1991 ACCEPTING CHAOS

4 RECORDINGS

5 NEW TAPES

5.1 Cynthia Gooding 62/Gerde's Folk City 1961

5.2 Oh Mercy Outtakes

5.3 Traveling Wilburys Volume 4

5.4 Mansfield 3 July 1988 PA

5.5 Hearts Of Fire outtakes

5.6 1978 Interview

5.7 Burbank February 1973

6 THE BOOTLEG SERIES

Contents

1 A SHORT SUBJECTIVE RETROSPECTIVE

Dylan turns fifty and now has thirty years behind him as a recording artist. He accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards Ceremony in February. There is no new record this year, but in March the first three volumes of The Bootleg Series are released. The fourth year of the Never-Ending tour consists of often chaotic concerts with an almost new band in US, Europe and South America.

2 The Year at a glance

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3 CALENDAR

Early January	Dylan records This Old Man at his home studio for yet another benefit album: For Our Children. Hope for children with AIDS.
Early January	Rehearsals with a new band starts in Montana Studios, New York City. The two remaining members are Tony Garnier on bass and Cesar Diaz on guitar. Ian Wallace has replaced Chris Parker on drums. Ian played 115 shows with Dylan during the 1978 World Tour. On guitar we also have one John Jackson who had been playing with Jo-El Sonnier earlier.
January 19	The promotional Wilbury Twist video is filmed at a mansion in Los Angeles.
January	The original track of Series of Dreams is overdubbed at the Messina Sound Studios in New York. Dylan also provides new vocals for the second and 4^th bridge.
January 28	Dylan kicks off the first tour of the new year with a most unusual version of Most Likely You Go Your Way. Every line is sung at double speed and the rest of the time he plays harmonica. Must have been a real shock for the new and still under rehearsed band. The show features two "new" songs, Bob Dylan's Dream, not performed live since 1963 and, for the first time, God Knows from Under The Red Sky.
February 8-17	The European part of the second Fastbreak Tour ends with an eighth show residency at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. The shows are generally much less varied than a year ago and the performances not nearly as inspired. The shows are heavily criticized by fans and in the press.
February 20	Bob Dylan is given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards Ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Jack Nicholson presents the award. After a short introductory speech by Nicholson a film of video clips is shown, featuring an unseen sequence from Eat The Document (Ballad Of A Thin Man) and a few sequences from the promotional video of the forthcoming single Series Of Dreams, an Oh Mercy outtake. Dylan and the band then enter the stage and perform a really rough version of Masters Of Wars sung with closed eyes in his most toneless voice. After this performance Dylan is given the award and delivers this short acceptance speech:
	Thank You ... well ... alright ... yeah, well, my daddy he didn't leave me too much ... you know he was a very simple man and he didn't leave me a lot but what he told me was this ... what he did say was ... son ... he said uh .... (long pause) ... he said so many things ya know ..... he said you know it's possible to become so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you, and if that happen God will always believe in your own ability to mend your ways. Thank you.
	After which Dylan leaves the stage to a standing ovation. At Sony's after-the-show party Dylan turned up with his date for the evening: his mother!
Late February	Bob Dylan is interviewed about The Bootleg Series in Los Angeles by his publisher Elliot Mintz. The interview is included in the syndicated Westwood One radio show, broadcast in the US during May.
Feb 25 27 March 1, 2	The first of the 1991 tours ends with four shows in Mexico, two in Guadalajara and two in Mexico City. These are Dylan's first concerts in Mexico. At the concerts in Mexico City he played to a one-third full Sports palace, but outside 30,000 people gathered and listened to the concerts through special speakers located outside the hall. In a telephone interview in the Guadalajara Reporter, No 8, 1991 (Feb 23-Mar 1) Dylan gets the question "What's the band you're touring with like?" and answers Real good, real simple. Tony (Garnier from Asleep At The Wheel) plays stand-up bass. We may use John Staheley (Robert Palmer band) on guitar. Was Staheley to replace John Jackson or Cesar Diaz?
March 16	On St Patrick's Day BBC broadcasts the Van Morrison program One Irish Rover in which the Dylan-Morrison duets from Athens in June 1989 are included.
March 26	Release of single Series Of Dreams/Seven Curses Release of the 3CD (in Europe also 5LP) set The Bootleg Series.
March 28	Joe Queenan interviews Dylan. The interview is originally intended as a birthday article in New York Times. The interview apparently did not go well and in the end New York Times rejected it and it turned up in the August issue of SPY magazine titled "The Free-fallin' Bob Dylan. Exclusive polysyllabic Dylan interview". Dylan does not reveal anything and the frustrated interviewer starts the article with the following insult: "Forever young? Sorry, no. Bob Dylan - suddenly 50 years old - has declined into a loopy, very occasionally inspired parody of his once-great self".
April 14	Paul Zollo interviews Dylan in a Beverly Hills Hotel for SongTalk magazine (published by the National Academy of Songwriters, which Dylan joined a year earlier). The interview is one of the best from recent years and is later published in the Winter 1991 issue.
April 19	This year's second tour starts in New Orleans. Cesar Diaz has now left the band. The first show starts with a live premiere, New Morning. This is to be the opening song for almost all shows during the spring and summer tours.
Early May	The planned nine show tour of South America is cancelled when the local promoters fail to come up with the required advances on time. The following shows were scheduled:
	May 22-25	Buenos Aires, Argentina
	May 27	Montevideo, Uruguay
	May 30, June 1	Sao Paolo, Brazil
	June 2	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
May 12	The spring tour ends after 15 shows in Amherst, Mass. This is the first time in Amherst since he played The Cage on 26 April 1964.
May 14-15	Two shows at Port Chester are cancelled.
May 24	Dylan turns 50.
May 28	Release of For Our Children charity album.
June 6	For the third summer in a row Dylan tours Europe. The first show in Rome opens appropriately with When I Paint My Masterpiece, the first rendition of this song during the Never-Ending tour. The show also features two never before played covers, an acoustic version of Paul Simon's Homeward Bound and John Prine's People Putting People Down.
June 8	In Italy Van Morrison shares the bill with Dylan and in Milan Dylan makes a guest appearance at Van's opening concert, playing harmonica in Whenever God Shines His Light and Enlightenment.
June 28, 29	The European summer tour ends with two rock festival shows, in Norway and Denmark. Then back to the States for the
July 4 - 27	US Summer tour which starts in Tanglewood, Lenox, Massachusetts and ends in Corfu, New York. One more East Coast tour.
Early August	Dylan attends a Les Paul concert at Fat Tuesday's in New York. Les Paul is celebrating his 76th birthday.
August 8 - 21	At last, South America! Dylan has wanted to tour this part of the world since 1984 at least. 9 shows in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Audiences vary from 30,000 to 1,500! Some unusual songs are played like Ring Them Bells and It's Too Late.
Early September	Dylan and the band are rehearsing in Los Angeles. There are lots of rumors of the band breaking up, Ian Wallace leaving the band, talks of Dylan again touring with The Band. In the end the band stays the same. Dylan tries again to book Beacon Theatre in New York in October but he is too late.
September 15	Once again Dylan appears at the Chabad Telethon. He speaks to the audience, asking people to contribute and then thanks the present rabbis. Later he and Kinky Friedman perform Sold American, Kinky singing and playing acoustic guitar and Dylan playing electric guitar.
October 17	Dylan attends the Guitar Greats Festival (Legends de la Guitars) in Seville, Spain. This is a five-night extravaganza with each night devoted to a certain decade and having a musical director. The performances are organized in a relay fashion. Dylan performs his first song with Jack Bruce and his band, then three acoustic songs with Richard Thompson on guitar, and then introduces Keith Richards and they play Shake Rattle & Roll together. The musical director this night is Phil Manzanera. There are at least one hour from each night broadcast on TV and radio in various countries all over Europe.
October 24	Last tour this year starts with four shows in Texas and ends in late November in Charlottesville, Virginia.
November 20	Thirty years ago today Dylan began to record is first album in Columbia Studio A in New York with John Hammond as producer. Now he: J has sold more 30 million albums worldwide J has received 21 certified gold albums J has had over 2000 cover versions of his songs recorded J is a member of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame J has received the ASCAP Founder's Award J has received the NARAS Lifetime Achievement Award J has been awarded "les insignes de commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French J is still on the road, heading for another joint.
December 17	At the Sotheby's auction of Rock 'n' Roll Memorabilia a number of handwritten manuscripts from the collection of Eve and Peter McKenzie are offered. These are the earliest known writings of Dylan and includes Talking New York, Talking Bear Mountain Blues and a number of up till now unknown original songs: California Brown-Eyed Baby, Over The Road, Dope Fiend Robber, Don't, Crying Holy To The Frost, V.D. Seaman's Last Letter. These are all from 1961. There are also a number of traditional songs like I'll Be A Batchelor Till I Die and Satisfied Mind (first song on Saved). The minimum bids for these manuscripts total $26,000.

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4 RECORDINGS

Here’s a list of recordings from 1991 other than concerts. For details please refer to the corresponding session pages in Still On The Road.

Early January	Recording of This Old Man
20 February	Grammy Award Ceremony
Late February	The Elliot Mintz Interview
8 June	Guest appearance at Van Morrison's opening concert in Milan, Italy
15 September	Chabad Telethon with Kinky Friedman
17 October	Leyendas de la Guitarra (Guitar Greats Festival)

5 NEW TAPES

5.1 Cynthia Gooding 62/Gerde's Folk City 1961

This tape consists of the five songs recorded in Cynthia Gooding's apartment recorded in February or March 1962:

Ballad Of Donald White

Wichita

Acne

Rocks And Gravel

A long Time Man

and then three tracks from Gerde's Folk City, late September 1961:

Ranger's Command

San Francisco Bay Blues

The Great Divide.

The last two tracks are new and all three tracks are in very good mono PA quality.

5.2 Oh Mercy Outtakes

This tape has the following tracks:

Series Of Dreams	as on The Bootleg Series without overdubbing
What Was It You Wanted	alternate take
Series Of Dreams	alternate take, different lyrics
God Knows	early version
What Good Am I?	alternate take
Most Of The Time	alternate take
Everything Is Broken	alternate take, different lyrics
Political World	alternate take, four extra verses
Born In Time	early version, different lyrics
Dignity	completely new song
Shooting Star	alternate take, different lyrics
Disease Of Conceit	alternate take

In an interview in The Telegraph, Daniel Lanois mentions six outtakes from Oh Mercy. We now know four, Series Of Dreams (mentioned by name by Lanois), Born In Time, God Knows and Dignity. Is Unbelievable one of the remaining two? There have been rumours of more outtake material from Oh Mercy for a long time.

5.3 Traveling Wilburys Volume 4

This tape contains:

New tracks	Maxine	lead vocal by George Harrison
	Like A Ship	lead vocal by Bob Dylan
Different takes/mixes	Inside Out	different lead & backing vocals
	Where Were You Last Night?	new lead vocal
	You Took My Breath Away	different lead vocals and lyrics
	Poor House	different lead guitar, some backing vocals missing
	She's My Baby	all-Dylan vocals, lots of lead guitar and backing vocals missing
	The Devil's Been Busy	all non-Petty vocals differ, some different backing vocals
	The Wilbury Twist	different lead guitar & backing vocals
	7 Deadly Sins	most backing vocals missing
Similar to released	Cool Dry Place
version but lacking	Runaway
some overdubs	If You Belonged To Me
	New Blue Moon

5.4 Mansfield 3 July 1988 PA

This is the third PA-tape from the first Never-Ending tour. This one is not complete and has serious sound problems in the beginning and end. Omitted is I Shall Be Released.

5.5 Hearts Of Fire outtakes

This tape contains studio takes from the Hearts Of Fire sessions at the Townhouse Studio in London, England, August 27 & 18, 1986. Dylan is backed by Eric Clapton on guitar, Ron Wood & Kip Winger on bass, Beau Hill on keyboards and Henry Spinetti on drums. Tracks:

The Usual (3 takes)

Some Kind Of Way

Had A Dream About You, Baby (5 takes)

Old Five And Dimer (3 takes)

Had A Dream About You, Baby (2 more takes)

To Fall In Love With You

Night After Night

All in all 60 minutes. The takes of Had A Dream About You Baby are all more enjoyable than those selected for the soundtrack and for Down In The Groove.

5.6 1978 Interview

Backstage, before the show in Nashville December 2, a reporter from Jacksonville in Florida interviews Dylan. Through out the interview Dylan is strumming his guitar, which makes some of his answers and many of the questions impossible to hear. 21 minutes.

5.7 Burbank February 1973

One more studio tape from the sessions for Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid:

Billy (3 takes)

Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Sweet Amarillo (trad)

Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Final Theme

Rock Me, Mama (2 takes) (Arthur Cruddup)

Billy (2 takes)

Unknown Instrumental

Ride, Billy, Ride

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6 THE BOOTLEG SERIES

First it was to be a 10 CD-set, one disc released each month in 1991 starting in March. Then it became a 4CD box. Finally Sony decided to trim it down to a 3CD box. Still, this is one of the more stunning retrospective releases that has ever hit the market:

58 songs total, NONE released before!

23 songs new to collectors! (marked + or * below)

8 songs never before heard with Dylan! (marked * below).

The box comes with an excellent booklet with stunning photos and great liner notes written by John Bauldie.

One might say that this release marks the recognition of the importance and resources of the widespread Dylan "fan community". Not only the name of the set, but also the facts that several well known collectors were consulted during the preparations and that the editor of The Telegraph, and chairman of the Bob Dylan Information Office, Wanted Man was commissioned to write the booklet's liner notes. Without the collectors, performances like Hard Times In New York Town and No More Auction Block might be very well lost long ago

A short summary of the tracks:

1961:
Hard Times In New York Town		from Minnesota Hotel Tape
He Was A Friend Of Mine		Bob Dylan outtake
Man On The Street	+	Bob Dylan outtake
House Carpenter	+	Bob Dylan outtake
1962:
No More Auction Block		live from Gaslight Café
Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues		Freewheelin' outtake
Let Me Die In My Footsteps		Freewheelin' outtake