Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 (part2) Bob Dylan

I hear that a lot, but I like[d] both sides. Bought a lot of 45s in those days, including SITLT. My favorite Dylan b-side was the live version of Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues. It was tantalizing.

 

Or LP purchase...

 

Even better! Arnie

 

Further on the fantastic "Railroad Bill"--Great version by Dylan from mythic pre-war ballad about a crazed real-life turn of the century railroad killer.

From one folk source: "The legend of Railroad Bill arose in the winter of 1895, along the Louisville and Nashville (L&N) railroad line in southern Alabamna," Based loosely on the exploits of an African American outlaw known as "Railroad Bill," tales of his brief but action-filled career on the wrong side of the law have been preserved in song, fiction, and theater. He has been variously portrayed as a "Robin Hood" character, a murderous criminal, a shape shifter, and a nameless victim of the Jim Crow South. He was never conclusively identified, but L&N detectives claimed he was a man named Morris Slater, and some residents of Brewton believed him to be a man called Bill McCoy who was shot by local law enforcement. Stories about Railroad Bill began to surface in early 1895, when an armed vagrant began riding the L&N boxcars between Flomaton and Mobile. He earned the nickname "Railroad Bill," or sometimes just "Railroad," from the trainmen who had trouble detaining the rifle-wielding hitchhiker. On March 6, 1895, railroad employees attempted to restrain a man they found sleeping on a water tank along the railroad. The man fired on them and escaped into the woods after hijacking a train car. This incident sparked a manhunt by railroad company detectives that led a posse to Bay Minette on April 6, 1895. When detectives confronted an armed man there, he killed Baldwin County deputy sheriff James H. Stewart in the ensuing gunfight and evaded capture again.
The hunt for Railroad Bill persisted until March 7, 1896, when a man was gunned down by a host of law enforcement officials at Tidmore and Ward's General Store in Atmore, a depot. Accounts of the final episode in Railroad Bill's bloody career widely differ. Some say that authorities surprised and killed the man as he sat on an oak barrel eating cheese and crackers. Other accounts say that he engaged the lawmen in a shoot-out in front of the store, and still others contend that he walked into a trap at Tidmore and Ward's town along the L&N."

The bloody ballad's antecedents include a scratchy 1924 version by Riley Puckett and Gid Tanner; a 1929 woozy effort by Frank Hutchinson and later efforts by the underestimated Cisco Houston and another by Dylan's pal, Ramblin' Jack Elliott.

But the all-time most mind-boggling version is a 1929 pre-war blues version by Will Bennett, who sings like a drugged phantom in the wild lyrics below:

"Railroad Bill, ought to be killed
Never worked and he never will

Railroad Bill done took my wife
Threatened on me, that he would take my life

Going up on the mountain, take my stand (chance)
Forty-one derringer in my right and left hand

Going up on the mountain, going out west
Forty-one gun just sticking in my breast

Buy me a gun just as long as my arm
Kill everybody ever done me wrong

Buy me a gun with a shiny barrel
Kill somebody about my good-looking gal

Got a thirty-eight special on a forty-four frame
How in the world can I miss him when I've got dead aim

When I went to the doctor, asked him what the matter could be
Said if you don't stop drinking, son, it'll kill you dead

Going to drink my liquor, drink it in the wind
Doctor said it will kill me, but he never said when

If the river was brandy and I was a duck
I'd sink to the bottom and I'd never come up

Honey, honey, do you think of me
Times have caught me living on pork and beans

Son, you talk about your honey, you ought to see mine
She's humpbacked, bow-legged, crippled and blind

Honey, honey, do you think I'm a fool
Think I'm going to quit you while the weather is cool

Honey, honey, quit your worrying me
It's going through the world in my heart disease

Going to the mountain do everything
Go through the world on the Natchez Queen

 

where is "telephone wire" from?

 

Okay I've been looking forward to this set for a long time and I'm really pleased with what we've got here. It seems like they've taken care to find unique (and unbooted) stuff - like we thankfully didn't get much from the Harrison tape or other stuff that's been out there. It's an admittedly spotty period that may not have as much of an interest to the more casual fans, but they've put together a really listenable collection. As much as I love this period, I think Dylan was headed for the ditch commercially no matter what. But one thing this set makes clear is that he probably could have put together a 'Dylan reinterprets trad folk' album that probably would have sold and may have been better accepted by the establishment at the time than the actual SP. Of course I'm glad we got what we got with Self Portrait in all its goofy glory, but he could have put together a more cohesive album, I could imagine something similar to Another Side in its ragged collection of spontaneous brilliance. It's just that the peaks are more minor, mellow but for some reason I love this period & this set.
Other thoughts -
Little Sadie - still stinks, I just can't stand that performance and In Search Of is not much better - what there's no Little Sadie with horn overdubs?
When I Paint My Masterpiece demo - stunning, that song has always resonated with such deep meaning for me and somehow his inflections here manage to find new folds, also hadn't ever heard the 'sailing around the world' bit outside of Cahoots
Annie, This Evening So Soon, These Hands - so glad to have these but I almost want to hear the SP overdubs on these, that spare bass and drum sound
New Morning with horns - I like this a lot but I think the track would actually work better in a mono mix, like some old forgotten 45 version, the horn arrangement is good but doesn't really warrant the out front (or is to the right?) placement, I guess Al Kooper is taking credit for this
Sign On The Window - again it's a bit much as is with the orchestral arrangement but with some more subtle mixing I think this could have worked really well on that album
Just some initial thoughts, getting ready to jump into the Isle of Wight, clearly not the best performance but I'm so glad we have it here with better sound.

 

The Harrison session.

 

Yeah, but that was a 'bonus cd', as you note. Isle of Wight is part of the set itself. The best comparison is with the third disc from Tell Tale Signs, which of course remains exclusive to the expensive boxset four years on.

On the other hand, disc three of TTS was a third disc, whereas Isle of Wight is ultimately a standalone item within the bigger boxset, so you could also make the argument that my point above is an invalid comparison. If so, I hope you're right!

Plus, although it's not a perfect alternative, the Isle of Wight show is included in the deluxe itunes version, so in theory you can get it there outside the expensive (physical) box. If they let you buy the songs individually, you can just get the tracks not included in the standard two-disc version ('Highway 61 Revisited' & 'I'll Be Your Baby Tonight', if memory serves) or the four on Self Portrait itself.

 

What's weirder is that Columbia didn't do just that when they put out "Dylan" a couple years later - would have made more marketing sense. Probably too much effort for a cash-in that went gold no matter what was on it.

 

I may go down the ITunes route to get the IOW concert. If I buy the 2CD physical copy and the ITunes deluxe, it'll cost me about £32, as opposed to around £60 for the deluxe box (which would also include the remastered SP though). It's probably as cheap to get the entire ITunes deluxe than to just buy the IOW tracks separately.

 

Remember 2 of the IOW tracks are on the 2CD so you it's 15 tracks to download, should be cheaper than buying the whole Deluxe edition on iTunes.

 

Yes, but will they be faded out on the main CDs? Plus I need the concert 'intro' which would be another 99 pence!

So for £19.99 I think I'll just download the whole package and then pick up the 2CD later in the week.

 

I'm in for the whole deluxe package, but I'm really glad Sony made the set complete w/IOW available digitally for a much more reasonable price. The IOW deserves to be heard, and this will help make that much more realistic.

 

My question, Slane, is that isn't the set already available in your parts? Why are you still deliberating and not enjoying the pleasures of actually listening to the set?

 

Yes, like I say for under £2o it's a good deal. Even when I buy the physical 2CD for £12, that only makes £32 in total. All I'm missing out on is the remastered SP (which I know inside out, and maybe will get a separate release). And for a (slightly haphazardly recorded) live concert, I don't really mind ITunes, but for the pristine studio tracks I'll want the CDs.

Just about to download! I had a busy weekend doing 5 gigs, so I'm a bit slow today, can't even be bothered to go into town to pick up the CD, so this will tide me over nicely.

 

Looking forward to your impressions!

 

I'll let you know. May listen to IOW first actually, as I've been listening to the streaming of the (mostly) studio tracks.

 

ah-ha. thanks.

i've been following this thread on and off, so forgive me if this has been answered. but why weren't more of the george harrison sessions used on this set? they fit the time period... same with the johnny cash sessions.

anyway, i've been listening to 'another self portrait' for a few days, and i really like what's on there!

 

Well, I don't think it'll be too controversial for me to assert that MOST of the Harrison session (actually, sessions) is pretty bad. But there are select highlights that went overlooked (Sean Murdock will rightly point out "Song for Woody" as one example). "Time Passes Slowly" is a unexpected delight, as it was previously uncirculated and turns out to be lots of fun (though I'm still VERY curious what the Self Portrait sessions version sounded like, and sad that it was crowded out by two other takes of the song).

 

I'm with you. I like the album a lot, though I can fully understand why some fans struggle to embrace it. As it's compiled from two very distinct sets of sessions, with two very different sensibilities (Nashville and New York, almost a year apart), in addition to select tracks from a controversial concert in between, so it had a very real schizophrenic quality that's not alway easy to absorb. And once you add the often over-the-top overdubs, it's almost game over. And yet, there is something there that keeps drawing me back. Maybe it's just it's sheer weirdness, but I find the album, even at it's worst, to be interesting and certainly never boring-- which separates it from the likes of Knocked Out Loaded and Down in the Groove, as far as I'm concerned.

 

I hear ya! My name is Mark and I have an addiction! Ordered the Deluxe set from Amazon which should arrive Wednesday or Thursday but couldn't walk past a record store in Ireland on Saturday and resist buying the 2CD set..... It's a disease I tell you

 

This is a really good set. I have already listened to it twice. I usually don't listen to a Dylan bootleg series release twice in a row upon purchase. Who thought that something this good could have been culled from the 1969-70 sessions? The other Bootleg Series issues were more common,, no-brainer type projects. Another Self Portrait came out of left field.

 

This has to be the oddest pricing of any release in recent memory. I was really surprised that Amazon has not been competitive with pricing. Especially since the 4 disc box has been significantly cheaper on ImportCD and Deepdiscount. And I just got an email from Popmarket offering the set as well. I cannot remember popmarket offering a new release.

 

My Amazon deluxe set just got shipped, and it was still $98, as it was when I ordered it. The Popmarket deal is a full $15 LESS -- $83 for the 4-CD set!

 

If this Bootleg Series Vol. 10 is a success -- it's already a critical smash -- it bodes well for the future of the Bootleg Series. Hey, I want a better Basement Tapes set as much as anyone, but these -- along with the Blonde On Blonde mega-box and the NYC Blood On The Tracks -- are "safe" projects, and they'll come out eventually. I want them to feel emboldened by Vols. 8 and 10 and continue to release "out of left field" sets. I want a comprehensive look at the gospel period (with Toronto 1980 or San Francisco 1979 as the live bonuses). I want a brave, unblinking look at the mid-80s -- aided by the inclusion of Infidels material, no doubt, but unafraid to wade into the murky waters of 1985-1988. I want the Supper Club shows. I want Yet Another Self Portrait: Rare And Unreleased, 1990-1995. The Bob Dylan vault is the Harry Potter "room of requirement" for Dylan fans -- no matter what you're looking for from Bob, there's something in here for you. I want it ALL.