Dylan obscuranti: the new album

By Tony Attwood

As we all know Bob has sold his music catalogue for vast amounts of money.  He obviously knows that when his time finally comes, and he passes away to wherever it is that people pass away to, if anywhere, there will be an incredible upsurge of interest in his music.

It will be wall-to-wall Dylan, with people who know little about his music quickly putting together reviews of his life, tributes, and the rest, most of which will leave anyone who has ever bothered to study his music, running for cover while the lawyers have a field day tracking down unlicensed recordings.

I doubt that Bob wants to give his descendants all the hassle of dealing with that.  The copyright arguments, the fake recordings, the bootlegged bootlegs, the disagreements about use in advertising.  He wants them to have a quiet and peaceful life, sharing his millions.

And thinking of this, led me in a new direction.  Because out of the 622 songs that we have noted on this site that Bob wrote or co-wrote, there are some real gems that that could be brought back to life, possibly as an album called “Untold Dylan”.  Which raises some more thoughts.

Because for a start there is no point in putting songs on an album which are unknown, but which are unknown because they don’t actually go anywhere.  Bob has of course written a multiplicity of masterpieces which he then abandoned, but he has also written some songs that he dropped after one run through – and quite probably most of us would agree that in some cases this was a wise decision.

So for the Untold Dylan album, we need songs that are really exciting, but which only aficionados will know about.   In fact we could see this as our sacred duty.  To give the world an album of Dylan songs that they the world has missed, (largely because the world wasn’t paying attention at the time, what with being concerned with wars, football games and stuff like that).

And indeed we have already created some albums on the Untold Dylan You Tube Channel.   So a quick bit of checking with Aaron who is our You Tube Master (on the basis that in the old days we used to have WebMasters – so unless there is another name for people who create You Tube series Aaron is a YouTube master) I find he is willing to go with this.

And yes we have created the “Play Lady Play” series, the “Sheep in Wolves Clothing” album, the  “Dylan 1980” album (that was my contribution – I’m probably the only person who plays that album but I really do love it), and the “Once only file”.

So I’ve convinced myself: it is time to build a new album, “Untold Dylan”.  The great Dylan songs that the average punter who likes Dylan but is not really aware of the history will never have heard of.  The one condition is that they have to be available on YouTube.

I’ve checked with Aaron, who lives a mere 6000 miles away from me, and he says he’s ok to do some more You Tube creating, so Untold Dylan, the album, is on the way.

Songs composed by Dylan, which are comparatively unknown, and for which a great recording is available on You Tube.  The recording might be by Dylan, but doesn’t have to be.

If you want to make some suggestions, please do.   But meanwhile here is my first suggestion.  And for this I have to thank Jochen, who first pointed out the existence of this recording.

Untold Dylan: Track 1.  Angelina by Ashley Hutchings MBE

 

 

Untold Dylan

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