April is Record Store Day so for this years fantasy release, I have delved once more into the vault of Dylan recordings for this one. This is an alternative version of his 1975 album, ’Blood On The Tracks’. Now, we have already had an alternative version of this album released back in 2019. That was the first official release on vinyl of the original version of the LP. Dylan had recorded the first version of ‘Blood On The Tracks’ in late 1974, and had cut an acetate to play to family and friends. One of those he played the acetate to was his brother David Zimmerman who persuaded Dylan not to release the album in its current state as the sound was too stark to sell. Dylan went back into the studio and re-recorded five of the album tracks with a backing band, This is the version of ‘Blood On The Tracks’ that most people knew.
The sessions for the album were at a time when Dylan’s personal life was going through a period of turmoil. His marriage to his first wife, Sara, was beginning to disintegrate. Some have said that the songs on this album chronicle that break up, but Dylan himself has said that the songs were inspired by the works of Anton Chekov.
Pre-production of the album started with guitar player Mike Bloomfield, who had played with Dylan during the ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ sessions. Bloomfield found it hard to keep up with Dylan as he was playing too fast. Bloomfield also said he had trouble learning them as to his ears, they all sounded the same. All the songs were long, in the same key and so Bloomfield left the project.
The recording sessions started in September of 1974 with Eric Weissberg and his band Deliverance recruited to provide the backing. They also struggled with the pace in which Dylan was playing so they too left the project. Retaining the bass player from Deliverance as well as recruiting an organ and steel guitar player, Dylan had his album ready to be released on the aforementioned acetate. The album was initially released to mixed reviews by in the years since, but has been seen as one of Dylan’s best albums.
So, we have the original album that was released in 1975. We have the acetate version that received an official release in its original form in 2019. So what is this version I present here? This is built around the myriad of song versions that were released in 2018 on Volume 14 of the Bootleg Series, which was called ‘More Blood, More Tracks’. This release shows Dylan working his way through the songs, working out what the arrangements and accompaniment should be. What I looked to do here was try to make the album a purely acoustic affair, harking back to the Dylan of the early 1960’s.
The album is this state is a lot stalker than the one we got, with sparse arrangements and little in the way of other musicians playing along with him. As this is a fantasy Record Star Day release, I also included a couple of songs that were recorded during the sessions but not included on the original acetate or album. These are ‘Call Letter Blues’, which is the only song on this release to have a full band. The other is ‘Up To Me’.
Side A
- Tangled Up In Blue (Take 3, Remaster)
- Simple Twist Of Fate (Take 1)
- You’re A Big Girl Now (Take 1)
- Idiot Wind (Take 1)
- You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 2, Remake 2)
Side B
- Meet Me In The Morning (Take 2, Remake)
- Lily, Rosemary & The Jack of Hearts (Take 2)
- If You See Her, Say Hello (Take 2)
- Shelter From the Storm (Take 2)
- Buckets Of Rain (Take 2)
Bonus Single
- Call Letter Blues (Take 2)
- Up To Me (Take 2, Remake 2)
The cover art was adapted from a Reddit post by FortePiano96. This playlist is not available on Spotify.