Unofficial releases are where fans can make the most of unreleased recordings. There is a never-ending amount from Bob Dylan out there. Enough to last a lifetime or two. Selecting the important bits and pieces, then, is paramount. There is no way one person can get through it all, but long may we try. Wild and Rambling Boy: Columbia Studios is a compilation of all those better-known tapes, from Bonnie Beecher to a performance at Carnegie Chapter Hall. Early Dylan efforts like this can be found out there, thankfully most of it on YouTube, but the purpose of Wild and Rambling Boy as a four-CD compilation is to make sense of the wider changes of the time, the fundamentals and early structure of a soon-to-be folk hero. He was wild, he was rambling, but most of all he was showcasing a talent like no other.
Such is the point of a compilation like Wild and Rambling Boy. Thanks to the annals of the internet and file sharing, the use of CD compilations such as this is now dust on the shelf. Collectors can hunt these down still, Discogs will have them in stock, no doubt. But for the hesitant buyer or the listener with little time to spare, what does Wild and Rambling Boy offer? Plenty. It is as cool and creative a compilation of early years efforts from Dylan as it gets. The Beecher Tapes and Carnegie Chapter Hall discs are essentials to begin with, and yet the set goes from strength to strength, with early works like Man on the Street and House Carpenter appearing once or twice. Hard Times in New York Town from The McKenzie Tapes is a treat, too, and for those out there wanting even more bootleg materials, then there is a plethora out there.
Wild and Rambling Boy is a starting point. There is plenty to get lost in here. Some of the best moments in the early years of Dylan, in those moments not meant for the studio or public, are here. Most of it is now readily available on the Dylan YouTube channel, but for those wanting a seamless playthrough of these early moments then Wild and Rambling Boy is where you need to head. Brushes with the press on CBS Records’ Billy James Interview are excellent too, and a follow-up WBAI Radio New York performance is crucial, too. Key to all of this is not just what they offer, the massive haul of brilliant, early years performances from a man who would go on to write Masters of War just a few years later, but their quality.
Sound quality from these early days is, as many seasoned bootleggers will know, hit or miss. A stray harmonica could deafen a person should they have their noise-cancelling headphones cranked up a little too loud. No danger of that on most of Wild and Rambling Boy, which is plucked from the better quality tapes made available in recent days. There is still the crackle and static but that is to be expected of recordings made over sixty years ago. It all ends with Cynthia Gooding’s Apartment tape, and while none of those songs made it anywhere close to the studio, they endure as relics and oddities. Microscopic examples of how Dylan could hold form, tempo and instrumental fervour like no other at the time. It is a must-listen for those willing to buy it, or piece it together for themselves online.
