The Bootleg Series, Vol. 9. The Witmark Demos 1962-1964 (2010)
Disc One
1. Man on the Street
2. Hard Times in New York Town
3. Poor Boy Blues
4. Ballad for a Friend
5. Rambling, Gambling Willie
6. Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre
Blues
7. Standing on the Highway
8. Man on the Street
9. Blowin' in the Wind
10.Long Ago Far Away
11.A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
12.Tomorrow is a Long Time
13.The Death of Emmett Till
14.Let Me Die in My Footsteps
15.Ballad of Hollis Brown
16.Quit Your Low Down Ways
17.Baby, I'm in the Mood For You
18.Bound To Lose, Bound To Win
19.All Over You
20.I'd Hate To Be You On That Dreadful Day
21.Long Time Gone
22.Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues
23.Masters of War
24.Oxford Town
25.Farewell
Disc Two
1. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
2. Walkin' Down the Line
3. I Shall Be Free
4. Bob Dylan's Blues
5. Bob Dylan's Dream
6. Boots of Spanish Leather
7. Walls of Red Wing
8. Girl From the North Country
9. Seven Curses
10.Hero Blues
11.Whatcha Gonna Do?
12.Gypsy Lou
13.Ain't Gonna Grieve
14.John Brown
15.Only a Hobo
16.When the Ship Comes In
17.The Times They Are A-Changin'
18.Paths of Victory
19.Guess I'm Doing Fine
20.Baby Let Me Follow You Down
21.Mama, You Been On My Mind
22.Mr. Tambourine Man
23.I'll Keep It With Mine
 
This is one of those albums that is
interesting to listen to - very interesting if your a Dylan fan,
but this is also one of those records that almost merits study while
listening, rather than simply putting on a CD and enjoying some good
music. This type of record seemed to be more and more the norm ever
since The Beatles released their "Anthology" series, and record
companies now became a bit too greedy by wanting to release stuff in popular
artist's vaults as opposed to focusing on new, undeveloped talent. The
background behind these recordings is that Dylan was, at the time, known
as an extremely talented songwriter, but no one was really serious about
him making it big on his own as a recording artist. This was more a
given during this particular time when artists didn't often record their
own material. So this was Dylan the "songwriter" laying down some demos
for Witmark Publishing with the main intention that these songs would
mainly be recorded by other artists. Of course, after the
explosion of his second album The
Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963, all of those plans, understandably,
changed.
This is why every song on here is one of his own, rather than covers of
other people's material. He was selling his material, so that's
why we have what we have. "Demos" is a very appropriate word. Even
though the songs here are all wonderful, they're very primitive in their
arrangements. Sonically, they're very strong, but, like his first few
solo albums, very sparse.
There's plenty of stopping and starting, coughing, Dylan
getting lost in some of his songs, and him telling the people in the
control booth that he'll "write the rest of the song later". This is
why, overall, this record isn't necessarily that appealing. It's
fascinating to listen to, but you really only need to listen to it once,
and then that the appeal sort of dies.
Yes, there are plenty of unreleased songs here, and plenty of songs that
were recorded by other artists (remember, that was really the whole
point), so it is kinda cool to legitimately get your hands on some "new"
Dylan songs, but again, there's only so far you can go with demo
recordings. Most of the songs here are Dylan at is politically heaviest
and there's very few of the light hearted side of him. Since the main
artists at the time of this genre were writing and performing political
songs, this was probably the type of lyrics that were most in demand,
and Dylan was the best of the best, so it isn't a surprise. It's just
that the heavy themes can get very wearisome after back to back to back
depressing songs.
You certainly can't complain about the volume. There's 2 1/2 hours of
music here - just about the maximum that you can cram on 2 compact discs.
For my tastes, however, the music gets a bit monotonous after the first
hour, so I really can't even listen to this whole thing front to back
without seriously getting bored. Many of the songs here are identical
to how they would be released officially, and many were obviously in
their initial composition stage and would have more refining before they
would see the light of day. So if you're buying this record thinking
you're getting an exact replica of many of your favorites, you may be
slightly disappointed.
All of this to say that this is probably a very necessary inclusion to
the Dylan Bootleg catalogue. This is where you can really see the true
genius of the man that was still basically an unknown. So diehards will
rejoice that something such as this now as an official release, it's
just not very strong on listenability - when you want to listen to
something more than once or twice, that is.
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