The Finjan tape, similar to the early party tapes in that it’s a small group of people, and Dylan’s aware of the tape recorder and is trying to think of interesting songs to play, has many delights, particularly an electrifying version of Muddy Waters’s “Two Trains Running,” a fine loose rendering of “Let Me Die in My Footsteps,” and a haunting fragment of Robert Johnson’s “Rambling on My Mind.” On “Two Trains” Dylan sings, “I’m afraid of everybody/and I can’t trust myself.” The tape also features one of Dylan’s most powerful original blues (if you can draw the line between blues songs he writes and ones be assembles from existing songs; definitely a matter of degree, as is true with most blues singers): “Quit Your Low Down Ways.”
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973
I’m sitting here drinking coffee and listening to this fine recording of early Bob Dylan. For fans of early Dylan, this is a gem . It’s a trip back in time to what Dylan sounded like playing in the small clubs before he became famous. Listening to this CD I can imagine sitting in this dark club and hearing Bob Dylan perform songs that would become well known, and others that wouldn’t get any attention at all in the coming years.
Several of these tunes were recorded for Dylan’s first and second albums. Rocks and Gravel was meant to be on his second album, but was replaced by Girl From the North Country. Robert Johnson’s Ramblin’ On My Mind is performed here for the first time by Bob Dylan. The recording of Hiram Hubbard is the only known performance of this song by Bob Dylan. He Was A Friend of Mine was also left off Dylan’s first album.
I drink my coffee and marvel at the “time travel”, at the sureness of the young Bob Dylan. He definitely had “it” already then.
It is on Amazon for just 15 dollars.
Finjan Club
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2 July 1962
Released on DYLAN, BOB – FINJAN CLUB
(The release is unauthorized and is not associated with or approved by Bob Dylan or his current recording label)
Very highly recommended to anyone interested in Dylan. Some of the very best live early material available.
- The Death Of Emmett Till
- Stealin’, Stealin’ (trad. arr. Memphis Jug Band)
- Hiram Hubbard (trad.)
- Blowin’ In The Wind
- Rocks And Gravel
- Quit Your Low Down Ways
- He Was A Friend Of Mine
- Let Me Die In My Footsteps
- Two Trains Runnin’ (McKinley Morganfield)
….. Dylan again performs ‘Still a Fool’ (sometimes known as ‘Two Trains Runnin’). Of Muddy Waters’ three verses, Dylan’s version here uses two and then adds two more, of which one shows a personalised contribution by Dylan himself and both show his familiarity with common-stock blues lyric poetry.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)
- Ramblin’ On My Mind (Robert Johnson)
- Muleskinner Blues aka. Blues Yodel No. 8 (Jimmie Rodgers – G. Vaughan)
“The incredible Finjan tape belongs in every collection. Period. This particular CD release is the one to own. Few if any other releases of Finjan can compare to this gem. Some of the other releases have edited out the in between song talking, mistakes, and false starts (which sometimes seem as long as the songs themselves). Nothing is edited here. The CD captures the moment the recorder was turned on and left to run. This has always been a nice quality soundboard recording, but Yellow Dog has brought it to pure perfection. The audience is pin drop quiet. So much so that this could be a studio recording. The tape is so clean that several times you can hear the guitar case snaps etc. when the stage hand opens it to retrieve harmonicas and a capo. Turn up the stereo, and suddenly Dylan is in the room with you”
– Bobsboots (on the Yellow Dog bootleg)
Check out:
-Egil & Hallgeir
“The Bob Dylan Project’s goal is to present, in an accessible way, from a database, every available piece of information related to the Music of Bob Dylan.
Every Album, every Song, all the great Artists and all the Documented stories streaming on Spotify, Deezer, SoundCloud and YouTube. Over 1000,000 links.
All the relevant information at the Album, Song, Artist and Document level because we link to the available source reference material from Wikipedia, the Bob Dylan website, Untold Dylan, Haiku 61, Daniel Martin, Every Song, Expecting Rain, All Dylan, Dylan Chords, Steve Hoffman, Commentaries, MusicBrainz, Positively Dylan, Second Hand Songs etc. as well as the actual music.
So when you are ready and if you are interested in accessing a comprehensive anthology on this topic, then you can find the links to all the relevant information plus Bob Dylan’s recorded versions and many other related versions inside Bob Dylan’s Music Box at: http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/253/Hiram-Hubbard
This post is designed to link the music to a broader audience…”
It’s a thrill to hear Bob deliver what must be one of the first public performances of How Many Roads Must A Man Walk Down (as he calls it). … Even then Bob knows what he wants to do and does it with aplomb. Wonder if he could be enticed to sing Muleskinner Blues these days?? This is totally a fun listen. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for the feedback, good to hear from you again 🙂