By Mark Brown (October 2002)


Bootleggers have made an entire industry out of releasing the Bob Dylan music that Dylan didn't want out there. If anything, it's bigger than ever. High-quality copies of his shows are often available online just hours after his performances.
But the biggest dealer in unreleased Bob Dylan recordings in the past dozen years has been Dylan himself.
After years of resisting fans' clamors for classic unreleased studio and live performances, Dylan and Columbia Records have opened the floodgates, releasing lost classics, alternate versions, and legendary live performances -- including next month's release of a double-live 'Rolling Thunder Revue' set, featuring tracks from Montreal in 1975  -- a Holy Grail of Dylan shows for collectors. Word had it that Dylan himself was blocking the release of much of this material, even though hundreds of hours of it had escaped onto the bootleg market. His legendary 1966 "Royal Albert Hall" show didn't come out until 33 years after that show -- and only after digital-perfect copies had leaked.
One would wonder if Dylan has changed his opinion of the worth of what he has in the vaults, but he scoffs at the notion.
"I don't pay any attention to what's in the vaults," Dylan says. "Columbia does what it likes, when it likes. Anyway, what's the big deal? We've been releasing outtakes since 1975, maybe even earlier. 'Self Portrait', which came out in '69 or '70, was all outtakes."
Indeed it was, and 1975's 'The Basement Tapes' was made up of legendary material recorded with 'The Band' in Woodstock in 1967.
And while he's technically correct -- Columbia does control the catalog -- nothing comes out without his OK. He's a man who has killed entire albums or completely reworked them. The single disc Bob Dylan in Concert still lies in vaults nearly 40 years after its intended release date. So does the original version of 1975's Blood on the Tracks as well as his career-encompassing Halloween 1964 acoustic concert.
But after 1985's 'Biograph' box set, stuffed with unreleased songs, Dylan and Columbia began seriously cataloging his work. Since then we've seen legitimate releases of:

The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3: A three-disc set of outtakes,
unreleased songs and live cuts that ran the gamut of Dylan's career.

Live 1966 (The Bootleg Series, Vols. 3-4: The acoustic and electric sets of the legendary "Judas!" show when Dylan went electric on his 1966 British tour.

Live 1961-2000: An overseas-only release, this featured new recordings (Things Have Changed, live in England in 2000) with lost classics such as Grand Coulee Dam (recorded at the Woody Guthrie Tribute Concert in '68 with 'The Band').

Dylan's own Website: Under the "Performances" tab, you can find an ever-changing array of live and studio works ranging from 1963's 'Dusty Old Fairground' to new concert performances of 'Love And Theft' songs.

The upcoming Bob Dylan Live 1975 (The Bootleg Series, Vol. 5): Due out in November, it'll feature two CDs of the legendary Rolling Thunder Revue tour (not repeating any performances from the original 'Hard Rain' release, taken from a Fort Collins appearance), along with a bonus DVD of 'Isis' and 'Tangled Up In Blue' from the rarely-seen Renaldo and Clara film.

Good things come in smaller packages as well: In the past few years, Dylan has scattered tracks across a number of projects.
The special-edition version of 'Love And Theft' included a bonus disc with 'I Was Young When I Left Home' (from the legendary 1961 "Minnesota Hotel Tape") as well as an alternate 1963 take of 'The Times They Are A-Changin'.
The DVD of the film 'Don't Look Back' included five extra audio tracks from a 1965 London concert. His CD singles in the past few years have included bonus "field recordings" of live material.
An out-of-print DVD-ROM, 'Highway 61 Interactive', not only had unreleased hidden tracks, but by navigating to the studio control room, fans could listen to Dylan working through several takes of 'Like A Rolling Stone' before cutting the definitive version that changed music in 1965.
The box-set reissue of 'The Last Waltz' added Dylan and 'The Band's' 1975 version of 'Hazel'. The Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 featured an alternate studio mix of 'Dignity'. The Best of Broadside box set featured 'John Brown' and the 'Ballad of Donald White'. His song 'Acne' appears on the 'Ballad of Ramblin' Jack' soundtrack.
Finally, he's given songs to The Sopranos, Wonder Boys, a Hank Williams tribute and The Secret of The Ya Ya Sisterhood sountracks, as well as Kindred Spirits, the new Johnny Cash tribute album.


By: Mark Brown