over the tracks. They listened to the tapes and said, No, they're just fine the way they are.

They were right, the album sounds great the way it is, but I wish outtakes like that did exist.

 

I always wondered if there were some electronic outtakes in the can.

 

Sony's Bootleg Series sets and the copyright protection sets were counter-attacks on specific black-market bootleg sets. The 1962, 1963, 1964 and live 1965 download copyright-protection sets contained much choice material, but were so limited in quantity and access that pirates stepped in to supply the greater demand. The pirate copies are still going strong. This revenue should go to Sony and Dylan if only they would release the sets properly.

Money burns a hole in my pocket for official editions Dylan's early 1960s copyright-protection sets and additional material from that time frame. There are studio sessions and live concerts and TV appearances that can flesh out what's already been issued to make the official box-sets attractive to Dylan fans, as if it weren't attractive already.

There is a whole other energy at work in the pre-1966 tours and concerts. Listening to them is a fascinating way to follow the arc of Bob Dylan's progress, and reveals how he got there creatively. In other words, the dimensions to listening are not limited to songs on an album or a few live tracks here and there. There's so much more going on. Listening to the the earlier tours will only enhance the 1966 concerts because they put 1966 into a larger context. Likewise, The Brimstone Tour -- my term for the fall 1979 gospel concerts -- was brief but unprecedented in its creative venture, cultural impact and audience interaction. Frisco, Tucson, Tempe/Phoenix, Albuquerque, San Diego and Santa Monica. These were hellacious shows. The next year's shows were fine but they were not hellacious. What Dylan achieved on that brief tour is incredible. Listening to those concerts in chronological order will effect you not unlike listening to the 1966 concerts in chronological order. There is an arc of creative expression, personal growth and social progress to it.

 

If Sony has any sense, the contents of the limited 1962-1964 and live 1965 copyright protection sets will be included in The Complete Album Collection Vol. 2 as an incentive for the rest of us to buy all the Bootleg Series volumes all over again.

I suspect quite a few members of this forum would be very happy with that. I certainly would...

 

If the price point is similar to that of vol 1, then I'd be in.

 

I always hear great things about these shows, but have never dived in. What, in your opinion, is the best show? Best performance? Best recording?