Through The Open Window is the latest chapter in the acclaimed Bob Dylan Bootleg Series, which tells the story of Dylan’s emergence and maturation as a songwriter and performer, from Minnesota to the Greenwich Village bohemia in the early 1960s. The release includes remastered tapes of some of Dylan’s earliest recordings, along with rare Columbia Records outtakes, recordings made at club dates, in tiny informal gatherings, in friends’ apartments, and at jam sessions in long-gone musicians’ hangouts. Many of the recordings are exceedingly rare; others have never been presented in any form. The centrepiece of this release is his Carnegie Hall concert from October 26th, 1963, recorded in its entirety.
Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings will release Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963 on October 31, 2025. Preorders begin today here https://bobdylan.lnk.to/Bootleg18. The announcement is accompanied by an outtake of Rocks and Gravel from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, recorded in April 1962; listen below.
The 125-page liner notes essay for this Bootleg release was written by Sean Wilentz, a History professor at Princeton University. “Of that time and those places, this collection is just a fragment,” writes Wilentz in his liner notes essay. “Even so, as an aural record of an artist becoming himself—or in Dylan’s case, his first of many artistic selves—the collection aims to collapse time and space, not as a nostalgic reverie but as a living connection between the past and the present, the old and the new, which are never as distinct as we might think.”
Wilentz has written extensively on Dylan’s cultural significance in his book, Bob Dylan in America, and the liner notes for Through The Open Window help contextualise these recordings, as well as work in conjunction with the chronological presentation of the songs.
The compilation of Through The Open Window has clearly proven a real labour of love for its producers, with Dylan’s management team and record company having assiduously purchased many of the tapes featured on the recordings, or having been gifted them over the years. While a number of the tapes included have circulated among Dylan’s fan base previously, there has been a concerted attempt to improve the songs’ sound quality, with the Bob Dylan Centre in Tulsa playing a key part in helping to source and find the whole versions of a number of different songs which feature on this release.
Volume 18 starts with Dylan’s first-ever known recordings, with his high school band at the Terlinde music shop in St Paul, Minnesota, when Dylan was only fifteen years old. The Bootleg Series also features a tape of Dylan made by his high school friend, Ric Kangas. Kangas was something of an interesting character, having been a stunt man and Elvis Presley impersonator. He kept what he called “the suitcase tapes”, featuring four songs by a young Dylan which he had recorded in his room back in Hibbing from May 1959. Volume 18 includes one of the very first Dylan songs from these tapes, titled I Got A New Girl.
In January 1961, Dylan set out from Minnesota to head to New York City, and once there, went to see Bob and Sidsel Gleason in East Orange, New Jersey. The Gleasons had been fans of Woody Guthrie since the 1930s. Guthrie had been suffering from Huntington’s disease for some time, and Dylan and the Gleasons drove out to the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey to pay their respects to Guthrie. The Gleasons would organise weekly guitar and banjo playing sessions, which included Guthrie, alongside the likes of Pete Seeger and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. On the first Sunday Dylan arrived in New York, he got invited to one of these sessions. Volume 18 includes the song Remember Me, which was included on one of these home recordings from February 1961.
Some other notable recordings included on Through The Open Window are:
– Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues from September 1961. Recorded as a demo tape at the Gaslight Cafe by Dylan’s then manager, Terri Thal, it was used to show out-of-town club owners who might be willing to book Dylan. It gives a great example of Dylan’s stagecraft at the time.
– A rehearsal take of A Man of Constant Sorrow from his first record for Columbia Records in October 1961.
– Another out-take from his first record for Columbia, from Studio A, Dylan covering the Woody Guthrie song, Ramblin’ Round (Dylan was a self-described “Woody Guthrie jukebox”).
– A reinterpretation, by Dylan, of Po’ Lazarus, recorded by Tony Glover at his house in Minneapolis from 1962. Glover was a blues harpist and a close associate of Dylan’s. The recordings at Glover’s house were initially circulated as bootlegs, but were later purchased by Dylan’s manager.
– Cocaine Blues, a song popularised by the Reverend Gary Davis. This represents a great example of Dylan’s ability to take the blues and reinvent it as a form of distinctive self-expression.
– An out-take of Rocks and Gravel from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, recorded in April 1962. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan proved to be a transformational album for Dylan, including such renowned songs as A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, Girl From The North Country, and Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.
– An early version of Tomorrow’s A Long Time (written about Susie Rotolo) from one of the parties Dylan attended in August 1962 at the home of Dave Whittaker, a Beat Generation poet, activist, and radio host who served as an early mentor to Dylan. This song wasn’t released until 1970, when it appeared on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume 2. Dylan was one of the first artists to include a previously unreleased song on a Greatest Hits album.
– A song never previously released from July 1963, Liverpool Gal – again recorded at Tony Glover’s house in Minneapolis.
– An out-take of Boots of Spanish Leather, from The Times They Are A-Changin’ from August 1963. This is a great example of Dylan taking an old ballad form and revising it in a beautiful ballad concept called “incremental repetition”, where each verse reveals small alterations, before the concluding verse creates a climax by unveiling the song’s full story. This number is also one of the last examples of Dylan’s fingerpicking style.
The climax of the Bootleg Series – and the primary focus of this release – is the last two CDs, which feature the Carnegie Hall concert from October 26th, 1963. It captures the entirety of Dylan’s performance at this memorable concert, and also demonstrates the rapturous response he received at the time. Furthermore, it helps contextualise what a remarkable achievement Dylan had made by this stage of his career, seeing as he had only arrived in New York in January 1961. Within less than two years of his arrival, and without a hit song on the radio, Dylan was still able to fill Carnegie Hall to the rafters with an adoring audience.
More KLOF Mag features on Dylan:
Through the Open Window is released by Columbia Records on October 31st.
The 8CD Deluxe set includes 139 tracks – 48 never-before-released performances, as well as 38 super-rare cuts plus a hardcover book with extensive liner notes by Sean Wilentz and over 100 rare photographs. The 2CD and 4LP highlight editions include 42 tracks.
TRACKLIST: BOOTLEG SERIES VOLUME 18: THROUGH THE OPEN WINDOW, 1956-1963
Disc 1
1. Let the Good Times Roll
December 24, 1956 – Terlinde Music Shop, St. Paul, MN
2. I Got a New Girl
May 1959 – Home of Ric Kangas, Hibbing, MN
3. San Francisco Bay Blues
4. Jesus Christ
September 1960 – Home of Bob Dylan, Minneapolis, MN
5. East Virginia Blues
6. K.C. Moan
7. Hard Travelin’
Late 1960 – Madison, WI
8. Pastures of Plenty
9. Remember Me
February 1961 – Home of Bob and Sid Gleason, East Orange, NJ
10. Song to Woody
11. Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
September 6, 1961 – The Gaslight Cafe, NYC
12. Ain’t No Grave
Summer 1961 – Home of Mell and Lillian Bailey, NYC
13. I Ain’t Got No Home
May 13, 1961 – Coffman Theater, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
14. Death Don’t Have No Mercy
15. Devilish Mary
May 1961 – Minneapolis, MN
16. Introduction: Riverside Church
17. Handsome Molly
July 29, 1961 – Saturday of Folk Music (WRVR-FM), Riverside Church, NYC
18. Introduction: See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
19. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
20. The Girl I Left Behind
21. Introduction: Pretty Boy Floyd
22. Pretty Boy Floyd
23. Railroading on the Great Divide
October 1, 1961 – Gerdes Folk City, NYC
24. Introduction: Fixin’ to Die
25. Fixin’ to Die
1961 – Folklore Center, NYC
26. I’ll Fly Away – Take 1 (Alternate Take)*
September 29, 1961 – Carolyn Hester sessions,Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
Disc 2
1. Introduction: In the Pines
2. In the Pines
3. Gospel Plow
4. Introduction: Young But Daily Growing
5. Young But Daily Growing
6. Man on the Street
7. This Land Is Your Land*
8. Pretty Polly
November 4, 1961 – Carnegie Chapter Hall, NYC
9. man of constant sorrow – Rehearsal (Alternate Take, Nov 20, 1961)
10. HOUSE CARPENTER – Take 1 (Outtake, Nov 22, 1961)*
11. YOU’RE NO GOOD – Take 2 with Take 6 Insert (Alternate Take, Nov 20, 1961)
12. HE WAS A FRIEND OF MINE – Take 2 (Outtake, Nov 20, 1961)*
13. ramblin’ round – Take 2 (Outtake, Nov 22, 1961)*
Bob Dylan sessions Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
14. Story: East Orange, New Jersey
15. Stealin’
16. Po’ Lazarus
17. Dink’s Song*
18. I Was Young When I Left Home*
19. In the Evening
20. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
21. Cocaine
December 22, 1961 – Home of Bonnie Beecher, Minneapolis, MN
Disc 3
1. The Death of Emmett Till
2. Conversation: Folksinger’s Choice, 1
3. Roll On, John*
4. Conversation: Folksinger’s Choice, 2
5. Hard Times in New York Town
Broadcast March 11, 1962 – Folksinger’s Choice,WBAI-FM Studios, NYC
6. Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues
March 1962 – Home of Mell and Lillian Bailey, NYC
7. Ballad of Donald White
September 20, 1962 – Home of Mac and Eve McKenzie, NYC
8. Midnight Special – Rehearsals
9. Midnight Special – Take 17 (Alternate Take)
February 2, 1962 – The Midnight Special sessions, Webster Hall, NYC
10. Wichita (Album Version)*
11. It’s Dangerous (Album Version)*
March 2, 1962 – Three Kings and the Queen and Kings and the Queen, Volume Two sessions, Cue Recording Studios, NYC
12. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance**
13. Talkin’ New York**
14. Corrina, Corrina*
15. Deep Ellum Blues**
16. Introduction: Blowin’ in the Wind
17. Blowin’ in the Wind*
April 16, 1962 – Gerdes Folk City, NYC
18. Rambling, Gambling Willie – Take 3 (Outtake)**
19. (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle – Take 2 (Outtake)**
April 24, 1962 – Freewheelin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
20. Rocks and Gravel – Take 3 (Outtake)**
April 25, 1962 – Freewheelin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
21. Paths of Victory
22. Train A-Travelin’ (Album Version)*
October-December 1962 – Broadside Office, NYC
23. Hiram Hubbard**
24. Quit Your Low Down Ways**
25. Let Me Die in My Footsteps**
26. Ramblin’ on My Mind**
27. Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues)**
July 2, 1962 – The Finjan, Montreal, Canada
Disc 4
1. Baby, Please Don’t Go – Take 3 (Outtake)**
April 25, 1962 – Freewheelin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
2. Worried Blues – Take 1 (Outtake)**
3. Baby, I’m in the Mood for You – Take 4 (Outtake)**
4. Bob Dylan’s Blues – Take 2 (Outtake)**
July 9, 1962 – Freewheelin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
5. Introduction: Tomorrow Is a Long Time
6. Tomorrow Is a Long Time
7. This Land Is Your Land – The Last Verses
8. Long Time Gone
August 11, 1962 – Home of Dave Whitaker, Minneapolis, MN
9. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall*
10. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right*
11. Barbara Allen*
12. The Cuckoo*
October 1962 – The Gaslight Cafe, NYC
13. That’s All Right – Take 5 (Outtake)**
October 26, 1962 – Freewheelin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
14. Mixed-Up Confusion – Take 10 (Single Alternate Take)**
November 1, 1962 – Freewheelin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
15. Ballad of Hollis Brown – Take 2 (Outtake)**
16. Kingsport Town – Take 2 (Outtake)*
November 14, 1962 – Freewheelin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
17. Whatcha Gonna Do? – Remake, Take 1 (Outtake)**
18. Hero Blues – Take 4 (Outtake)**
19. I Shall Be Free – Take 3 (Alternate Take)**
December 6, 1962 – Freewheelin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
Disc 5
1. The Ballad of the Gliding Swan
Broadcast January 13, 1963 – “Madhouse on Castle Street,” BBC-TV Studios, London, England
2. Only a Hobo (Album Version)*
3. John Brown (Album Version)*
February 1963 – Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1 sessions, Folkways Studio, NYC
4. All Over You**
February 8, 1963 – NYC
5. Oxford Town* (Demo)
March 1963 – Witmark Studio, NYC
6. Bob Dylan’s Dream*
7. Introduction: Walls of Red Wing
8. Walls of Red Wing**
9. Introduction: Tomorrow Is a Long Time
10. Tomorrow Is a Long Time*
11. Dusty Old Fairgrounds**
12. Introduction: Pretty Peggy-O
13. Pretty Peggy-O**
14. Who Killed Davey Moore?**
15. Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie*
April 12, 1963 – Town Hall, NYC
16. James Alley Blues**
April 18, 1963 – Home of Mac and Eve McKenzie, NYC
17. I Rode Out One Morning**
April 19, 1963 – Home of Mac and Eve McKenzie, NYC
18. House of the Rising Sun**
April 18, 1963 – Home of Mac and Eve McKenzie, NYC
19. Talkin’ World War III Blues
April 21, 1963 – Club 47, Cambridge, MA
20. Masters of War – Take 6 (Alternate Take)
21. Girl from the North Country – Take 4 (Alternate Take)
April 24, 1963 – Freewheelin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
Disc 6
1. Introduction by Cordell Reagon
2. Only a Pawn in Their Game
3. Blowin’ in the Wind
July 6, 1963 – SNCC Voter Registration Rally, Greenwood, MS
4. Eternal Circle
5. Liverpool Gal
6. West Memphis
July 17, 1963 – Home of Tony Glover, Minneapolis, MN
7. North Country Blues*
8. With God on Our Side*
July 27, 1963 – Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI
9. Playboys and Playgirls*
July 28, 1963 – Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI
10. Blowin’ in the Wind*
July 26, 1963 – Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI; Bob Dylan: vocals and guitar
11. Slate: Boots of Spanish Leather
12. Boots of Spanish Leather – Take 1 (Alternate Take)
13. Seven Curses – Take 3 (Outtake)*
14. Farewell – Take 5 (Outtake)*
August 6, 1963 – The Times They Are A-Changin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
15. Bob Dylan’s New Orleans Rag – Remake, Take 3 (Outtake)
August 7, 1963 – The Times They Are A-Changin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
16. Moonshiner – Remake, Take 1 (Outtake)*
August 12, 1963 – The Times They Are A-Changin’sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
17. Introduction by Joan Baez
18. Troubled and I Don’t Know Why*
August 17, 1963 – Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, NYC
19. Introduction by Ossie Davis
20. When the Ship Comes In**
August 28, 1963 – March on Washington, Washington, D.C.
21. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
September 1963 – Home of Ben Shapiro, Los Angeles
22. The Times They Are A-Changin’
September 1963 – California
23. One Too Many Mornings – Take 1 (Alternate Take)
October 24, 1963 – The Times They Are A-Changin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
24. Key to the Highway – Take 1 (Outtake)
October 23, 1963 – The Times They Are A-Changin’ sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
Disc 7
1. The Times They Are A-Changin’*
2. Ballad of Hollis Brown*
3. Introduction: Who Killed Davey Moore?
4. Who Killed Davey Moore?*
5. Boots of Spanish Leather*
6. Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues*
7. Lay Down Your Weary Tune*
8. Introduction: Blowin’ in the Wind
9. Blowin’ in the Wind**
10. Introduction: Percy’s Song
11. Percy’s Song**
12. Seven Curses**
13. Walls of Red Wing**
14. Introduction: North Country Blues
15. North Country Blues*
16. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall*
October 26, 1963 – Carnegie Hall, NYC
Disc 8
1. Talkin’ World War III Blues**
2. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right**
3. Story: Hootenanny Hoot
4. With God on Our Side*
5. Only a Pawn in Their Game**
6. Introduction: Masters of War
7. Masters of War*
8. Introduction: The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
9. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll*
10. Introduction: When the Ship Comes In
11. When the Ship Comes In*
October 26, 1963 – Carnegie Hall, NYC
* All tracks previously UNRELEASED unless otherwise noted
** Previously released on 50th Anniversary Collection 1962 and
The 50th Anniversary Collection 1963 (Sony)