The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964 is a compilation album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, containing demo recordings he made for his first two publishing companies, Leeds Music and M. Witmark & Sons, from 1962 to 1964. The seventh installment of the ongoing Bob Dylan Bootleg Series, it was released on October 19, 2010 on Legacy Records.[1]
| The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964 | ||||
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| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | October 19, 2010 | |||
| Recorded | 1962–1964 | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Length | 138:28 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
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| Bob Dylan chronology | ||||
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| Bob Dylan Bootleg Series chronology | ||||
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It features 47 tracks with Dylan accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, harmonica and occasionally piano. The recordings were only available on pirate recordings until 1991; three of these recordings appeared on the first volume of the series. A fourth demo of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" was included on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack. While Dylan recorded subsequent versions of most of the songs, the album features 15 that were produced exclusively as demos and had never been heard before except as bootlegs.[2][3]
The Witmark Demos was released in two formats: the standard two-disc set common to the rest of the series; and a four album set. Both releases featured a booklet with an account on the album's significance by historian Colin Escott, along with photos of Dylan from the period when the demos were recorded. The album peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in its first week, becoming Dylan's 20th album to debut in the top 20.[4]
Background
editLeeds Music demos
editDylan recorded his debut album, Bob Dylan, for Columbia Records in November 1961, when he was 20.[5] The album included two original tracks, "Song to Woody" and "Talkin' New York", the first songs he had written after arriving in New York City's Greenwich Village in January 1961.[6][7] In addition, Dylan recorded one other original during the Columbia sessions, "Man on the Street", which did not appear on the album.[8][9]
Based on the songs Dylan was writing, his producer at Columbia, John Hammond, arranged for the young artist to meet with Lou Levy at Leeds Music Publishing.[10][11] Dylan was offered a $100 advance ($1,042 in 2024) and signed with a Leeds subsidiary, Duchess Music, on January 5, 1962.[12][13] In addition to agreeing to publish Dylan's songs and pay royalties on sales by other artists, Levy suggested the possibility of producing a songbook once they had enough material, a prospect that excited Dylan as much as anything else.[14] Dylan returned to Leeds the next week and recorded five songs in one demo session: "Poor Boy Blues", "Ballad for a Friend", "Rambling, Gambling Willie", "Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues", and "Standing on the Highway".[15][16] To this he added the two songs from the Columbia sessions that were not used on his album.[17] After signing with Leeds, Dylan pursued songwriting with a new vigor. As he reflected later, "I wrote wherever I happened to be. Sometimes I'd spend a whole day sitting at a corner table in a coffeehouse, just writing whatever came into my head."[11][18]
M. Witmark & Sons demos
editIn the spring of 1962, folk music manager Albert Grossman began to take an active interest in Dylan. One of the organizers of the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959 and manager of a small stable of folksingers, Grossman had recently launched a new act composed of three musicians he had handpicked, Peter, Paul & Mary.[19][20] Grossman had been watching Dylan from the sidelines for nearly a year and played a peripheral part in some of the events leading up to his contract with Columbia.[21][22][23] While Grossman was negotiating Peter, Paul & Mary's contract with Warner Bros. Records, he closed a unique arrangement with Music Publishers' Holding Company (MPHC), a Warner-owned operation that was the industry's leading publisher. The deal, finalized that spring, gave Grossman half of MPHC's royalties share for any artist he could sign to a publishing contract. Dylan became his first prospect.[24][25][26]
Grossman proposed that Dylan sign with the prestigious publisher M. Witmark & Sons, one of MPHC's eight subsidiaries.[27] After playing some songs for Witmark executive Artie Mogull, Dylan mentioned a complication: he was already under contract with Leeds/Duchess.[28] Dylan was given $1,000 in early July 1962 ($10,423.72 in 2024) and approached Leeds about buying out his contract. Since the folksinger had yet to produce any sales, Leeds accepted the money and released Dylan from the agreement.[27][29] Dylan signed a new contract with Witmark on July 12 and immediately recorded a demo of what would become his breakthrough song, "Blowin' in the Wind".[27] Four months passed before Dylan returned to record another song, "Ye Playboys and Playgirls", but the next month, in December, he showed up with seven new compositions, including three that would become classics: "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", "Ballad of Hollis Brown", and "Tomorrow Is a Long Time".[30]
In all, Dylan visited Witmark about a dozen times, registering his last demos in mid-1964. He recorded a total of 39 songs for Witmark, all of which are included on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos, along with the eight recordings originally registered with Leeds.[31][32][33] Besides early versions of many of his classics, as well as rarities that have appeared on other editions of The Bootleg Series, the set includes 15 songs, an album's worth of material, that had never been officially released in any form.[2][34]
Production
editThe recordings for the Leeds and Witmark demos were never intended for public consumption, but were made to sell Dylan's songs to other artists.[35][36] The demo sessions took place in a tiny 6-by-8-foot studio at Witmark's offices in the Look Building at 51st Street and Madison Avenue, where an engineer would capture the performances on a reel-to-reel. To save tape, the demos were recorded at 7.5 inches per second, half the speed used in professional studios. A Witmark copyist would then transcribe the lyrics and music from the tape, and song sheets would be printed and mailed to recording companies. When a company's artist expressed an interest in a song, Witmark would cut an acetate, a recording on inexpensive plastic, that would be sent to the artist for preview purposes. If acceptable, the song would be recorded.[29][37]
Royalties
editRoyalties from sales of the songs were paid to Witmark, which gave Dylan two cents per record and split its two-cent share with Grossman. In addition, Grossman received 25% of Dylan's payments under the terms of their management contract, which was signed on August 20, 1962, six weeks after the Witmark agreement.[27][29][38] Dylan and Grossman subsequently set up their own publishing company, Dwarf Music, in a contract signed in mid-1965 but back-dated to January of that year[39] By late 1965, more than a year after the last of the Witmark demos, Music Publishers' Holding Company reported in Billboard that at least 237 recordings had been made of Dylan's songs under the copyrights it held.[40]
Demo session dates
editWhile the recording dates of the Leeds and Witmark Demos had previously been published, they were not included in the information distributed with the CD or LP. On disc 1, tracks 1–8 are from the demos recorded at Leeds Music on 2 February 1962. Track 9, a demo of "Blowin' in the Wind" and the first song recorded for Witmark is from July 1962. Track 10 was recorded on 1 November 1962, followed by tracks 11–17, which were recorded in December 1962. Tracks 18–22 were registered as recorded in winter 1963, probably February. Tracks 23–25 of disc 1 and tracks 1–2 of disc 2 were recorded in March 1963. Tracks 3–6 date from April 1963, 7–9 from May 1963, and 10–15 were all recorded in August 1963. Track 16, "The Times They Are a-Changin'", was recorded in October 1963, and Track 17 is from December 1963. Tracks 18–19 were the last demos recorded at the Witmark studio, in January 1964. Tracks 20–22 were registered to Witmark in June 1964, though they had been recorded elsewhere.[41]
Critical reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [42] |
| The Guardian |  [43] |
| Mojo | [44] |
| Pitchfork Media | 9.1/10[45] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes |   [46] |
| Uncut | [47] |
Witmark Demos received positive responses from critics. It achieved an 86% positive ("Universal acclaim") at Metacritic based on reviews by 8 critics.[48] AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said about the songs on Witmark Demos: "they’ve never been presented as completely and in as great fidelity as they are on this two-disc set."[49]
Track listing
editAll songs were written by Bob Dylan, except where noted.
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Limited Edition bonus disc: In Concert – Brandeis University 1963
editThe In Concert – Brandeis University 1963 disc was given as a limited edition bonus with purchases of Bootleg Series Vol. 9 or Original Mono Recordings at a variety of retailers.
Charts
edit| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Billboard 200[4] | 12 |
| Australian Albums Chart[50] | 36 |
| European Albums Chart[51] | 13 |
| German Albums Chart[52] | 24 |
| UK Albums Chart[53] | 18 |
Footnotes
edit- ^ "The Bootleg Series Volume 9—The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964". Bob Dylan.com. Archived from the original on October 18, 2010. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
- ^ a b Corbett, Ben (October 22, 2010). "Album Reviews: Bob Dylan, Bootleg Series Vol. 9, The Witmark Demos 1962-1964 and The Complete Mono Recordings". Crawdaddy. Archived from the original on December 25, 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
- ^ Love, Joshua (November 5, 2010). "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^ a b Billboard 200, 24 October 2010
- ^ Dylan was born May 24, 1941 (Gray 2006, p. 192).
- ^ Sounes 2001, pp. 80, 94
- ^ Gray 2006, p. 70
- ^ Bauldie 1991
- ^ Bjorner 2010
- ^ Dylan, Chronicles: Volume One, pp. 288-291
- ^ a b Sounes 2001, pp. 109–110
- ^ Heylin 2003, pp. 94–95
- ^ Escott 2010, p. 19
- ^ Sounes 2001, p. 110
- ^ Heylin 2003, pp. 88–89
- ^ Escott 2010, p. 20
- ^ Olof, "The Yearly Chronicles", 1961
- ^ Heylin 2003, pp. 89–92
- ^ Sounes 2001, p. 117
- ^ Gray 2006, pp. 283–284
- ^ Scaduto 1973, pp. 126–127
- ^ Sounes 2001, pp. 102–107
- ^ Hajdu 2001, pp. 95–96, 102
- ^ Heylin 2003, p. 94
- ^ Sounes 2001, pp. 117–119
- ^ Gross, Mike (March 20, 1965). MPHC Grossing $1 Million Year in Its Folk Operation. Billboard. Retrieved 2010-11-18.
- ^ a b c d Sounes 2001, pp. 118–119
- ^ Escott 2010, pp. 32–35
- ^ a b c Heylin 2003, p. 95
- ^ Heylin 1997, p. 19
- ^ Bjorner, Still on the Road, Witmark Demos, 1961-1964
- ^ Heylin 1997, pp. 19–29
- ^ Escott 2010, p. 55
- ^ Goodman, Dean (2010-08-25). "Early Bob Dylan demos released in new 'Bootleg' set". Reuters. Retrieved 2011-02-24.
- ^ Fleming, Colin (October 2010). "How Bob Dylan Sounded Before He Was a Star". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
- ^ Escott 2010, p. 53
- ^ Escott 2010, pp. 40–43
- ^ Gray 2006, p. 284
- ^ Sounes 2001, pp. 209–210
- ^ Dylan in Pub Field; Artie Mogull Mgr. Billboard. November 20, 1965. p. 12. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
mogull dylan.
- ^ Bjorner, Still on the Road, 1962-64
- ^ AllMusic review
- ^ Maddy Costa (2010-10-14). "The Guardian review". Guardian. London. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
- ^ Cameron, Keith (November 2010). "Forever young: Bob Dylan The Bootleg Series No. 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964". Mojo. p. 122.
- ^ "Pitchfork Media review". Pitchfork.com. 2010-11-05. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
- ^ "Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964". Tiny Mix Tapes. November 1, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
- ^ Torn, Luke (November 2010). "Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964". Uncut. No. 162. p. 107.
- ^ "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964". Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2010-11-28.
- ^ Australian Album Charts, 14-November-2010
- ^ "Billboard - Music Charts, News, Photos & Video". Billboard.
- ^ "Music Albums, Top 200 Albums & Music Album Charts". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
- ^ Official UK Top 40 Albums Chart, 24 October 2010 Archived 3 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
References
edit- Bauldie, John (1991). The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 (CD booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records.
- Bjorner, Olof. "The Yearly Chronicles, 1961-64".
- Bjorner, Olof. "Still on the Road: Recording sessions & concerts, 1961-64".
- Bjorner, Olof (2010-11-17). "Studio A Columbia Recording Studios New York City, New York 20 & 22 November 1961". Bjorner.com. Retrieved 2011-01-25.
- Escott, Colin (2010). The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964 (booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records.
- Gray, Michael (2006). The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. Continuum International Publishing. ISBN 0-8264-6933-7.
- Hajdu, David (2001). Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina. North Point Press. ISBN 0-86547-642-X.
- Heylin, Clinton (2003). Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited. Harper Entertainment. ISBN 0-06-052569-X.
- Heylin, Clinton (1997). Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960-1994. Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-15067-9.
- Scaduto, Anthony (1973) [1971]. Dylan: An Intimate Biography. Signet: New American Library.
- Shelton, Robert (2003) [1986]. No Direction Home. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81287-8.
- Sounes, Howard (2001). Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-1686-8.
External links
edit- BobDylan.com – Official web site, including lyrics and touring schedule.
- Bob Dylan's Witmark Demos – Documentary trailer by Jennifer Lebeau for the release of The Witmark Demos CD.
- Leeds Demos and Witmark Demos – Bringing It All Back Home Page, web site with information on bootlegs of Bob Dylan's songs.