Five years down the line, here’s the new edition of Glen Dundas’ excellent and truly essential annotated guide to Bob Dylan’s recording history. Barring the fact that it is no longer called "Tangled Up in Tapes", but only "Tangled" (after all, tapes have now all but disappeared among collectors, for whom this work is meant for in the first place), the book offers, as usual, everything that Dundas’ readers have come to expect from each new update in the years that have rolled by since the first edition saw the light of day, back in 1987. For those who – amazingly – might still not be familiar with its contents, let it be mentioned that it not only includes complete set lists for every single documented Dylan concert appearance, but also detailed listings for all his known studio sessions. Thus, this fifth edition features all of Bob Dylan’s appearances up to the final show of his 2003 Fall tour in Europe, at London’s Brixton Academy, on November, 25. For those who care to count, this represents some 544 new set lists in respect of the precedent edition, issued in 1999, plus lots of new information on Dylan’s studio work, with the incorporation of new sessions and the relative track listings.
Until fairly recently, as the author explains in his introductory note, Dylan discographies tended to include only those sessions and concerts for which a tape, if not in wide circulation, had at least been heard by the discographer: this was the guiding principle of Dundas’ own first three editions. However, since Michael Krogsgaard, having been granted full access to the Columbia files and tapes, started publishing the results of his research into Dylan&rsqui;s recording sessions in The Telegraph and subsequently in The Bridge, detailed availability of the recording sheets has meant that we are now aware of the existence of many songs and alternate versions for which no recording is likely to ever circulate. Having decided to include these listings from the fourth edition of his book, it was only logical, as Dundas argues, to list as well other known performances, live or in the studio, for which there may at the time be no known recording, but the probability of one having been made remains. A simple and effective typographical code enables the reader to identify the different categories of recordings: song titles written in italics and followed by an asterisk are uncirculated; concert songs in upper case indicate a line recording. Footnotes are reduced to a minimum and offer all necessary information (studio musicians, overdubs, details of official releases, guests sitting in during concert appearances, etc.).
A fact worth mentioning is that all concert and session listings are individually set down in full detail, the most uncomfortable and slightly confusing song-chart system favoured by so many discographies having been abandoned by the author as of the 1999 edition. A particular highlight of "Tangled" is the welcome return of the songwriters index (pp. 462-466), listing the authors of all the covers performed or recorded by Dylan, an extremely useful appendix which had unaccountably disappeared in the precedent edition. The list of professional film and video Dylan appearances (pp. 453-461) has of course also been updated, although admittedly it is a task of nigh to impossible achievement, and the listing will always miss the odd scrap of newsreel from some country or other (none of the April 1999 Spanish TV newsclips are included, for instance). Entirely new, on the other hand, is a statistical appendix which lists, by individual album, the number of times each song has been performed in concert (pp. 468-470); this completes quite usefully the standard listing of year-by-year appearances and total number of songs performed. On the debit side, the new edition omits the far more useful table listing the number of performances of each song per touring year, present in the 1994 and 1999 editions of the book. Finally, "Tangled" not only attempts to list all of Dylan’s recorded speeches, interviews and press conferences, but it also offers verbatim transcriptions of the shorter ones (such as the October, 2001 interview for a TV feature on the Staples family on p. 424, to mention but a particularly interesting one).
As to the new information featured in this edition, besides the precious concert set lists, Dundas has incorporated – as expected – the details disclosed in Krogsgaard’s intervening instalments on Dylan’s recording sessions, including where relevant references to Heylin’s discrepant conclusions. Moreover, he has also mined most profitably Todd Harvey’s "The Formative Dylan", including all the author’s invaluable findings about the Newport 1963 Folk Festival and the Witmark demos, among others (see review in issue No. 12 of The Bridge). Furthermore, "Tangled" includes the new information circulated on the Chicago, June 1992 sessions with David Bromberg, as well as the detailed contents of what has now become Dylan’s earliest extant recording, the St Paul, December 1956 "Terlinde Music" disc, recently auctioned on e-bay. Of course, Dylan’s latest recording sessions, and notably the "Love and Theft" ones, are detailed as well, although in these cases the listings are only speculative, as no recording sheets nor any other information have circulated, and Krogsgaard’s research has only reached 1991 so far.
Inevitably, given the book’s sheer size, its layout and its contents, there are a few typos, though none particularly serious, and probably far less in number than in the preceding editions. An attentive reader may also easily spot a couple of very obvious errors. One must needs atribute to sheer absent mindedness the first one, that has comically resulted in Dylan’s latest song to date, ’Cross The Green Mountain, becoming... Crossing The Green River (pp. 434 and 461). The other mistake, carried over from the 1994 and 1999 editions of the book, has unfortunately managed to find its way in many other publications, and is a tad more convoluted. Briefly, the movie in which Dylan has a cameo as chainsaw artist is called "Backtrack", not "Flashback"; Dylan contributed a new version of People Get Ready to the soundtrack of "Flashback", a different film, but did not appear in it: see issue No. 8 of The Bridge, pp. 62-63. Dundas mixes up both films throughout the book (see pp. 199, 225, 458). As the reader can easily conclude, none of these errors are really anything to write home about.
On the other hand, the book also includes information that may occasionally appear arguable or not based on fact. For instance, one may wonder where Dundas has heard of a song called Not Turning Back, allegedly cut during the Time Out Of Mind sessions (p. 350); this information is new to me, the only documented outtakes so far being Mississippi and Red River Shore, both copyrighted (Doin’ Alright, also copyrighted, mentioned as an outtake by some sources around the time of the album’s release is actually ’Til I Fell In Love With You). Then, some recording dates are also debatable: for example, for all we know, the Ron Wood home studio sessions which resulted in Interfere and King of Kings, dated by Dundas as "possibly early 1996" (p. 341), might have been recorded earlier, in June, 1993, when Dylan reportedly spent a few days as Wood’s guest in Ireland. But no doubt, in a few years’ time, these issues will be duly clarified to Dundas’ and everybody’s entire satisfaction.
Ever since Krogsgaard, absorbed by his painstaking and still ongoing research, renounced updating his own monumental discography, "Positively Bob Dylan", last published in 1991, Dundas’ book has deservedly become the standard reference work in this field. Admittedly, there are other discographies, and particularly, thanks to the development of the internet, fans and researchers have now access to many ready sources of information from which to cull the very same data "Tangled" collects, but in truth none of these can match Dundas’ work as far as exhaustivity and reliability are concerned. This handsome bulky volume, remarkably well bound, also happens to be very easy to consult, and taking into account the wealth and accuracy of its contents, it offers excellent value for its price. To mention but what may reasonably seem the main contender, Olof Bjorner’s "Olof’s Files: A Bob Dylan Performance Guide" is by contrast rather cumbrous, both in its on line version (which at least is free of charge) and as a series of overpriced and rather dull-looking volumes.
Last, but not least, "Tangled", like its earlier editions, is handsomely illustrated with rare and previously unseen concert photos. This time, the book features 48 full-colour pages, plus many other black and white illustrations in the text, none of which, as has become customary, have been used in the preceding editions. As usual, also, Glen Dundas has managed to secure the most unusual and picturesque shots by such household names in the realm of Dylan concert photography as Duncan Hume, Colin Moore, Jens Winter, Paolo Brillo or Andrea Orlandi, not to forget John Hume, whose beautiful Dresden 2000 photo graces the cover.
Admittedly, this is a book mainly for the collector and the scholar, not for the mere fan. One must be really interested in Dylan’s recording history to see the point of a reliable reference work collecting all available information on studio sessions, official releases and concert performances, and thus be able to fully appreciate Glen Dundas’ impressive achievement.
Glen Dundas, "Tangled. A Recording History of Bob Dylan",
5th edition,
SMA Services,
Thunder Bay, Ontario, 2004
(470 pages, $50,00 + $10,00 p&p; ISBN 0-9698569-3-8);
the book may be ordered on line directly from the author at http://tangled.ca/
and through "My Back Pages", at the usual address, or at
http://www.bobdylanisis.com/enter.html?target=Bob_Dylan_Books.html
Now titled simply ’Tangled’ those of you who have owned previous editions will not only be happy to have the updated text (through the end of 2003), but will also enjoy several upgrades from the 1999 release.
More on that later, but for the uninitiated, this is the 5th edition of what was originally a simple song-by-song set listing designed for tape collectors of Bob Dylan material , hence the original title. Subsequent editions broadened the scope of the endeavor to include session detail revealed by work done, amongst others, by Clinton Heylin and Michael Krogsgaard, a complete professional film history and some neat statistics on the number of times Dylan has performed various songs in concert.
Author Glen Dundas hit upon a simplistic chronologically format in the 4th run, and has continued that here. Every known Dylan setlist is included, whether it be a studio rehearsal, a recording session or another of the 100 or so dates, the soon-to-be 63 year-old plays each year. If the event’s performance does not circulates among collectors, but the details are known, it’s carefully annotated as such.
It’s an analytical effort as well, as Dundas has not necessarily accepted Krogsgaard (who had far better access to the Dylan archives) at face, but has included, where deemed prudent, both Heylin’s logic and some common sense to ensure as much text-book accuracy as possible.
But potential users already looking through glazed eyes at the ’text book’ term should not be turned off so quickly, or else might miss what has become as important an inclusion as the multi-layered text - the photos. The previous volumes have included as many Dylan pics as some books which are entirely devoted to that subject. 1995 and 1999 editions included 32 pages of glossy prints and dozens of others mixed through the text. And the vast majority were newly published shots, many contributed by Dylan fans who fought the security at the concerts and came away with valued and documented memories.
In short, ’Tangled Up In Tapes’ became not just for tape collectors, but another Dylan biography, told simply by his work and embellished by the accompanying photos.
Reflective of this is this new 2004 work, now simply ’Tangled’ (Glen states his reason for the shortened title is that, with the advent of cd-r and dvd-r collecting, it had simply become an anachronism).
The original 1987 edition of 77 pages has now grown to a whopping 470, a literal handful, and with cosmetic improvements that accompany the coverage of the additional concerts (the 600 or so that Dylan has performed) and new information that has come to light since the 1999 edition.
The additions range from the simplistic - every song in each performance is numbered - to the more informative -- accompanying musicians are included for every listing.
There are setlists included that have never been previously known - I won’t spoil the fun, but one is the book’s first listing. For shorter interviews and press conferences, the complete text is included, and which time and time again attests both to Mr. Dylan’s sense of humor and inclination towards testiness.
The professional film and video section where every known Dylan appearance, from the recently emerged 1963 Westinghouse TV show onwards, is catalogued once again, and a section on the songwriters of tunes Dylan has covered has returned. The statistical section reveals the number of times each song from each album has been done in concert.
Inveterate concert-goers who have used past editions to count the number of shows that they have personally attended are offered a box in which to tick-mark that particular date, and another to insert that year’s total. Making for an easier total count.
And the pictures: from the cover shot taken by longtime Dylan photographer John Hume -- a 59th birthday portrait where Dylan seems to fade in and out - to the rear cover photo by Colin Moore - a haunting shot of Bob playing the harp -- ’Tangled’ amasses a wonderful collection of 48 glossies, again mostly previously unpublished, most often contributed by fans like Hume, Moore, Andrea Orlandi, Duncan Hume, John Stark, Paolo Brillo, Willem Meuleman and many others. Dozens of other pics are mixed throughout, making this once again as much a photo book as an unmatched source of Dylan data.
The pics do not run in chronological order, making possible things like the juxtaposition of a 1986 Tom Petty/Dylan black & white and a 2000 colour snapshot of Dylan alone.
The asking price for ’Tangled’ is now $50 U.S., not an unreasonable asking price (and the first increase since the 1991 version went for $40) for any book of its size, certainly not for a limited run, self-published effort.
And for those of you who had previously had problems with the center section, a new binding process has hopefully corrected the shortcoming. In fact, the book was delayed for two weeks when the entire printing process was redone, when it became evident that the 470 page tome could not be handled by the printer’s new, but conventional equipment.
This is a must for any Dylan fan, serious or not-so-serious. Details on how to purchase it can be found at http://www.tangled.ca. Overseas buyers can also obtain it from My Back Pages.
May, 2004
Joel Todd