Dylan

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

I think there are 18, and no. I just ordered the 2CD "best of" compilation volume -- I probably could have sprung for the 6CD version but funds are limited and I had some other stuff I wanted to get too. So far I think I prefer this programming style (this plays like a proper album, where the complete set is totally chronological and therefore sees sometimes upwards of 10-15 takes of the same song sequenced together), though with so much material I wish they'd resisted the urge to include the previously released takes of "I'll Keep It With Mine" and "Farewell Angelina" on the redux version, especially when omitting them would have made room for the solo piano version of "She's Your Lover Now." But overall it's an outstanding set. I am sure I will acquire the full set by other means at some point, from which I will probably make another 2CD mix or so, and keep the rest on the shelf for reference as one would an enyclopedia.

It appears that they deliberately chose lame/semi-revealing versions of some of the songs so the 18-CD set would still be desirable. Some of the songs differ drastically from take to take. I plan on listening to the whole set and isolating the bits that I find most interesting.

[Kevin Davis]

I think there are 18, and no. I just ordered the 2CD "best of" compilation volume -- I probably could have sprung for the 6CD version but funds are limited and I had some other stuff I wanted to get too. So far I think I prefer this programming style (this plays like a proper album, where the complete set is totally chronological and therefore sees sometimes upwards of 10-15 takes of the same song sequenced together), though with so much material I wish they'd resisted the urge to include the previously released takes of "I'll Keep It With Mine" and "Farewell Angelina" on the redux version, especially when omitting them would have made room for the solo piano version of "She's Your Lover Now." But overall it's an outstanding set. I am sure I will acquire the full set by other means at some point, from which I will probably make another 2CD mix or so, and keep the rest on the shelf for reference as one would an enyclopedia.

It appears that they deliberately chose lame/semi-revealing versions of some of the songs so the 18-CD set would still be desirable. Some of the songs differ drastically from take to take. I plan on listening to the whole set and isolating the bits that I find most interesting.

Same here, though I anticipate it being a bit of a process. Ultimately I'd like to make a companion volume to the 2CD set I already have, one that plays like an album with maybe one or two takes of each song that work the best musically. The breakdowns and false starts and all that are academically interesting to me but I'm less enamored with them than some are -- for listening purposes, my enjoyment of a track usually peaks fairly low if I know that three minutes in it's going to collapse (i.e. this full band take of "Tambourine Man")

It's pretty remarkable that this bootleg series release is the fifth time Sony has mined this particular well of material -- after the original albums, Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, and No Direction Home -- and there are still so many surprises.

[Kevin Davis]

I'm working my way through the 18-disc set, and so far am feeling pretty good about my decision to settle for the redux version. The 2-disc version cost me $14.98, which boils down to $7.49 per disc; this pricing structure ought to put the cost of the 18-disc set at $134.82, give or take. However, retail price on the 18-disc set is $600. This means that $465.18 of that price tag is for commemorative doo-dads and picture books and whatever other crud is packaged in there, which in my opinion is highway robbery. Consider further how much of the $134.82 price tag for the music is given over to false starts and fragments and fuckups and otherwise purely academic tracks (which, halfway into this thing, I'm getting pretty bored with -- "here's fifty seconds of Bob punching in an overdub on 'Ballad of a Thin Man!'" -- okay, thanks, what's next?), not to mention previously released tracks (not only the takes from the original albums, but also from Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, and No Direction Home), and I think the trove of material is a fair bit smaller than it might appear.

So here is my project: I am compiling a companion volume of material -- completed takes only, repeating none of the material from the original albums, Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, No Direction Home, or the 2-disc Cutting Edge set. This is leaving me with anywhere from 0 to 4 takes of each song to choose from, with no plans to duplicate songs unless radically differing versions justify it, but so far I haven't found many instances of this among versions that haven't already been released. I assume this will be a 2-disc set but it might spill over into 3, and I am going to leave the 18th disc (a bonus disc of very famous bootleg tapes from various hotel rooms, which feature suboptimally recorded versions of a wealth of new originals -- such as "Positively Van Gogh" and "I Can't Leave Her Behind" -- that for the most part Dylan would never touch again) as a standalone thing. The idea is that if you have the original albums, Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, No Direction Home, and the 2-disc Cutting Edge set, my companion volume will round up the remainder of the best material, leaving out only incomplete takes and -- for lack of a better term -- redundant takes that are more or less identical to ones that have been released elsewhere. This will be a comp for folks like myself who are less interested in the "studio process" documented on the exhaustive set and more interested in the music itself.

So far the coolest thing on this set for me is a complete full-band version of "Desolation Row," as well as a barroom piano demo of "On the Road Again," and the previously circulating solo piano version of "She's Your Lover Now," which is the only time Dylan got through the song without error.

[contamination]

Love World Gone Wrong.

One of my favorites:

[contamination]

I'm working my way through the 18-disc set, and so far am feeling pretty good about my decision to settle for the redux version. The 2-disc version cost me $14.98, which boils down to $7.49 per disc; this pricing structure ought to put the cost of the 18-disc set at $134.82, give or take. However, retail price on the 18-disc set is $600. This means that $465.18 of that price tag is for commemorative doo-dads and picture books and whatever other crud is packaged in there, which in my opinion is highway robbery. Consider further how much of the $134.82 price tag for the music is given over to false starts and fragments and fuckups and otherwise purely academic tracks (which, halfway into this thing, I'm getting pretty bored with -- "here's fifty seconds of Bob punching in an overdub on 'Ballad of a Thin Man!'" -- okay, thanks, what's next?), not to mention previously released tracks (not only the takes from the original albums, but also from Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, and No Direction Home), and I think the trove of material is a fair bit smaller than it might appear.

So here is my project: I am compiling a companion volume of material -- completed takes only, repeating none of the material from the original albums, Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, No Direction Home, or the 2-disc Cutting Edge set. This is leaving me with anywhere from 0 to 4 takes of each song to choose from, with no plans to duplicate songs unless radically differing versions justify it, but so far I haven't found many instances of this among versions that haven't already been released. I assume this will be a 2-disc set but it might spill over into 3, and I am going to leave the 18th disc (a bonus disc of very famous bootleg tapes from various hotel rooms, which feature suboptimally recorded versions of a wealth of new originals -- such as "Positively Van Gogh" and "I Can't Leave Her Behind" -- that for the most part Dylan would never touch again) as a standalone thing. The idea is that if you have the original albums, Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, No Direction Home, and the 2-disc Cutting Edge set, my companion volume will round up the remainder of the best material, leaving out only incomplete takes and -- for lack of a better term -- redundant takes that are more or less identical to ones that have been released elsewhere. This will be a comp for folks like myself who are less interested in the "studio process" documented on the exhaustive set and more interested in the music itself.

So far the coolest thing on this set for me is a complete full-band version of "Desolation Row," as well as a barroom piano demo of "On the Road Again," and the previously circulating solo piano version of "She's Your Lover Now," which is the only time Dylan got through the song without error.

I'd love to hear this once you get it done.

[contamination]

Maybe I can put this here:

[super nintendo chalmers]

I'm working my way through the 18-disc set, and so far am feeling pretty good about my decision to settle for the redux version. The 2-disc version cost me $14.98, which boils down to $7.49 per disc; this pricing structure ought to put the cost of the 18-disc set at $134.82, give or take. However, retail price on the 18-disc set is $600. This means that $465.18 of that price tag is for commemorative doo-dads and picture books and whatever other crud is packaged in there, which in my opinion is highway robbery. Consider further how much of the $134.82 price tag for the music is given over to false starts and fragments and fuckups and otherwise purely academic tracks (which, halfway into this thing, I'm getting pretty bored with -- "here's fifty seconds of Bob punching in an overdub on 'Ballad of a Thin Man!'" -- okay, thanks, what's next?), not to mention previously released tracks (not only the takes from the original albums, but also from Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, and No Direction Home), and I think the trove of material is a fair bit smaller than it might appear.

So here is my project: I am compiling a companion volume of material -- completed takes only, repeating none of the material from the original albums, Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, No Direction Home, or the 2-disc Cutting Edge set. This is leaving me with anywhere from 0 to 4 takes of each song to choose from, with no plans to duplicate songs unless radically differing versions justify it, but so far I haven't found many instances of this among versions that haven't already been released. I assume this will be a 2-disc set but it might spill over into 3, and I am going to leave the 18th disc (a bonus disc of very famous bootleg tapes from various hotel rooms, which feature suboptimally recorded versions of a wealth of new originals -- such as "Positively Van Gogh" and "I Can't Leave Her Behind" -- that for the most part Dylan would never touch again) as a standalone thing. The idea is that if you have the original albums, Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, No Direction Home, and the 2-disc Cutting Edge set, my companion volume will round up the remainder of the best material, leaving out only incomplete takes and -- for lack of a better term -- redundant takes that are more or less identical to ones that have been released elsewhere. This will be a comp for folks like myself who are less interested in the "studio process" documented on the exhaustive set and more interested in the music itself.

So far the coolest thing on this set for me is a complete full-band version of "Desolation Row," as well as a barroom piano demo of "On the Road Again," and the previously circulating solo piano version of "She's Your Lover Now," which is the only time Dylan got through the song without error.

I'd love to hear this once you get it done.

Me too, KD. Me too.

[Kevin Davis]

I just finished it, actually! It proved to be an easier task than imagined, really -- once you program around the previously released takes and song fragments, there wasn't necessarily a ton of narrowing down to do. The toughest part was where there were songs that had multiple completed takes that sounded more or less the same ("I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Barbed Wire Fence" were the worst culprits, as well as some of the early takes of "Just Like a Woman") -- in these cases the differences between versions were pretty academic, so I just picked the one that had the most compelling phrasing or was the most confident musically, but basically your mileage may vary. On some of the other songs it was a lot easier to choose a version. On two occasions I chose two versions ("On the Road Again" and "Visions of Johanna"). I will try to share this week.

[Norah]

I'm looking forward to it, KD.

[Kevin Davis]

So here is my project: I am compiling a companion volume of material -- completed takes only, repeating none of the material from the original albums, Biograph, Bootleg Series 1-3, No Direction Home, or the 2-disc Cutting Edge set. This is leaving me with anywhere from 0 to 4 takes of each song to choose from, with no plans to duplicate songs unless radically differing versions justify it

Bob Dylan:
"The Rest of the Cutting Edge"
1965-1966

CD1:
1. Outlaw Blues – Take 1 – 1/13/65
2. On the Road Again – Take 1 – 1/13/65
3. If You Gotta Go, Go Now – Take 1 – 1/13/65
4. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – Take 3 Remake – 1/13/65
5. She Belongs to Me – Take 1 Remake – 1/14/65
6. On the Road Again – Take 1 Remake – 1/15/65
7. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry – Take 1 – 6/15/65
8. Sitting On a Barbed-Wire Fence – Take 6 – 6/15/65
9. Tombstone Blues – Take 4 – 7/29/65
10. Positively 4th Street – Take 4 – 7/29/65
11. From a Buick 6 – Take 4 – 7/30/65
12. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Take 17 – 7/30/65
13. Highway 61 Revisited – Take 5 – 8/2/65
14. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Take 13 – 8/2/65
15. Queen Jane Approximately – Take 2 – 8/2/65
16. Desolation Row – Take 5 Remake – 8/2/65
17. Medicine Sunday – Take 1 – 10/5/65
18. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Take 6 – 10/5/65
19. Instrumental – Take 2 – 10/5/65

CD2:
1. Visions of Johanna – Take 4 – 11/30/65
2. Visions of Johanna – Take 14 – 11/30/65
3. She’s Your Lover Now – Take 16 – 1/21/66
4. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) – Take 15 – 1/25/66
5. Fourth Time Around – Take 5 – 2/14/66
6. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Take 3 – 2/14/66
7. Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands – Take 1 – 2/16/66
8. Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again – Take 14 – 2/17/66
9. Just Like a Woman – Take 2 – 3/8/66
10. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) – Take 1 – 3/9/66
11. Temporary Like Achilles – Take 1 – 3/9/66
12. Obviously Five Believers – Take 3 – 3/10/66
13. I Want You – Take 1 – 3/10/66

You know the drill.

[Norah]

what's the drill?

[Kevin Davis]

The "I've made a compilation of commercially available music which I would like to share but can't for fear of violating board restrictions" drill

[E.H. Ruddock]

I'm so into everything Kevin Davis it's sickening

[LetMeSleep]

Has anyone here looked at the 6CD version?

And KD, is the essay etc with the 2CD worthwhile?

[super nintendo chalmers]

KD you rule.

[zeb]

So what should I be downloading here: The retail version or the KD comp?

[LetMeSleep]

The KD comp compliments the retail 2CD.

[Kevin Davis]

KD you rule.

Feeling's mutual, pal. Everybody check PM's.

LMS, the essay with the 2CD version is well-written and informative (it's by Sean Wilentz, who has written books on Dylan before), but ultimately relatively typical "liner note" fare -- doubtful it would provide a great deal of new information to someone who's familiar with this era of his music. There is also a short essay by Al Kooper, where he tells the story about coming up with the keyboard riff to "Like a Rolling Stone" for the 3,297th time.

[McParadigm]

I heard a radio interview with Kooper once, where they asked him to tell that story and he did. After he was done, the host asked if he ever got tired of being asked about it. Insert the longest pause if your life, and then a weary, drawn out "no....."

[Daniel Bryan]

I'm spinning "Oh Mercy" on vinyl, finally. Ordered it over the festive season and it arrived today. Its glorious, easily one of my top 5 Dylan records.

What's everyone's favourites from this one? I adore Most of The Time, What Good Am I?, Shooting Star.