A brief brief note on the sampling and statistical methods . . . . A bunch of Dylan fans of
various stripes were asked to supply a top 10 list. The Top Ten Bootlegs List was compiled
from the lists submitted. Ten points were assigned to each 1st place selection, nine points to
each 2nd place selection, and so forth. The point totals for each bootleg was then totalled
with mathematical rigor. The voting would have been rigged if required for Guitars
Kissing to come out on top -- but as things turned out it wasn't necessary.
Also included below are the individual lists of the respondents,
some of whom have requested to remain anonymous
Originally compiled: 4 July 1997
Last revised: 1 February 1998
- Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix / Bob Dylan [& The Hawks] [17 May 1966]
2 CDs
[Scorpio], 51766A, 51766E, 1995
Matrix: GZ GB 1633 SIAE: 51766A, GZ GB 1632 SIAE: 51766E
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England, 17 May 1966. [151]
(49 points / 6 lists)- The Genuine Basement Tapes Vols 1-5 / Bob Dylan [and The Band] [1967]
Vol 1 BD 200 2
Vol 2 BD 200 3
Vol 3 BD-SC-1900 mono [NB! most prefer stereo After The Crash Vol 1 BP 001]
Vol 4 BD-SC-80-07
Vol 5 BD-SC-80-06
[Scorpio, 1992]
(43 points / 6 lists)- Folksingers Choice / Bob Dylan with Cynthia Gooding [11 March 1962]
Yellow Dog Records, YD017, 1992
Made in Hungary
Artisjus
Matrix: YD 017
(24 points / 4 lists)- Contract with the Lord Parts 1 & 2 / Bob Dylan [1979]
Part 1 SIRA-CD 12
Part 2 SIRA-CD 13
Silver Rarites [1992]
Fox Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, 16 November 1979. [521] Plus filler.
(21 points / 3 lists)- Rough Cuts / Bob Dylan [1983]
2 CDs
Gold Standard 57119XK1 SRE-1, 57118XK1 SRE-2 [1994]
-or-
Black Nite Crash, BNC-001/2, TSD SRE-1, TSD SRE-2 [1994]
"Infidels" Studio Sessions, The Power Station, New York, New York, 11 April - 8 May 1983. [693]
(18 points / 4 lists)- Thin Wild Mercury Music / Bob Dylan [1965-1966]
Spank SP-105 [1994]
Matrix: SP-105 -631-
"Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde" outtakes.
(18 points / 4 lists)
- Tell It Like It Is / Bob Dylan [11 November 1975]
Spacematic SPACE 004 [1993]
Matrix: WIZARD SPACE 004
Palace Theatre, Waterbury, Connecticut, 11 November 1975. [302 incomplete].
(18 points / 2 lists)- The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Outtakes / Bob Dylan [1962]
Vigotone, VIGO 115 [1994]
Matrix: VIGO 115
"The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" Studio Sessions, Columbia Studios, New York, New York, April-December 1962.
(16 points / 3 lists)
- F*** The Playlist : Brixton II / Bob Dylan [29-30 March 1995]
2 CDs
Sterling Sounds, SSCD - BD01, SSCD - BD02, [1995]
Academy Theatre, London, England, 30 March 1995. Plus filler.
(14 points / 2 lists)
- The Deeds Of Mercy / Bob Dylan [1989]
The Razor's Edge RAZ 002 [1994]
Matrix: TSD RZ 002
"Oh Mercy" Studio Sessions, Studio-On-The-Move, New Orleans, Louisianna, 7 March 1989 - 12 April 1989. [989]
(11 points / 2 lists)
A Wrinkly Old rec.music.dylan RegularMany people ask for a top ten of rare Dylan CDs, but it really depends on your tastes and interests, my top ten may include nothing of interest to you... At the moment I might choose the following in order of importance:
1. Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix / Bob Dylan [&
The Hawks] [17 May 1966] Between a rather vicious Tell Me Mama (8) and I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) (9) the harmonica begins and Dylan says, "This is called I Don't Believe You. It used to be like that and now it goes like this". He stamps his foot four times and the harmonica and the Hawks "come in with the sort of immediacy you get from tipping a whole table full of crockery and cutlery into the sink all at once." - Paul Cable (1978). Between Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (12) and One Too Many Mornings (13) some of the audience follows the shouting with slow hand clapping, Dylan mumbles into the microphone what in retrospect are clearly nonsense words and syllables, the clapping abates to catch the uncatchable words, and he continues, "...if you only just wouldn't clap so hard. [Cheers, clapping]" Oldham Evening Chronicle - 25 May 1966: "So the knockers are all stations go again. I am referring to the fantastic performance given by Bob Dylan at the Free Trade Hall last Tuesday night... I think Bob put his feelings over to the knockers just great. When someone shouted out to him 'Judas!', he just calmly went to the microphone and quietly drawled 'Ya liar'..." Between Ballad Of A Thin Man (14) and Like A Rolling Stone (15) lies this famous incident where a member of the audience yells out "Judas!". Applause and other shouts ["...sing Dylan songs?" and the like] are heard. Dylan responds, "I don't believe you... You're a LIAR... [Robbie Robertson says, "Quit talking Bob." but not audibly on the tape] Dylan turns away from his mike to face the drummer Mickey Jones and says, "Get fucking loud!" followed by a wall-of-sound no-holds-barred crashing-cymbals rendition of Like A Rolling Stone. After Like A Rolling Stone (15) we hear a very Dylanesque "Thank you." Hmmmm. Well some say he makes it sound more like "Fuck you" but I can assure you the word is "Thank" whatever the intention...
2. F*** The Playlist : Brixton II / Bob Dylan [29-30 March
1995] The Thursday 30 March 1995 concert is held to be Bob Dylan's best of 1995 by some. Sterling Sounds have the best quality CD but much stock was lost by them at the 1995 Glastonbury Fair...
3. Folksingers Choice / Bob Dylan with Cynthia Gooding [11
March 1962] Probably the most interesting boot CD to ever surface, because it was unexpected and because the quality is so high. A complete one hour radio program in excellent quality! The conversation and the songs are each given individual track numbers so a CD player can be programmed to play it as is, just songs, or just conversation. Very nice touch indeed!
4. Manchester Prayer / Bob Dylan [and the Hawks] [17-27 May
1966] This CD, together with Royal Albert Hall 1966 [T-121], provide all the tracks on a complete set list of a 1966 show, though of course not one specific 1966 show.
5. The Genuine Basement Tapes Vols 1-5 / Bob Dylan [and The
Band] [1967] BUT buy After the Crash Vol. 1 [Stereo] [T-258] instead of The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol 3 [Mono] [T-222]!!! Essential Dylan. Absolutely essential. Dylan with his guard down...
6. Live, Finjan Club, Montreal, Canada, July 2, 1962 / Bob
Dylan [2 July 1962] Jack Nissenson, an early admirer of Dylan had the foresight to record this performance at the Finjan Club, Montreal, in July 1962. A decent copy of the Finjan Club tape, complete on CD, the recording is continuous which gives the atmosphere of the club rather well. This one is strikingly better then other discs of the same material. [T-144/145, T-103, T-168/169, T- 170, T-322]
7. Now's The Time For Your Tears / Bob Dylan [7 May 1965]
Wanted Man Music, WMM 061, 1995 There is perhaps no better bootleg available then this one. This could easily be a commercial release. The CD provides the complete concert with the exception of the opening lines of Talkin' World War III Blues (8). This is one of the last recordings of a purely acoustic live Bob Dylan concert... [Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears (The Swingin' Pig, TSP- CD-057, 1990, Matrix: TSPCD 057 03) was always criticised because it was digitally 'no noised' so here it is free of that undesirable process.]
8. Talking Too Much / Bob Dylan [12 April - 26 October 1963]
Live in New York, 1963 This CD corresponds to the unreleased 1963 live album planned by Columbia: Bob Dylan In Concert (Col. CL-2302, CS- 9102). The boot is taken from the acetate produced for that project. [As the CD Bob Dylan In Concert (Capricorn Records, CR-2025, 1994) uses the cover of the unreleased 1963 live album planned by Columbia: Bob Dylan In Concert (Col. CL-2302, CS- 9102) [062] you might expect it to be a CD of that album. Especially as it uses those numbers -- Col. CL-2302 CS-9102- - on the insert and on the spine. It is not!]
9. Songs That Made Him Famous / Bob Dylan [October 1962 - 27
March 1965] The Santa Monica (1-12) concert omits the fragment of The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll [11] but is otherwise a complete copy of the incomplete circulating tape of the concert. (Disc 2 of the 1965 Revisited [GDR9419] CD of the concert includes it.) The authenticity of the recording is stunning, but it is clearly an amateur recording with tapers' interjections, splices, varying levels and more... A record of the concert is wonderful to have, but as well this must be the best tape for capturing the excitement of the tapers too! It is difficult to make out all that they say but we hear them during To Ramona (1) ([indecipherable conspiratorial whispering] ...this is the actual recording, ...can you?); at the end of Gates Of Eden (2) (I can't tell you, it's jumping [referring to the input level meter during applause?], Hey man, this is fascinating.); It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) (4) (I want a flashlight darn it, one look at a flashlight is all I need, I don't even know if that's turned on yet, no, it is, you see what I... Jack, got a match? Give me it. [and you can hear the matchbox]); Mr. Tambourine Man (6) (These are all new songs.), the beginning of Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (7) (Oh wow! Yay!!!), before With God On Our Side (8) (What's he playin'?), It Ain't Me Babe (10) ([indecipherable whispering]), It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (12) (You wanna come backstage afterwards? Jack's going backstage, so I guess you'll have to. I'd be scared. You'd be scared? Are you kidding? ...backstage. Yeah... Gee I wonder if the songs are on the record?). The audience is also alert and laughs in the right places, they seem to catch every word and the songs are fresh enough to surprise (If You Gotta Go, Go Now (3): "It's just that I ain't got no watch, and you keep asking me what time it is [audience laughter]" and many other points, they clearly connect with the ribald thinly disguised excuses in the song; It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) (4): That somebody thinks, They really found you [taper laughs]; Love Minus Zero/No Limit (5): "draw conclusions [pause] on the wall [audience laughter]"); Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (7): "Look out your window and I'll be gone [taper laughs]"; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (12) "The empty- handed painter from your streets, Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets [audience laughter]. At the end of If You Gotta Go, Go Now (3) Bob Dylan says, "That was called Gates of Eden. [laughter at intentional wrong name] Taper: "Wish I had a flashlight". Dylan: "This is called It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding). Taper: "Oh! Yayyyyy!!!! We heard this one on a show, you know." Dylan: It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), ho, ho ho. [audience laughter]." At the end of that song he introduces the next with, "...this song is Love Minus Zero, uh, slash, over No Limit, end of quote, it's kind of like a painting, the title, painted in purple." And the wildly overdone hamming of All I Really Want To Do (11) gets a great audience reaction.
10. The Dylan's Roots / Bob Dylan [1961] A nicely organized CD with two complete recordings of '61 Dylan tapes. The sound is very good overall, and better on the East Orange cuts then the New York cuts. Essential. Wise to have something early in order to understand later Dylan...
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Andrew MuirOoooh, top 10s eh? Irresisitible but almost impossible to do. Given that this could change at any moment..here goes (is it OK to have "sets" as 1 choice) - in any case I have omitted 1965 Revisited as it seems to hugely unfair to include. It would soar right up the chart.
1. The Genuine Basement Tapes Vols 1-5 / Bob Dylan [and The
Band] [1967]
5. Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix / Bob Dylan [&
The Hawks] [17 May 1966]
6. Rough Cuts / Bob Dylan [1983]
7. Thin Wild Mercury Music / Bob Dylan [1965-1966]
8. The First Supper /Bob Dylan [16 November 1993]
9. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Outtakes / Bob Dylan [1962]
I also haven't included the HARD TO FIND or CRITIC's CHOICE series that I love, or the wonderful ODDS & ENDS (kinda swallowed up in my forst 3 choices) or GOLDEN VANITY or anything from tours other than '66.....Ah, it's just impossible. Still a nice start to the day.
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ben@edlis.orgOK. I can only go by what CDs I own and I haven't bought any in maybe 2 years :-) Here goes:
1. Solid Rock / Bob Dylan [19-20 April 1980]
2. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Outtakes / Bob Dylan [1962]
3. Folksingers Choice / Bob Dylan with Cynthia Gooding [11
March 1962]
7. The Deeds Of Mercy / Bob Dylan [1989]
9. The Lonesome Sparrow Sings / Bob Dylan [1965-1966] Hmm, I don't really have a tenth to suggest. If I am nostalgic, I'd go for "Manchester Prayer" but that has long since been superseded. If forced, I guess I'd go for "Avignon '81" so you can put that one there if you want.
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Patricia JungwirthCan I wait till I get 'Blood on the Tapes' - I think this one's gonna go straight up my charts (er, if you know what i.. ) Tentatively for now (I hate having to 'rank' these things):
1. Tell It Like It Is / Bob Dylan [11 November 1975]
2. Melbourne / Bob Dylan [1966]
3. Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix / Bob Dylan [&
The Hawks] [17 May 1966]
4. The Deeds Of Mercy / Bob Dylan [1989]
6. The Genuine Basement Tapes Vols 1-5 / Bob Dylan [and The
Band] [1967]
7. Thin Wild Mercury Music / Bob Dylan [1965-1966]
8. Folksingers Choice / Bob Dylan with Cynthia Gooding [11
March 1962]
10. Peco's Blues / Bob Dylan [1973]
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John HowellsHere goes (all in no particular order except for the first two):
1. Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix / Bob Dylan [&
The Hawks] [17 May 1966]
2. The Genuine Basement Tapes Vols 1-5 / Bob Dylan [and The
Band] [1967]
3. The Minnesota Tapes / Bob Dylan [1961]
5. Halloween Mask /Bob Dylan [31 October 1964]
6. Stuck Inside Of New York / Bob Dylan [1988]
9. Thin Wild Mercury Music / Bob Dylan [1965-1966]
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Jeff (Dr. Jibe)My top 10 as of 6/23/97:
4. Contract with the Lord Parts 1 & 2 / Bob Dylan [1979]
6. F*** The Playlist : Brixton II / Bob Dylan [29-30 March
1995]
7. Creatures Void of Form / Bob Dylan & The Rolling Thunder Revue [May 1976]
8. Blood On The Tapes / Bob Dylan [1974]
9. Phantoms Of My Youth / Bob Dylan [1974]
10. Rough Cuts / Bob Dylan [1983]
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DanBOK, here is my personal top ten in no particular order (which one is "first" depends on how I am feeling):
Folksingers Choice / Bob Dylan with Cynthia Gooding [11
March 1962]
Thin Wild Mercury Music / Bob Dylan [1965-1966]
Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix / Bob Dylan [&
The Hawks] [17 May 1966]
The Genuine Basement Tapes Vols 1-5 / Bob Dylan [and The
Band] [1967]
Contract with the Lord Parts 1 & 2 / Bob Dylan [1979]
Rough Cuts / Bob Dylan [1983]
Les Temps Changent / Bob Dylan [June 1984]
Brixton Blues / Bob Dylan [31 March 1995]
Pledging My Time / Bob Dylan [1995]
Honorable Mention (compilation CDs):
Genuine Bootleg Series (3 CDs)
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Matthew ZuckermanA top ten is tough! Doubly tough since all my stuff is in storage so it has to be done by memory. Or maybe that makes it easier. Anyway, here's a list of ten favourites. The Live in New York/Live in Newport pair have been treated as one. This one is very hard to find nowadays, and It's Alright could take their place (better sound but without Newport).
1. Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix / Bob Dylan [&
The Hawks] [17 May 1966]
2. Contract with the Lord Parts 1 & 2 / Bob Dylan [1979]
3. The Genuine Basement Tapes Vols 1-5 / Bob Dylan [and The
Band] [1967]
4. Rough Cuts / Bob Dylan [1983]
5. Blue Eyed Boston Boy / Bob Dylan [October 1994]
6. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Outtakes / Bob Dylan [1962]
7. The Pedlar Now Speaks / Bob Dylan [June 1995]
8. Flagging Down the Double E's / Bob Dylan [1975]
9. Dust My Broome / Bob Dylan [1992]
10. Live in New York 1964/ / Bob Dylan [31 October 1964]
Live In Newport 1965 / Bob Dylan [31 October 1964 - 25 July
1965]
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