|
|
Ghosts of Jam Bands Past
A Closer Look at Bob Dylan
by Sister Mary Carmen
This has been a busy year for Bob Dylan and his fans. Having toured all summer and now on tour with Phil Lesh and Friends, Dylan fans have a lot to keep themselves occupied and happy. Also this year, the 1998 release of the Royal Albert Hall concert from 1966 has been made available on vinyl.
Having recently acquired this gem, I got to thinking about the impact Dylan has had on music, jambands, and rock & roll in general. His influence can be felt in more ways than one might think. Needing a topic for this month's section, I decided that an overview of Dylan's work would be a nice choice. This may be useful to the novice Dylan fan and collector, or to those who are really into Dylan and want to double check their collections. Albums are presented in chronological order with some of the more notable songs listed.
1962 Bob Dylan: Self-titled debut album on Columbia Records. Features the songs Talkin New York, and Man Constant Sorrow
1963 Freewheelin' Bob Dylan: Blowin in the Wind, Talkin' World War III Blues, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
1964 Times They are A-Changing: Ballad of Hollis Brown, Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol, Only a Pawn in the Game
1964 Another Side of Bob Dylan: Black Crow Blues, My Back Pages, Ballad in Plain D
1965 Bringing it all Back Home: Subterranean Homesick Blues, Maggie's Farm, Mr. Tambourine Man
1965 Highway 61 Revisited: Dylan's breakthrough electric album. Features: Like a Rolling Stone, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, Ballad of a Thin Man
1966 Blond on Blond: A double album featuring: Just Like a Woman, Visions of Johanna, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
1967 Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume I: Features hits from the first seven album and some unreleased material: Positively 4th Street, I Want You, Mr. Tambourine Man
1967 John Wesley Harding: Recorded a month after Dylan's motorcycle accident. He decided to release a country album. I am a Lonesome Hobo, The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
1969 Nashville Skyline: Johnny Cash plays on some songs. Gulf of the North Country, Country Pie, Nashville Skyline Rag
1970 Self- Portrait: A very uneven album in my opinion. Double album featuring some original material and some covers. Includes covers of Blue Moon, and The Boxer
1970 New Morning: Released by Columbia and at this point Dylan was considering switching labels. Days of Locusts, One More Weekend, If Dogs Run Free, If Not for You
1971 Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II: Covers albums nine through twelve. Features some unreleased material.
1973 Pat Garret and Billy the Kid: The soundtrack to the movie, mostly instrumentals but features Knockin' on Heaven's Door
1973 Dylan: Released as Columbia's way of getting back at Dylan for switching to Asylum Records. Not one of his better works, an album of all cover songs: Big Yellow Taxi, Mr. Bojangles, Can't Help Falling in Love With You. Dylan must not have been too upset because a couple of albums later he goes back to Columbia.
1974 Planet Waves: The Band backs him up on this album: Going Going Gone, Forever Young, Tough Mama, Wedding Song
1974 Before the Flood: A live album from the '74 tour which was more affectionately known as the "Pay the Divorce Tour". It is believed that from this tour on he has constantly been on the road. Features songs by the Band and Dylan: It's Alright Ma I'm Only Bleeding', It Ain't Me Babe, Rainy Day Woman #21 and #35, The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down, Up On Cripple Creek
1975 Blood on the Tracks: Tangled Up in Blue, Shelter From the Storm, Simple Twist of Faith
1975 The Basement tapes: When Dylan was recovering from his motorcycle accident he recorded a bunch of songs with his band upstate in New York. This album features some of those sessions. Most of the music from the bootleg Big Pink is from these sessions. This was a big bootleg tape for Dylan so the record company decided to release it. Tears of Rag, Please Mrs. Henry, Odds and Ends. Supposedly there is an album floating around by Blind Boy Grant and the Hawks which is thought to be a Dylan and band alias. There are two volumes and these are thought to be the legitimate tapes of these New York sessions. The albums contain completely different music than the Basement Tapes.
1976 Desire: Back on Columbia. Isis, Joey, Oh Sister, Sara, Black Diamond Bag
1976 Hard Rain: Another live album from the '76 tour. This is the first live album (other than bootlegs) that made us realize that Dylan change the arrangements of his songs. Features Mick Ransen on lead guitar and members from the Alpha Band. Maggie's Farm, Shelter from the Storm, Idiot Wind, You're a Big Girl Now, I Threw it All Away
1978 Street Legal: Changing of the Guard, Where Are You Tonight?, Is Your Love in Vain?
1979 Live at Buddakhon: Was originally going to be a Japanese release but it was too popular so Columbia released it domestically. Love Minus Zero/No Limit. I Shall Be Release, Like A Rolling Stone, Shelter From the Storm, Hey Mr. Tambourine
1979 Slow Train Coming: This is the first album in Dylan's Christian trilogy. Precious Angel, When He Returns, Gotta Serve Somebody
1980 Saved: Christian album #2. Pressing On, Saved, In the Garden
1981 Shot of Love: Christian album #3. Heart of Mine, In the Summertime, Every Grain of Sand
1983 Infidels: A lot of songs from this album's sessions pop up on bootlegs. Some of the outtakes include Blind Willy McTell, Angels Flying Too Close on the Ground. Features Mick Taylor, Mark Knoffler, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare (reggae sensation). Joker Man, Sweetheart Like You, Neighborhood Bully
1984 Real Live: Good song selection from this tour. New arrangements of Tangled Up in Blue, Highway 61, Blood of a Thin Man, Tombstone Blues
1985 Empire Burlesque: Dark Eyes, Clean Cut Kid, When the Night Comes, Falling From the Sky
1985 Biograph: First million seller box set. Five record set featuring unissued and alternate version material. This release really started the Box-set craze. Box sets from musicians like Clapton, Zeppelin followed. Times are A Changin', Lay Lady Lay, Mixed Up Confusion, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Lay Down Your Weary Tune
1986 Knocked Out Loaded: Backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Features Sam Sheppard's Brownsville Girl, Maybe Someday, Drifting Too Far From Shore, Under Your Spell, They Killed Him
1988 Dylan and the Dead: Pretty self-explanatory. Excellent material, lots of bootlegs generated from this tour, if you can find some, I highly recommend them. All Along the Watchtower, Slow Train, Knockin' on Heaven's Door
1988 Down in the Groove: Ugliest Girl in the World, Shenandoah, Death is Not the End, Sally Sue Brown
1989 Oh Mercy: Ring Them Bells, Political World, What Good Am I?, Disease of Conceit
1990 Under the Red Sky: Wiggle Wiggle, 2 x 2, God Knows, Cat's in the Well
1991 Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3: Rambling Gambling Willy, Kingsport Town, He Was A Friend of Mine
1992 Good As I Been To You: Dylan decided that he was going to save music that wasn't being heard so he released this album of mostly traditional folk songs arranged by him. Canadee-I-o, Hard Time, Little Maggie, Diamond Joe, Froggie Went A-Courtin'
1993 30th Anniversary Celebration: This is a great album just for the musicians that perform on it. Features all the smash hits performed by artists like Kris Kristoferson, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hyndes.
1993 World Gone Wrong: Follow-up to the massive success of Good As I Been To You. Delia, Jack a Roe, Lone Pilgrim, Live Henry, Ragged and Dirty
1994 Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3: Different version of Brownsville Girl, studio version of Dignity, The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar
1995 MTV Unplugged: Like a Rolling Stone, John Brown, Desolation Row, The Times They Are A Changing, Shooting Star. All the smash hits.
1997 Time Out of Mind: A very fitting title. Released after Dylan's battle with Heart and lung sickness, many of the songs are dealing with death. Trying to Get to Heaven, not Done Yet, Cold Iron Bound, Dirt Road Blues, Highlands
1998 Live 1966: The Royal Albert Hall Concert. In a sense this was Dylan's Great White Way. This was the first Rock and Roll bootleg. It pretty much started the bootlegging industry in Rock music. Only available before through bootleg or on the massive bootleg Zimmerman Ten of Swords. Features not only Dylan's electric set, but his solo acoustic set. Two record set. Sides 1 and 2 are acoustic She Belongs to Me, Desolation Row, Just like a Woman, 48th Time Around. Sides 3 and 4 are electric Tell Me, Momma, One Too Many Mornings, Baby Let Me Follow You Down. Features the infamous "Judas" cry to which Dylan's reply was "I don't fucking believe you" and told the band to crank up the sound.
Excluding Dylan's performances at the Newport Folk Festival, and outside of Jazz, there really never were many bootleg recordings circulating of rock musicians. Dylan's 1966 concert changed all that and ushered in a tidal wave of bootlegs. The most notorious Dylan bootleg of all time is, the one that pissed Columbia off immensely was, the Zimmerman Ten of Swords Box (happily, I own it, but I won't say how much I paid for it). A 10 record set, only 3,000 copies were pressed. Before the RAH concert was released this was the only place it could be found. The set features outtakes from almost Dylan's entire career. Rumor has it that a second volume of the set is floating around somewhere, although I have never see it. The contents are as follows:
Sides 1-3 Minnesota Motel Tapes: Candy Man, Wade in the Water, Baby Let Me Follow You Down
Side 4: Early Studio Sessions: Wichita, Worried Blues, Sally Girl
Side 5 The Leeds Music Demos: Man on the Street, Ballad for A Friend, Hard Times in New York, Rambling Gambling Willie
Side 6 Freewheelin' Dylan Outtakes: Mixed Up Confusion, Corrina, Corrina, The Death of Emmitt Till, Let Me Die in My Footsteps
Sides 7 and 8 M. Witmark and Sons Music Publishing Demos: All Over You, Farewell
Sides 9-11 Gaslight Café: Ballad of Hollis Brown, Black Cross, Rocks and Gravel, Barbara Allen, Handsome Molly, Cocaine, Ain't No More Cane
Side 12 Live in Concert 1963 at New York's Town Hall and Carnegie Hall: Here Blues, Who Killed Davey Moore, Rambling Down Through the Word
Side 13 Miscellaneous: Watcha Gonna Do?, Cough Song, Whose A Gonna Go? Side 14 The Times Are A Changing Outtakes: Eternal Circle, Paths of Victory, Walls of Red Wing, Only a Hobo
Side 15 Another Side of Bob Dylan Outtakes: Denise, Lay Down Your Weary Tune, East Laredo Blues, New Orleans Rag
Sides 16 and 17 Bringing it All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited Outtakes: If You Gotta Go, Go Now; Its All Over Now Baby Blue, Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence, Desolation Row, She's your Lover Now
Side 18 The Band Sessions: Tell Me Momma, I Don't Believe You, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blue, Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat
Sides 19 and 20 Royal Albert Hall Concert 1966: One Too Many Mornings, Ballad of A Thin Man, Like A Rolling Stone
October Issue: Home | Editors | Features | Columns | Photos | Regional | New Groove
Road Trip | Tour Journal | Venue | Levels | Ghosts | Homegrown | Inaudible | CDs | Charts
JamBands.Com is published on the 15th of every month. Submissions are due ten days earlier on the fifth of each month. Please contact the specific editor for the section you are interested in contributing to. For general content comments, please e-mail jambands@jambands.com. For all technical web site related issues, please contact David Steinberg