Category Archives: Bob Dylan recording sessions

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

Dec 30: Bob Dylan Blood On The Tracks, 6th & final recording session 1974

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blood-on-the-tracks-album-cover

The second session @ Minneapolis’ Sound 80 Studios, and the last recording session for “Blood On The Tracks”.

With the first session being a success, Dylan was more relaxed for this session. He knew & trusted the people he was working with. He was also more open to suggestions. The first song he wanted to try was the pivotal “Tangled Up In Blue”; the master take here proved to even top the brilliant New York version.

In New York “Tangled Up In Blue” had been recorded in the key of E (open tuning configuration), in Minneapolis Dylan first tried it in the key of G. Odegard then suggested: “..I think it would be better, livelier, if we moved it up to A with capos. It would kick ass up a notch” (quote from the book “A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks”). And so they did.. & the master take of one of the greatest songs in history was recorded.

Sound 80 Studio
Minneapolis, Minnesota
30 December 1974 
6th and last Blood On The Tracks recording session

Producer: David Zimmerman
Engineer: Paul Martinson

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

December 6: The 7th Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan recording session in 1962

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bob dylan - the_freewheelin

 Freewheelin’ in it’s released form is essentially a “best of” from one of the most creative years in Dylan’s life. The lag between sessions resulted in an album whose sound metamorphosed at least twice.
~Clinton Heylin (BD – The Recording Sessions)

Dylan nailed 3 master versions for “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” @ this important recording session.

bob dylan freewheelin shots

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

November 29: Bob Dylan – Third (and final) recording session for “John Wesley Harding” in 1967

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bob-dylan-john-wesley-harding-1967

JW: John Wesley Harding – why did you call the album that?
BD: We… I called it that because I had that song John Wesley Harding. It didn’t mean anything to me. I called it that, Jann, ‘cause I had the song John Wesley Harding, which started out to be a long ballad. I was gonna write a ballad on… Like maybe one of those old cowboy… You know, a real long ballad. But in the middle of the second verse, I got
tired. I had a tune, and I didn’t want to waste the tune, it was a nice little melody, so I just wrote a quick third verse, and I recorded that. But it was a silly little song….
~Bob Dylan to Jann Wenner November 29, 1969

This quiet masterpiece, which manages to sound both authoritative and tentative (a mix that gave it a highly contemporary feel), is neither a rock nor a folk album—and certainly isn’t folk-rock. It isn’t categorisable at all.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

47 years ago Bob Dylan entered Columbia Studio A, Nashville Tennessee tempting his third (and final) recording session for “John Wesley Harding”.

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

November 22: Bob Dylan: second recording session for.. “Bob Dylan”, 1961

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bob dylan album 1962

CBS is proud to introduce a major new figure in American folk music—Bob Dylan.
Excitement has been running high since the young man with a guitar ambled into a
recording studio for two sessions in November, 1961. For at only 20, Dylan is the most unusual
new talent in American folk music.
His talent takes many forms. He is one of the most compelling white blues singers ever
recorded. He is a songwriter of exceptional facility and cleverness. He is an uncommonly
skillful guitar player and harmonica player.
~Stacey Williams (“Bob Dylan” LP. liner notes – March 1962)

Dylan comes across as obsessed with the romance of dying, but the speed, energy and attack
in his guitar, harmonica and voice show how fresh and excellently ‘unprofessional’ he was.
…..
Yet what comes through from the album as a whole is a remarkable skill and more than a hint
of a highly distinctive vision.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

November 20: Bob Dylan first recording session for “Bob Dylan” – 1961

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bob dylan album 1962

CBS is proud to introduce a major new figure in American folk music—Bob Dylan.
Excitement has been running high since the young man with a guitar ambled into a
recording studio for two sessions in November, 1961. For at only 20, Dylan is the most unusual
new talent in American folk music.
His talent takes many forms. He is one of the most compelling white blues singers ever
recorded. He is a songwriter of exceptional facility and cleverness. He is an uncommonly
skillful guitar player and harmonica player.
~Stacey Williams (“Bob Dylan” LP. liner notes – March 1962)

Dylan comes across as obsessed with the romance of dying, but the speed, energy and attack
in his guitar, harmonica and voice show how fresh and excellently ‘unprofessional’ he was.
…..
Yet what comes through from the album as a whole is a remarkable skill and more than a hint
of a highly distinctive vision.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

Wikipedia:

Released March 19, 1962
Recorded November 20 and 22, 1961,Columbia Recording Studio, New York City, New York, United States
Genre Folk
Length 36:54
Label Columbia
Producer John H. Hammond

Bob Dylan is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in March 1962 by Columbia Records. Produced by Columbia’s legendary talent scout John H. Hammond, who signed Dylan to the label, the album features folk standards, plus two original compositions, “Talkin’ New York” and “Song to Woody”.

bob dylan 1961 recording sessions

 

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