The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 (1991)
Disc One
1. Hard Times in New York
2. He Was a Friend of Mine
3. Man on the Street
4. No More Auction Block
5. House Carpenter
6. Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre
Blues
7. Let Me Die in My Footsteps
8. Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie
9. Talkin' Have Negleliah Blues
10.Quit Your Lowdown Ways
11.Worried Blues
12.Kingsport Town
13.Walkin' Down the Line
14.Walls of Red Ring
15.Paths of Victory
16.Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues
17.Who Killed Davey Moore?
18.Only a Hobo
19.Moonshiner
20.When the Ship Comes In
21.The Times They Are A-Changin'
22.Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie
Disc Two
1. Seven Curses
2. Eternal Cirlcle
3. Suze (The Cough Song)
4. Mama You Been on My Mind
5. Farewell Angelina
6. Subterranean Homesick Blues
7. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
8. Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence
9. Like a Rolling Stone
10.It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
11.I'll Keep it With Mine
12.She's Your Lover Now
13.I'll Shall Be Released
14.Santa-Fe
15.If Not For You
16.Wallflower
17.Nobody 'Cept You
18.Tangled Up in Blue
19.Call Letter Blues
20.Idiot Wind
Disc Three
1. If You See Her, Say Hello
2. Golden Loom
3. Catfish
4. Seven Days
5. Ye Shall Be Changed
6. Every Grain of Sand
7. You Changed My Life
8. Need a Woman
9. Angelina
10.Someone's Got a Hold On My Heart
11.Tell Me
12.Lord Protect My Child
13.Foot of Pride
14.Blind Willie McTell
15.When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky
16.Series of Dreams
 
In many ways, the terms "Bob Dylan"
and "bootlegs" have almost seemed synonymous over the history of popular
music. It's not that he was the only artist that was heavily
bootlegged, it's just that he was one of those artists who had masses of
pirated material that was incredibly good, and seemed somewhat
unjustified that so much of his catalog remained on the shelf. As the
linear notes to this compilation mention, much of Dylan's bootlegged
material was around during the hey-day of the late sixties, and since
fans didn't have something like an internet around, very few could tell
the difference. A listen to this box set helps explain why.
There's nothing subpar here. The majority of the 58 tracks here are
real tracks, Not throwaways or messy unfinished product, just
real solid music. Sure, there are plenty of demos, but when you
consider that much of Dylan's first few records were so simple in the
production, you could really argue that many people couldn't tell the
difference between what was a demo and what was not. 95% of the
material could have (some would say "should" have) been on legitimate
releases. Yes, there's the occasional stop-start action in the studio
where a track ends in mid song (see Suze (The Cough Song)) and
his six minute plus spoken poem to Woody Guthrie (Last Thoughts on
Woody Guthrie) seems a little odd, but maybe this was included to
show just how brilliant this man was when it came to quickly churning
out classics? Whether it was lyrics or music?
The set is chronological, and that adds to its value. Basically the
entire first disc is his folk, one-man, one-guitar, phase. Some of the
songs we've heard before, but this plays just as good as the early
albums that made such an indent on popular music. Disc two picks up
with his post-folk, electric period
all the way to the mid seventies - a time when he was no longer
immortal, yet managed to still release great music from time to time.
The last disc features the latter part of his career that was the most
mysterious and most forgotten. A lot of Born Again stuff is there, as
well as a huge amount of unreleased (yet still brilliant) works from his
Infidels period. Some of the third disc
(like his career) slips a bit in quality, but the music overall is very
strong, and, like everything else here, sometimes rivals the music that
was released officially.
Glancing at the track list, you're bound to see a handful of familiar song
titles. It's all in a different format - some demos, some
alternate versions. I won't go out on the limb to say they're
better than what was released, but just about every version here,
from The Times They Are-a Changin' to Subterranean Homesick
Blues to Tangled Up in Blue to Every Grain of Sand.
They all sound just as incredible as their officially released counterparts.
The linear notes mention that this release is only a small sample of
the zads of unreleased material Dylan has to offer, and that future
releases would see the light of day someday soon. Fortunately, many
have, yet the "bootleg" novelty would wear thin after awhile, and some
future releases were more of a collectors item than a real listening
treasure as this one proved to be. It was the best of the best - even
rivaling his best legitimate work. The man has proven once again that
he is, in fact, a true genius.
Go back to the main page
Go To Next Review