BOB DYLAN : AS GOOD AS IT GETS - THE ULTIMATE EMMETT GROGAN ACETATES

 

Disc One (74:23)

  1. I Don't Believe You
  2. Chimes Of Freedom
  3. Motorpsycho Nitemare
  4. Mr. Tambourine Man
  5. All I Really Wanna Do
  6. Black Crow Blues
  7. I Shall Be Free #10
  8. All I Really Wanna Do
  9. Denise
  10. California
  11. Bob Dylan's New Orleans Rag (pt 1)
  12. East Laredo Blues
  13. That's Alright Mama / Sally Free And Easy
  14. Bob Dylan's New Orleans Rag (pt 2)
  15. Hero blues
  16. Tombstone Blues
  17. From A buick 6
  18. Positively 4th Street

Disc Two (59:09)

  1. Queen Jane Approximately
  2. Positively 4th Street
  3. Desolation Row
  4. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
  5. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, it takes a train to cry
  6. Highway 61 Revisited
  7. Tombstone Blues
  8. From A Buick 6
  9. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window
  10. Queen Jane Approximately
  11. Ballad Of A Thin Man
  12. Positively 4th Street

Label : Diamonds In Your Ear

Venue : Columbia Records Studio A, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Date : 1963 - 1965

Quality : Studio recordings (A+)

Review (Bob's Boots) : A good idea (to compile Grogan tracks), along with a great sound, make this set indispensable. The first 8 tracks on disc one are Grogan acetates. Truly as good as it gets. Highway 61 outtakes on CD 2 make for a perfect companion disc. The wealth of historical and venue information presented on the inserts is nearly unprecedented in the world of boots. The front photo is suggestive of the "Lonely Graveyard of My Mind", but those words were yet to be penned at the time of this release. Could be "Tombstone Blues", or it could have been as a friend of mine once said of his release: "It doesn't mean anything. I had this great looking photo, so I just had to put it on the front cover".

Review (Guitars101) : Here's another one which was requested. It comes directly from my silvers. I bought them back in the early nineties and always loved the pristine sound of (especially) the Highway61 material. For detailed information: As Good As It Gets - BobsBoots - Bootleg CD Unfortunately, this 'detailed' information has the same mistakes that were made on the cover: For disc1, 17 tracks are listed -- on my disc I found 18, and they are different towards the end. Track16 is not 'Hero Blues', but 'Tombstone Blues', tr.17 is an additional 'From A Buick 6', and tr18 is Positively 4th Street. In the liner notes, you can read about "the first ten songs" being "recorded on June 9, 1964" which is obvious nonsense, because tr. 8 is the live version ("...he's yours!") from Newport Folkfestival (7-26-64) and 'California' dates back to August 12, 1963. As for the others, they were at least played at that date. About tr11-15: "...they were recorded August or October 63 w/ Bob Dylan on piano". According to Heylin, 'Hero Blues' was (re-)recorded on August 12, 'East Laredo Blues', 'That's Allright Mama', and 'Sally Free And Easy' were played on October 23. Olof confirms the latter. 'Hero Blues' was recorded on several different dates from May 63 onwards (8-12 is most probably correct). Tr16-18 see below. And onwards with disc 2: We find 14 tracks listed on the cover, but on the disc are 12. The first two, 'Tombstone' (CO 86838) and 'Lunatic Princess' (CO 86843), later to be called 'From A Buick 6', are apparently added to disc1 as track 16 and 17. So d2 starts with 'Queen Jane' (CO 86848), 8-2-1965. Tr2 is listed as 'Black Dally Rue' (CO 86840), which is "the working title" for what should become 'Positively 4th Street', recorded 6-29-65. Dylanbase states, that this is a cut of same version as d1tr18. But whereas d1tr18 is a crystal clear (and somewhat boosted) stereo, d2tr2 is a rather 'authentic' mono recording. To my ears, the voice-track is the same, but it's hard to decide for the instruments... Aside from this incoherent and unprecise information, this boot has always meant a great listening pleasure to me, especially disc 2. I think that most of the material can be found elsewhere, more complete and better documented, but in my humble opinion it was a labour of love back then in 1993. So, enjoy!