Saturday, November 07, 2015

Bob Dylan’s “electric trilogy”

Salon.com: Now comes the release of three versions of “The Cutting Edge 65-66” — a complete, a more complete, and an insanely complete chronicle of what went down in the studio from January 13th 1965 to March 9th of 1966, while The Electric Trilogy was being recorded. There is a 2-disc “casual listener” version, a 6-disc “so, you think you know Dylan” version, and an 18-disc, 357-track, “you must be clinically insane to want to own this” compendium version, with every take, every musical fragment, and every piece of recorded studio banter laid out for listener dissection.

5 comments:

Deb said...

I suppose George already has his order in for the 18-disc super set! I don't know if he's that big a Dylan fan, I just know what a completist he is.

Don Coffin said...

I haven't had time to play the discs, but the liner notes are pretty marvelous; my favorite part is All Kooper explaining how he wound up playing the organ.

Don Coffin said...

Incidentally, I was reminded, while reading the liner notes...it's a testimony to how prolific he was between 1964 and 1967 that two of (what I think are among) his finest songs--"Farewell, Angelina" and "Positively Fourth Street"-- did not appear on any of the original release albums. "Farewell, Angelina" first shows up in "The Bootleg Series, Volume 9." "Positively Fourth Street"--one of the nastiest songs ever written ("You got a lotta nerve/To say you are my friend/When I was down/You just stood there grinning...I wish that for just one time/You could stand inside my shoes/And just for that one moment/I could be you/Yes, I wish that for just one time/You could stand inside my shoes/You’d know what a drag it is/To see you")--first appears on "Greatest Hits, Vol. 1."

Couldn't find room for those, eh, Bob?



Mike Stamm said...

I wanted to balk at "complete, more complete, and insanely complete"--that's kind of like saying "dead, really dead, and unbelievably dead"--but on reflection, I couldn't think of a better way to put it myself, so...

Rick Robinson said...

They are three fine albums, but I'll stick with my CDs of them, thanks.