My Dylan Project

Disc 2 contains selections from his first “real” concert, at the Carnegie Chapter Hall, a small venue next to Carnegie Hall. It happened almost exactly 64 years ago and was not a success; there were only about 50 people in the audience. Good thing someone there made a recording! There are also outtakes from his first album, and some songs he played at his friend Bonnie Beecher’s house in Minneapolis. Interesting to hear how his guitar playing has developed!  Disc 3 has some real highlights. There’s an early version of “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues,” which Dylan was later supposed to sing on the Ed Sullivan Show. At the last minute, the CBS censors told him he’d have to pick another song, and he refused. Dylan never did appear on Sullivan. Other highlights are some Harry Belafonte and Victoria Spivey songs Bob played harmonica on, and what’s possibly the first-ever public performance of “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Dylan (probably) debuted this song at Gerde’s Folk City on April 16, ...

 There was great excitement in Dylan-world this week, as the 18th bootleg collection, covering Bob’s very early years (1956-1963) was released on Halloween. While 84-year-old Bob is touring in Europe, fans who aren’t there are probably cracking open this set. This release came out in several formats, including CD, vinyl and streaming. Being a completist, of course I had to get the CD set, which has 8 CDs and a 123-page hardcover book by Sean Wilentz. The packaging seems great to me. The graphics and photos are excellent and everything seems sturdy. The set contains many tracks either never before officially released, or released only in very limited quantities. Some tracks have been circulating as bootlegs for years, but are of varying quality and not accessible to everyone. But how does it sound? I decided to document my progress through these 8 CDs, with the help of Ray Padgett’s excellent, detailed Substack review:  https://open.substack.com/pub/dylanlive/p/a-track-by-track...