It's official: Mono Dylan John Wesley Harding vinyl November 25

From the official Sundazed November releases, here's the lowdown on the JWH mono LP! It has a "street date" of November 25.

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Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding
Sundazed LP 5123 (available on 180 gram vinyl only)

Ranking near the top of anyone's list of Dylan's masterpieces, this post-motorcycle-accident career-turning-point finds Dylan veering from the razor-edged desperation of "All Along The Watchtower" to the gentle, back-porch sway of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"--and all points in between. Back at last, in its ultra-rare original mono mix, this landmark LP--cut with the cream of Nashville's studio cats and generally credited as a blueprint for the era's country-rock movement--sizzles on Sundazed 180-gram vinyl, as always, the industry standard.

TRACKS: John Wesley Harding / As I Went Out One Morning / I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine / All Along the Watchtower / The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest / Drifter¹s Escape / Dear Landlord / I Am a Lonesome Hobo / I Pity the Poor Immigrant / The Wicked Messenger / Down Along the Cove / I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

- exact repro on 180-gram vinyl of Dylan's Nashville-recorded masterpiece
- John Wesley Harding was the last Bob Dylan album to feature its own unique mono mix
- cut directly from the original Columbia Records analog mono masters
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Isn't the mono version of John Wesley Harding a fold-down of the stereo master rather than a true mono mix?

 

I'd always heard the same thing. I just reported what I got from Sundazed.

 

Quote above first reported in the other "Dylan Classic Records Vinyl" thread September 30th, I confirmed it will be Mono (from a Red Trumpet's e-mail) a few days after and questioned the MONO (since everybody knows it is a foldown). The more Dylan vinyl posts the better.

 

Dylan's manager asked Sundazed to put out onto mono vinyl all of Bob's albums for which unique mono mixes exist. JWH is the last of this series. Too bad these mixes are being left of the SACD releases.

Richard.

 

Absolutely. Just as sad is the fact that they included all these countless remixes of "Sympathy for the Devil" in the new SACD hybrid single and they could not include the original MONO mix.

 

Classic's Roy Orbison titles done in mono which I believe were foldowns have got positive reviews. I guess we'll have to wait to pass judgement on JWH in mono. I know I'll reserve my copy based on all the other Sundazed Dylan monos I have and immensely enjoy listening to!

 

Good point!

 

Maybe that JWH mono fold-down business is just good old urban legend! Or, Dylan's management doesn't no what their doing. Take your pick!

 

I have the original mono release and I hear nothing different on it.

 

Or maybe, just maybe (being optimistic here), a mono mix was actually made back then but the LP ended up a fold-down because of schedule/error(s)/other.

 

I second that! If there is any difference it escapes me.

 

Do y'all mean that it doesn't sound different from the stereo mix? That would seem to confirm that it's a fold-down.

 

I think the Dylan camp's philosophy with Sundazed is that if it was released in mono originally (true mix/fold-down, doesn't mastter) then it's part of the series.

 

That's what I meant.

 

I used to think this to be the last commercially-released mono pressing on Columbia in the US (January 1968), but I recently found a stock copy of Big Brother And The Holding Company's "Cheap Thrills" in mono (August 1968).

 

And since they've apparently approved the licensing of the stereo version to Classic Records, as part of that series, we can eventually compare the two new versions.

 

I'm sure Bob Dylan does not know. It is likely that his current manager does not know. Bob Irwin did find a master tape for the mono mix but I'm sure he does not know for sure how it was created.

Richard.

 

I second Todd's theory.

 

The is also a Columbia mono version of Blood, Sweat & Tears 1st album and a Mono Promo of Beckola (the stock release is rumored but unconfirmed). All including the Cheap Thrills are fold-downs.

 

In between those two, "Bookends" by Simon & Garfunkel was also released in mono, and it had a dedicated mono mix, at least on Side 2. Some other 1968 Columbia albums came out on stock copies in mono as well.

 

The searchingforagem Dylan website quoted Tim Livingston of Sundazed as saying:

"I checked with our producer Bob Irwin, who has worked with all the Dylan tapes, and John Wesley Harding was most definitely not a true mono mix--it was simply a reduction of the stereo master."

 

I have yet to find that one. Side two is mostly previously issued singles that had distinct mono mixes, it probably plays a bit quieter. I believe the soundtrack to "The Graduate" was issued in mono, I have a vague recollection of seeing one.

 

Side one of "Bookends" in mono is also true mono throughout, probably owing to the fact that when most of its tracks were recorded in early to mid 1967, preparing separate stereo and mono mixes was still de rigueur.

"The Graduate" was indeed issued in mono, promotionally and commercially (I have a commercial copy).

 

A fold-down mono version of Nashville Skyline (1969) was reportedly issued in the UK.