Searching For A Gem: News

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"By popular demand", the latest Bob Dylan Rarity News notified to me. If you have any news not shown that will interest site visitors, please contact me here. Please make sure the subject of your message includes the word  "Dylan"- this will ensure it's not put in the trash by my Spam filter. This is absolutely vital - incoming Spam is up to 13,300 messages per day, and I'm sure some of your valuable messages have been missed! Please retry if your message was rejected or if you haven't received a reply.

Sadly Michael Jackson has died suddenly at the young age of 50. His only collaboration with Bob was in 1985 on the charity single and video We Are The World, by the ensemble USA for Africa. For the original charity single and LP see 1985, for original video releases, see VHS & DVD 1980s and for the 2005 DVD releases, see VHS & DVD 2000s Part 3.

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Contacting Bob Dylan

This is a fan site with no connection to Bob and you can't contact him through me! I used to have a postal address that I thought was correct, but I have since been informed by someone who wrote to that address that their mail was returned. I have never had an email address. I can only suggest you contact Bob's publisher Simon & Schuster, or use the contact address at bobdylan.com . I also have no means of helping anyone who wants Bob Dylan's autograph!

For much wider news coverage of interest to Bob Dylan fans, see Karl Erik's amazing "Expecting Rain" site . It's always up-to-date thanks to his astounding dedication!

News and Updates are now two separate pages - for Updates (including all site structure changes), see here.

Revised: 03 July, 2009

4 Jul 2009: thanks to Alan Mansfield for news of a series of performances in the UK called "Iconic Icons" by The National Theatre of Brent, or award-winning comedy duo Desmond Olivier Dingle and Raymond Box.  The first, recorded on 2 Jul 2009, was "Iconic Icons: Bob Dylan", to be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 at 6:30 p.m. on 29 Jul 2009. Alan says "Those of you who know the National Theatre of Brent will know what to expect, for those that do not – you are in for a treat.  Certainly worth a listen for the irreverent, humorous yet kind-hearted take on the journey from Hibbing to New York, Zimmerman to Dylan.  The script made extensive use of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie lyrics, and numerous name checks of Bob Dylan songs, tucked into the narrative."
2 Jul 2009: News of two new Dylan-related DVD releases - the first is a two disc set from Pride produced in association with UK Dylan magazine "Isis" Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow, it contains a DVD of  contains performance footage and interviews from Bob's Gospel era and the remainder of the 1980s, together with a CD of interviews. For more details, see here .

The second from Silver & Gold called Bob Dylan: Keep Your Eyes On The Prize which traces Bob's early career up to the controversial world tour with the Hawks in 1966. It includes interviews with people such as Mickey Jones (the tour drummer), English folk singer Martin Carthy, and contributions from Derek Barker from "Isis", C P Lee and Clinton Heylin.

29 May 2009: Thanks to the UK Dylan magazine "Isis" for news that the trailer for Season 2 of the US HBO TV vampire series "True Blood" features Beyond Here Lies Nothing from Together Through Life. The trailer for the season, which starts on 14 Jun 2009, was first shown on 1 May 2009. I have no information yet as to whether the song will be used in the series itself.

28 May 2009: Thanks to John-Willy Bakke and David Plentus for news that Dylan Mania Par Béatrice Ardisson, a 2009 French Naive Records compilation of Dylan covers, contains a Dylan track called "Apothecary" (also listed in some sources as "Animals, Birds And Cigarettes") which is apparently Bob's rap outside the pet shop from the 2005 Martin Scorsese No Direction Home video (see VHS & DVD 2000s Part 3). The track is not listed by Amazon France but apparently it is on the CD (although not on the download version).

29 Apr 2009: Thanks to Allan Johansen for information that the single CD edition of Together Through Life from the French record store FNAC will have the exclusive French bonus disc mentioned on 6 Apr below and to Franck Faugere for adding that the exclusive French release is also available from Virgin stores in France.

15 Apr 2009: Thanks to Tricia Jungworth for news that the four remastered releases listed below will only be available in Australia as jewel case editions, not the attractive digipaks, which seem to have been much more limited than I first thought.

6 Apr 2009: Thanks to Bernard Reynaert for information that there will be a special French limited edition of Together Through Life from the record store FNAC with 4 discs - the fourth disc is a French-language documentary about Bob with excerpts of several songs and cover versions of Dylan songs by French artists.

5 Apr 2009: Thanks to Sonny Boy McFitzson for information that Bob's new album Together Through Life will be released in Japan in three editions:

The booklet for all editions will have English lyrics, Japanese translation & liner notes. In addition, the four remasters listed below won't be released in digipaks in Japan but in mini-LP cardboard sleeves duplicating the US initial releases with the original CBS/Sony Japanese obis:

1 Apr 2009: Thanks to Nol Grint for information that the four new remastered Dylan albums - New Morning, Before The Flood [Bob Dylan/The Band], The Basement Tapes [Bob Dylan/The Band] and Dylan & The Dead [Bob Dylan/The Grateful Dead] - are also available already in Europe in standard CD jewel cases as well as the limited edition digipaks that I have.

Older News

Old news items are kept on here until the rarities referred to actually surface, or until it becomes clear that they're not going to!

20 Mar 2009: The soundtrack for "My Own Love Song", a film by French director Olivier Dahan starring Forest Whitaker and Rene Zellweger, will include Life Is Hard from Bob's new album Together Through Life.


Photo from eBay - the handwritten text is almost unreadable		 2 Mar 2009: Thanks to Arie de Reus for information about a UK acetate of I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine and Drifter's Escape from John Wesley Harding on eBay that purports to contain alternate takes to the released versions. Arie doesn't think it's genuine, but to check it out see here.
30 Jan 2009: Thanks to Jack from Canada for information that the upcoming Canadian film "Victoria Day", written and directed by David Bezmozgis, will include several Dylan songs including a previously unreleased version of Shot Of Love. Set in Toronto, Ontario, over Victoria Day weekend, 1988, part of the film revolves around a Dylan concert at Ontario Place. In Canada Victoria Day is the Monday before 25 May (in 1988 it was 23 May), and Bob didn't actually play in Toronto that year until 29 Aug 1988, when he played the Stadium Grandstand at the Canadian National Exhibition.

9 Jan 2009: Thanks to Jack from Canada for information that Season 5 of the US NBC TV series "Saturday Night Live" will be released in the USA in summer 2009. Bob performed Gotta Serve Somebody, When You Gonna Wake Up and I Believe In You from Slow Train Coming at NBC Studios, New York, on 20 Oct 1979. For the DVD release of "Saturday Night Live: The First Five Years" with an excerpt of the live performance of Gotta Serve Somebody, see VHS & DVD 2000s Part 3.

18 Dec 2008: Thanks to Jack from Canada for information that Sony may be releasing a 2CD Legacy Edition of  Blood On The Tracks with CD1 being the album as released in 1975 and CD2 including the complete withdrawn "New York" version of the album with five replaced tracks, see 1974. More information will be added when available.

15 Dec 2008: Thanks to Gil Walker for news about a tape being auctioned on eBay that was recorded during the Nashville Skyline sessions at Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville, TN, 14 Feb 1969, with five out-takes of Lay, Lady, Lay and a previously uncirculating song Going To Chicago. This has been added to the Starlight in The East "G" page. It has different lyrics from Doc Watson's Going To Chicago Blues, so may be a Dylan original.

Thanks to Tim Dunn for information that this tape with five takes of Lay, Lady, Lay is part of what in 1993 were known as "The Lost Warehouse Tapes". These were between 2200 and 3000 reels of tape recorded between 1953 and 1971, discarded by Columbia and acquired by record producer Clark Enslin. Other recordings by Bob are known to be Mr. Bojangles (released on the 1973 Dylan album), Wild Thing, Blue Moon, Ring Of Fire and Take A Message To Mary.

21 Nov 2008: Thanks to Jack from Canada for information that the 2008 Irish film "Kisses", written and directed by Lance Daly, uses several Dylan songs on the soundtrack. More information will be added when available. For details, see here.

13 Nov  2008: Thanks to Éamonn Ó Catháin for information that Sony is launching a new high density CD format called "Blu-spec" based on Blu-ray technology. A range of 60 titles will be launched in Japan on 24 Dec 2008, including Highway 61 Revisited and Blood On The Tracks. Both of these were previously available on hybrid SACD discs in 5.1 surround sound, so these new releases may also have these mixes. More information will be added when available.

12 Jun 2008: Thanks to HwyCDRrev for news that Collector's Choice will re-release two Doug Sahm Atlantic albums featuring Bob in the USA on 31 Oct 2008: Doug Sahm and Band (see 1972) and Texas Tornado by The Sir Douglas Band (see 1973).

19 May 2008: Ian Woodward's "Wicked Messenger" column in "Isis" issue 138 reports that Bob has put music to some of the "Shoebox Songs" - unpublished lyrics left by Hank Williams in notebooks and papers in a shoebox. Apparently an album featuring Bob and other artists will be released by Sony later this year. Norah Jones performed one of the Shoebox Songs in New York in Mar 2008 with music written by herself. Ian also says a new volume of The Bootleg Series is likely to be released by Columbia/Legacy in Autumn 2008 - this is expected to be a 2CD set of previously officially-unreleased studio material like Vols. 1-3.

14 May 2007: Thanks to Dave Plentus and HwyCDRrev for news that Classic Records are to release a stereo 200gm vinyl version of the withdrawn edition of  The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan with the four replaced tracks (see 1963). This will be released as a 2LP set with the regular version. For more information, see .

26 Sep 2006: Thanks to HwyCDRrev and Jean-Pol Hiernaux for news that Bob's friend from Hibbing, Ric Kangas, is auctioning a three-song tape from 1959 and other memorabilia with a starting price of $25,000. The songs on the tape reel are When I Got Troubles (included in the 2005 release of The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 - No Direction Home), The Frog Song, I Got A New Girl. The site is Heritage Auction Galleries - for more details, see here .

31 Aug 2006: Thanks to HwyCDRrev for news that a forthcoming tribute album to songwriter Peter LaFarge will include Bob's recording of The Ballad Of Ira Hayes from the long-deleted Columbia Dylan album - see 1973.

7 Aug 2006: Thanks to Ian Woodward and others for news that the Royal Festival Hall, London, 17 May 1964 concert is being considered for release as a "mini album" of eight tracks, rather like last year's incomplete "Gaslight Tapes" and "Carnegie Hall" releases. Two of these performances, Mr. Tambourine Man and Eternal Circle, turned up in 2004 on a Fantasy Records acetate of the unreleased 1964 Bob Dylan In Concert album (see 1964 and 2004).

22 Mar 2006: Thanks to Artur Jarosinski for information about Wolfgang's Vault . This is a site primarily selling memorabilia, much from the archives of legendary rock promoter Bill Graham (of the Fillmore East and West), whose actual first name was Wolfgang. The site also has an online radio which plays live performances from Bill Graham's collection, including many with Bob. For more information see here.


Picture from www.christies.com		 6 Nov 2005: Christies in Rockefeller Plaza, New York, is auctioning this tape made by Peter McKenzie on Thanksgiving, 1961. It is about 60 mins in length and has seven songs by Bob: Baby, Let Me Follow You Down, San Francisco Bay Blues, You're No Good, House Of The Rising Sun, In My Time Of Dying, Highway 51 and This Land Is Your Land, with two instrumentals and interjections from the McKenzie Family, Suze Rotolo, Kevin Krown, and other people present. The selling price is expected to be between $40,000-60,000! The auction will  take place on 21 Nov 2005. The lot also includes the two microphones used to record the performances (shown on the left of the picture).

It's important to note that "This recording is offered for sale without copyright, broadcast rights, performers' consents and other reproduction rights." Therefore it's unlikely this material will be officially released any time soon!

28 Oct 2005: Thanks to Jack from Canada for the information that, in addition to the Capitol 6 disc set The Band: A Musical History (see 2005), there will be an 8CD set of Levon and The Hawks called Bacon Fat And Judgement Day released by the Canadian label Other People's Music. This will include 1967 Woodstock Basement Tapes material, and may include tracks with Bob. For more information, see . In a reply to a query from Jack, OPM said:

"There were many recordings from "The Basement" which excluded Bob Dylan. OPM Inc. supplied a few of these for the Band Box Set: Words And Numbers, You Don't Come Through, etc., on disc 1. There's more that is currently being considered for inclusion in The Hawks' Box Set.

Any songs including Bob Dylan would require his consent. If we were able to include any material of the Hawks featuring Bob Dylan on lead vocals from "The Basement", we would focus only on a few selections. Those considered would be cover songs... Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, etc., as this project is about The Hawks. They would not be Dylan originals. Certainly we hope to include the other version of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" with Dylan singing lead and the Hawks singing back-up harmonies. Robbie originally wished to include both versions; with and without Dylan. Despite the report in the liner notes by Rob Blowman that this version was too distorted to use, I'm not sure that the esteemed Mr. Blowman has even heard the entire version of this song; certainly not a restored version. It's quite haunting."


Picture from eBay		 21 Oct 2005: Thanks to Ian Woodward for information about the May 1959 Ric Kangas tape, which was offered on eBay for $1.5 million! It contains four songs: When I Got Troubles (on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home), Teen Love Serenade (a short excerpt is featured in the "No Direction Home" film), and two other songs, I Wish I Knew (song by Ric Kangas with Bob backing), and The Frog Song (a song by Bob with Clarence "Frogman" Henry-style vocals). Thanks to Jean-Pol Hiernaux for finding the item on eBay. It's now closed and there were no bids!
Picture from eBay

21 Aug 2005: Thanks to Peter Stone Brown and Fred Muller for news that the four songs performed by Bob in his role as Bobby the Hobo in the 1962 BBC TV drama "Madhouse On Castle Street" have been restored after being thought long lost. These are an early version of Blowin' In The Wind, Ballad Of A Gliding Swan, The Cuckoo, and Hang Me, Oh Hang Me. The songs are due to be broadcast in Sep 2005 in an Arena documentary on BBC4, "Dylan In The Madhouse", shown as part of a Bob Dylan season including the BBC screening of "No Direction Home". I doubt if they will be officially released in any form, but I'll add further information when available.

13 Jun 2005: Thanks to Gil Walker for information about the Larry Keegan disc that failed to sell on eBay in 2002 (see below). The tracklist is mentioned in Greil Marcus' new book about Like A Rolling Stone, and is said to be covers of:

Ready Teddy (Little Richard)
Confidential (Sonny Knight)
Boppin' The Blues (Carl Perkins)
Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Lloyd Price)
In The Still Of The Nite (5 Satins)
Let The Good Times Roll (Shirley/Lee)
Earth Angel (Penguins)

There are only seven songs as opposed to the eight mentioned below. Apparently the quality of both the sound and the performances is awful!

6 May 2005: Thanks to John Lettiere for an article by Bill Holland from "Billboard" magazine in the USA about music industry vault losses - the relevant Dylan information is: "Sometimes, tapes just end up missing," said a vault vet.. "They're either mislabelled, or they just can't be found, like Bob Dylan's 'Nashville Skyline' album--Sony's still searching for it. They have safety, but it's a copy. The good news is that they've found (Dylan's) 'Blood on the Tracks' master now. It had been mislabelled when it was shipped years back from Nashville to New York." For the full article, see .

In Mar 2003 it was reported that all the 1960s Broadside recordings, including Bob's listed on this site, are to be transferred to CD using a grant from America's National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. For more details, see .

Picture from eBay		 On 20 Nov 2002, I reported that the latest issue of "Isis" magazine (#105) says that the 1956 acetate shown left only attracted a single bid on eBay for $1! I've since learned that the record is definitely genuine, and is being sold by the sister of Bob's long-time friend Larry Keegan, who died in Sep 2001. However the price being asked ($150,000-$200,000) was very high for an item which could only be acquired for a personal collection, since there would seem no likelihood of the owner being able to use it for commercial benefit. I still don't have details of the songs on the acetate.

The eBay description of this acetate is as follows: "This vintage master sound recording from 1956 features Bob Dylan, a legendary performer and composer, an icon of Rock & Roll. It was recorded on Christmas Eve in the recording facility of Telinde Music, a retail music store in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is the earliest known recording of Bob Dylan at the age of 15, a very unique master. There are approximately eight minutes of eight recorded songs on the disc, with Bob playing piano and singing, accompanied by Larry Keegan and Howard Rutman on vocals. This 10 inch 78 rpm solid aluminium, vinyl coated record is in excellent condition."

On 30 Jan 2002 I reported: "Bob Dylan is reported to be one of the musicians participating in an album of tribute to the Cuban singer and songwriter Pablo Milanés, according to informed journal "Cuban Rebellious Youth" yesterday. The album, called Pablo Querido, will be published by PM (Pablo Milanés) Récords in February 2002." That album appeared without Bob, but Bob and other artists such as Sting, Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder and Peter Gabriel may now appear on a new album tentatively called Pablo Querido 2, with Bob performing on a song called Dónde Andarán [Where They Will Walk]. For more details, see (in Spanish).

A "new" Townes Van Zandt release called Van Zandt Country was scheduled to be released in the USA on Tomato/Glitterhouse Records in the "early summer" of 2002. It was supposed to feature duets with Bob Dylan (For The Sake Of The Song), Lyle Lovett (Flyin' Shoes), Van Morrison (Snow Don't Fall), and Neil Young (Loretta). Glen Dundas told me that around ten years ago there were rumours in Austin, TX, about a collaboration between Bob and Townes Van Zandt, but they were never confirmed. Thanks to Paul Read for details of his interval chat with Townes during the interval at his performance at the Winning Post in York in mid 1994, when they spoke about the duets project and Dylan's involvement (which Townes was still waiting for). It now appears most likely that the duet did not happen during Townes' lifetime and Bob's contribution has been recorded posthumously. Re the Townes Van Zandt duets (see "Older News" below), Rod MacBeath writes: "One little bit of news relates to the Townes Van Zandt duets album Vol. 2, featuring Townes and Bob on For The Sake Of The Song. The last I heard, this release had been put back to Spring 2003, thought there are great disputes between Townes' widow and the producer about his over-production standards and both seem to think that they have a legal right to the final say.  I'm sure, as you stated, that Bob's contribution was only done after Townes' death. I spoke to him in '94 and '95 about it (see the first issue of  "The Bridge") and it was clear that things were a long way off happening. There is the possibility that Bob recorded more than one song though - I recall hearing that up to three was a possibility,  and some artistes will have been featured more than once by the time all five volumes are out (or if all five come out). Of course, the intention may have been simply to get a selection of duets of the same song to choose from."

Before he died George Harrison was working with Jeff Lynne on a Traveling Wilburys anthology (perhaps a boxed set) called Maximum Traveling, which would have contained all the previously released material (see Traveling Wilburys), plus previously unreleased tracks, such as a cover of Paul Simon's Run That Body Down, and three 1990 tracks with Del Shannon as the replacement for Roy Orbison. The 2007 Wilburys boxed set release supersedes this, but we live in hope of  more from the Wilburys!

[The Official Rarities Yearly Lists] [Traveling Wilburys] [Online Performances (bobdylan.com)] [Online Performances (Other)] [Interviews with Bob] [VHS & DVD]
[International Mono Releases] [International Promotional Releases] [International Stereo Releases] [Questionable Releases] [Released Rarities] [Honourable Mentions]

[Updates] [Red Herrings] [Other Pages] [Go back to bobdylan.com]

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