A selection of somewhat obscure tracks that are very cool.
“Ranger’s Command,” Gerdes Folk City, NYC, September 29, 1961:
“Going Going Gone” voice and guitar, from Planet Waves sessions:
“Outlaw Blues” voice and guitar, possibly from the January 13, 1965 studio session:
“Mr. Tambourine Man” live, Royal Festival Hall, London, May 17, 1964:
“Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache,” cool cover of the Willie Bea Thompson and Lilian May song that was recorded by Warren Smith among others and appears on the Good Rockin’ Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records compilation:
“Let’s Keep It Between Us,” San Francisco, Warfield Theater, 1980:
On January 14, 1965, Bob Dylan returned to Columbia’s Studio A in New York for his second day of sessions for Bringing It All back Home.
Unlike the previous session, this time, Dylan and producer Tom Wilson had assembled a group of musicians to record with Dylan.
On hand were Al Gorgoni (guitar), Kenneth Rankin (guitar), Bruce Langhorne (guitar), Joseph Macho Jr. (bass), William E. Lee (bass), Bobby Gregg (drums), Paul Griffin (piano), John Sebastian (bass) and John Boone (bass).
As photographer Daniel Kramer recalled in his book, “Bob Dylan: A Portrait of the Artist’s Early Years,” “Between takes, Dylan would work individually with the musicians until he was satisfied with what was happening. He was patient with them and they were patient with him. His method of working, the certainty of what he wanted kept things moving. He would listen to the playbacks in the control booth, discuss what was happening with Tom Wilson, and move on to the next number. If he tried something that didn’t go well, he would put if off for another session. In this way, he never bogged down — he just kept on going.”
Eight songs were recorded that day. Five of them — “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Outlaw Blues,” “She Belongs To Me,” and “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” — were used on Bringing It All Back Home. A version of “I’ll Keep It With Mine” was eventually released on Biograph.
While Dylan’s previous albums are amazing — I’ve been listening to them for decades — it was with Bringing It All Back Home that Dylan made his (post-success) move into making what Greil Marcus called “noisy rock ‘n’ roll songs” at the same time his songwriting and lyrics took yet another leap forward. In retrospect, it is incredible that Dylan could record all of the tracks for Bringing It All back Home in two sessions — this one and another on the following day.
In his book, “Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan At The Crossroads,” Marcus summed up side one of Bringing It All Back Home. “It [‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’] was followed on the album by ‘She Belongs To Me,’ ‘Maggie’s Farm,’ ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit,’ ‘Outlaw Blues,’ ‘On the Road Again’ and ‘Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream,’ most of them scratchy, clanging, written with flair, sung with glee, Dylan and his backing musicians in moments thrilled at their own new clatter.”
If you have not read Marcus’ book, I suggest you do. Among the many amazing passages are six pages devoted to “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream.”
Marcus says of the song: “It is a protest song about a country that is ridiculous before it is anything else. It is, among other things, a rewrite of Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel, ‘Invisible Man,’ a comic version of the story Dylan would tell a few months later in ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ and a picture of a life that hasn’t changed — a common, modern story that doesn’t make any more or less sense than it did when it was first told.”
What would be even more mind-blowing than Dylan’s accomplishments with Bringing It All Back Home, during the next seven months he would record both Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde and do significant touring.
And so, in a little over seven months — just 25 actual days in the studio — Bob Dylan recorded three of the greatest albums.
Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York
January 14, 1965
The 2nd Bringing It All Back Home recording session, produced by Tom Wilson.
1. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
2. Love Minus Zero/No Limit — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
3. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
4. Subterranean Homesick Blues
5. Subterranean Homesick Blues
6. Subterranean Homesick Blues — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
7. Outlaw Blues
8. Outlaw Blues
9. Outlaw Blues
10. Outlaw Blues — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
11. She Belongs To Me
12. She Belongs To Me — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
13. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream — intro used on Bringing It All Back Home .
14. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
15. On The Road Again
16. On The Road Again
17. On The Road Again
18. On The Road Again
19. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
20. I’ll Keep It With Mine — used on Biograph.
21. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
22. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream
23. She Belongs To Me
24. Subterranean Homesick Blues
1-18 Bob Dylan (guitar, harmonica, vocal), Al Gorgoni (guitar), Kenneth Rankin (guitar), Bruce Langhorne (guitar), Joseph Macho
Jr. (bass), William E. Lee (bass), Bobby Gregg (drums),
Paul Griffin (piano).
19-24 Bob Dylan (guitar, harmonica, vocal), John Hammond Jr. (guitar), Bruce Langhorne (guitar), John Sebastian (bass), John
Boone (bass).
On January 13, 1965, Bob Dylan entered Studio A, the Columbia studio that he favored, and during a three-hour session with Tom Wilson producing, recorded 14 songs.
This session, the first of three for an album, Bringing It All Back Home, that would be his transitional move toward rock music, was business as usual. On that day Dylan recorded alone, accompanying himself, as he had done for his previous albums, on guitar and piano and harmonica. There are wonderful takes that were recorded that day, but clearly Dylan was ready to try something new, and he did during the sessions that followed.
From Wikipedia:
The first session, held on January 13, 1965 in Columbia’s Studio A in New York, was recorded solo, with Dylan playing piano or acoustic guitar. Ten complete songs and several song sketches were produced, nearly all of which were discarded.
None of the versions recorded that day were used on Bringing It All Back Home, and only five of them have thus far been officially released.
“I’ll Keep It With Mine” was included on Biograph, and “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Farewell Angelina” are on The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3. One of the “Outlaw Blues” takes was released as an iTunes exclusive in 2005.”California” is on 2009’s NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack – Vol. 2.
If you liked this post, check on the one I did on the second Bringing It All Back Home session here.
Writer Michael Krogsgaard got access to Sony Records’ archives in New York and has published detailed information online.
Here’s his information about the January 13, 1965 session:
Studio A
Columbia Recording Studio
New York City, New York
January 13, 1965, 7-10 pm
Produced by Tom Wilson.
Engineers: Hallie and Catero.
1. Love Minus Zero/No Limit CO85270 Take 1b
2. Love Minus Zero/No Limit Take 2C
3. I’ll Keep It With Mine CO85271 Take 1C
4. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue CO85272 Take 1C
5. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream CO85273 Take 1b
6. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream Take 2C
7. She Belongs To Me CO85274 Take 1C
8. Subterranean Homesick Blues CO85275 Take 1C
9. Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence CO85276 Take 1C
10. On The Road Again CO85277 Take 1C
11. Farewell Angelina CO85278 Take 1C
12. If You Gotta Go, Go Now CO85279 Take 1C
13. If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Addition) Take 1
14. Bending Down On My Stomick Lookin’ West CO85280 Take 1C
15. Love Minus Zero/No Limit CO85270 Take 3C
16. She Belongs To Me CO85274 Take 2C
17. Outlaw Blues CO85281 Take 1b
18. Outlaw Blues Take 2C
1 and 2 “Dime Store” on recording sheet.
3 “Bank Account Blues” on recording sheet.
5-6 “B. Dylan’s Later Dream” on recording sheet.
7 “Worse Than Money” on recording sheet.
8 “Subterranean Homesick Blues #10” on recording sheet.
9 “Barbwire” on recording sheet, corrected on the tape box to “Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence”. On the copyright card listed as “Outlaw Blues”.
11 “Alcatraz To The 5th Power” on recording sheet.
12 and 13 “You Gotta Go” on recording sheet.
17 and 18 “Tune X” on recording sheet, corrected to “Key To The Highway” on one tape box and to “Outlaw Blues” on another. This CO number is not listed in the contract cards.
3 released on Biograph.
8 and 11 released on The Bootleg Series.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
