Original Mono Recordings is unique opportunity to own the original Dylan recordings as we heard them
By Stephen Pate – The release of Bob Dylan’s The Original Mono Recordings
Featured image Bob Dylan by Jerry Schatzberg
There is no new material in these re-issued compared say with official bootlegs such as Tell Tale Signs, Basement Tapes or The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991.
However, if you don’t have or never had the first Dylan recordings this set is priceless.
I have listened to all nine CDs and compared them with the original vinyl and the SACD releases to compare the differences, which is why it took weeks to prepare the review. You only only listen to so much Dylan in a given day.
What you get in the package
Bob Dylan The Original Mono Recording, cute packaging with tiny print
The release of Bob Dylan’s first 8 LPs includes: 9 CDs, a free digital download, booklet by Greil Marcus, bonus CD of Dylan’s 1963 Brandeis University concert, in a hardboard slip case.
The cases are miniature versions of the original LP covers. That’s cute but you can’t hold them in your hand and read the liner notes and ponder over the Dylan cover art, so its less interesting than owning the The Original Mono Recordings in Vinyl
On the SACD release, the covers are three folds that allow the liner notes to be legibly printed or include a booklet.
Compared with holding the original albums in your hand while listening, this set is low on creating 60s nostalgia.
The Original Mono Recordings (Amazon.com Exclusive Bonus Edition)
The booklet with pictures and notes by Greil Marcus is another exercise on miniaturization and perhaps the only reason to purchase the The Original Mono Recordings (Vinyl) at a $205. Of course, collectors will want to own the vinyl. They do appreciate in value as they go out of print.
Free Digital Download
The digital download in high quality 320 Kpbs mp3 format was a bonus if the set was ordered directly from Sony. I didn’t expect to get this from Amazon.com.
The download comes compressed in an 890 MB file which easily extracted in one sub-directory. It was simple work to make 8 sub-directories for each LP and move the files.
In reality, Windows Media Player or a variety of programs can make mp3s or WAV rips of the CDs once you own them, which is legal in Canada.
Why Mono?
So what’s the big deal about “Original Mono” versions? Are they better, more like the original?
Greil Marcus waxes eloquent about listening to Bob Dylan through one speaker up in our bedrooms back in the 1960s, in the accompanying booklet to this package.
It is true that most people heard Bob Dylan in mono back in the 1960s.
In reality, from Bob Dylan to Another Side of Bob Dylan are mono – the man and his guitar.
From Bringing it All Back Home – the break out rock and roll album – to John Wesley Harding the CDs should be listened to in stereo. The Mono versions squeeze the instruments into one speaker which destroys definition according to some critics.
The Sound
When people rave on about the great sound that was recorded in the 1960s get them to give their heads a collective shake. The recording back then was primitive with tape noise, lack of detail and distortion.
The Original Mono recordings can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. If you listen closely to Bringing It All Back Home there is plenty of 1960s distortion.
The Original Mono are not as clear as the SACD Bob Dylan – Limited Edition Catalog Box Set
Bob Dylan’s first 8 albums
There are millions of Dylan fans who don’t have the originals for whom this collection will be a revelation. Since I’ve been following Dylan since he hit the folk scene 1961, these albums are old friends.
From Bob Dylan to John Wesley Harding is a span of 5 years in which Bob Dylan changed folk music and rock and roll with the prodigious output of 83 songs composed and recorded. Most of the songs are classics such as “Blowin in the Wind”, “Like A Rolling Stone”, “All Along The Watchtower,” Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right. These are songs that have been covered by everyone and become part of our lives.
Bob Dylan songs were meant to be sung by everyone, and everyone has obliged Dylan. They are songs of protest, of love, love gone wrong, get even songs and have a good time songs. They are simple and complex, weird lyrics that spin off into infinity and lyrics grounded in the feeling of seeing someone you love coming along the beach.
After Bob Dylan, singers had to get busy and write their own songs. Many tried to follow his lead but few made the transition from corny tin-pan-alley to the hip world. John Prine is one who emulated Dylan and succeeded.
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