Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 03:24 PM

I happened to come up on a video promoting the Witmark collection on BobDylanTV on youtube and thought some of you might be interested.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 10:12 PM

"In general, unless there are some significant differences, STEREO would be preferred."

Considering that stereo was NOT the primary mix at the time, it is interesting to hear what the preferred mono mix sounded like. Mono mix was where the artist were concentrating since most of the airplay came off of transistor radios and monophonic record players that were prevelant at the time.

Frankly, it is only of interest to those real hardcore collectors who simply want to have everything.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: pdq
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 09:53 PM

got it...thanks

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 09:44 PM

The box conatains 8 'albums', each was 1 LP, except BLOND ON BLOND which was a 2 LP set. Thus 9 CD's.

Bob Dylan's first 8 studio albums in mono for the first time ever on CD:
Bob Dylan
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
The Time They Are A-Changin'
Another Side Of Bob Dylan
Bringing It All Back Home
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde On Blonde
John Wesley Harding

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: pdq
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 09:30 PM

Just for the record, can you tell folks what the 9th CD is on the MONO box.

Is it the concert you describe?

The description say the set has his first 8 albums, essentially as first released.

I just ordered the 2 CD demos set but have no inclination to buy anything else from The Bob, at least right now.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 09:18 PM

I've just seen the booklet for the MONO box - the discography lists the STEREO catalog numbers, NOT the MONO numbers. The LINER NOTES (in those years there were NOTEs) are NOT printed in the booklet,
are barely legible on the repro jackets.

I note that AMAZON is offering a "bonus" cd (with both the Mono Box and the Witmark set) of a 1963 concert at Brandeis.

Are there any other venders offering other bonus discs???
[as you may remember, the first HANK WILLIAMS MOTHERS BEST release
was offered in at least three different configurations all having
unique material.....]

Best wishes, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: pdq
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 08:13 PM

It seems that there are three different releases from Sony on 19 OCT:

1. A 2 CD set of demos from early 1962 (Leeds) and the rest of the 50 songs are demos from Whitmark.

2. A 9 CD box with Dylan's first 8 LPs exactly as released, including art. There is one other CD in the set.

3. A single CD that takes 15 songs of the reissued mono box, making it a "best of".

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 04:51 PM

HI,
I was refering to the version of the song recorded for the FREEWHEELIN album (not the Witmark demos). FREEWHEELIN is one the 8 lp's in the MONO box.
Below is part of an article in WIKIPEDIA about the album.
I think the 4 deleted songs should have been included in the set,
and FOR ME, perhaps would have been a reason to purchase it. Anyone know of anything of value in the mono mixes? In general, unless there are some significant differences, STEREO would be preferred.
Best wishes, Thomas.


FROM WIKIPEDIA:
There is disagreement between Dylan's biographers about the consequences of this censorship row. Anthony Scaduto writes that after the Ed Sullivan Show debacle, CBS lawyers were alarmed to discover that the controversial song was to be included on Dylan's new album, only a few weeks from its release date. They insisted that the song be dropped, and four songs ("John Birch", "Let Me Die In My Footsteps", "Rambling Gambling Willie", "Rocks and Gravel") on the album were replaced with Dylan's newer compositions recorded in April ("Girl from the North Country", "Masters of War", "Talkin' World War III Blues", "Bob Dylan's Dream"). Scaduto writes that Dylan felt "crushed" by being compelled to submit to censorship, but he was in no position to argue.[43]

According to biographer Clinton Heylin, "There remains a common belief that [Dylan] was forced by Columbia to pull "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" from the album after he walked out on The Ed Sullivan Show." However, the 'revised' version of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was released on May 27, 1963; this would have given Columbia Records only two weeks to recut the album, reprint the record sleeves, and press and package enough copies of the new version to fill orders. Heylin suggests that CBS had probably forced Dylan to withdraw "John Birch" from the album some weeks earlier, and that Dylan had responded by recording his new material on April 24.[44] Whether the songs were substituted before or after The Ed Sullivan Show, critics agree that the new material gave the album a more personal feel, endistanced from the traditional folk-blues material which had dominated his first album, Bob Dylan.[45]

A few copies of the original pressing of the LP with the four deleted tracks have turned up over the years, despite Columbia's supposed destruction of all copies during the pre-release phase. Other permutations of the Freewheelin' album include versions with a different running order of the tracks on the album, and a Canadian version of the album that listed the tracks in the wrong order.[46][47]

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 11:00 PM

NPR had a "First Listen" feature on this package. I should have linked it when it was live. (It's a feature where they offer a preview of full audio from cds that are due to be released soon. The audio goes away after the release.)

Here's the review text and others' comments, though: click.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: pdq
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 08:48 PM

"Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" is included.

There are 50 songs on two CDs.

I would rather listen to The Bob at this stage than anytime after "Blood on the Tracks".

Subject: Bob Dylan - Witmark & Early mono albums
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 07:44 PM

Sony has just released a CD of the WITMARK demos in their
"bootleg series", and a box containing the
first Dylan albums, in MONO.
WHY did the NOT include the original version of the album,
or add to this set the quickly deleted John Birch song??