Bootleg Review: Bob Dylan - Songs For Bonnie: The Minnesota Hotel Tapes

This is a bootleg recorded in December 1961, when Dylan was still very much a folk singer - he hadn't even really started the 'protest songs' phase that brought him to the attention of the nation at large. There are no songs on here by Dylan himself - he was mostly playing adaptations of old folk standards, whilst working his way through the extensive works of his idol Woody Guthrie. He had dropped out of college just the year before, moving to Greenwich Village to join the burgeoning folk community there and go and visit Guthrie in a New Jersey hospital. In September, he had been the subject of Robert Shelton's famous New York Times article, describing him thus;

"A cross between a choir boy and a beatnik, Mr. Dylan has a cherubic look and a mop of tousled hair he partly covers up with a Huck Finn black corduroy cap. His clothes may need a bit of tailoring, but when he works his guitar, harmonica or piano and composes new songs faster than he can remember them, there is no doubt that he is bursting at the seams with talent... Mr. Dylan is vague about his antecedents and birthplace, but it matters less where he has been than where he is going, and that would seem to be straight up."

He had recorded his debut album by this stage, although it wasn't released until 1962. It was mainly comprised of folk standards as well, although it had a couple of original compositions on it. There isn't much crossover between the album and this bootleg, but those songs that appear on both are definitely stronger here - this was a period in which Dylan was developing with astonishing speed, even during the one month between that recording and this. Recorded in a single evening in the hotel room of the 'Bonnie' of the title, the collection of songs was a lot more diverse than that on his debut, drawing mainly on the blues but also on country and gospel. It showed him capable of much more than the fairly monotone, flat-sounding official release. It is frankly scary that at the time of this recording, Dylan was 2 years younger than I am now.

The sound quality is amazingly clear and precise throughout, bar a few momentary glitches, with Dylan in fine form. The second track, a version of Big Joe Williams' 'Baby Please Don't Go', is an immediate standout, showcasing Dylan's experiments with slide guitar. 'Baby Let Me Follow You Down' appears here too, years before it became one of the songs Dylan electrified with the Hawks when he 'abandoned' folk with a bang. This version has less of the punchiness of the later version, but has all of the heart and rawness. 'I Was Young When I Left Home' illustrates his more delicate fingerpicking guitar style, and the way his voice could mould itself to sound absolutely perfect for this type of folk song - there is no way he sounds a day under 60 in this recording, despite being only 20. Which I suppose is why, at the age of 70, he now sounds like he's at least 210.

The songs have been doing the rounds among Dylan fans for a very long time. Some of them were originally released on the very first bootleg LP, 'Great White Wonder', in 1969. The sound quality of that record wasn't great, and the tracklisting was incredibly haphazard, rearranging and interspersing this performace with other completely unrelated recordings. It was, however, a massively important release, not just to Dylan fans after more than the mere 10 or so albums and handful of 7" tracks they had to listen to by that point, but to recorded music as a whole.

Bob Dylan - Songs For Bonnie

Bootleg Review: The Lost Jukebox

I came across this massive labour of love at the excellent blog Saved From The Trashcan, which has so far posted up over 120 volumes out of 240. That is a hell of a lot of CDs. I haven't even scratched the surface really, but can heartily recommend everything I've heard. Basically a compilation of 60s garage pop and rock, the same kind of thing that is on 'Nuggets!', it just goes much deeper than a mainstream compilation ever could. None of the songs got anywhere near the US top 40, with very few even getting anywhere near the top 100, and none of the bands have gone on to what could be classed as 'fame' these days, although some stayed around for a while, some even having hit singles (such as the Association, the very first artist featured, who were the lead-off band at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967). The quality isn't amazing, as all the songs have been ripped from old 7"s, but is definitely listenable. There are a lot of Beatles and Stones copyists (obviously - this is the 60s) but some of these songs are just ridiculously fun, ranging from early 60s pop (such as So Glad by the Good Time Singers) to more psychedelic stuff. I've put a few more mp3s of the highlights from the first couple of volumes at the end of the post.

There seems to be so much of this kind of thing around from the 60s. I don't know where the story started that DIY music didn't exist before the Buzzcocks, to be honest - John Fahey was one of the first artists to self-release a record, way back in 1959, and there were loads of small record labels around during the hippy days of the late 60s releasing stuff like this to a small audience. The records sound just as professionally recorded as many by the bigger names in the industry. Admittedly there don't seem to have been any truly major albums released by what would be termed 'indie' labels these days, but I think this is probably They just seem to have all got swallowed up in the dark days of the early 70s, with even bands from the DIY scene of pub rock releasing records on subsidiaries of major labels. Of course, the internet now means that anyone at all can make music, but I'm not sure the situation wasn't pretty much always thus.

The Good Time Singers - So Glad
The Rumbles Ltd. - California My Way
Steve Clayton - Girls Are Imitating Twiggy
Stephan & Janis - I Understand
The American Breed - When I'm With You

Enjoy!

Bootleg Review: The Velvet Underground - Live at the Gymnasium

A relatively recently unearthed live recording of the Velvet Underground at their 1967 peak, 'Live at the Gymnasium' features performances of a few album tracks and a couple of rarities. The quality isn't great, but passable compared to some other 60s live recordings - I'd put it as comparable to the officially released live album, 'Live at Max's Kansas City'. In quite a lot of the recording as a whole, it is fairly difficult to tell whether John Cale is actually playing or not, as he gets drowned out by the walls of feedback and the clear, piercing vocals. The first song, 'I'm Not A Young Man Any More', is a pretty good rocker, of the kind that would have fitted well on the first side of 'The Velvet Underground and Nico', and 'Guess I'm Falling In Love' is a poppier, early Beatles-y romp, which, while very obviously a Velvets track, is much brighter than some of the stuff they were recording in this period.

'I'm Waiting For The Man' feels a lot more guitar driven than the version on the album, with less of a chugging bassline, and begins to outstay its welcome well before the end of its 5-minute runtime. The sound quality is probably worst on this track, with the middle sections feeling very muddy and the levels fluctuating throughout. 'Run Run Run' strays slightly from the album blueprint, with a good improvised section, but again the sound quality detracts, and I can't envisage a scenario where I'd rather listen to this than the officially released studio version. 'Sister Ray', which was apparently debuted at this show, is stunning as ever, but is very little different to the version that was eventually released on White Light/White Heat.

This recording does show just how different and forward-thinking the Velvets were, however. A use of feedback an experimental effects that would not be out of place in some of the more experimental bands around today is breathtaking, when you consider this was recorded getting on for 50 years ago. They are clearly a band that are still very relevant to new music today, in a way that many of their contemporaries just aren't. Barring the Beatles, who will always spawn near-copyists by the dozen, it is hard to think of a sixties band that could be part of today's music scene and produce exactly the same music as they originally did. Which goes some way to explaining why they weren't received more warmly at the time, I suppose.

I'd say this was a good live performance, showcasing the more experimental end of the Velvets' discography, and it is indeed the only 1967 performance by Lou Reed & co. in circulation, but the recording is definitely only one for fans who are willing to put up with the questionable quality. I'll give you a download link anyway.

The Velvet Underground - Live at the Gymnasium

Bootleg Review: Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks (New York Sessions)

I'm going to start a new section on reviews of bootlegs I've been listening to. I think a good starting point is one of the most well-known studio bootlegs there is, by the artist who has probably been bootlegged more often, and who has a bigger bootleg-consuming following, than any other, Bob Dylan. I think I can put up a download link, but I'm not sure on legalities. If anyone has any problem with this, let me know.

Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks (New York Sessions)

Blood On The Tracks is widely regarded as one of the finest ever albums. Written against the backdrop of a messy divorce in 1974, the songs are pretty much all about either anger ('Idiot Wind') or loneliness ('If You See Her, Say Hello'). After the initial sessions, Dylan decided to re-record much of the album, including all the more personal songs, giving them a more produced sheen. Some of the songs gain from this, some lose something. The sound is very different, firstly - the final release had gone through a lot of noise reduction, and some of the personality of Dylan's voice and of the guitar parts had been lost. This is restored, for better or worse, and the changes are noticeable from the very beginning of 'Tangled Up In Blue'. This version is a lot less immediately catchy than the officially released version, which went on to be one of the better-recieved singles of Dylan's later career, but I think it manages to get across Dylan's feelings about the song much more effectively. I also find the New York versions in general flow a lot better into each other, making for a more cohesive album. Admittedly, the version of 'Idiot Wind' here seems a lot less angry, which means the deprecating lyrics fall a bit flat, and 'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts' is definitely a bit over-long, but the version of 'If You See Her, Say Hello' seems much more heartfelt and genuine. Fundamentally, after having listened to this version, I think the official release just seems to fall a bit flat.

Having said that, though, anyone who has even a vague interest in Bob Dylan, or in acoustic-based guitar music in general, should hear both the official and bootleg releases of this album. They're both absolutely essential releases, each with good points compared to the other, and it is just a question of your own particular tastes. The argument over which is 'better' has raged for 35 years already, and shows no sign of stopping.