July 2: Great recording of Bob Dylan’s set at the Finjan Club, Montreal in 1962
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, 14 January 2013.
(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)