Talkin’ About My Revolutions

BOB DYLAN
The Great White Wonder [A Philip Cohen Reconstruction; 2CD]
Outtakes and rarities. Generally very good soundboard.

This July 1969 two-LP set is where rock bootlegging began. The album got its name because many of the early pressings had a plain white album cover (not unlike The Beatles’ “White Album”), in some cases with the words “Great White Wonder” rubber stamped on the cover (though my copy was a plain white, not stamped).

I have re-created this 24-track double album, taking 20 tracks from tape-derived CD sources, one track from an MP3 download, and three others from my original vinyl edition. The album was dominated by material from the 1961 “Minnesota Hotel” or “Minnesota Apartment” tapes and material from the 1967 “Basement Tapes” with a small amount of mid-1960s CBS vault material. - Philip Cohen

Thanks to Phil for the fine effort in re-constructing this piece of rock history and for sharing the tracks.

Disc 1:
Track 101. Candy Man (from the CD “Songs For Bonnie”)
Track 102. Ramblin’ Round (from the CD “Songs For Bonnie”)
Track 103. Black Cross (aka “Hezikiah Jones”; taken from the 3-CD set “The Genuine Bootleg Series”. This source is superior to the one on “Songs For Bonnie”)
Track 104. Ain’t Got No Home (from the CD “Songs For Bonnie”)
Track 105. The Death of Emmitt Till (Taken from an MP3 download. I did not have a CD source for this specific take and, unfortunately, I could not use my original vinyl set as a source, due to two large paper fragments embedded in the vinyl of my “Side 1 a d 2” record, which would have caused prolonged, loud repetitive noise when playing this song. While this performance was from a 1962 radio broadcast, it is not from “Folksinger’s Choice”, despite a somewhat similar spoken introduction)
Track 106. Poor Lazarus (from the CD “Songs For Bonnie”)
Track 107. New Orleans Rag (breakdown take; from the CD “Strip Tease”)
Track 108. If You Gotta Go, Go Now (from the CD “Thin Wild Mercury Music”. Note that this has the short intro without harmonica. Columbia’s later official mix on “The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3” has a longer intro with harmonica. I have used the correct, bootleg mix, as on the GWW vinyl set)
109. Only A Hobo (Omitted; from Columbia 3-CD set “The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3)
110. Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence (Omitted; from Columbia 3-CD set “The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3)
Track 111. The Mighty Quinn (taken from “The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol. 2”. This has the extended introduction that is not on the official release. This mix is very unbalanced, with almost everything on the left channel, excepting a few Garth Hudson organ notes.)
Track 112. This Wheel’s on Fire (from the CD “The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol. 3”. This track illustrates why I didn’t use any of the mixes from the official “Basement Tapes” set. The official release of “This Wheel’s on Fire” has a very prominent overdubbed acoustic lead guitar added in the 1970s.)
Bonus Track:
Track 113. New Orleans Rag (complete version)
The compilers of “Great White Wonder” only had access to a breakdown take of this song and, for authenticity, I had to use that take as “track 7”, but as a bonus, I added a completed master take, taken from the 3-CD set “The Genuine Bootleg Series”.

Disc 2:
Track 201. Baby Please Don’t Go (from the CD “Songs For Bonnie”)
Track 202. Interview By Pete Seeger (dubbed from my original “Great White Wonder” vinyl set)
Track 203. Dink’s Song (from the CD “Songs For Bonnie”)
Track 204. See That My Grave is Kept Clean( from the CD “Songs For Bonnie”)
Track 205. East Orange, New Jersey (dubbed from my original “Great White Wonder” vinyl set)
Track 206. Man of Constant Sorrow (from the CD “Songs For Bonnie”)
207. I Shall Be Released (Omitted; from the Columbia 3-CD set “The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3)
Track 208. Open The Door Homer (Take 1; from the CD “The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol. 2) Yes, this is the correct title, even though the character in the song is named “Richard”.
Track 209. Too Much of Nothing (Take 2; from the 3-CD set “The Genuine Bootleg series Vol. 3”)
Track 210. Nothing Was Delivered (Take 2; from the CD “The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol. 2”)
Track 211. Tears of Rage (Take 1; from the CD “The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol. 2)
Track 212. Living The Blues (dubbed from my original “Great White Wonder” vinyl set)

Phil notes: Don’t believe everything that you read on the Wikipedia. They stated that “Great White Wonder” used “Nothing Was Delivered”(Take 1) and “Tears Of Rage” (Take 2). The opposite is correct. I verified this by closely comparing to my original vinyl set.

Click here for the tracks.

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