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Candy Man Baby Please Don't Go Hard Times in New York Stealin Poor Lazarus I Ain't Got No Home It's Hard to Be Blind Dink's Song Man of Constant Sorrow East Orange Omie Wise Wade in the Water I Was Young When I Left Home In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down Baby Let Me Follow You Down Sally Gal Gospel Plow Long John Cocaine VD Waltz VD Blues VD City VD Gunner's Blues See That My Grave is Kept Clean Ramblin Round Black Cross |
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This is the classic party tape that made up the bulk of the famous Great White Wonder bootleg, widely regarded as the first of its kind. Supposedly recorded
in a hotel room in Minnesota, it has an informal air about it that finds
Dylan in a very relaxed mood among friends. At the same time the tape acts
as a sort of demo tape and represents the entire spectrum of Dylan's song
catalog at the time. Hardly any original songs here, and those that do appear
are very derivative, but he hadn't yet approached his true writing years
yet. At this point he is a performer of folk, blues, and country standards
and the influence of Woody Guthrie and others is especially strong.
Highlights are Poor Lazarus, Dink's Song, Black Cross, Ramblin' Round, It's Hard To Be Blind, I Was Young When I Left Home, etc. Many people will quibble with the quality of some of his blues numbers such as Long John and In the Evening, but I find them entertaining. There can be no doubt that this is one of his most historic tapes, though, and is a must for anyone interested in Dylan's formative years. The sound is very good, but on some vinyl bootlegs the quality is less than stellar. The best vinyl boot I've heard yet is Blind Boy Grunt where the sound is second only to official album quality. The worst I've heard is actually on that famous Great White Wonder bootleg where the sound is muddy. All of this material is available, with the exception of one song for some odd reason, on the Ten of Swords 10-record bootleg set. Most recently, all of this material appears in excellent sound quality on the 3-CD set The Minnesota Tapes, along with the entire Minneapolis Party Tape. UPDATE:An anonymous reader provided this information, which I believe is accurate:
It was recorded at Bonnie Beecher's Apartment in Dinkytown. Dinkytown is a small 'student-centric' shopping and entertainment area just off of the campus of the University of Minnesota. This is the area of town where Bob played his earliest shows in the city, at a coffee house called the 10 O'clock Scholar, in front of people like 'Spider' John Koerner and Tony 'Little Sun' Glover. Tony is the person who recorded this tape. Bonnie Beecher's apartment was called "The Minnesota Hotel" because it was a revolving door for 'musician types' and a well known 'place to crash'. Thus the title; "The Minnesota Hotel Tape"
CDs:
LPs:
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