Bob Dylan 1965-1966: The Cutting Edge
The Bootleg Series Volume 12 (2015)
111 songs. Ain't no way I'm gonna list them here.
With The Cutting Edge 1965–1966, Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series has entered a new phase—one marked less by thoughtful curation and more by exhaustive archival intent. Gone, it seems, is the era of the carefully assembled double-disc anthology; in its place, a sprawling, 111-track monolith that purports to document, in near-totality, one of the most creatively fertile periods in the history of popular music.
This release is centered around the sessions that yielded Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde—a trio of albums that not only defined Dylan’s mid-sixties “electric” phase but also reshaped the very contours of modern songwriting. The material itself is beyond reproach: first-rate compositions performed by a restless artist at the peak of his powers, abetted by some of the era’s most intuitive studio musicians.
Yet the question of how this material is presented cannot be so easily dismissed. While the historical value of these outtakes, alternate versions, and aborted takes is beyond doubt, the sheer scale of the release presents an unavoidable dilemma. Who, beyond the most dedicated completist, will wade through the full breadth of these sessions? One suspects the answer is vanishingly few.
That said, the recordings on offer do shed light on Dylan’s process during this crucial period. They reveal a mercurial artist in flux, experimenting with phrasing, tempo, instrumentation—testing the limits of each song before settling on its final form. In this sense, the collection functions more as a documentary artifact than a conventional listening experience. It is not meant to be consumed so much as studied.
For the average listener, however, the original studio albums remain the essential distillation of this era. The Bootleg Series, once a vehicle for unveiling hidden gems, now borders on academic overkill. One can admire the intent without necessarily wishing to hear every stammer and studio false start. Even among Dylan’s most discerning devotees, enthusiasm may waver under the weight of such excess.
Still, The Cutting Edge is a formidable reminder of the relentless innovation that defined Dylan’s mid-sixties work. Its very existence reaffirms the enduring fascination with these sessions. But it is also a reminder that completeness, in the archival sense, does not always equate to clarity in the artistic one.
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