![]() ![]() Though Volumes 1–3 were released as one package, Volume 1 and Volume 2 - and eventually Volume 9 - cover the earliest years of Dylan’s career. The big bang, for Dylan himself and the bootleg series. Todd Haynes’s 2007 film I’m Not There got it right when it examined Dylan through several clashing personalities. ’s “Murder Most Foul” on Billboard’s Rock Digital Song Sales chart - these bootlegs are deep dives into songs that provide windows into the mind of a great artist.īut with nearly two dozen releases and more than 500 tracks (not even including all the deluxe editions) in the mix, where do you start? In honor of the latest bootleg entry, let’s explore by breaking down the series’ highlights, lowlights, and oddities - a Dylan Bootleg CliffsNotes, if you will. As an artist who never had too many traditional hits - his first No. Much of this long-running project is more fascinating than good. The bootleg series has instead grown into a massive, strange, and lucrative treasure trove that now stands at 17 volumes and counting (including the newest entry, from Dylan’s Time Out of Mind era, out now). The project was Dylanology physically incarnated, featuring 58 rare and unreleased demos, live recordings, and session outtakes from Dylan’s self-titled debut until the then-recent 1989 quasi comeback Oh Mercy. It’s “the thinking man’s philately,” according to a 1991 Robert Christgau review cheekily confirming how Dylanology became an entire industry.Ĭhristgau was reviewing a notable new box set: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. It’s an intellectual fandom that dates back to the ’60s and has the vigor and determination of all those teenagers screaming for the Beatles a pre- and post-internet “run me over with a truck” approach to musical worship. Of course, that hasn’t stopped Dylanologists, a passionate group of Dylan scholars who spend time unearthing new truths from the singer-songwriter’s six-decade-old catalogue. How do you add insight to something that is carved into America’s landscape? How can you find a new angle on a mountain? Why bother, too? Mountains don’t care about interpretations. ![]() Writing about Bob Dylan is like writing about Mount Rushmore. Photos: Columbia Records and Legacy Records
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