The Bootleg Series, which began back in 1991, has always been a rich and often revelatory treasure trove of Bob Dylan rarities, but the latest edition is particularly fascinating. It’s a time capsule, a vast piece of audio verite, in which we follow Robert Zimmerman from his Minnesota origins as a teenage rock ’n’ roller all the way to the Greenwich Village folk scene, the March on Washington and eventually a watershed concert at Carnegie Hall. A vivid chronicle of his rapid ascent and growth as an artist, it captures the thrill of a young man finding his voice while making an indelible mark on history.
Beginning with his earliest known recording from 1956, a scratchy DIY 78 recorded in a Minnesota music shop with his high school band, it goes on to chart his arrival in NYC as a Woody Guthrie-obsessed interpreter of folk ’n’ blues standards who effortlessly beguiled the bohemian coffee house crowd.
Via live performances and tapings made for radio or in the homes of friends, the entire set presents such an intoxicating evocation of that whole Village milieu you can practically taste the wine and cigarette smoke. It also emphasises just how quickly Dylan developed as a songwriter; picture jaws dropping as he unveils new protest anthems such as Masters Of War.
Further highlights include numerous outtakes from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, concert introductions in which the emcees have fully bought into his fabricated backstory as a son of New Mexico who worked the travelling carnivals, a song from his lost BBC television play Madhouse On Castle Street, some amusing between-song patter that’s essentially stand-up, and, of course, the stellar 1963 Carnegie Hall concert that pointed towards the next stage of his career
This immersive story of a star busy bein’ born is available in an eight CD Deluxe set including 139 tracks – 48 of which are previously unreleased, and 38 of which are extremely rare – plus 2 CD and 4 LP highlight editions, both containing 42 tracks.
The Deluxe set also includes a 125-page hardback book featuring extensive liner notes from esteemed American historian and Dylanologist Sean Wilentz. That’s a whole lotta Dylan for your dollar, and it’s worth every cent.
