Live at The Gaslight 1962
Encyclopedia
Live at The Gaslight 1962 is a single CD release including ten songs from early Bob Dylan
performances at the Gaslight cafe in New York City
's Greenwich Village
. Released in 2005 by Columbia Records
, it was originally distributed through an exclusive 18-month deal with Starbucks
, after which it was released to the general retail market.
Live at The Gaslight 1962 was recorded early on in Dylan's career, when he was still virtually unknown outside of New York's Greenwich Village
. Thanks to the cooperation of various club owners, and the management skills of Dave Van Ronk
's wife, Terri Thal, Dylan was able to record a number of performances during that time on a reel-to-reel tape recorder patched into the house PA system. It is believed that Live at The Gaslight 1962 was culled from tapes recorded with this arrangement.
These Gaslight recordings have circulated among Dylan collectors for many years. They made their first appearance on bootleg
LPs no later than 1973, and have appeared, in various forms, on several bootleg LPs and CDs and on many Dylan fan CDR projects. The full set of recordings, including 17 tracks, is usually referred to by Dylan collectors as the "Second Gaslight Tape," but some refer to the recordings as a compilation of the "Second" and "Third Gaslight Tape," believing them to be compiled from two different sets at the Gaslight. The source recording is not continuous, and its exact provenance has not been firmly established.
Two tracks from these recordings were previously released on official Dylan albums: "No More Auction Block" appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
in 1991 and "Handsome Molly" appeared on the Japan
ese release Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances
. A third track, "The Cuckoo (Is A Pretty Bird)
" was included on a promotional CD distributed in U.S. retail markets in association with the official release of Chronicles, Vol. 1.
The Gaslight recordings had been warmly received by critics and collectors alike ever since Greil Marcus
wrote about them in the late 1960s. When this CD was officially released, the critical consensus remained positive, with Entertainment Weekly
s David Browne giving it an A- grade. "Although [Dylan] was too young to pull off the burnout elegy 'Moonshiner,'" wrote Browne, "Gaslight is a spellbinding reminder that Dylan was never a typical folkie (or typical anything, for that matter)."
. "John Brown" would later be published and issued on Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1 in February 1963, but it would not be released on any of Dylan's subsequent studio albums (the song only re-appeared as a live performance on Dylan's 1993 MTV Unplugged
album.)
The remaining songs on Live at The Gaslight 1962 are considered traditional folk songs; essays on a number of ballads performed by Dylan during his October residency at the Gaslight Cafe can be found in an anthology published in 2004 entitled The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad.
"Rocks And Gravel" is Dylan's own adaptation of Brownie McGhee
's "Solid Road" and Leroy Carr
's "Alabama Woman," an arrangement that fuses both songs into one. It was originally slated to appear on Dylan's second album (and would later appear on test pressings made for a preliminary version of the LP), but when Dylan reconfigured The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
, he would omit "Rocks And Gravel" from the final album sequence.
"The Cuckoo" was originally recorded in the 1920s by Western North Carolina banjo musician Clarence Ashley. According to Thomas Goldsmith of The Raleigh News & Observer, "The Cuckoo" is reportedly descended from an old folk ballad; it's an interior monologue where the singer "relates his desires - to gamble, to win, to regain love's affection."
Described by critic Dave Marsh as "the most widespread folk song in the English language," "Barbara Allen" dates as far back as the 17th century, when Samuel Pepys wrote about the song in a diary entry dated January 2, 1665. Similar but different versions of the ballad have been traced to English and Scottish folk traditions, and when "Barbara Allen" was brought over to North America by early European settlers, no particular version of "Barbara Allen" was dominant or considered definitive. Over the years, countless variations of "Barbara Allen" have been found throughout the United States, with roughly 100 variations in Virginia
alone, but the version Dylan sings on Live at The Gaslight 1962 is one rooted in the English folk tradition.
In the story of "Barbara Allen," the title character rejects a suitor (his name varies in different versions of the songs, ranging from Sweet William to John Graeme). On his death bed, he calls Barbara Allen to his side, swearing his love for her. However, in some versions of "Barbara Allen" (particularly older variations), he discovers Barbara Allen's complaint that he once neglected her in a local tavern. When she sees him on his death bed, she offers a cold observation, "Young man, I think you're dying."
The story then takes a strange twist: when Barbara Allen walks home, she hears the church bells tolling for her true love. She then dies, mysteriously, and the two are buried in an old churchyard, where a love knot then comes to twine, made from a rose growing out of her lover's heart and a briar from Barbara Allen's.
Towards the end of his essay on "Barbara Allen," Dave Marsh focuses on the outcome of the song, the intertwined rose and briar emerging from the graves of the spurned lover, and Barbara Allen's rejection of her true love. "What’s amazing is our ability to ignore the lesson that 'Barbara Allen' has to teach," writes Marsh, "which is the peril of denying the complicated mysteries that throb within our hardened hearts and the equal peril of horsing around instead of acknowledging our love for one another. This is not a lesson you can squeeze onto a tombstone, or, for that matter, our current conception of a curriculum, but it is one to carry through this life."
, except where noted.
had exclusive rights to sell the album, HMV Canada pulled all Bob Dylan products off their shelves in protest. Similar joint ventures in the past also brought protest from HMV, affecting sales of The Rolling Stones
and Alanis Morissette
. HMV began stocking their shelves with Dylan's albums (albeit sparingly) in December in order to capitalize on the Christmas season. HMV fully restored Dylan's discography to their shelves in the Spring of 2006. Afterwards, in order to appease frustrated HMV customers, Columbia offered the Live at The Gaslight 1962 CD as a free giveaway with any Bob Dylan purchase at HMV stores.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
performances at the Gaslight cafe in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
. Released in 2005 by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, it was originally distributed through an exclusive 18-month deal with Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
, after which it was released to the general retail market.
Live at The Gaslight 1962 was recorded early on in Dylan's career, when he was still virtually unknown outside of New York's Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
. Thanks to the cooperation of various club owners, and the management skills of Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
's wife, Terri Thal, Dylan was able to record a number of performances during that time on a reel-to-reel tape recorder patched into the house PA system. It is believed that Live at The Gaslight 1962 was culled from tapes recorded with this arrangement.
These Gaslight recordings have circulated among Dylan collectors for many years. They made their first appearance on bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
LPs no later than 1973, and have appeared, in various forms, on several bootleg LPs and CDs and on many Dylan fan CDR projects. The full set of recordings, including 17 tracks, is usually referred to by Dylan collectors as the "Second Gaslight Tape," but some refer to the recordings as a compilation of the "Second" and "Third Gaslight Tape," believing them to be compiled from two different sets at the Gaslight. The source recording is not continuous, and its exact provenance has not been firmly established.
Two tracks from these recordings were previously released on official Dylan albums: "No More Auction Block" appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan, issued on Columbia Records, catalogue C3K 86572. It is the first installment in the Dylan bootleg series, comprising material spanning the first three decades of his career, from 1961 to 1989...
in 1991 and "Handsome Molly" appeared on the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese release Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances
Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances
Live 1961–2000 ~ Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances is a live compilation album by Bob Dylan, released only in Japan on February 28, 2001.-Track listing:All songs by Bob Dylan, except where noted:...
. A third track, "The Cuckoo (Is A Pretty Bird)
The Cuckoo (song)
"The Cuckoo" is a traditional English folk song. It has been covered by many musicians in several different styles. An early notable recorded version was performed by Appalachian folk musician Clarence Ashley with a unique banjo tuning....
" was included on a promotional CD distributed in U.S. retail markets in association with the official release of Chronicles, Vol. 1.
The Gaslight recordings had been warmly received by critics and collectors alike ever since Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
wrote about them in the late 1960s. When this CD was officially released, the critical consensus remained positive, with Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s David Browne giving it an A- grade. "Although [Dylan] was too young to pull off the burnout elegy 'Moonshiner,'" wrote Browne, "Gaslight is a spellbinding reminder that Dylan was never a typical folkie (or typical anything, for that matter)."
The Songs
Live at The Gaslight 1962 captures early performances of three different Dylan compositions: "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (often referred to as "Hard Rain"), "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," and "John Brown." Both "Hard Rain" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" would eventually appear on Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob DylanThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in May 1963 by Columbia Records. Whereas his debut album Bob Dylan had contained only two original songs, Freewheelin initiated the process of writing contemporary words to traditional melodies....
. "John Brown" would later be published and issued on Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1 in February 1963, but it would not be released on any of Dylan's subsequent studio albums (the song only re-appeared as a live performance on Dylan's 1993 MTV Unplugged
MTV Unplugged
MTV Unplugged is a TV series showcasing many popular musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show has received the George Foster Peabody Award and 3 Primetime Emmy nominations among many accolades.-Unplugged:...
album.)
The remaining songs on Live at The Gaslight 1962 are considered traditional folk songs; essays on a number of ballads performed by Dylan during his October residency at the Gaslight Cafe can be found in an anthology published in 2004 entitled The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad.
"Rocks And Gravel" is Dylan's own adaptation of Brownie McGhee
Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown McGhee was a Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.-Life and career:...
's "Solid Road" and Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist, who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. He first became famous for "How Long, How Long Blues" on Vocalion Records in 1928.-Life and...
's "Alabama Woman," an arrangement that fuses both songs into one. It was originally slated to appear on Dylan's second album (and would later appear on test pressings made for a preliminary version of the LP), but when Dylan reconfigured The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in May 1963 by Columbia Records. Whereas his debut album Bob Dylan had contained only two original songs, Freewheelin initiated the process of writing contemporary words to traditional melodies....
, he would omit "Rocks And Gravel" from the final album sequence.
"The Cuckoo" was originally recorded in the 1920s by Western North Carolina banjo musician Clarence Ashley. According to Thomas Goldsmith of The Raleigh News & Observer, "The Cuckoo" is reportedly descended from an old folk ballad; it's an interior monologue where the singer "relates his desires - to gamble, to win, to regain love's affection."
Described by critic Dave Marsh as "the most widespread folk song in the English language," "Barbara Allen" dates as far back as the 17th century, when Samuel Pepys wrote about the song in a diary entry dated January 2, 1665. Similar but different versions of the ballad have been traced to English and Scottish folk traditions, and when "Barbara Allen" was brought over to North America by early European settlers, no particular version of "Barbara Allen" was dominant or considered definitive. Over the years, countless variations of "Barbara Allen" have been found throughout the United States, with roughly 100 variations in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
alone, but the version Dylan sings on Live at The Gaslight 1962 is one rooted in the English folk tradition.
In the story of "Barbara Allen," the title character rejects a suitor (his name varies in different versions of the songs, ranging from Sweet William to John Graeme). On his death bed, he calls Barbara Allen to his side, swearing his love for her. However, in some versions of "Barbara Allen" (particularly older variations), he discovers Barbara Allen's complaint that he once neglected her in a local tavern. When she sees him on his death bed, she offers a cold observation, "Young man, I think you're dying."
The story then takes a strange twist: when Barbara Allen walks home, she hears the church bells tolling for her true love. She then dies, mysteriously, and the two are buried in an old churchyard, where a love knot then comes to twine, made from a rose growing out of her lover's heart and a briar from Barbara Allen's.
Towards the end of his essay on "Barbara Allen," Dave Marsh focuses on the outcome of the song, the intertwined rose and briar emerging from the graves of the spurned lover, and Barbara Allen's rejection of her true love. "What’s amazing is our ability to ignore the lesson that 'Barbara Allen' has to teach," writes Marsh, "which is the peril of denying the complicated mysteries that throb within our hardened hearts and the equal peril of horsing around instead of acknowledging our love for one another. This is not a lesson you can squeeze onto a tombstone, or, for that matter, our current conception of a curriculum, but it is one to carry through this life."
Track listing
All songs Traditional; adapted and arranged by Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, except where noted.
- "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna FallA Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962. It was first recorded in Columbia Records' Studio A on 6 December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The lyric structure is based on the question and answer form of the traditional ballad "Lord...
" (Bob Dylan) – 6:40 - "Rocks and Gravel" (Bob Dylan) – 4:58
- "Don't Think Twice, It's All RightDon't Think Twice, It's All Right"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962, and released on the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.-Context:...
" (Bob Dylan) – 3:09 - "The Cuckoo (Is a Pretty Bird)The Cuckoo (song)"The Cuckoo" is a traditional English folk song. It has been covered by many musicians in several different styles. An early notable recorded version was performed by Appalachian folk musician Clarence Ashley with a unique banjo tuning....
" (Traditional, arranged by Clarence Ashley) – 2:18 - "MoonshinerThe MoonshinerThe Moonshiner is a folk song with disputed origins. It is believed that the song originated in America, then later was made famous in Ireland. Others believe that it was the other way around. The Clancy Brothers stated on their recording that the song is of Irish origin, but again, this is...
" – 4:05 - "Handsome Molly" – 2:44
- "CocaineCocaine Blues"Cocaine Blues" is a Western Swing song written by T. J. "Red" Arnall, a reworking of the traditional song "Little Sadie". This song was originally recorded by W. A. Nichol's Western Aces on the S & G label, probably in 1947, and by Roy Hogsed and the Rainbow Riders May 25, 1947, at Universal...
" (Traditional, arranged by Rev. Gary Davis) – 2:56 - "John BrownJohn Brown (Bob Dylan song)John Brown is an anti-war song written and composed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Written in October 1962, the song was never included on any of Dylan's official studio albums.-Releases:...
" (Bob Dylan) – 5:53 - "Barbara Allen" – 7:49
- "West Texas" – 5:37
HMV Canada dispute
During an 18 month deal whereby StarbucksStarbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
had exclusive rights to sell the album, HMV Canada pulled all Bob Dylan products off their shelves in protest. Similar joint ventures in the past also brought protest from HMV, affecting sales of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actress. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and also shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination...
. HMV began stocking their shelves with Dylan's albums (albeit sparingly) in December in order to capitalize on the Christmas season. HMV fully restored Dylan's discography to their shelves in the Spring of 2006. Afterwards, in order to appease frustrated HMV customers, Columbia offered the Live at The Gaslight 1962 CD as a free giveaway with any Bob Dylan purchase at HMV stores.
External links
- Still On The Road 1962 -- discographical reference
- Gaslight cafe (1959 photo)
- Gaslight history by Al AronowitzAl AronowitzAlfred Gilbert Aronowitz was an American rock journalist best known for introducing Bob Dylan and The Beatles in 1964.Aronowitz was born in Bordentown, New Jersey...