The Bootleg Series Volume 9 – The Witmark Demos 1962-1964
and The Original Mono Recordings
are two sets that have been long sought-after by Bob Dylan collectors and fans worldwide. Finally, The Witmark Demos are seeing their commercial release nearly five decades after they were initially recorded, and re-release of the artist’s first eight long-playing albums are returning to the marketplace for the first time ever as the The Original Mono Recordings collection on CD as well as on fully analogue 180-gram vinyl on October 19.
Together, both releases provide the public with a wide-ranging view of Bob Dylan’s work during the 1960s, and chronicle his amazing evolution from fledgling songwriter to one of the world’s most inventive and singular recording artists.
The Witmark Demos features 47 Bob Dylan songs recorded by the artist accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, harmonica and occasionally piano on 2 CD or 4 LP 180-gram vinyl. All of these songs were written – and their subsequent demos recorded – before Bob Dylan turned 24 years old. Among the many gems are 15 Bob Dylan songs that were recorded by the artist only for these sessions, and which have never been officially released to the public until now. These include the plaintive “Ballad For A Friend,” the civil rights era-inspired “Long Ago, Far Away” and “The Death Of Emmett Till,” and the poignant “Guess I’m Doing Fine.”
The Witmark Demos also features a deluxe booklet featuring in-depth liner notes by noted music historian Colin Escott, as well as rare photographs of Bob Dylan captured during the same period as these early recordings.
::Tracklisting::
Disc 1:
Man On The Street (Fragment)
Hard Times In New York Town
Poor Boy Blues
Ballad For A Friend
Rambling, Gambling Willie
Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
Standing On The Highway
Man On The Street
Blowin’ In The Wind
Long Ago, Far Away
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
The Death of Emmett Till
Let Me Die In My Footsteps
Ballad Of Hollis Brown
Quit Your Low Down Ways
Baby, I’m In The Mood For You
Bound To Lose, Bound To Win
All Over You
I’d Hate To Be You On That Dreadful Day
Long Time Gone
Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues
Masters Of War
Oxford Town
Farewell
Disc 2:
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Walkin’ Down The Line
I Shall Be Free
Bob Dylan’s Blues
Bob Dylan’s Dream
Boots Of Spanish Leather
Walls of Red Wing
Girl From The North Country
Seven Curses
Hero Blues
Whatcha Gonna Do?
Gypsy Lou
Ain’t Gonna Grieve
John Brown
Only A Hobo
When The Ship Comes In
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Paths Of Victory
Guess I’m Doing Fine
Baby Let Me Follow You Down
Mama, You Been On My Mind
Mr. Tambourine Man
I’ll Keep It With Mine
The Original Mono Recordings is comprised of Bob Dylan’s first eight long-playing albums, painstakingly reproduced from their first generation monaural mixes as the artist intended them to be heard: one channel of powerful sound, both direct and immediate. While stereo recordings had been available as early as the mid-1950s, mono was still the predominant – and often preferred – mode of recording and mixing by the top artists of the 1960s.
The Original Mono Recordings 8 CD and 8 LP editions are accompanied by a deluxe booklet, featuring vintage photographs of Bob Dylan and an expansive essay from renowned author and Dylan aficionado, Greil Marcus. Each disc in the set comes in its own individual jacket which faithfully replicates the original album artwork, complete with labels and stickers that were found on the original 1960s releases.
These eight albums – spanning the artist’s self-titled debut in March 1962, through John Wesley Harding released on December 27, 1967 – are universally regarded as some of the most important works in the history of recorded music.
The eight albums in The Original Mono Recordings are as follows:
Bob Dylan – 1962
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – 1963
The Times They Are A-Changin’ – 1964
Another Side Of Bob Dylan – 1964
Bringing It All Back Home – 1965
Highway 61 Revisited – 1965
Blonde on Blonde – 1966
John Wesley Harding – 1967
Order from Amazon:
The Bootleg Series Volume 9 – The Witmark Demos
The Mono Box (Limited Edition)