Dylan fans? | Page 4 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

@meanmistermustard On one level I agree, but on another I couldn’t disagree more…

Yes, I’m gonna be buying the 6-disc the day it comes out, and hunting TPB for a torrent of the 18-disc because what I want most is the music.

That said, if I had the money, I wouldn’t hesitate on pressing “Pre-order” on Bobby’s site.

Part of the price is in owning the physical artefact, and I predict – at only 5000 copies – it will be sold out quickly, and quickly rising in value, especially as Bobby has given an assurance that there will never be a second “run” however high the demand.

What he hasn’t said is that the music will never be made available digitally, which I predict it will.

In this instance, as I’ve said, it’s about the physical product, and I’m a sucker for something I can hold, and for getting the best version I can afford (or justify spending more on than I can afford).

Cover versions can be fascinating, especially when a song involves gender and the artist doesn’t choose to change it (The Beatles knocking out Boys ). Bobby, on his version of House of the Risin’ Sun sings the original female narrator. Here is someone doing classic, without gender changes, making it almost like the perfect Thelma and Louise-soundtrack. This is such a convincing interpretation…

The 18-disc Cutting Edge has just got much bigger. The original set came with a download code for a high-res copy of the set, including all 379 tracks.

In the last few days, 208 live tracks from 14 venues in 1965 have been added to the download. Which takes the track count up to 587 tracks. Since the set covers 1965 and 1966, it is not a wild supposition to assume that, at some stage over the next year, the 1966 live shows will also be added.

Considering that many of the 379 tracks originally part of the set were breakdowns, it is likely that the addition of the 208 live tracks more than doubles the length of the set. (Lots of breakdowns versus fewer more complete live versions, with many long songs among them.)

Hopefully, the person who did me the 18-disc will forward me the new live stuff soon.

I hadn’t, @Ahhh Girl, and it’s fantastic news.

Bob’s personal archive is probably the most important archive of any living American artist, and it is good to see that he’s taken steps to ensure it isn’t broken up in auction after he leaves us, and at a price way below market value. It seems there are some complaints that he didn’t just donate it, but I see no reason why he should have. I’m sure many academic institutions would have paid far more, but he has sought a place where he feels comfortable with it going to.

It is great that the major Dylanologists are going to get access to it, and it’s sure to lead to much new insight and revelation in the years ahead. Amazing that it includes the mastertapes. It means that we may soon get an equivalent to Lewisohn’s The Complete Recording Sessions.

While there have been attempts to do so, they have always been flawed by not having access to the tapes.

Even the announcement of the deal includes a major new discovery, that the “little red notebook” was one of three explains many of the absences from it that were recorded during the Blood on the Tracks sessions.

You can guarantee that there are already Dylanologists firing off pleas for access once the cataloguing is finished.

I’ve been trying to track down when a live version of Desolation Row was recorded. It had a date attached, but the spoken intro didn’t match the spoken intro he gave on that date, so I’ve been looking through other “Bobtalk” intros for it to try and pin it down. Came across this one from 16 November 1990 in Columbus, Ohio:

Paul McCartney , he doesn’t like to hear this song with bass and drums.
That’s what he said, but it’s okay to play it tonight, ’cause he’s not here.

Made me laugh.

@sir walter raleigh said
Do you know how much that costs? That collection looks out of control. As I understand each concert isn’t that long, so hopefully it approaches affordable.  

Bob’s official site has it for order at $149.98 at the moment. That seems pretty reasonable to me.

Bob shows were around 100 minutes in 1966. He’d do roughly a 50 minute rapturously recieved acoustic set, have a ten minute break, and then come back on with an electric guitar and The Hawks to be booed and jeered for around 50 minutes.

I would guess that those shows which are given two discs are complete, with the first disc being the acoustic set, and the second being the electric. Those shows that are only given one disc I would guess are incomplete.