Great Music Experience 1994

The Great Music Experience was a concert starring Japanese and international musicians staged at the eighth century Buddhist temple of Tōdai-ji, in Nara, Japan in May 1994. The concert, held over three nights (May 20 - May 22) and partly backed by UNESCO, took place in front of the world's largest wooden building, housing the largest Buddha statue in the world.

UNESCO hoped that the event would be the first of seven annual concerts that would take place at some of the world's architectural treasures - the sites it had in mind included the Pyramids, China's Forbidden City and the Taj Mahal - but nothing came of the idea.

Bob Dylan performed on all 3 nights. Olof Björner lists the following -

May 18 Rehearsal for The Great Music Experience
========================================
Todaiji Temple, Nara, Japan

1. Ring Them Bells

Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal) backed by Phil Palmer (guitar),
"Wix" Vickens (keyboards), Pino Paladino (bass), Jim Keltner
(drums) and The Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Michael Kamen.

Broadcast in the TV program THE GREAT MUSIC EXPERIENCE COUNTDOWN,
May 22, 1994 in over 50 countries all over the world.

Stereo TV broadcast, 1 minute.

May 20 The Great Music Experience, first day
=====================================
Todaiji Temple, Nara, Japan

1. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
2. I Shall Be Released
3. Ring Them Bells
4. I Shall Be Released

1-3 Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal) backed by Phil Palmer (guitar),
"Wix" Vickens (keyboards), Pino Paladino (bass), Jim Keltner
(drums) and The Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Michael Kamen.

4 Bob Dylan (guitar & backup vocal) in the grand finale with all
participating artists, among them Joni Mitchell, Jon Bon Jovi,
Richie Sambora, Ry Cooder, Roger Taylor and the members of INXS
and X Japan.

Stereo audience recording, 25 minutes.

May 21 The Great Music Experience, second day
======================================
Todaiji Temple, Nara, Japan

1. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
2. I Shall Be Released
3. Ring Them Bells
4. I Shall Be Released

1-3 Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal) backed by Phil Palmer (guitar),
"Wix" Vickens (keyboards), Pino Paladino (bass), Jim Keltner
(drums) and The Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Michael Kamen.

4 Bob Dylan (guitar & backup vocal) in the grand finale with all
participating artists, among them Joni Mitchell, Jon Bon Jovi,
Richie Sambora, Ry Cooder, Roger Taylor and the members of INXS
and X Japan.

4 broadcast in the radio and TV program THE GREAT MUSIC EXPERIENCE
COUNTDOWN, May 22, 1994 in over 50 countries all over the world.

4 stereo FM and TV broadcast.

Stereo audience recording, 25 minutes.

May 22 The Great Music Experience, second day
======================================
Todaiji Temple, Nara, Japan

1. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
2. I Shall Be Released
3. Ring Them Bells
4. I Shall Be Released

1-3 Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal) backed by Phil Palmer (guitar),
"Wix" Vickens (keyboards), Pino Paladino (bass), Jim Keltner
(drums) and The Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Michael Kamen.

4 Bob Dylan (guitar & backup vocal) in the grand finale with all
participating artists, among them Joni Mitchell, Jon Bon Jovi,
Richie Sambora, Ry Cooder, Roger Taylor and the members of INXS
and X Japan.

1-3 broadcast in the radio and TV program THE GREAT MUSIC
EXPERIENCE COUNTDOWN, May 22, 1994 in over 50 countries all over
the world.

4 broadcast in the radio and TV program THE GREAT MUSIC
EXPERIENCE COUNTDOWN, May 29, 1994 on BBC in the UK.

1 released in Scandinavia on CD single Columbia COL 660942 2,
December 15, 1994.

Stereo FM and TV broadcast, 25 minutes.

YOUTUBE VIDEO

Producer Tony Hollingsworth had suggested that the first night was a 'dress rehearsal', so I had assumed that it wasn't professionally recorded, as no footage was used -

"The first of the three live shows was performed for an invited audience. It was, in a sense, a dress rehearsal for the following two nights, the last of which would be broadcast. As it turned out, a dress rehearsal was very much needed. The production moved far too slowly – lasting four hours against the scheduled broadcast slot on the third night of three hours.

“The change-over between artists was very slow and much of the production work was slow, partly because of language problems, with the people directing being English and the crews Japanese. But the songs also were too long: I’d asked everyone to do four minutes, but they would do six minutes. That’s what musicians do. They are hopeless at cutting it short.

“Although I pushed people like mad, it was clear to me it wasn’t going to work.” After a hard night and day’s work, the second night was faster, but still 30 minutes too long.

But Hollingsworth had a trick up his sleeve. He was having the second night filmed anyway as a back-up for the third night. It was a trick he’d learned in producing The Wall in Berlin, when the power had failed during the broadcast performance and he was able to use footage from the dress rehearsal. So, at Todai-ji, he had booked an overnight edit at the on-site production facilities in case the second evening was not fast enough. He edited the last five-eighths of the second-night show down to the required size, cutting out the walk-ons and walk-offs and, where it was possible, editing the songs by taking out the middle.

Then came the third and final evening. “We started broadcasting live and continued to do so for the first three-eighths of the show.” He had told only three people what he was going to do – head of TV production Sandy Phone, head of transmission Dick Allott and head of radio distribution Steven Saltzman: “I’ve edited the back end of the show and at a certain point we’re going to use my tape instead of the live event to ensure we end on time.” He told no one else – “the crew and the artists would not have liked it.”

“We went into the transmission truck and put the tape in, and at the appropriate time – during the applause between songs – we told the transmissions editor to fade the tape between the two. We were no longer broadcasting live. Dick and I felt so happy we’d pulled it up. We could relax.”

However, I have some additional information from another source:

"All three nights were indeed recorded. It was necessary to use 3 recording trucks to achieve enough inputs on the mixing consoles. I had 3 consoles in my truck alone and the master fader for the live feed. over 200 microphones were on stage! to record the material there were 3 48trk Sony recorders in sync. Although the first night was a kind of rehearsal in preparation for the satellite live all three were recorded. Rough mixes were made at the time for production to DAT."

This was further supported by another source:

"My memory may be hazy...I thought we recorded all three...they were all recorded to sony digital 48 track...As far as I know they were never mixed or worked on."

Of course, 'A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall' was released as a bonus track on a version of the CD single for 'Dignity' on 1994, but aside from the broadcast tracks, none of the other nights performances have surfaced as soundboard recordings in their entirety - so none of the first night and the first three tracks from the second. I have no idea what happened to the DAT masters - I assume they were handed over to Sony / Jeff Rosen after the shows. However, I did discover that the London-based production company still retains both audio and video of the entire unedited production from all three nights, plus rehearsals, in their archive.

The 'Dignity' CD single from 1994.

2015 update

I've been off of the site for a LONG time (mainly because I forgot my password) so there are a few updates coming.

Regarding some of the earlier blog entries, you may notice that several of the items listed have now come into circulation, and mainly due to the changes in copyright law that came into effect in 2012 (see this blog entry) rahter than the more 'traditional' method of a leak. This seems to be the way things happen now, and I'm sure nobody has any particular complaints. The main point of being an enthusiast or collector or fan or whatever you wish to call it, is that you enjoy LISTENING to the music, and hearing something new is always welcome, offically or unoffically.

Since my last stint of blogging (2012!) we've seen the following released:

- Isle Of Wight 1969 Soundboard (official, as part of 'The Bootleg Series 10' Deluxe Edition)

- Royal Festival Hall 1964 Soundboard (Official, as part of the 'Copyright Extension' collection for 1964)

- (More or less) Everything from The Basement Tapes (Bootleg Series 11)

which were all featured on this blog, as well as other stuff such the 1964 Eric Von Schmitt tape.

There's still plenty in the vaults though, and I will try to continue to note any informatino that comes my way in the future...

Copyright Extension Collections 1962 - ???

The law in Europe regarding how long copyright on an audio recording can remain in copyright without being published was recently revised (from Directive 2006/116/EU to Directive 2011/77/EU), and the total amount of copyright protection was extended from 50 to 70 years. This ONLY covers published recordings.

"The term in Directive 2006/116/EC[5] is 50 years after publishing the performance, or 50 years after the performance if it is not published"

The consideration then has to be whether there is a "Full on" commercial release of some of this stuff or if it comes out via these annual EU releases. I assume this has prompted the release of the complete Basement Tapes (which would have lost copyright for the unreleased material in 2017 - just three years away) and the vague talk of a complete Blonde On Blonde multi- disc set. Consider that the Basement Tapes set comes despite earlier claims from Sony that they were done with Bootleg Series releases from the 1960's.

There has been some talk on various sites (not just Dylan) that the record companies should 'degrade' the sound for these releases, or (as in the case of the Beatles) not release anything at all and let the stuff go out of copyright or that the copyright law is a 'disaster' for the companies. Similarly, it's been suggested that Sony should or will only release material that has already been bootlegged (an illogical argument since it means non-bootlegged material goes out of copyright) and would rather lose copyright on 'secure' stuff than allow people such as myself (lowly fan) to hear it. This doesn't take into account the fact that there are many people who know a guy who knows a guy who worked at the record company etc...and they are sitting on tapes of stuff you've never heard of. Usually it's fear of the law that stops this stuff coming into wider circulation. Suddenly a tape from 1965 becomes public domain et voila...the holder has the right to release it, commercially if he or she desires. That situation, to my mind, is far damaging to the artist's catalog and reputation if suddenly there are 'Live 1965' audience recordings being legitimately sold on Amazon.com alongside 'Highway 61 Revisited' due to this 'protection gap' law.

Personally, I don't get these arguments - this stuff, while it might seem like the Holy Grail to collectors in some cases, is in reality just alternate takes or material recorded for projects that never materialized. It's not gold dust or uncut diamond. The 'value' is greatly over-estimated by collectors who are used to being drip-fed releases and assume outtakes and alternate takes are guarded in a vault by men with machine guns...the law isn't unreasonable - if you've sat on something for 50 years, the likelihood is that it's not really of great commercial value. So why not let hardcore fans hear this stuff and at least you can retain copyright in the future. Everyone wins.

The copyright law as it stands makes perfect sense, and I don't think the record companies are losing out because of it. They've had 50 years to put this stuff out commercially and they haven't done so. So I think it's reasonable that these minor fan-centered releases continue to come out annually.

I will be looking forward to the 1965 set.

(Photo pilfered from Geir Olsen on Facebook)

Recently (April 2015), what appears to be a Warner Brothers publishing acetate was auctioned on eBay, selling for $500. Here's a photo:

This was the eBay description: A Real Rare Item!! BOB DYLAN - MR. TAMBOURINE MAN 45rpm Acetate! One sided as photos show. An early to mid 1970's publishing acetate. Plays with no skips, voice and guitar come through wonderfully, but the disc is "acetate noisy". There are a few tiny marks possibly paint that had been wiped or blotted off before it could harden, so it doesn't produce any skips or horrible pops. None of the metal plate is showing through. A couple of small paint spots and water marks on label. Only a few were made and only a few made it out from WB Music. The other important fact is that this is an edited version of the song which runs over five minutes. This Version is 3:50! In the U.K., Dylans' Songbook (sheet music) was published by Warner Brothers Music in the '70's. This came from Warner Brothers in the U.S. A real gem!

Some Royal Festival Hall 1964 images

Research on the 'Royal Festival Hall 1964' show..and the Isle Of Wight 1969

...a bit of information has come to light regarding firstly the 1964 'Royal Festival Hall' show and the Isle Of Wight recording.

 This was apprently recorded on 4 quarter inch reels, I'm told that it was very likely recorded by Pye by their main engineer Ray Prickett who had joined Pye in 1963. (Ray would be best known to most as the engineer on Petula Clark's hit "Downtown") Pye were somewhat/somehow involved in the recording of the 1969 Isle Of Wight festival as well, with involvement from Bob Auger, who was employed by Pye at the time. However, my source the Pye mobile truck was not used, contrary to what Elliot Mazer has said previosuly, as the regular mobile crew were certainly not involved. In this case it seems that Bob Auger was requested specifically by the artist/management. Mazer says "At the Isle Of Wight, we used the Pye mobile and the engineer was Bob Auger. Glyn Johns and I were in the truck with Bob." Either Mazer's recollection is wrong, or the truck was rented out (or something similar) for the specific purpose of recording Bob Dylan. My source states - " I did work on the Pye Mobile unit throughout 1969, but we did not record the 1969 I.O.W festival. My diary shows we did no work on those dates.." This has been further varified by a second source - "I agree...the 1969 IOW was not recorded by Pye." Bob Auger sadly passed away some years ago.

The 1970 IOW festival master tapes are in the hands of a particular individual, who says he neither recorded nor handled any material from the 1969 festival. Ray Prickett, I believe is still alive and has worked in recent years with another former Pye engineer, Jed Kearse. I have unfortunately been unsucessful in finding contact details for either of these individuals.

 The Pye building near Marble Arch, London changed hands in 1989 after the company liquidated and has since been demolished. Some of the reels of tapes are in the hands of former employees, the location of the rest is unknown but they I'm told they could've gone to Universal or Sony in a batch aquisition.
 I'm still convinced that a line recording of the complete Royal Festival Hall 1964 show is in the private collection of a former engineer somewhere in the u.k...If anyone has further details or can assist in any way drop me an email at skippingreels@collector.org

Isle Of Wight 1969 line recording?

One of the first official releases of any Bob Dylan concert came in the form of the Isle Of Wight tracks included on 'Self Portrait' in 1969. Nothing else has ever surfaced from this recording - that's 42 years and counting!

Does this exist in Columbia's vaults? Or in some private collection somewhere...?




There is absolutely no recording information about this show available. We've all seen the photos of Bob Dylan surrounded by a multitude of microphones (recording from the soundboard)...obviously there was more than one recording going on there, but apart from the audience recordings nothing has ever surfaced.

Presumably, Glyn Johns was involved in the recording since he's creditied with engineering on Self Portrait, and is obviously the only Englishmman credited on the album.

More information needed!

skippingreels@collector.org

Request for help!

Much as I try sometimes you come up to a dead end, so here's a request for help!

If anyone knows any stories about recordings, has tapes, knows of tapes, has photos, recordings, session details, technical details, photos of tape boxes, cassettes etc...about any aspect of the stuff covered in this blog, please get in touch!

Any information or assistance is gratefully received and discretion assured and/or credit given when requested!

I've been lucky enough to have some lovely, generous people respond to email requests for information and take the time to answer questions. Much of this will be put out when I get to finally compile the information in chronological order, so please if anyone can assist in any way drop me an email -

skippingreels@collector.org

Thanks!

Love Is Just A Four Letter Word

I have been extemely privilaged to speak breifly with an individual close to the whirlwind of Bob Dylan in the mid 1960s and 1970s. I was both honoured and humbled by this, since this individual has not spoken about Bob Dylan since around 1980.

I had hoped to put this up on the blog some time ago but real life got in the way as it so often does...

I will not reprint the entire conversation out of respect for the individual I spoke to, but here are are couple of quotes -

"Bob DID record 'Love is Just a Four-Letter Word' -- one take from early 1965. Unless I'm mistaken -- I'm relying upon memory in 2010 -- it was recorded earlier on the same day he did a studio recording of 'Farewell, Angelina'"

"The recording I had sounded like a home recording. He sang the entire song, talked a little with friends, tried it again, then stopped."


Part of this brief conversation regards the recording of 'Love Is Just A Four Letter Word'.

It turns out that Bob Dylan did indeed - apprently - record this, on or around January 13, 1965 (my assumption). I believe that Clinton Heylin might have inadvertently listed it in his recording sessions book in 1994:

Columbia Studio A, New York

January 13, 1965

CO 85281 unknown

Although there is a slight discrepancy, since the source believes it may have been recorded before 'Farewell Angelina'. Cross referencing with Krogsgaard reveals CO 85281 to apprently be 'Outlaw Blues' , although he points "This CO number is not listed in the contract cards"...there is an issue with this, however, since the January 14th session lists Outlaw Blues as CO85282-3, meaning that CO85281 was indeed something else other than Outlaw Blues...plus according to Korgsgaard there were two takes of CO85281, as per the description of 'Love Is Just A Four Letter Word', and four takes of CO 85282 (Outlaw Blues) the first two being incomplete and the third, complete take being the released one, which ties in with Heylin - CO85282-3. This does leave the issue of the acoustic 'Outlaw Blues' which surfaced some time ago...hmmm.....confused? Me too....anyway, there's a least enough confusion going on here to suggest that, just maybe, it was recorded somewhere in these sessions.

There were two takes, with Dylan talking in between takes. It is said that Dylan 'then stopped' so I gather the second take was incomplete, but the first take was, quote 'the whole song'.

Unfortunately the tape has been in posession of Bob Dylan / Jeff Rosen since around 1980, having been passed onto them, and is now inaccessable unless it sees an official release in the future.

I would very much like to thank the individual who shared this information with me, I am honoured to get information like this, and obviously by posting this on the message board I hope I haven't upset anyone. I will not repost the entire conversation word for word since it was a private discussion, but since this information has been unknown/speculative until now, it's good to get a bit more.

---------------------------------------------------------------

This is mostly guesswork on my part. If we assume this -

COLUMBIA STUDIO A, New York, January 13th 1965

CO 85270 Love Minus Zero / No Limit
CO 85271 I'll Keep It With Mine
CO 85872 It's All Over Now Baby Blue
CO 85273 Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
CO 85274 She Belongs To Me
CO 85275 Subterranean Homesick Blues
CO 85276 California
CO 85277 On The Road Again <- should be here???
CO 85278 Farewell Angelina
CO 85279 IF You Gotta Go, Go Now
CO 85280 You Don't Have To Do That
CO 85281 ???? - might actually be here???)
CO 85282 Outlaw Blues

Then it would seem that CO 85281 is the best candidate...but..and it was an oversight on my part, some of the numbers AREN'T carry-overs but continuations....unless the Jan 13th session was EVEN LOGER and included additional versions of 852282 through to 285, but that would be a bit too speculative....what I DO think is clear is that there's some weird, inaccurate numbering going on with these sessions as it currently stands, so plenty of room for additional recordings to be missing somewhere in there.

I believe it could well have been BEFORE 'Farewell Angelina' based on the sketchy tape logs.


Some comments from the ever helpful Bob Stacey -

Columbia sometimes did strange things (or at least apparently so) with the CO-numbers associated with songs performed at more than a single session. There may have been carry-over guidelines, but at times, they seem to have been applied arbitrarily. I’m not sure if I follow what you mean about “Outlaw Blues” being the only case for the same CO *not* carried over from one day to the next.

She Belongs To Me – CO 85274 (Jan 13) > CO 85283 (Jan 14 aft.) > CO 85274 (Jan 14 eve.)
On The Road – CO 85277 (Jan 13) > CO 85285 (Jan 14, Jan 15)
Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream – CO85273 (Jan 13) > CO 85284 (Jan 14 aft.) > CO 85273 (Jan 14 eve.)
If You Gotta Go, Go Now – CO 85279 (Jan 13) > CO85291 (Jan 15)

Based on all the business with CO carry-overs, I’d be hesitant to assume too much about “Outlaw Blues”. Even with all the varying information on recording sheets, contract cards, and tape boxes, apparently something had previously indicated that the final takes of Jan 13 should be titled “Outlaw Blues” with CO 85281 as the designation. Until more is known to directly contradict, I’m of the opinion somebody along the way at Columbia or since then might’ve actually verified that to be the case.

As early as January 1965, it’s doubtful “Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word” in Dylan’s mind was in a satisfactory state for serious consideration as an album take. That doesn’t mean he didn’t sing it at the sessions, but whatever he sang likely was not a “whole song” at least as we know it today. Apparently (according to Joan Baez), it seemed to have had multiple endings.

(Dylan in Dont Look Back): “I didn’t finish that song, did I, huh? … I never finished it … That’s a good song … Yeah, I could finish that.”

Since the source remembers “Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word” as possibly being sung before “Farewell Angelina”, maybe it wasn’t even assigned a “CO-take” designation. Such might’ve been the case, if Dylan didn’t consider the song to be finished but simply wanted to try it out.

Approximate “Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word” timeline:

1/65 – Supposedly sung at the BIABH recording sessions.
5/65 – Joan Baez sang one verse in DLB.
9/67 – Witmark copyright registered.
(67 or 68) – Witmark’s DLB songbook printed only two verses.
(68 and 69) – Warner Bros. – Seven Arts copyrights are registered.
(68) – Baez album “Any Day Now” : Five verse version.
(73) – “Writings and Drawings”: Four verse version.

It is assumed that the final “forever fleet” verse of the song on “Any Day Now” is truly a Dylan creation and not Joan’s own signature conclusion that she based on one of Bob’s early version endings. Does anyone know for sure?

The Missing Basement Reels

There are apprently an additional NINE (at least) basement tape reels that have never been accessed.

Are these in the hands of private individuals or safely locked away in the vaults at Iron Mountain?

Anyone?

As we know, several reels came out in the mid 1980s via an ex-roadie, and yet more were access via Scorpio's 'Genuine Basement Tapes' cds in 1992.

But nothing since then.

If anyone knows of/has more basement material or information, drp me a message at skippingreels@collector.org

Skipping Reels Of Rhyme - An introduction

Here's the rough draft of my introduction to the book. When I say 'rough' I mean 'rough' so go easy on me, there are spelling & grammar mistakes etc...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In 1970, Jimi Hendrix recorded a suite of songs on a portable tape machine for a possible future album entitled "Black Gold". These recordings were mentioned by Hendrix briefly in several interviews at the time. After Hendrix's death in 1970, rumours spread that several tapes were 'liberated' from his appartment to cover his various debts. 'Black Gold' was missing presumed lost until a chance interview in 1992 between Hendrix biographer and Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell revealed that Mitchell had there tapes in his posession the whole time. For 22 years, a lost album of Jimi Hendrix material was not in the hands of his record company or his family, carefully locked away in a temprature-controlled vault, but stored in a cardboard box in Sussex, with Mitchell totally unaware of their significance.
Hendrix recording career spanned less than 5 years. Despite this, new recordings continue to spring up in unlikely places - a reel in a private collection, some film footage sitting in a tv studio. I am always fascinated by this concept. Similarly, the BBC have a remarkable track record for apprently 'lost' episodes of broadcasts turning up in some engineer's back shed where thay have been left, undisturbed, for 30 years. How does this happen?

Bob Dylan's carrer has spanned over 50 years, with recordings of his performances existing from his earliest coffee house gigs to the present day, some professionally recorded, many from amateur 'microphone-in-audience' sources. Hundreds of hours of reels of studio recordings, making up Bob Dylan's studio albums have spawned numerous outtakes and alternate versions of familiar songs. Collector's have dutifully recorded Bob Dylan's many television and radio performances over the years and serious collectors have gathered a huge archive of 'unofficial' material.

This book is not about bootlegs. It is however, about the stuff you might never hear. It's also about the stuff that, with a bit of luck and a twist of fate, you just might. Do we have a right to hear everything? Even if the artist choses not to release it? That's another debate. To understand this book you have to see things a bit differently. When I started out with the initial idea, I was fortunate to have a brief chat with Jeff Rosen, who has overseen archival releases of Bob Dylan recordings as part of 'The Bootleg Series' since 1991 -

"I have to say that Sony actually recorded very little of Bob live. All
that was done during the 60's and all of it is known by collectors. We
have recorded stuff on and off over the years. Some were sound board
tapes, some were more complicated - all in storage..."

So, discounting the 1964 Royal Albert Hall recording (more on that later) we can assume the vast majority of Dylan's offically recorded live performances have been officially released.

There is a flip side to this coin. What about the stuff that Sony doesn't have in storage? In 1998, a reel of Bob Dylan at the Hollywood Bowl from an 'in-line' source turned up amounst collectors. Indeed, in the course of my brief conversation with Jeff Rosen, I was able to point out a piece of 1965 film footage that he was totally unaware existed.

This is where this book comes in. This isn't about the stuff that isn't tucked away in Sony's vaults. It isn't about the studio alternates that Bob Dylan doesn't want escaping. This is about the stuff that's already out there but, like the Hendrix tapes, is sitting in someone's cardbord box. It's about the acetate that Bob Dylan gave to a friend in 1963 and has been sitting on a shelf ever since. It's about that reel to reel tape in a loft, it's about that live recording in 1966 that was sitting in a biographer's house in South London until his death. Most of all, it's about how these thing continue to turn up, out of the blue, turning myth into fact and re-writing the story decades after the event. This isn't about bootlegs, it's about archeology.

More on the Dylan/Baez 1963 acetate...

I was going to reprint some of the track information that appeared in ISIS magazine, but since Bob Stacy posted it on allalongthewatchtower.dk, I just copied & pasted it intead ;-) Thanks Bob! -

SIDE 1.

Begins with a 2:50 min. interview with Joan Baez.

Introduction: “Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with pleasure, that we present the young lady that Look magazine recently adjusted [?] the greatest Folksinger: Miss Joan Baez.”

Baez: [‘Oh Freedom’, ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’, ‘She’s A Trouble Maker’, ‘In The Pines’, ‘We Shall Overcome’, ‘What Have They Done With The Rain’, ‘Pilgrim Of Sorrow’.] ………. [ ] indicates songs played.

SIDE 2.

Baez: “I’m gonna sing you another song, that Bobby Dylan wrote, and the only thing this is protesting is a love affair, that went on too long. It’s called [‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’].”

Baez: “For some of you, who don’t … (inaudible) … For those of you, who don’t know anything or much about Bobby Dylan. He is sort of, what I would call, a phenomenal young man, who’s been writing songs, beautiful songs, beautiful poems, beautiful stories, anyhow he wrote that one and it just so happens that he came here with me tonight and he’s gonna come and sing a couple of … (applause)”.

(Inaudible conversation between Baez and Dylan)

Dylan: “This is a song called [‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’] and that’s what it’s about.”
(Applause after this song is either not recorded or edited out).

Dylan talks during the start of [‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’] (inaudible …”last time”). Baez joins in the last line of each verse. Beautiful powerful performance.

Baez: [‘All My Trials’].

Couple of reels....

From my collection...7 inch reels at 15ips...I presume the Pouporri recording is mis-identified....although I've never actually played this reel ;-)

Dylan / Baez Forest Hills 1963 acetate

This 12" 33rpm acetate turned up on eBay in the early summer and sold for $2,750.00 on June 2nd 2011. The recording comes from Forest Hills 17th August 1963. 'Only A Pawn In Their Game' and 'A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall' are not in circulation. As of the time of writing, the recordings from this acetate are not available to listen to, unfortunately.

Thanks to Bob S. for pointing out that I had got the date slightly wrong..by 1 year and also the following which comes from http://www.searchingforagem.com:

Glen Dundas' 2004 information for the concert's Dylan portion:

Forest Hills Music Festival
Forest Hills Tennis Stadium
New York City, NewYork
August 17, 1963

Guest appearance at a Joan Baez Concert.


1. Only A Pawn In Their Game *
2. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall *
3. Farewell (a) *
4. Troubled And I Don't Know Why (a)
5. Blowin' In The Wind (a) (cut)

* uncirculating.

(a) Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar) and Joan Baez (vocal & guitar).

4 released on JOAN BAEZ: RARE, LIVE & CLASSIC, Vanguard VCD3-125/27, 31 August 1993.

4, 5 Incomplete stereo PA recording, 7 minutes.


Form the description:

A LIVE ACETATE OF A RECORDING PROFESSIONALY MIXED OF JOAN BAEZ & BOB DYLAN IN CONCERT FROM AROUND 1963? DON'T HAVE MUCH INFO ON THIS BUT THE SOUND IS EXCELLENT AND I THINK THIS IS RARE AS HENS TEETH! STARTS OFF WITH (ON THE JOAN BAEZ SIDE) WITH HER SINGING,A VERSION OF DYLAN'S 'DON'T THINK TWICE" then introduces Bob and he sings "Only a Pawn in the Game" THEN TALKS A LITTLE AND THEN SINGS "IT'S A HARD RAIN GONNA FALL" THE REST OF THIS SIDE IS JOAN SINGING I THINK WITH DYLAN SOME OTHER TUNES LIKE "ALL MY TRIALS"& WE SHALL OVERCOME
SIDE 2 IS JOAN BEING INTERVIEWED AND SOME MORE LIVE STUFF.THIS WAS FOUND IN A RECORDING ENGINEERS COLECTION WHO WORKED FOR RIVERSIDE RECORDS.IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES.THIS WILL HAVE TO BE SENT W/INSURANCE AND REGISTRATION.

RECORD:EX LITE PLAY SOME STORAGE AND PRESS MARKS BUT SOUNDS FINE ONE POP ON VERY START OF LP.
COVER:EX

Acetates, reels & Bob Dylan told me to write a book....

As many of you know, I'm in the process fo putting this information together in a 'book' of some sort. A lot of the information that has come to me recently has never been published. There include accounts from friends and musicians who've worked with Bob Dylan both in live performance and in the studio.

Tentatively, we're looking at late 2012 for a publishing date. It will be titled "Skipping Reels Of Rhyme" somewhat unimaginatively.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far - lots of interesting things!!!!

In the meantime, I'm still looking for tapes, Acetates and reel-to-reel recordings...if you have any, drop me an email!

skippingreels@collector.org



Photo of an acetate of 'Street Legal' that appeared on eBay.

Request for information!

If anyone can help with any information regarding the Robert Shelton tapes that were auctioned in 1993, please drop me an email.

Likewise, if anyone has any information about recordings particularly from the 1960s or 1970s, please let me know!

skippingreels@collector.org

Berkeley 1965 soundboard

Following on from the recent discovery of the Fantasy Records Acetate, which was made by cheif engineer David Turner (Job Number 77182 (stereo)), there was mention at the time (2004) that Fantasy Records also held a (reel to reel?) live recording of a Bob Dylan performance from Berkeley Community Theatre, 4th December 1965, but no further information was available.

It's believed that this passed to the Concord Music Group -

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/

following the merger with Fantasy Records in 2004.

This is not currently circulating, nor is there any furhter information to authenticate this.

EDIT: Thanks to R_C on the Watchtower board for pointing out that in fact we have had the electric part of Berkeley for some time, either as an nth generation board or stage recording of some sort. The assumption is that this version that we don't have is first or 2nd generation and complete with both acoustic/electric halves of the show.

Further information about that 'Tombstone Blues'

It's from the afternoon workshop at Newport 24/7/1965.

My research suggests it was performed immediately BEFORE 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now'. So we had three songs performed in this order:

1. Tombstone Blues
2. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
3. Love Minus Zero / No Limit

Murray Lerner footage in 'The Other Side Of The Mirror' starts with 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now'

How do I know this was performed first and not later or much earlier? Simple bit of detective work.

Look at these two shots - the first is from 'The Other Side Of The Mirror', right as Dylan is starting 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now'.



Notice the man with the destinctive white beard and hat standing up to the left of Bob Dylan. He has his jacket in his hand. You can see in later frames that he appears to place the jacket over the chair behind him and sits back down.

Now look at this frame, from the 'Tombstone Blues' WDR footage -



The same individual can be seem to Bob's left, but he appears to have his jacket on.

;-)

Also, if this isn't Murray Lerner's footage, then both cameras/cameramen were at least in very close proximity and recording from the same angle.

Acoustic 'Tombstone Blues' - Newport 1965

There is an incomplete film of an acoustic performance of 'Tombstone Blues' from the Newport Folk Festival 1965.
This was broadcast in Germany on Saturday 9th August 2003 as part of a special night of programming called 'Ruge Nacht'. The actual show that featured the Dylan clip was called "Ruges Amerika 1964-1966" and was produced by the ARD-station WDR. Before that, it was totally unknown footage and it was also not known that Bob Dylan played this.

I would assume this is from the footage shot by Murray Learner for Festival! although I have no idea how WDR came to be in possession of it.

Screenshot / more info to follow...

Brandeis available for purchase singly in January

Good news:

"Jeff Rosen, a New York City-based representative of the iconic poet-musician, said that the bonus deal was set up to promote sales of the latest in the Bootleg series, and that the Brandeis performance would be available for purchase singly in January."

http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2010/october/dylan.html

I'm hoping though that we might see some more similar releases in the near future.

Ahem....Royal Festival Hall 1964...ahem :-D