Bob Dylans earliest New York tapes see the light…
Don’t suppose twice, it’s all proper. Bob Dylan’s earliest New York recordings are finally getting their due.
“The Bootleg Series Vol. 18: Through the Open Window, 1956‑1963,” a large assortment of beforehand unheard performances from the “Like a Rolling Stone” singer’s first years in Greenwich Village and past, dropped Friday, Oct. 31.
Bob Dylan’s latest release, “The Bootleg Series Vol. 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963,” options the musician’s earliest recordings in New York City. Legacy Recordings
Dylan performing at the Bitter End folks membership in Greenwich Village in 1961. Getty Images
Spanning from his first appearances at the now-closed Gerdes Folk City to a charged efficiency uptown at Carnegie Hall, the compilation captures the younger Dylan at a time when he was still discovering his voice in the metropolis that would help form it.
Born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1941, Dylan moved to downtown New York City in January 1961 with a stack of songs, a stressed drive to make music and a dedication to monitoring down his idol, Woody Guthrie.
“We wanted to get a sense of Greenwich Village as much as anything else,” historian Sean Wilentz, who both produced the new release with Steve Berkowitz and wrote its liner notes, completely told The Post.
Dylan recording his self-titled debut album at Columbia Studio in New York City in November 1961. Michael Ochs Archives
Dylan performs an acoustic guitar and smokes a cigarette in this headshot taken in New York City in September 1962. Michael Ochs Archives
“And the wider Bohemia, but especially Greenwich Village,” the Princeton professor continued. “And you get that because you’re coming out of a community, not an easy community, always, but a community.”
Dylan’s rise in the early Sixties coincided with a artistic explosion in the Village, where folks music golf equipment like Gerdes, the Gaslight, Cafe Wha? and the Bitter End doubled as sonic laboratories for new songs and concepts.
Sean Wilentz attends the 56th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 26, 2014. WireImage
Wilentz speaks at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 7, 2012. WireImage
“There was nothing like what was going on in Greenwich Village,” Wilentz, who wrote the 2010 e book “Bob Dylan in America,” said. “And he was very much a part of that, and that was very much a part of him. And that’s what we wanted to get across.”
Last yr’s Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown,” gave audiences a dramatic big screen look at that early Greenwich Village scene by displaying the cafés, jam classes and stressed vitality of the younger musician discovering his place.
A sprig-painted signal outdoors Greenwich Village’s Cafe Wha? in the early Sixties. Bettmann Archive
People in the entrance of the Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village, circa 1960. Getty Images
The Gaslight Cafe on McDougal St. in Greenwich Village in January 1961. Bettmann Archive
While Chalamet’s portrayal of the folks troubador-turned-rock legend highlighted Dylan’s ambition, appeal and electric ambiance, Wilentz said that the newly launched bootleg collection takes it all a step additional.
“Where they really blend together is that we have a lot of material which is from the clubs themselves,” the Brooklyn Heights-native explained. “Performances and things.”
Dylan performs on stage at Gerdes Folk City in Greenwich Village on Oct. 3, 1961. Michael Ochs Archives
Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in 2024’s “A Complete Unknown.” Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
“One of the nice things about the film was that it took you inside Gerdes and took you inside the Gaslight Cafe to actually see what those places were like,” Wilentz continued. “The film was strong on all of that. The music was well done.”
“But now you’re going to hear the same place, the same thing, the same feeling, except now you’re going to hear how it actually happened.”
Ella Fanning and Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown.” Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Monica Barbaro and Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown.” Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Listeners, the Grammy nominee added, will really feel like they’re “a fly on the wall” at Gerdes Folk City in April 1962 when Dylan sang “Blowin’ in the Wind” in public for the very first time.
The set also options some of the earliest variations of other Dylan classics, including “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”
A poster advertises Dylan and a number of other performances at Gerdes Folk City in New York City in September 1961. Getty Images
Dylan poses for a portrait in this headshot taken in New York City in September 1961. Michael Ochs Archives
They had been all recorded at cafés and home gatherings more than 50 years before Dylan would go on to grow to be the first musician to ever win a Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.
However, the new assortment also tells a story that charts Dylan’s growth from a gifted Minnesota teenager to the artist who would soon dominate folks music with timeless albums like “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”
“The point of this bootleg was not simply to give you a lot of music that you hadn’t heard before, but it was actually to tell a story, to tell the story that had a beginning, middle, and end,” Wilentz explained.
Chalamet as Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.” Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Chalamet again as Dylan in 2024’s “A Complete Unknown.” Macall Polay/Searchlight Pictures
“I had an idea what that story should look like, and that’s what my liner notes are,” he continued. “The music was going to match that, except that every time I heard the music, I went back and changed the arc of the story itself.”
The story ends with a live performance at Carnegie Hall on the night time of Oct. 26, 1963, a efficiency that Wilentz called both a turning level for Dylan and the world just before every thing modified.
“We had to figure out where to end it, and it seemed to us that it was that concert,” Wilentz shared. “His trajectory as an artist is going to take a very different arc right after that.”
Program for Dylan’s first live performance at Carnegie Chapter Hall in New York City on Nov. 4, 1961. Getty Images
“First, the Kennedy assassination, then he meets Allen Ginsberg,” Wilentz continued. “By the time he’s cutting his next album in June 1964, he’s in another place.”
Still, the release of “Through the Open Window” builds on the renewed curiosity in Dylan’s early years lately sparked by the Chalamet movie. And for listeners, it’s a probability to hear New York City precisely as it sounded back in the early ’60s.
“He wants you to hear him for his music and for his art. That’s what’s really important,” Wilentz concluded. “And that’s what you’ll be getting on this.”
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