Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. The Times They Are A-Changin'
2. Spanish Harlem Incident
3. Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues
4. To Ramona
5. Who Killed Davey Moore?
6. Gates Of Eden
7. If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Got To Stay All Night)
8. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
9. I Don't Believe You
10. Mr. Tamborine Man
11. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Disc 2:

1. Talkin' World War III Blues
2. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
3. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
4. Mama, You Been On My Mind - with Joan Baez
5. Silver Dagger - with Joan Baez
6. With God On Our Side - with Joan Baez
7. It Ain't Me, Babe - with Joan Baez
8. All I Really Want To Do

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7410 in Music
• Released on: 2004-03-29
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Live

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Bootleg Series, Volume 6 is Dylan as an eager-to-please 23- year-old with nothing between him and his worshippers but a guitar, a harmonica, and four songs; and his lover Joan Baez. In marked contrast to the acerbic electric Dylan of the mid-60s and the tight-lipped living legend of the mid-70s, here is Dylan as the entertainer. Joking and bantering with the crowd, he deals up some favourites ("The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"), but is already shedding his earnest folkie persona; imagine another artist a mere two years into his career declining to perform a hit on the scale of "Blowin' in the Wind".

Having completed the all-acoustic collection of his early years three months before the Philharmonic concert, he would record the half-electric/half-acoustic Bringing It All Back Home three months later. Three of the four acoustic songs from that album are presented here, as are a handful of then-unreleased songs, including "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" (which was soon given a rock arrangement), and a protest-period remnant, "Who Killed Davey Moore?" Had this album appeared the year it was recorded, it would be seen as a respite for folk fans to catch their collective breath before Dylan reappeared in his rock & roll Rimbaud guise. Heard for the first time decades later, it's simply a testament of his gifts as a showman and songwriter. --Steven Stolder

CD Description
This is the sixth release in the official 'Bootleg' series from Bob Dylan and was recorded on the 'Another Side Of Bob Dylan' tour in 1964. During this legendary acoustic set Dylan previewed material from his 1965 album 'Bringing It All Back Home', and performed tracks from his first four albums. Aguest appearance from Joan Baez is featured on four tracks towards the end of the show.

Customer Reviews

A key snapshot of Dylan before he went electric
THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 6, a bootleg that has been around for decades, is a Halloween show from the Philharmonic Hall in New York City. One of the most important shows in Dylan's early career, this show gave quite an overview at the time from Dylan's ever-growing song book, including new, bizaare songs that would show up within a few months on Dylan's fifth LP, BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME. While much has been made of the later electric performance of the 1960s, it is here that you can see how good Dylan really was with just a guitar, a harmonica, and the signing girlfriend. Covering such a broad overview, Dylan shows all the budding facets of his art up to this time, from the protest songs (including ones that never made the studio records), the more introspective material, and the radical new direction Dylan was pursuing with the three songs from the unreleased (and unrecorded, for that mater) fifth album, BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME. He proves him a very masterful solo performer. If you like Joan Baez, you greatly enjoy the four songs she performs. If you don't like Baez, this won't win you over.

This 1964 concert, the first all acoustic performance (barring MTV UNPLUGGED, which also has a band) to enter Bob Dylan's discography, captures Dylan at a peak period as he was making a transitional move into rock and roll. Historically significant, funny, and overall Dylan, this installment of the Bootleg Series show a new side of early Dylan, and as VoodooLord7 points out, quite a contrast from the 1966 Manchester concert. What is so startling about this concert is how Dylan comes across as giddy, young, and, overall, a Minnesota boy just honoured to be playing at such a distinguished venue. When introducing the then unreleased "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding," he prefaces the song with the comment that it is very funny. On "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met)," he forgets the first verse, asking the audience if they knew it. The rest of the album shows Dylan in this 'aw, shucks' mode, but he gives the audience a wide variety of songs to chew on, showing them that even though he's giddy and young, he's a songwriter the likes of which they've never seen.

Compare this document to the cynical, aloof Dylan just a few months later. This was before the 1965 Newport show where Dylan brought out the electric band totally broke with the folk scene in general. (Who'd like to see a Bootleg installment of the Newport show???) The general atmosphere totally changed after the Newport show; afterwards Dylan was cynical, confrontational, cutting edge, and 'hip.' He's not angry. He doesn't have anything to prove. Dylan just wants to give a good show, and he wants to have a good time. After this, he played rock and roll, the likes of which had never been heard before, and forever changed popular music as we know it. The music went in directions, especially lyrically, that totally broke with all songwriting and pop traditions. VOL 6 captures Dylan just before this, and that's what makes it so endearing and so historically important. Nowhere on VOL 6 is there an equivalent to that legendary accusation "Judas!" on VOL 4. Dylan's not at war with the folk community who wanted to make him their own personal musical saviour. Instead, he was following his muse and this audience went with it.

What makes BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 6 so special is it gives us the opportunity to listen to Dylan before he made the permanent transition to rock. We can listen to Dylan play with the audience while giving a first rate performance. Those who were in-tune with Dylan this night, though, would surely know Dylan was moving far and away from the folk movement. Dylan showed an unparalleled depth of writing on ANOTHER SIDE, deep, introspective, and far and away from the protest songwriting that had dominated his second and third album. What really must have blown their minds were the new songs ("Mr. Tambourine Man," "It's Alright Ma," and "Gates of Eden) that Dylan had only previously played a very few times. Filled with phantasmagorical, symbolist imagery, the words floated into your head and showed Dylan was opening up all sorts of new avenues for music, with a much bigger agenda that just being a protest singer, a la Phil Ochs. Dylan proved himself going deeper and deeper into a surrealistic, unprecedented, and never equaled period of songwriting that would become some of the most important songs in all of rock and roll. For those fortunate enough to be there, this would be one show you couldn't afford to miss. This was history in the making.

In the end, an essential addition to Dylan's canon, and for those interested in following the progression of the twentieth century's most important song writer, a must-have purchase. For those who love his all acoustic sound of the early 1960s, this will rival the studio albums themselves. With stunning production, a crisp, clean sound, and such an important snapshot of Dylan's early career, BOOTLEG SERIES VOL 6 will stay in your CD player for the foreseeable future. Highly recommended for the Dylan afficionado.

Who Needs Electricity?
You would've thought that, as Volume 6, of this Bootleg series both thequality and the relevance of the recordings would begin to wane. Not sohere - this is the best.
The simplicity of the arrangement - Dylan, guitar, harmonica and JoanBaez- lets the meaning of the lyrics shine through (even though heoccasionally feigns to his receptive audience that he's forgotten verses)."A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" for example floats meditatively around theauditorium and provides a sharp contrast to the rocking cover on the 1974Bootleg.
Yet it is his innocence that is endearing. He giggles nervously to himselfand his vocal delivery just has the faintest whiff of the sneery cynicismthat was to jaundice his live performances a few years later (so evidenton the 1966 Bootleg).
The ultimate test of singer/ singwriter credibility is to stand in frontof an audience with just a guitar and harmonica as backing. This double CDis not just the finest example of an artist passing this test, but it alsosets the live standard that has not been surpassed by anyone for anamazing four decades...no, not even the man himself.
An absolute must for completists and an intriguing starting point forthose interested in accoustic performance.

Don't Think Twice Just Buy It
Nothing written by myself or anyone else can conjure the significance of this recording. This wasn't just any crossroads in a singer's career - this was the major musical junction of the 1960s. The reverberations continue to be felt even now, as the current wave of guitar-driven solo artists try to ignite both imagination and conscience in their listener. But the truth is that no one has ever bettered the young, skinny genius you find here in this music. Never has a singer managed to be so simultaneously witty, beguiling, caustic, desolate, vengeful and ultimately redemptive. He was and is the great genius of his time, and I urge you to stop what you are doing and buy this album, and if you don't have them, all the others.