Bob Dylan and George Harrison - Studio Sessions 1970

Reloaded 02/June/2015 - This is another recording, that from what I can work out seems to have been circulated in different forms for many years. Since we originally ran this feature I came across some additional material with two extra songs, so I have added that version as well, as part two below. In addition to the original comments below, other sources have stated that this was very much a Bob Dylan session and George Harrison was an invited support player. Before the days of The Travelling Wilburys perhaps the various egos still jostled for superiority. Whatever the case it makes for a good listen. 

Bob Dylan and George Harrison are remembered for working together in The Traveling Wilburys in the late 1980's, and of course, Bob Dylan's guest appearance at George's 'Concert For Bangladesh' in 1971.

This session is from May 1970, when both artists were busy on solo projects.

Indeed Bob Dylan released two albums in 1970, 'Self Portrait' and 'New Morning', the latter proving far more popular with his critics.

George Harrison was of course working on 'All Things Must Pass' his legendary 'triple' album.

Bob Dylan co-wrote 'I'd Have You Anytime' with George Harrison, which appeared as the opening track on 'All Things Must Pass' (which also included a cover of Dylan's 'If Not For You').

These sessions may well have prompted or been a part of those developments, whatever the case, it is clear as you listen, that they were very comfortable with each other, and enjoying themselves.

This then is Bob Dylan and George Harrison's Studio Sessions at Columbia Studios B, New York, NY, on the 1st May 1970.

Setlist:

01 Ghost Riders In The Sky
02 Cupid
03 All I Have To Do Is Dream
04 Gates Of Eden
(05 I Threw It All Away - sorry - missing from this copy)
06 I Don't Believe You
07 Matchbox (Carl Perkins)
08 True Love
09 Telephone Line
10 Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance
11 Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
12 Song To Woody
13 Mama You Been On My Mind
14 Don't Think Twice (Instrumental)
15 Yesterday
16 Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
17 Da Doo Ron Ron
18 One Too Many Mornings I
19 One Too Many Mornings II

Afternoon Studio Session:

Bob Dylan (guitar/piano/vocals),
George Harrison (guitar/vocals),
Charlie Daniels (Bass),
Alvin Rogers (Drums),
Al Kooper (guitar/piano),
Ron Cornelius (guitar)

Part Two:

This is a shorter set with some different songs that Beehive Candy came across after our we first ran this feature.

01 Song to Woody (Dylan)
02 Mama You've Been On My Mind (Dylan)
03 Yesterday (Lennon/McCartney)
04 Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (Dylan)
05 Da Doo Ron Ron (Spector/Barry/Greenwich)
06 One Too Many Mornings (Dylan)
07 Everytime Somebody Comes To Town (Harrison)
08 I'd Have You Anytime (Dylan/Harrison)

Sound quality: extremely good (studio mix).

Reloaded - 02/June/2015 - download link in comments.

Bob Dylan - BBC TV Centre 1965

This specific recording of Bob Dylan has an interesting history to go with it. The actual performance was back on June 1st 1965 at the BBC Television Centre in London with a studio audience.

The set was then broadcast in two parts on BBC TV in the UK on the 15th and 26th June 1965. As far as I can find out the BBC broadcast the second half of the recording first.

The notes that accompanied this recording provide the actual 'history' of this specific recording as follows.

This specific audio track was originally recorded on the 15th & 26th June 1965, in Hull, Yorkshire, UK. using a KB domestic 1/4in. recorder with a BSR tape deck, running at a speed of 3.75ips via a line connection to Rediffusion wired system junction box (TV set).

This tape, while in great quality, came in the wrong speed and needed some work before it was listenable.Volume, speed & pitch corrected in London, U.K. 10th - 12th September 2005 using CoolEdit Pro 2.0. Some additional remastering including fade-in, fade-outs at start & end of disc were done. Noise or hiss reduction has not been performed, in order to best preserve the atmosphere and feel of the original tape which this can sometimes take away.

With the nonsense that surrounded Bob Dylan 'going electric' at the time, perhaps the real beauty of this solo performance was the chance just to do his thing with a smaller audience. This is a delight to listen to, was it really 45 years ago?

Source: BBC TV Broadcasts

Sound Quality: Very good mono mp3@192kbps.

Genre: Rock, folk rock, folk, blues, country.

Session: BBC TV Centre performance.

Set List:

(Broadcast June 26th, 1965).
01 Ballad Of Hollis Brown
02 Mr Tambourine Man
03 Gates Of Eden
04 If You Gotta Go, Go Now
05 Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
06 It Ain't Me Babe

(Broadcast June 15th, 1965).
07 Love Minus Zero/No Limit
08 One Too Many Mornings
09 Boots Of Spanish Leather
10 It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
11 She Belongs To Me
12 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Website: Official HERE.

Comments:

There are a number of versions of this performance from different original sources, this is the best copy we have heard. Italian bootleg label 'Great Dane Records' included this in the 14 CD box set 'Bob Dylan 1965 Revisited'. As with so many Bob performances they are well circulated.

Reloaded 25/May/2015 - download link in comments.

Bob Dylan - Live In Canada 1962

Having just released his thirty third solo album 'Together Through Life', which has received some very positive reviews, I thought it would be interesting to wind the clock back some 47 years!

This is Bob Dylan back on the 2nd July 1962, live at the Finjan Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a venue that I have no further details of, however judging from the audience, I would imagine it was quite an intimate affair.

This is taken from the Yellow Dog, CD version (Cat No YD010), probably the best bootleg version of this show.

Source: Soundboard recording

Sound Quality: Very good, this version 192kbps (MP3).

Genre: Bob Dylan (early, acoustic, folk period).

Set: Full set (cannot confirm).

Set List:

Death Of Emmett Till
Stealin' (Trad - Memphis Jug Band arr)
Hiram Hubbard (Trad)
Blowin' In The Wind
Rocks and Gravel (Brownie McGhee)
Quit Your Lowdown Ways
He Was A Friend of Mine (Trad )*
Let Me Die In My Footsteps
Two Trains Runnin' (McKinley Morganfield)
Ramblin' On My Mind (Robert Johnson)
Muleskinner Blues (Jimmie Rodgers)

* Traditional song that was registered to Bob Dylan in the US copyright office

Links: Official site HERE. Highly informative 'Bobs Boots' site HERE.

Comments: Bobs Boots summary of this recording is spot on, they say:

The incredible Finjan tape belongs in every collection. Period. This particular CD release is the one to own. Few if any other releases of Finjan can compare to this gem. Some of the other releases have edited out the in between song talking, mistakes, and false starts (which sometimes seem as long as the songs themselves). Nothing is edited here.

The CD captures the moment the recorder was turned on and left to run. This has always been a nice quality soundboard recording, but Yellow Dog has brought it to pure perfection. The audience is pin drop quiet. So much so that this could be a studio recording. The tape is so clean that several times you can hear the guitar case snaps etc. when the stage hand opens it to retrieve harmonicas and a capo. Turn up the stereo, and suddenly Dylan is in the room with you.

This really is a great historical time capsule of Bob Dylan, enjoy.

Reloaded 23/02/2016 link in comments.

Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash - Sessions 1969

This is hardly making it's Internet bootleg debut here, however the Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash sessions from 1969, remain elusive for many collectors, and I am happy to do my bit to help.

The often asked question regarding these sessions is, why have they never been officially released ?

The musically historical importance, audio quality, and perhaps the actual performances themselves, make that a reasonable question, however in all honesty forty years on, the 'cats out of the bag' if you get my drift?

The contents of the sessions are detailed in track lists below, if you have just passing interest in either of these two artists, I would suggest that the recordings are well worth a listen.

Source: Taken from an early generation silver CD.

Sound Quality: Very good stereo soundboard, studio and auditorium.

Genre: In all fairness Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash will suffice.

Track List:

BS studios, Nashville, TN, USA - February 17th -18th, 1969.

01 Good Ol' Mountain Dew (Lunsford / Wiseman)
02 I Still Miss Someone (J Cash / Roy Cash)
03 Careless Love (Trad)
04 Matchbox (Carl Perkins)
05 That's Alright Mama (A. Crudup)
06 Big River (J Cash)
07 Girl Of The North Country
08 I Walk The Line (J Cash)
09 You Are My Sunshine (Davis / Mitchell)
10 Ring Of Fire (Carter / Kilgore)
11 Guess Things Happen That Way (Clement)
12 Just A Closer Walk With Thee (Trad)
13 Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas) (J Rodgers)
14 Blue Yodel #2 (J Rodgers)

Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN May 1st, 1969.

15 I Threw It All Away
16 Living The Blues
17 Girl Of The North Country

Nashville Skyline Quadraphonic Mixes.

18 Nashville Skyline Rag
19 I Threw It All Away
20 Peggy Day
21 Country Pie
22 Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

Unknown source - not on all bootleg versions.

23 One Too Many Mornings (1)
24 One Too Many Mornings (2)

Links: Official Bob Dylan HERE, official Johnny Cash HERE,

Comments: The very thorough Bobs Boots site had the following to say regarding this material.

'The outtakes are great fidelity studio recordings, but the performances are very loose, first time trys. This is a 'must-have' disc for historical reasons, but it will probably not be one that you will want to play every day'.

That is a reasonable summary, however I played a few tracks again earlier today, and my first thought as I went on to other matters (work as it happens), was I must listen to this all the way through again!

The studio sessions were of course linked to Bob Dylan's work on his ninth 9th proper studio album 'Nashville Skyline'.

Quoting wikipedia verbatim:

When sessions resumed on February 17, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" was the primary focus, and a master take was selected from a total of eleven takes. An instrumental, titled "Nashville Skyline Rag", was also recorded at the beginning of the session, and it was later included on the album.
Sometime during that session, country legend Johnny Cash stopped by to visit. A friend and label-mate of Dylan's as well as an early supporter of his music, Cash had been recording next door with his own band. The two wound up recording a series of duets, covering Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" as well as Cash's own "I Still Miss Someone." None of these were deemed usable, but Cash returned the following day to record more duets.
The session on February 18 was devoted exclusively to duet covers with Cash. "One Too Many Mornings" and "I Still Miss Someone" were revisited, and rejected, yet again. "Matchbox", "That's All Right Mama", "Mystery Train", "Big River", "I Walk the Line", and "Guess Things Happen That Way", all made famous by celebrated Sun recordings performed by Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Cash himself, were all attempted on February 18, but none of these were deemed usable. Covers of Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #1" and "#5", Cash's "Ring of Fire" (written by his wife, June Carter and Merle Kilgore), "You Are My Sunshine", "Mountain Dew", the traditional ballad "Careless Love", the traditional hymn "Just A Closer Walk With Thee", "How High The Water", and "Wanted Man" (a song written by Dylan specifically for Cash) were also attempted, and all were rejected. There was little enthusiasm for any of these tracks, but one duet of Dylan's, "Girl From The North Country" (which originally appeared on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan), was ultimately sequenced as the album's opener.

Reloaded - 29/May/2015 - download link in comments. 

Purchase: MP3's (all Amazon DRM free) - Bob Dylan and of course Johnny Cash

Bob Dylan Part One - The Hollywood Bowl - 1965

The controversy of it all! 1965, the year Bob Dylan 'went electric'.

Looking back now, it all seems so quaint.

Fans outraged that Bob Dylan had sold out, abandoning his folk roots, and daring to perform with a band, and not only that, some of them had 'electric guitars'.

It all began at the Newport Folk Festival in July of that year, with the crowd apparently 'booing' as he performed three songs with what was then most of The Paul Butterfield Band.

The legend of going electric (with the famously recorded heckle of 'Judas' the following year in Manchester - England), is of course in the scheme of things pretty unimportant, but way back then the folkies were clearly a serious bunch, not open much to their icons doing the unthinkable.

Mind you it did not do Bob's record sales any harm, and can you imagine 'Desire' or 'Blood On The Tracks' as wholly acoustic affairs?

After the Newport festival and in support of the record 'Highway 61 Revisited', Dylan was booked for two U.S. concerts and set about assembling a band.

Mike Bloomfield was unwilling to leave the Butterfield Band, so Dylan mixed Al Kooper and Harvey Brooks from his studio crew with bar-band stalwarts Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm, best known at the time for backing Ronnie Hawkins.

In August 1965 at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, the group was heckled by an audience who, Newport notwithstanding, still demanded the acoustic troubadour of previous years. The band's reception on September 3rd at the Hollywood Bowl was more uniformly favorable.

This is the Hollywood Bowl concert in full.

Acoustic Set:1. She Belongs to Me
2. To Ramona
3. Gates of Eden
4. It's All Over Now Baby Blue
5. Desolation Row
6. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
7. Mr. Tambourine Man

Electric Set (with The Band):1. Tombstone Blues
2. I Don't Believe You
3. From Buick 6
4. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
5. Maggie's Farm
6. It Ain't Me Babe
7. Ballad of a Thin Man
8. Like a Rolling Stone

This is a well preserved soundboard recording and very good quality.

Link in comments (23/02/2016).