« Back to Top Level | Bob Dylan (Fake)

Bob Dylan (Fake) - Pittsburgh Radio Tape

Track listing:
  1. Hard Time Blues 1:46
  2. Jack O’diamonds 1:53
  3. Hard Travelin’ 0:36
  4. Snakeskin Boots 1:01
  5. Twenty Years On The Road 1:53
  6. Stuck Inside The Twilight Zone 0:56
  7. Death Letter Blues 1:01
  8. Mr Ragamuffin Man 1:52

Notes


This is the 'Pittsburgh Radio Tape', thus called because it is said to have been broadcasted in 1967 by a Pittsburgh radio station.
Paul Cable lists it in his book "Bob Dylan - His Unreleased Recordings" as being a 99,9% put-on; Alan Frazer in "Searching For A Gem" calls it a hoax:
http://www.searchingforagem.com/Starlight/BobUnrelD.htm (see Death Letter Blues)

If so, one must recognize its quality :
Supposed to have been recorded in Aug 62 in NYC, at Gil Turner’s Home, the voice is perfect, as are the guitar playing, the sound quality -quite similar to what is to be expected (that is: not good but very listenable)-, and even the fluttering of the tape in the last songs, as if the batteries were slowly dying...

And what if it was not a fake ?
"I Can't Think For You, You'll Have to Decide..."

Anyway, this deserves room in a Dylan collection...

I slowed it down a bit (pitch -1,60800) as the original was running really fast, but made no other changes whatsoever.