Described as the “original unedited version” of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, this RSD exclusive release contains 13 tracks, including four that were removed prior to its original release: “Rocks and Gravel,” “Let Me Die in My Footsteps,” “Rambling, Gambling Willie” and “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues.” Yes, those four tracks eventually found their way out to the public, but it’s still fun to hold a somewhat different version of one of his signature albums that almost snuck out into the multiverse. A few copies of this particular “canceled” edition from the early ’60s have been among the most valuable Dylan collectibles there are.
The release this is most comparable to is an RSD version of “Blood on the Tracks (Test Pressing)” that came out in 2019…
Tag Archive: Bob Dylan
The first time we hear Bob Dylan on this fabulous 8CD, 165-track boxset, it’s Christmas Eve 1956. Dylan’s high school trio, The Jokers – Bob Zimmerman (vocals and piano), Larry Keegan and Howard Rutman (vocals) – are whomping through Shirley and Lee’s “Let the Good Times Roll” in a version recorded on a 78rpm acetate at the Terlinde Music Store in St Paul, a bus ride from the 15-year-old Dylan’s home in Hibbing, Minnesota.
It’s barely a minute long, not much more than a gloriously raucous din, but there distinctly is the young Bob, hollering his head off. The last time we hear him, it’s October 1963, at the end of his first headlining show at a sold-out Carnegie Hall, Dylan in full command of 3,000 hip New Yorkers who’ve just been profoundly wowed…