Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks - Columbia Records Reference Acetate - 1974 - Unreleased Original Version

Here is one of only 3 known acetates of the original version of Bob Dylan’s 1975 masterpiece Blood on the Tracks.  Dylan originally recorded the album at A&R Studios in New York City in September 1974. When he played his brother an acetate of the record, David Zimmerman thought Bob could do better and urged him to rerecord some of the songs.  In December, Dylan went back into the studio, this time, Studio 80 in Minneapolis, with musicians recruited by his brother.  The released version of Blood on the Tracks mixed five songs from the New York sessions with five recorded in Minneapolis.

This is an extremely rare acetate of the original (and unreleased) version of Blood on the Tracks, with only versions of the songs from the New York sessions.  The versions of “Tangled Up In Blue”, “You’re A Big Girl Now”, “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts”, “Idiot Wind”, and “If You See Her Say Hello” all differ dramatically from the final, released versions (and there are some alternate lyrics).

In the 42 years since the album’s release, only three acetates of the original version have emerged, with perhaps four or five more test pressings. An extremely rare Dylan collectible.

Joseph Spence - Happy All The Time - Elektra Records - 1964 - 1st Pressing LP

Joseph Spence’s ultra rare Elektra album “Happy All The Time.” This 1964 album of folk/blues guitar with vocals by the legendary Spence was recorded in Nassau, Bahamas by Paul Rothschild and Fritz Richmond of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band.  Its reputation has grown over they years, with Spence’s unique playing acclaimed by guitarists from Ry Cooder to Henry Kaiser. One of the rarest albums on the Elektra label.

Bob Dylan - 4 Dylan Owned Unreleased Acetates Ball and Stripe Rag AKA Little Sadie - 1970

A 10” acetate of an unreleased, alternate version of Bob Dylan’s “In Search of Little Sadie”
(titled here  “Ball & Stripe Rag”) from his 1970 album Self Portrait. This acetate was previously owned by Dylan and used during the making of that album. The version is just voice and guitar; it was completely unreleased until a different mix of it appeared on The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971).

This acetate was part of a collection of Dylan acetates discovered this year in a five story brownstone at 124 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village. From approximately 1969 through 1972, Dylan rented the ground  floor of the building for use as a studio (at the time, he lived two blocks away at 94 McDougal St.). When the owner of the building died in January 2014, her executor found the acetates in two boxes labeled “Old Records,” in a a loft closet above the bedroom. The discovery of these acetates received extensive media coverage in publications including The New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Rolling Stone, and Billboard.

The Houston, St. Studios acetates originally belonged to Bob Dylan, who either discarded them or left them when he moved out of the building in the early 1970’s. For more than 40 years, they were carefully stored by the building’s owner, and only discovered by chance by before the building was put up for sale earlier this year. 

Article courtesy of Rolling Stone Magazine.

Article courtesy of The New York Times

THER OLDEST PROFESSION - SAME - MIDAS - RARE UK FOLK - 1972