WRVR Riverside Church broadcast

July 29, 1961

Handsome Molly
Omie Wise
Poor Lazarus
Mean Old Railroad
Acne
Another early live recording, this time a live broadcast over radio station WRVR and featuring Jack Elliot and Danny Kalb as well as a young Bob Dylan. I believe Dylan's entire contribution to this radio show is presented on this relatively high quality tape. The first three songs are solo numbers and the last two are duets with Danny Kalb and Jack Elliot respectively.

Dylan is still in his traditional folk period here, although the signs are starting to show that he has a unique voice and delivery, as witnessed by the excellent Handsome Molly and Poor Lazarus, both fine songs worthy of our attention. Omie Wise has never really been one of my favorites, but it's still interesting to hear as an example of the kind of songs Dylan was singing in those days. The last two songs are the most dispensible, and in fact Acne is pretty painful to listen to even though you realize it's supposed to be a joke.

As an example of early folk Dylan, in reasonably good sound, this could be of interest to casual Dylan listeners. To the committed collector it's indispensible.

CDs:

  • Mean Old Railroad and Acne appear on Alias : The Sideman Story Vol. 1.
  • LPs:

  • Early Sixties Revisited [said to contain the entire performance]
  • Handsome Molly and Acne appear on the terrible Help bootleg.

  • Bring It All Back Home Back to Tape Index