From Newport to the Ancient Empty Street in L.A.

Last updated
From Newport to the Ancient Empty Street in L.A
Bob Dylan - From Newport to the Ancient Empty Street in L.A..jpg
Live album (bootleg)by
Released1998 (1998)
Recorded1964–1965
Genre Folk, folk rock
Length68:29
Label Dandelion

From Newport to the Ancient Empty Street in L.A is a bootleg recording of live performances by Bob Dylan. It contains recordings of Dylan performing at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1964 and July 1965. There are also recordings of Dylan performing at the Hollywood Bowl in September 1965. The album contains one performance omitted from the film The Other Side of the Mirror which records Dylan's Newport performances: a live version of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" from July 1965.

Contents

Songs

The bootleg consists of 24 songs on two discs. The first disc contains 12 songs. Tracks 1–4 were recorded at the Newport Folk Festival on July 26, 1964. Tracks 5–8 were recorded July 25, 1965, at the same venue. Tracks 9–12 were recorded at the Hollywood Bowl on September 3, 1965. Additional songs from the same date and venue make up the first eleven tracks of the second disc. The first three songs are acoustic, while tracks 4–11 featured Dylan's electric set with The Hawks. The final song on disc two is an alternate studio version of "Tombstone Blues". [1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]

Jason Ankeny of Allmusic called the bootleg "a near-definitive edition of this essential material, docked points solely for the curious omission of 'It Ain't Me Babe' from the 1964 Newport performance." Ankeny also wrote: "While lacking the primal force of his subsequent electric tour with the Hawks, the performance is nevertheless excellent, capturing the complexity and potency of songs like 'Tombstone Blues', 'Maggie's Farm' and 'Like a Rolling Stone' in full." [2]

Track listing

Disc one

  1. "All I Really Want to Do" – 3:34
  2. "To Ramona" – 4:33
  3. "Mr. Tambourine Man" – 7:33
  4. "Chimes Of Freedom" – 8:14
  5. "Maggie's Farm" – 4:45
  6. "Like a Rolling Stone" – 6:28
  7. "Phantom Engineer" – 4:03
  8. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" – 5:19
  9. "She Belongs to Me" – 4:03
  10. "To Ramona" – 5:59
  11. "Gates of Eden" – 6:43
  12. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" – 5:08

Disc two

  1. "Desolation Row" – 10:10
  2. "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" – 4:04
  3. "Mr. Tambourine Man" – 5:40
  4. "Tombstone Blues" – 5:03
  5. "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" – 4:48
  6. "From a Buick 6" – 3:18
  7. "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" – 5:18
  8. "Maggie's Farm" – 4:36
  9. "It Ain't Me, Babe" – 4:41
  10. "Ballad of a Thin Man" – 6:04
  11. "Like a Rolling Stone" – 8:22
  12. "Tombstone Blues" – 6:25

Sources

  1. Freeman, Garry (2003). The Bootleg Guide: Classic Bootlegs of the 1960s and 1970s, An Annotated Discography. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. p. 208. ISBN   978-0-8108-4582-4.
  2. 1 2 Ankeny, Jason. "'From Newport to the Ancient Empty Street in LA' – Review". Allmusic (Rovi Corporation). Retrieved 2011-09-04.

Related Research Articles

<i>Highway 61 Revisited</i> 1965 studio album by Bob Dylan

Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Having until then recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band on every track of the album, except for the closing track, the 11-minute ballad "Desolation Row". Critics have focused on the innovative way Dylan combined driving, blues-based music with the subtlety of poetry to create songs that captured the political and cultural chaos of contemporary America. Author Michael Gray has argued that, in an important sense, the 1960s "started" with this album.

<i>Bringing It All Back Home</i> 1965 studio album by Bob Dylan

Bringing It All Back Home is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released in April 1965, by Columbia Records.

<i>Another Side of Bob Dylan</i> 1964 studio album by Bob Dylan

Another Side of Bob Dylan is the fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 8, 1964, by Columbia Records.

"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released as the first track of the acoustic side of his March 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The song's popularity led to Dylan recording it live many times, and it has been included in multiple compilation albums. It has been translated into other languages and has been used or referenced in television shows, films, and books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Like a Rolling Stone</span> 1965 single by Bob Dylan

"Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965, by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted from a grueling tour of England. Dylan distilled this draft into four verses and a chorus. "Like a Rolling Stone" was recorded a few weeks later as part of the sessions for the forthcoming album Highway 61 Revisited.

<i>Bob Dylans Greatest Hits</i> 1967 greatest hits album by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits is a 1967 compilation album of songs by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Released on March 27, 1967, by Columbia Records, it was a stopgap between Dylan's studio albums Blonde on Blonde and John Wesley Harding, during which time he had retreated from the public eye to recover from a motorcycle accident. It was Dylan's first compilation, containing every Top 40 single Dylan had up to 1967, plus additional album tracks which had become popular singles as recorded by other artists. It peaked at No. 10 on the pop album chart in the United States, and went to No. 3 on the album chart in the United Kingdom. Certified five times platinum by the RIAA, it is his best-selling album in the U.S.

<i>The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack</i> 2005 compilation album by Bob Dylan

The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack is a compilation album by Bob Dylan. The fifth installment in the ongoing Bob Dylan Bootleg Series, it was released in 2005 in conjunction with the Martin Scorsese PBS television documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home, and was compiled with Scorsese's input. It features mostly previously unreleased material from Dylan's formative years to his rise as an international figure, from 1959 to his 1966 world tour.

<i>No Direction Home</i> 2005 documentary film by Martin Scorsese

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan is a 2005 documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th-century American popular music and culture. The film focuses on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his "retirement" from touring following his motorcycle accident in July 1966. This period encapsulates Dylan's rise to fame as a folk singer and songwriter where he became the center of a cultural and musical upheaval, and continues through the electric controversy surrounding his move to a rock style of music.

<i>Listen to Bob Dylan: A Tribute</i> 2005 compilation album by Various Artists

Listen to Bob Dylan: A Tribute is a tribute album, dedicated to Bob Dylan. The two disc set was released on August 16, 2005 by Drive-Thru Records. Despite the record label's reputation for its emo/pop punk roster, the compilation album contained cover versions kept close to the originals, instead of pop punk renditions of the songs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie's Farm</span> 1965 single by Bob Dylan

"Maggie's Farm" is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 15, 1965, and released on the album Bringing It All Back Home on March 22 of that year. Like many other Dylan songs of the 1965–66 period, "Maggie's Farm" is based on electric blues. It was released as a single in the United Kingdom on June 4, 1965, and peaked at No. 22 on the chart. Dylan only needed one take to record the song, as may be heard on the exhaustive 18-disc Collector's Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966, which includes every alternate take recorded during Dylan's 1965–1966 sessions but only the one version of "Maggie's Farm".

"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965, by Columbia Records. The song was recorded on January 15, 1965, with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass guitar the only instrumentation. The lyrics were heavily influenced by Symbolist poetry and bid farewell to the titular "Baby Blue". There has been much speculation about the real life identity of "Baby Blue", with possibilities including Joan Baez, David Blue, Paul Clayton, Dylan's folk music audience, and even Dylan himself.

"To Ramona" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, first released on his fourth studio album, Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964). The song was written by Dylan, and produced by Tom Wilson. The lyrics were started at the May Fair Hotel in London in May 1964, and finished during a week-long stay in the Greek village of Vernilya later that month. Dylan recorded all the tracks for the album, including the song, in a single three-hour session on June 9, 1964, at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, New York. Its narrator advises Ramona, who is preparing to return to "the South", not to follow the advice of others. Critics have suggested several different people as inspirations for the song, including Joan Baez, Suze Rotolo, and Sara Lownds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isle of Wight Festival 1969</span> Rock festival

The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival was held on 29–31 August 1969 at Wootton Creek, on the Isle of Wight. The festival attracted an audience of approximately 150,000 to see acts including Bob Dylan, the Band, the Who, Free, Joe Cocker, the Bonzo Dog Band and the Moody Blues. It was the second of three music festivals held on the island between 1968 and 1970. Organised by Rikki Farr, Ronnie and Ray Foulk's Fiery Creations, it became a legendary event, largely owing to the participation of Dylan, who had spent the previous three years in semi-retirement. The event was well managed, in comparison to the recent Woodstock Festival, and trouble-free.

"It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" is a song written by Bob Dylan, that was originally released on his album Highway 61 Revisited. It was recorded on July 29, 1965. The song was also included on an early, European Dylan compilation album entitled Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 2.

The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival is a 2007 documentary film about Bob Dylan's appearances at the Newport Folk Festival in three successive years: 1963, 1964, and 1965, directed by Murray Lerner.

<i>Im Not There</i> (soundtrack) 2007 soundtrack album by Various Artists

The soundtrack album for the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There was released as a double CD on October 30, 2007. It features only one recording by Dylan himself—his previously unreleased recording of the title song "I'm Not There" recorded during The Basement Tapes' sessions in 1967—plus various other artists' recordings of songs written by Dylan. These CDs do not contain the movie sound track. Fragments from less than half of the titles are heard in the film, which features more of Dylan's own recordings. The end credits relay a complete list of music heard in the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Dylan World Tour 1966</span>

The Bob Dylan World Tour 1966 was a concert tour undertaken by American musician Bob Dylan, from February to May 1966. Dylan's 1966 World Tour was notable as the first tour where Dylan employed an electric band backing him, following him "going electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The musicians Dylan employed as his backing band were known as The Hawks, who later became famous as The Band.

Bob Dylan bootleg recordings are unreleased performances by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, that have been circulated throughout the public without undergoing an official, sanctioned release. It is commonly misconceived that bootlegs are only restricted to audio, but bootleg video performances, such as Dylan's 1966 film Eat the Document, which remains officially unreleased, are considered to be bootlegs. Dylan is generally considered to be the most bootlegged artist in rock history, rivaled only by the Grateful Dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Dylan World Tour 1978</span> 1978 concert tour by Bob Dylan

The Bob Dylan World Tour 1978 was a concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In 1978, Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour, performing 114 shows in Asia, Oceania, North America and Europe, to a total audience of two million people.

Bob Dylan is an American musician, singer-songwriter, music producer, artist, and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest.