Non-Music Resource Post

Hello everyone!

Since there is no bonus disc for the month of July, I thought you might enjoy some kind of update. In this case, it will be a brief explanation of pleasant online resources available to the diehard Dylan fans of the world. This is in the spirit of my recommended reading, which you can find here. Be aware that the following resources are in no particular order:

(1) Oloj Bjorner

This website has virtually everything you might want to know. The Yearly Chronicles section is a thoughtful analysis of Bob Dylan's artistic output (music, movies, books) divided into pages centered on specific years. It offers a remarkably detailed breakdown of live songs played on a tour, recommended shows, and even an outline of unreleased content becoming available. The Still On The Road page is my favorite part of the site, though, and functions as the primary resource from which I pull my information. It is a text list of every show played by the artist, along with songs played, band information, notable firsts or last, transcribed banter, and more. You really couldn't ask for a more helpful resource than this, and I wish more musicians had such inspired fan projects!

(2) Lossless Bob

This one is comparatively new to me, though I have been aware of it for years. It is a catalog of Bob Dylan unreleased recordings, which is each assigned a number. An analysis of the recording is presented, along with resources like relevant text files and checksum data (for my fellow archival nerds out there). This person has essentially generated a cataloging standard for unreleased recordings, and it is very helpful when you hear a concert and wonder if an alternative tape exists.

(3) Electric Ladyland

Electric Ladyland is a top-notch website for finding unreleased music. Their search feature is significantly better than Dimeadozen, and the community is very responsive to requests for reseeding concerts. Much of the second round of the Thousand Highways collection was downloaded from fellow fans on this site.

(4) Bob Dylan Official Website

This official website may have seen its best days in the 1990s and 2000s, when its staff was publishing unreleased and rare content via downloadable files, but it's still one of the better artist pages out there. You will find a list of every Bob Dylan song, and a little exploring will take you to lyrics and a list of times the song was played live. It's updated pretty frequently, and features some cool multimedia content (music videos, articles, etc.).

(5) Searching For A Gem

Searching For A Gem is, like Lossless Bob, a wonderful resource for tracking official releases. In the case of my blog, this has sadly led to a handful of intended tracks not making it onto compilations, since they have been officially released in very obscure ways. The orchestral "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," for example, was released on a European version of the MTV Unplugged Dignity single. Happily, being aware of these releases keeps the material on this website from stepping on anyone's toes and making it fall into more problematic content. I am always impressed at the capacity for comprehensiveness of the contributors to Searching For A Gem.

I hope you enjoy these links. Let me know if I missed anything!

-CS