Bob Dylan The Witmark Demos

Bob Dylan has been steadily releasing installments in his Bootleg Series back catalog for over a decade, and they have included his multiple incarnations, from his early acoustic sets to his bombastic '70s tour extravaganzas. The ninth volume, The Witmark Demos, collects early Dylan material from 1962 to 1964, when he was still honing his folk chops in Greewich Village and learning how to deal with fame. There are 15 previously officially unreleased songs among the 47 overall, like "The Ballad of Emmett Till" (protest songs!) and "Long Ago, Far Away," and different versions of Dylan standards like "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Blowin' in the Wind." This is Dylan as he was rounding into his lyrical prime, as anyone who's listened to Another Side Of Bob Dylan a thousand times will know, and it's no surprise that he's still got dozens of songs to mine from the vault.

Abstract by Jeremy Gordon