Dylan songs that didn't make official Albums.

I saw a rock critic once say that Dylan might be considered the greatest artist in the Rock era even if you just went by his songs that didn't make official albums. Songs that are on bootleg albums count because they didn't make the album he initially recorded it for. Does anyone agree with this or think its far fetched.

Lets start a list.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtxRk1QJ9CQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ewJYxT0ZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uB2uGYhN60

 

agreed!

 

Most definitely. Dylan's body of unreleased work could make 3 or 4 substantial careers!

 

God damn the amount of fantastic stuff he's left unreleased either completely or in alternate forms to the official versions is mind blowing

 

i believe a forum member already did this years back, it was extensive list.. i'm too tired to search the archives and don't know exactly what to write. but i'm almost certain i remember reading it here.

 

You might want to change the title of this thread from "official" to "canonical," since it appears that's what you really mean. The Bootleg Series albums are official.

 

Genuinely great Dylan songs that were never released on proper albums:

Let Me Die In My Footsteps (was but then dropped)
Lay Down Your Weary Tune
Love Is A Four Letter Word (gave to Joan Baez, never properly recorded it himself)
Percy's Song
Seven Curses
Moonshiner (traditional cover, but his arrangement and studio recording for it is a lost classic)
Mama You've Been On My Mind
I'll Keep It With Mine
Farewell Angelina
If You Gotta Go, Go Now (a single)
Positively Fourth Street (a single)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (single)
I Wanna Be Your Lover
She's Your Lover Now
Spanish Is a Loving Tongue (his arrangement of a traditional song, a B-side)
Nobody 'Cept You
Up To Me
Abandoned Love
Caribbean Wind
The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar (a single added to the LP after the fact)
Blind Willie McTell
Foot of Pride
Series of Dreams
Dignity
Red River Shore
Things Have Changed
Huck's Tune

Honorable mention: the Basement Tapes, for obvious reasons

 

I love that cover he did for Natural Born Killers . . .

 

Cross the GreenMountain
The Girl fromThe Red River Shore
Dignity
Foot of Pride
Band of the Hand
Angina
Blind Willie...

There's dozens....

 

How about 'Julius and Ethel' from the Infidels sessions.

 

I'm not there

 

The one that has always intrigued me is Wanted Man.

Did he really never record it himself?

 

one of my favorites is Percy's Song...

 

"I Don't Wanna Do It"

 

I've always loved Lay Down Your Weary Tune and Percy's Song. Oh, and Blind Willie McTell, of course - and Series Of Dreams.

 

No

 

The best way to do this is probably album-by-album. Here it is for his folky years.

Bob Dylan
"He was a Friend of Mine"
"Man on the Street"
"(As I Go) Ramblin' Round"
"House Carpenter"

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
"Going to New Orleans"
"Sally Gal"
"Rambling, Gambling Willie" *
"The Death of Emmett Till"
"Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues" *
"(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle"
"Rocks and Gravel" *
"Let Me Die in My Footsteps" *
"Talking Hava Negiliah Blues"
"Baby Please Don't Go"
"Milk Cow's Calf's Blues"
"Wichita (Going to Louisiana)"
"Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues"
"Quit Your Low Down Ways"
"Worried Blues"
"Mixed-Up Confusion" (single-only release)
"That's All Right Mama"
"Kingsport Town"
"Whatcha Gonna Do"
"Hero Blues"
"Walls of Red Wing"

The Times They Are-a Changin'
"Seven Curses"
"Farewell"
"Bob Dylan's New Orleans Rag"
"Walls of Red Wing" (again)
"Eternal Circle"
"Paths of Victory"
"Hero Blues" (again)
"Only a Hobo"
"Moonshine Blues"
"Percy's Song"
"East Laredo Blues"
"Key to the Highway"
"That's All Right Mama" (again)
"Lay Down Your Weary Tune"
"Suze (The Cough Song)"

Another Side of Bob Dylan
"Denise"
"Mr. Tambourine Man" (later released on BIABH)
"Mama, You Been on My Mind"

And then we have to consider the unique Witmark demos, of course:
"Poor Boy Blues
"Ballad for a Friend"
"Standing on the Highway"
"Long Ago Far Away"
"Bound to Lose, Bound to Win"
"All Over You"
"I'd Hate to Be You on That Dreadful Day"
"Long Time Gone"
"Walkin' Down the Line"
"Gypsy Lou"
"Ain't Gonna Grieve"
"John Brown"
"Guess I'm Doing Fine"
"I'll Keep It with Mine"

That's all in four years, folks. Additions/corrections welcome.
*Were originally on Freewheelin', but were subsequently dropped.

 

YES 100%

Anyone familiar with his unreleased material IMO would come to the same conclusion. It's an incredible body of work.

And if you're really into Bob, you've GOT to be into the unreleased stuff.

His records really only tell a portion of the story.

 

"Dusty Old Fairgrounds" from 1963. A song I love, though whoever annotated Ten of Swords disagrees.

Not to mention the other unique songs from the unreleased live album (Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie-- OK, that isn't actually a song-- and Who Killed Davey Moore).

 

His "electric years":

Bringing It All Back Home
"I'll Keep It with Mine"
"Farewell Angelina"
"If You Gotta Go, Go Now" (single-only release)
"California" (early version of "Outlaw Blues")

Highway 61 Revisited
"Sitting on a Barbed-Wire Fence"
"Why Should You Have To Be So Frantic?"
"Positively 4th Street" (single-only release)
"Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window"

Blonde on Blonde
"Medicine Sunday" (early version of "Temporary Like Achilles")
"Jet Pilot" (early version of "I Wanna Be Your Lover"?)
"Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" (single-only release)
"I Wanna Be Your Lover"
An unnamed instrumental
"She's Your Lover Now"
"I'll Keep It with Mine" (again)
"Tell Me, Momma" (only played live)

Then there's the "hotel room" songs (with fan-given names):
"Most Probably van Gogh"
"Don't Tell Him, Tell Me"
"If You Want My Love"
"What Kind of Friend Is This"
"I Can't Leave Her Behind"
"On a Rainy Afternoon"

Additions/corrections welcome.