Post by William J. Clinton on Dec 6, 2004 9:56:28 GMT -5
PERNICIOUS NONSENSE
Volume III, Number 1
This is the opening installment of, I hope, a series of columns/comments on commercial Bob Dylan bootlegs. One of the peculiar consequences of the evolution of the online trading community and of the commercial bootlegging industry is that it's often possible to evaluate products before their actual release and circulation, because it's become surprisingly easy to identify the sources for announced releases, and accurately report on them even before they hit the street. Future installments will, I hope, mix previews and reviews more evenly; this opening broadside is weighted more heavily toward previews. There are a number of devices, phrases, etc. used here that should be familiar to at least some readers; these are intended both as homage and as means for maintaining continuity with valuable efforts of the past.
[shadow=red,left,300]MUST TO AVOID[/shadow]
Walk Like A Duck, Smell Like A Skunk
Hollow Horn 2CD
(1) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); November 20, 1961
(2) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); November 22, 1961
(3) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); April 24, 1962
(4) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); April 25, 1962
(5) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); July 9, 1962
(6) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); October 26, 1962
(7) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); November 1, 1962
(8) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); November 14, 1962
(9) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); December 6, 1962
(10) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); April 24, 1963
(11) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); August 6, 1963
(12) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); August 7, 1963
(13) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); August 12, 1963
(14) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); October 23, 1963
(15) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); October 24, 1963
(16) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); June 9, 1964 [from Grogan acetates]
Tracklist: (1) Connecticut Cowboy, He Was A Friend Of Mine*
(2) Man On The Street*, House Carpenter*
(3) Goin' To New Orleans, Rambling Gambling Willie [mono mix], Corrina Corrina, Death Of Emmett Till, Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, I Heard That Lonesome Whistle
(4) Rocks And Gravel, Let Me Die In My Footsteps (mono mix, unedited), Talkin' Hava Negeilah Blues*, Sally Gal, Baby Please Don't Go, Milk Cow Calf's Blues, Wichita (Going To Louisiana), Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues*
(5) Baby I'm In The Mood For You*, Quit Your Low Down Ways*, Worried Blues*, Baby I'm In The Mood For You
(6) That's Alright Mama
(7) Mixed Up Confusion
(8) Ballad Of Hollis Brown, Kingsport Town*, Whatcha Gonna Do
(9) Hero Blues, Whatcha Gonna Do, I Shall Be Free*, I Shall Be Free, Hero Blues
(10) Walls Of Red Wing*
(11) Seven Curses*, Farewell (inc take)
(12) Eternal Circle (inc)
(13) Paths Of Victory*, Bob Dylan's New Orleans Rag (fragment), Moonshiner*, Eternal Circle, Only A Hobo*
(14) Times They Are A-Changin'* (Love And Theft bonus track), That's All Right Mama
(15) Lay Down Your Weary Tune*, Suze (mono mix), Bob Dylan's New Orleans Rag
(16) Denise Denise, Mr. Tambourine Man [w/Jack Elliott], I Shall Be Free #10 (inc take), Mama You Been On My Mind*
This awful, awful set has inexplicably been favorably previewed in ICE and (more explicably) HotWacks. It is a semi-piratical, thoroughly botched condensation of the For Sale Or Just On The Shelf fan project. Roughly 20 of the 50 tracks have been officially released* (despite what the album notes claim), while at least as many unreleased alternate takes and variant forms have been excluded. (A few more inclusions are variant forms of officially released tracks.) The only even remotely uncommon track is the 32-second "Connecticut Cowboy," the spoken introduction lopped off a song included on Bob Dylan. Even the title quotation is reportedly mangled. An inexplicably awful, utterly misguided effort. The packaging is fairly slapdash; several attractively tinted photos wrap an utterly inadequate track/sourcelist. If you have Biograph, The Bootleg Series 1-3, and the Freewheelin' outtakes, you certainly should have little interest in this mess; if you don't, the archival fan project For Sale Or Just On The Shelf is more complete, better organized, and a much better successful effort at placing these songs in the natural context -- the motive Hollow Horn dubiously puts out to justify this collection.
=========================================
[shadow=red,left,300]MIXED BLESSING[/shadow]
If Your Memory Serves You Well (aka Dr. Bob Dylan)
Doberman 349-52 4D
(1) Barrowland Ballroom (Glasgow, Scotland); June 24, 2004
(2) Scottish Exhibition & Conference Center (Glasgow, Scotland); June 23, 2004
(3) Metro Radio Arena (Newcastle, UK); June 22, 2004
(4) Odyssey Arena (Belfast, Ulster); June 26, 2004
(5) Pearse Stadium (Galway, Eire); June 27, 2004
Tracklist: (1) Drifter's Escape, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum, Just Like A Woman, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), Girl From The North Country, Most Likely You Go Your Way, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Floater, Highway 61 Revisited, It Ain't Me Babe, Honest With Me, I Believe In You, Summer Days, Don't Think Twice, Like A Rolling Stone, All Along The Watchtower
(2) Wicked Messenger, Times They Are A-Changin', Cry A While, Tryin' To Get To Heaven, Memphis Blues Again, Man In The Long Black Coat, Boots Of Spanish Leather, I Don't Believe You, Forever Young, Every Grain Of Sand
(3) Seeing The Real You At Last, Tell Me That It Isn't True, Lonesome Day Blues, Under The Red Sky, Cold Irons Bound, Ring Them Bells, This Wheel's On Fire, Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll, Bye And Bye, Masters Of War
(4) Maggie's Farm, Watching The River Flow, Moonlight, Love Sick, Tears Of Rage, Ballad Of Hollis Brown
(5) If You See Her Say Hello, If Not For You, The Man In Me, Down Along The Cove, God Knows, Not Dark Yet
Probably the best of this crop of releases. It's also likely to be the one traders like the most. But it's not, as I see things, well-organized. Unlike the best compilations presenting particular tours, this set is mechanically organized -- programmed by default rather than careful selection. It's simply a sequence of shows, increasingly chopped up as repeats of previously included songs are deleted. The flow of the individual concerts is destroyed, while the remaining tracks are too often in unbalanced (if not repetitive) sequencing. And the track selection is simply too inflexible -- rather than choosing the best performance of a particular song, the compiler has made bulk decisions. Was Dylan's performance of "Every Grain Of Sand" better in Belfast than in Glasgow? How about "Memphis Blues Again?" The way this set is organized, it doesn't really matter -- regardless of which performance is better, the choice is by concert, not by individual performance. Rather than a carefully designed mosiac spotlighting Dylan's best efforts, this set presents slabs of songs, thrown down without enough attention to detail. It will sound good enough, I suppose. But it won't be nearly as good as it could, or should, be. The packaging is apparently minimal but attractive (with errors in the credits).
There are excellent models for tour compilations of this sort -- At The Globe Arena, from 1998, for example, and Christiana, from 1996, showcase two different ways to organize such a set. It's too bad we see so few contempory equivalents.
=========================================
Copyright 2004 Field Recordings Guide
(Part 2 follows immediately as a reply. This opening installment was too large for a single post!)
Volume III, Number 1
This is the opening installment of, I hope, a series of columns/comments on commercial Bob Dylan bootlegs. One of the peculiar consequences of the evolution of the online trading community and of the commercial bootlegging industry is that it's often possible to evaluate products before their actual release and circulation, because it's become surprisingly easy to identify the sources for announced releases, and accurately report on them even before they hit the street. Future installments will, I hope, mix previews and reviews more evenly; this opening broadside is weighted more heavily toward previews. There are a number of devices, phrases, etc. used here that should be familiar to at least some readers; these are intended both as homage and as means for maintaining continuity with valuable efforts of the past.
[shadow=red,left,300]MUST TO AVOID[/shadow]
Walk Like A Duck, Smell Like A Skunk
Hollow Horn 2CD
(1) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); November 20, 1961
(2) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); November 22, 1961
(3) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); April 24, 1962
(4) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); April 25, 1962
(5) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); July 9, 1962
(6) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); October 26, 1962
(7) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); November 1, 1962
(8) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); November 14, 1962
(9) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); December 6, 1962
(10) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); April 24, 1963
(11) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); August 6, 1963
(12) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); August 7, 1963
(13) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); August 12, 1963
(14) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); October 23, 1963
(15) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); October 24, 1963
(16) Columbia Recording Studio A (New York, NY); June 9, 1964 [from Grogan acetates]
Tracklist: (1) Connecticut Cowboy, He Was A Friend Of Mine*
(2) Man On The Street*, House Carpenter*
(3) Goin' To New Orleans, Rambling Gambling Willie [mono mix], Corrina Corrina, Death Of Emmett Till, Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, I Heard That Lonesome Whistle
(4) Rocks And Gravel, Let Me Die In My Footsteps (mono mix, unedited), Talkin' Hava Negeilah Blues*, Sally Gal, Baby Please Don't Go, Milk Cow Calf's Blues, Wichita (Going To Louisiana), Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues*
(5) Baby I'm In The Mood For You*, Quit Your Low Down Ways*, Worried Blues*, Baby I'm In The Mood For You
(6) That's Alright Mama
(7) Mixed Up Confusion
(8) Ballad Of Hollis Brown, Kingsport Town*, Whatcha Gonna Do
(9) Hero Blues, Whatcha Gonna Do, I Shall Be Free*, I Shall Be Free, Hero Blues
(10) Walls Of Red Wing*
(11) Seven Curses*, Farewell (inc take)
(12) Eternal Circle (inc)
(13) Paths Of Victory*, Bob Dylan's New Orleans Rag (fragment), Moonshiner*, Eternal Circle, Only A Hobo*
(14) Times They Are A-Changin'* (Love And Theft bonus track), That's All Right Mama
(15) Lay Down Your Weary Tune*, Suze (mono mix), Bob Dylan's New Orleans Rag
(16) Denise Denise, Mr. Tambourine Man [w/Jack Elliott], I Shall Be Free #10 (inc take), Mama You Been On My Mind*
This awful, awful set has inexplicably been favorably previewed in ICE and (more explicably) HotWacks. It is a semi-piratical, thoroughly botched condensation of the For Sale Or Just On The Shelf fan project. Roughly 20 of the 50 tracks have been officially released* (despite what the album notes claim), while at least as many unreleased alternate takes and variant forms have been excluded. (A few more inclusions are variant forms of officially released tracks.) The only even remotely uncommon track is the 32-second "Connecticut Cowboy," the spoken introduction lopped off a song included on Bob Dylan. Even the title quotation is reportedly mangled. An inexplicably awful, utterly misguided effort. The packaging is fairly slapdash; several attractively tinted photos wrap an utterly inadequate track/sourcelist. If you have Biograph, The Bootleg Series 1-3, and the Freewheelin' outtakes, you certainly should have little interest in this mess; if you don't, the archival fan project For Sale Or Just On The Shelf is more complete, better organized, and a much better successful effort at placing these songs in the natural context -- the motive Hollow Horn dubiously puts out to justify this collection.
=========================================
[shadow=red,left,300]MIXED BLESSING[/shadow]
If Your Memory Serves You Well (aka Dr. Bob Dylan)
Doberman 349-52 4D
(1) Barrowland Ballroom (Glasgow, Scotland); June 24, 2004
(2) Scottish Exhibition & Conference Center (Glasgow, Scotland); June 23, 2004
(3) Metro Radio Arena (Newcastle, UK); June 22, 2004
(4) Odyssey Arena (Belfast, Ulster); June 26, 2004
(5) Pearse Stadium (Galway, Eire); June 27, 2004
Tracklist: (1) Drifter's Escape, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum, Just Like A Woman, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), Girl From The North Country, Most Likely You Go Your Way, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Floater, Highway 61 Revisited, It Ain't Me Babe, Honest With Me, I Believe In You, Summer Days, Don't Think Twice, Like A Rolling Stone, All Along The Watchtower
(2) Wicked Messenger, Times They Are A-Changin', Cry A While, Tryin' To Get To Heaven, Memphis Blues Again, Man In The Long Black Coat, Boots Of Spanish Leather, I Don't Believe You, Forever Young, Every Grain Of Sand
(3) Seeing The Real You At Last, Tell Me That It Isn't True, Lonesome Day Blues, Under The Red Sky, Cold Irons Bound, Ring Them Bells, This Wheel's On Fire, Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll, Bye And Bye, Masters Of War
(4) Maggie's Farm, Watching The River Flow, Moonlight, Love Sick, Tears Of Rage, Ballad Of Hollis Brown
(5) If You See Her Say Hello, If Not For You, The Man In Me, Down Along The Cove, God Knows, Not Dark Yet
Probably the best of this crop of releases. It's also likely to be the one traders like the most. But it's not, as I see things, well-organized. Unlike the best compilations presenting particular tours, this set is mechanically organized -- programmed by default rather than careful selection. It's simply a sequence of shows, increasingly chopped up as repeats of previously included songs are deleted. The flow of the individual concerts is destroyed, while the remaining tracks are too often in unbalanced (if not repetitive) sequencing. And the track selection is simply too inflexible -- rather than choosing the best performance of a particular song, the compiler has made bulk decisions. Was Dylan's performance of "Every Grain Of Sand" better in Belfast than in Glasgow? How about "Memphis Blues Again?" The way this set is organized, it doesn't really matter -- regardless of which performance is better, the choice is by concert, not by individual performance. Rather than a carefully designed mosiac spotlighting Dylan's best efforts, this set presents slabs of songs, thrown down without enough attention to detail. It will sound good enough, I suppose. But it won't be nearly as good as it could, or should, be. The packaging is apparently minimal but attractive (with errors in the credits).
There are excellent models for tour compilations of this sort -- At The Globe Arena, from 1998, for example, and Christiana, from 1996, showcase two different ways to organize such a set. It's too bad we see so few contempory equivalents.
=========================================
Copyright 2004 Field Recordings Guide
(Part 2 follows immediately as a reply. This opening installment was too large for a single post!)
