HERE'S A COLLECTION of original songs by a fresh young singer. It covers his work from the ages of 20 through 23. We know his songwriting will mature, as will he, but for now young people in the 21st Century have an extraordinary "new" album by an artist their own age. His name isBob Dylan.
In January 1962 Dylan signed with Leeds-Duchess music publishers to collect monies for Bob's originals from record and performance royalties, movie and TV use, and sheet music. Leeds-Duchess couldn't have known how rapidly Dylan was evolving or that he'd written a monster song that was intentionally being sat on. Bob's savvy new manager Albert Grossman sought a new publishing deal that gave him (meaning Al) a cut and he negotiated one with M. Witmark & Sons, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Leeds let the kid out of the contract for a thousand smackers and the same month Bob signed with Witmark, he recorded a demo of the monster. It was called Blowin' In The Wind. In a year it would be a million-seller for fellow Grossman clients Peter, Paul & Mary and Bob Dylan would be the biggest folk singer in the world.
Witmark had a 6-by-8 foot studio in New York for songwriters. Copyists transcribed the recordings into musical notation (a foreign language for most folkies and rockers) and the publisher would play the recordings for performers and producers, hoping to demonstrate their appeal (hence "demos") and convince them to cover the songs. Dylan was a rare beast in those days - a performer and a songwriter.
Jeff Rosen and Steve Berkowitz have collected 39 tracks of the Witmark songwriting demos (plus 8 tracks from the short stint with Leeds) on two CDs for The Bootleg Series Volume 9 - The Witmark Demos. MOJO has been privileged to hear a preview of this remarkable collection. Given the artist, his accomplishments and the time period covered (1962-64), we naturally hear classics like Blowin' In The Wind, Masters Of War, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, The Times They Are A-Changin', and Mr. Tambourine Man. Most of the songs on the set have been released in a variety of versions on Dylan's original albums, Biograph, live records, Broadside folk anthologies (under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt to evade contractual exclusivity with Columbia) and the legal Bootleg Series, as well as illegal bootlegs. But only three of the Witmark/Leeds recordings have ever been officially released and of the many reasons this is a treat for Dylan fans, one is the opportunity to hear a more relaxed Bob in an unpressured environment. There are flubs, forgotten verses, and all manner of intimate mixed-up confusion, including some joking around with (presumably) the engineer and one friendly tease where he suggests Grossman's a right-wing nut.
As for his instrumental skills, there are examples of Bob's percussive proto-rock rhythm guitar, his hot damn country-blues picking, and lots of his underrated piano plunking (most surprisingly on Mr. Tambourine Man). Given the chronological tracking, we hear his Woody Guthrie-indebted vocal phrasing transform into a more relaxed, personal voice - the archetypal exclamatory Dylan of a million impersonators. Meanwhile, we map the decreasing output of topical songs; and by Disc 2 even these have lost their ripped-from-the headlines journalese and speak more broadly, like the rousing When The Ship Comes In, in which any foe - ideological or otherwise - will be vanquished. The last two tracks on the set (Mr Tambourine Man and I'll Keep It With Mine) introduce the mystery and surrealism that would characterize his next phase.
Some of the so-called "finger-pointin' songs" may require Wikipedia for younger listeners to contextualize, but the love lost laments require no research. According to Dylan biographers, three issue from the doomed Suze Rotolo romance: Tomorrow Is A Long Time, Boots Of Spanish Leather, and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. The ache of the heart has rarely been expressed as well as in the first two, the bitterness that follows rejection never so well as in the last.
Some of the so-called "finger-pointin' songs" may require Wikipedia for younger listeners to contextualize, but the love lost laments require no research. According to Dylan biographers, three issue from the doomed Suze Rotolo romance: Tomorrow Is A Long Time, Boots Of Spanish Leather, and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. The ache of the heart has rarely been expressed as well as in the first two, the bitterness that follows rejection never so well as in the last.
In addition to the obvious classics, there are renditions of little-known Bobtunes that in hindsight stand with his best from this time (15 of the songs here have never been officially released by Bob in any form). Long Time Gone is a powerful refutation of any attempt to tame the drifting protagonist. It includes the line "But I know I ain't no prophet / An' I ain't no prophet's son" - that predates the spokesman-for-a-generation furore (he may be more prophetic than he knows). With a sprightly rhythm, engaging melody and offbeat chord changes for the folk idiom, Guess I'm Doing Fine is another anthem of determination.
Determination and survival are recurring themes in the young Dylan's work. Walkin' Down The Line - neither hit nor obscurity, but a personal favourite - is here in demo form. "I see the morning light / I see the morning light / Well, it's not because / I'm an early riser / I didn't get to sleep last night," sings Bob, tongue-in-cheek. For a half-century he's been walking down the line. Lesser artists - lesser men - would've gotten lost on a road as challenging as his. But his feet have always been a-flyin' while he's sung about his troubled mind.
I'm betting a lot of young people of the 21st century will find comfort listening to this young man of the 20th as he begins his odyssey. All eras set challenges for young minds - and Lord knows everyone gets the blues. True artists make their own mistakes and learn their own lessons, but it never hurts to know where giants have trod before embarking on a journey of your own.
writen by Michael Simmons
originally from HERE
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