by Vinyl301 -

Bob Dylan: Re-Transmissions

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Storming Music 2005.  SMC2642

Not listed on Discogs

I’ve had a manic few days, so no time for vinyl rips, or even to upload anything, so here’s a quick post of something I put on a bootleg forum a while back.

This seems to be a bit of a grey release.  It was available in record shops in the UK briefly, and isn’t hard to track down on line.  I’ve heard it said that UK copyright on TV broadcasts doesn’t last long, meaning that they can be released unofficially, but legally.  I have no idea whether that’s true, but this CD seems only to have been available here.

What it is is a selection of Dylan TV broadcasts, sound only.  Live, Dylan can be a bit hit and miss, but he’s always reworking old material, so it’s worth keeping an eye on live stuff, and here, being TV, he seems to be on his best behaviour, so there are some worthwhile performances of familiar tunes.  There’s an emphasis on his gospel period – panned at the time, but now pretty well thought of.  I like it.

If you’re not into Dylan already, this really isn’t the place to start – I’d go for his three classic 60s albums, Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde On Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited (the mono versions of all these albums are superior).  Add Blood On The Tracks and Time Out Of Mind if you want more.

It’s not obvious from this blog, but I’m a huge Dylan fan.  I’ve listened to him more than any other artist, and even now I play his stuff all the time.  I don’t post much here because of course almost all of his output is available.  There are a few oddments though which I’ll post at some point.

Since it’s not on Discogs, here’s a tracklisting:

1. Gotta Serve Somebody (Saturday Night Live 1979)
2. I Believe In You (Saturday Night Live 1979)
3. When You Gonna Wake Up (Saturday Night Live 1979)
4. I’ll Remember You (Farm Aid 1985)
5. Maggie’s Farm (Farm Aid 1985)
6. Mr Tambourine Man (L.A 1990 With the Byrds)
7. Masters Of War (Grammy Awards 1991)
8. It’s Alright, Ma (I¹m Only Bleeding) (30th Anniversary 1992)
9. My Back Pages (30th Anniversary 1992)
10. All Along The Watchtower (RnR Hall Of Fame 1995)
11. Seeing The Real You At Last (RnR Hall Of Fame 1995)
12. Highway 61 Revisited (RnR Hall Of Fame 1995)

by Vinyl301 -

Bob Dylan: Mixed Up Confusion (Alternate Take)

Front

This post is a monument to how crap record companies can be.

The track itself is a bit of an oddity. It was Bob Dylan’s first single in 1962 and it bombed. It’s odd because it was years before he went electric, and yet it was recorded with an electric band.

However, it’s not actually the released version – it’s an alternate take.  So crap was Columbia that when they issued the restrospective Biograph in 1985 they used the wrong tape.  Fans spotted it immediately, but Columbia did nothing, repressing the CD many times.  Biograph got a make-over in 1997 and the incorrect take was replaced by something even weirder, a stereo remix of the originally released take which was only available in mono at the time.

The version here is slightly different again.  It’s from an Australia only compilation called Masterpieces which contains a number of other oddities I’ll probably deal with at some point.  The version of Mixed Up Confusion it contains is the same take as on the original Biograph but slightly longer.

If you want to hear the original mono version, it’s no good relying on Columbia.  It’s now been out of print for 51 years, so I doubt it will ever appear.  You could try to track down an original vinyl copy, but they’re insanely rare and you’ll need deep pockets.  Best option is to head over to Prof Stoned for his excellent vinyl rip of an original Dutch 45. It’s also where I got the artwork from.