Bob Dylan: The Cutting Edge 1965-66 - The Bootleg Series Vol. 12
There are numerous burgeoning reviews of this equally abundant six-disc box set of outtakes and alternative versions of Bob Dylan's songs from Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde, I won't attempt to add to them in any sort of detail. You don't need me telling you how great it is to listen to twenty (yes - twenty!) consecutive versions of Like A Rolling Stone to trace the song's development do you? Because it isn't it. Not for me, anyway. False starts, giggles, surly retorts, sub-one minute "there's something wrong", "that's too fast" and "is that ok Bob?" tracks are not my bag, no sir. Only the most devoted of Dylanologists would derive any pleasure from that Herculean aural task. Furthermore, the eventual Like A Rolling Stone was just so damn perfect that I don't really need to listen to another version. Furthermore, all those false starts are really frustrating because just as a song is getting good, Bob calls a halt. The shortest version of Like A Rolling Stone is ten seconds. You can purchase this as a download on itunes for £0.99 if you are crazy enough.
As with all these Dylan releases, like the David Bowie ones I have recently reviewed, there is still so much great stuff present and the way I play them is on random and then you get whatever comes up. I am then endlessly delighted. As I write I have got the excellent, previously unreleased Beatles meets the blues romp of I Wanna Be Your Lover, a fine alternative take of Visions Of Johanna, a lovely, bass-enhanced She Belongs To Me and another previously unreleased number in She's Your Lover Now. That's not a bad run, is it? Oh dear, here come a couple of stuttering mini-Like A Rolling Stones! Never mind, a great alternative take of Positively 4th Street is up next. After that comes a down and dirty bluesy version of It Takes A lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry that possibly improves on the original. Another number that didn't make it on to the albums is the excellent Farewell Angelina. There are still loads of killers to be heard and enjoyed. A veritable cornucopia.
I have to say that almost every track that makes an appearance here has a superb alternative version if not more than one. It shows just how pliable the songs were. Some of the versions present really showcase the songs in a new light. The Visions Of Johanna versions are probably the best examples of that. Several of the bluesier numbers really rock out too, Pledging My Time, notably.
One thing that impresses me about all these recordings is just how good the sound is. None of them have any "demo"-ness about them. Not at all. Listening to any of this stuff is a real pleasure. Dylan was on fire, wasn't he? Free to call whatever shots he wanted, his creative muse was running wild in this period as he unleashed his electric folk/rock on an unsuspecting public. He also gets a bit truculent at the end of one of the versions of Love Minus Zero/No Limits, however, when he says that unless he can do a song as good as he does it the first time he won't play it anymore. Hmmm. How come he did twenty Like A Rolling Stone's then? It's funny, though, when Dylan speaks he comes over as a bratty young annoyance but when he sings, he is a wise old sage.
Although I love the original Desolation Row to bits, the alternative version (Take 1 Alternate Take) has just such a wonderful, understated and melodic bassline that it is competing strongly with the old blind commissioner. This alternate take has such an intrinsic sadness to it as well as a perplexing new line about the "boiled guts of birds". Charming. Anyway I've got two Desolation Rows now. I'll keep them in the cyanide hold with my friend the jealous monk. Don't give me any more versions, no - not unless you send them from Desolation Row. Anyway, you would not think to look at me that I was famous long ago....
By the way, if you find six discs indigestible, how about the 379-track Collectors' Edition? Unbelievably, there were 5,000 people who shelled out God knows how much for this and are probably still getting it all listened to now. The thing to do is dip into it every now and again. You won't be disappointed. Just half an hour to an hour here and there will do the trick. The two disc release is pretty good too. It is only on the Collector's Edition, however that we get the eventually-chosen album versions alongside their outtakes. Members of the hoi polloi like myself have to insert these digitally into their playlists if comparisons are required. An odd thing that can happen here is that the versions from this collection seem superior to the finally-chosen one - Queen Jane Approximately is a particular example. It also makes me wonder if these tracks have a warmer remaster to them than the finished album does. That could well be the case as there is the best part of twenty years between the two remasterings.
Just check that no-one is escaping to Desolation Row.
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