Category Archives: Bob Dylan recording sessions

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

Feb 13: Bob Dylan – 2nd Nashville Skyline session in 1969

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bob dylan nashville skyline

Well, Jann, I’ll tell you something. There’s not too much of a change in my singing style, but I’ll tell you something which is true… I stopped smoking. When I stopped smoking my voice changed… So drastically, I couldn’t believe it myself. That’s true. I tell you, you stop smoking those cigarettes (laughter)… and you’ll be able to sing like Caruso.
~Bob Dylan (to Jann Wenner Nov 1969)

Anyway, on Nashville Skyline you had to read between the lines. I was trying to grasp something that would lead me on to where I thought I should be, and it didn’t go nowhere – it just went down, down, down.
~Bob Dylan (to Jonathan Cott, Sept 1978)

The first recording session for “Nashville Skyline” was held on February 12, 1969 – but no recordings sheets are available from this session. The second session took place the day after – February 13, 1969. Dylan landed 3 master versions this evening.

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Jan 15: Bob Dylan – The third & final recording session for “Bringing It All Back Home”

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bob dylan bringing it all back home

I’ve written some songs that I look at, and they just give me a sense of awe….stuff like, It’s Alright, Ma, just the alliteration in that blows me away. And I can also look back and know where I was tricky and where I was really saying something that just
happened to have a spark of poetry to it.
~Bob Dylan (to John Pareles, Sept. 1997)

This session contains some of Dylan’s strongest performances ever!
Master versions: “Maggie’s Farm”, “On The Road Again,” “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” “Gates of Eden,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”

Some background from wikipedia:

Bringing It All Back Home is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in March 1965 by Columbia Records. The album is divided into an electric and an acoustic side. On side one of the original LP, Dylan is backed by an electric rock and roll band—a move that further alienated him from some of his former peers in the folk song community. Likewise, on the acoustic second side of the album, he distanced himself from the protest songs with which he had become closely identified (such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”), as his lyrics continued their trend towards the abstract and personal.

The album reached No. 6 on Billboard’s Pop Albums chart, the first of Dylan’s LPs to break into the US top 10. It also topped the UK charts later that Spring. The lead-off track, “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, became Dylan’s first single to chart in the US, peaking at #39.

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home sessions

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Jan 14: Bob Dylan – The Second Recording Session for “Bringing It All Back Home” in 1965

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bob dylan bringing it all back home

….Bringing It All Back Home, that was like a break through point, it’s the kind of music I’ve been striving to make and I believe that in time people will see that. It’s hard to explain it, it’s that indefinable thing..
~Bob Dylan (Paul Gambaccini Interview, Jun. 1981)

The first session didn’t result in any master versions… but on the second session Dylan nailed 5 masters: Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Outlaw Blues, She Belongs To Me & Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream

Some background from wikipedia:

Bringing It All Back Home is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in March 1965 by Columbia Records. The album is divided into an electric and an acoustic side. On side one of the original LP, Dylan is backed by an electric rock and roll band—a move that further alienated him from some of his former peers in the folk song community. Likewise, on the acoustic second side of the album, he distanced himself from the protest songs with which he had become closely identified (such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”), as his lyrics continued their trend towards the abstract and personal.

The album reached No. 6 on Billboard’s Pop Albums chart, the first of Dylan’s LPs to break into the US top 10. It also topped the UK charts later that Spring. The lead-off track, “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, became Dylan’s first single to chart in the US, peaking at #39.

bd 1965_11

 

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Dec 1: Bette Midler was born in 1945 – Bob Dylan & Bette Midler, New York 1975 recording session

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Redirecting to a newer version of this post….

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Secret Sound Studios
New York City, New York
October 1975
Bette Midler recording session.

  • Bette Midler (vocal)
  • Bob Dylan (vocal)
  • Dave Webster (slide guitar)
  • Moogy Klingman (piano & harmonica)
  • Ralph Schuckett (organ)
  • John Siegler (bass)
  • John Wilcox (drums)

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From bigozine2.com:

Towards the end of 2009, a new Bob Dylan bootleg, Bob Dylan New York Sessions 1974-1975, surfaced which contained the following:

September 16 1974
1 – Idiot Wind – take 6, overdubbed on Oct 8 Test Pressing
2 – Lily, Rosemary & The Jack Of Hearts- Take 1 Test Pressing, September 17 1974
3 – You’re A Big Girl Now – Take 2 Upgrade to Biograph Version, September 19 1974
4 – If You See Her Say Hello – Take 1 Test Pressing
5 – Tangled Up In Blue – Take 2 or 3 Test Pressing, Studio E Columbia Studios N.Y.C. 14 July 1975
6 – Rita Mae – Studio E Columbia Studios N.Y.C. 20 July 1975
7 – Hurricane, Secret Sound Studios N.Y.C. Oct 75
8 – Bob Dylan / Bette Midler Buckets Of Rain sessions (Uncirculated tape) 27 Mins
9 – Buckets Of Rain (Finished Version ) released in 1976 on Songs For The New Depression

One of the highlights is the newly-found tape of Dylan’s sessions with Bette Midler in October, 1975 which produced her cover of Buckets Of Rain.

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September 17: Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks, Second Recording Session in 1974

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blood-on-the-tracks-album-cover

Bob Dylan’s second recording session for Blood On The Tracks continued on  September 17, 1974. Another important day in the studio.

Here are some quotes, facts & music….

We cut the entire album in one day like that. Now that blew my mind. I was 19-years-old and trying to learn how to make art. The style of the time was set by guys I was working with like Paul Simon, who would take weeks recording a guitar part only to throw it away. I thought that was the way one was supposed to do it: one note at a time and a year to make an album. Dylan cut the whole thing in six hours on a Monday night. I was confused. It was like the floor, barely built under my young soul, was being ripped apart, board by board.
Then Dylan came back in on Tuesday, and recorded most of the album again.
~Glenn Berger (Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks: The Untold Story)

Albums involved:

ALBUM Release date CODE
Blood On The Tracks 1975-01-17 BOTT
Biograph 1985-11-07 BIO
Blood On The Tracks – Test pressing  Nov 74 BOTT-TP
Jerry Maguire – Soundtrack 1996-12-10 JMS

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