Once more into the early years we must head. Why? Because the official Bob Dylan YouTube compilations are in short supply of fresh material. It is not as though they can rip an Outlaw Music Festival tour. They do not have BennyBoy or mr. tambourine on staff. Those bootleg veterans would do better with these early years tracks, and have, on many occasions. The trouble comes from copyrights, clauses, and who owns the rights to which song. Man of Constant Sorrow: Vol. 1 is a pitiful compilation because of those problems. It is an inevitable shuffle of Dylan’s debut album with a few loose pieces thrown in from the studio. Songs which did not make it onto the album but were good enough to feature. There are only so many times such a compilation can be released though, because there is a finite pool of recordings, let alone quality ones.
It’s fun, briefly that is, to return to You’re No Good and Man of Constant Sorrow but those are par for the course. You can experience those in the same context they offered decades ago by dusting off a copy of the debut album. Not that many people are listening to it, the albums to follow made it redundant and even Dylan’s modern-day return to cover songs offers a seasoned perspective on classics. Youthful vocals and a rough edge to his recording style does not overwhelm the meaning of these classics, but it does prove a nice listen occasionally. What little Man of Constant Sorrow: Vol. 1 can add is an early take of Muleskinner Blues. Dylan coughs and splutters through a false start and idly strums away, stopping and starting as he does. Not a song worth seeking out, unless deep diving the early years of Dylan in the studio. It’s an unrealised, potential song at best, yet for the compilation distributors is reason enough to rename and repackage Bob Dylan.
For those well-versed in Dylan’s early years, you will by now be either numb or elated to hear the stomping Baby Please Don’t Go and throaty, folk-rooted charms. Where the self-titled debut was more a collection of light covers rather than an album with overlapping themes, the inclusions Man of Constant Sorrow: Vol. 1 makes try to crowbar in a new meaning. It is something which cannot be done, not because of the limitations of the material, but because of how sparse the recordings worth hearing are. You cannot throw four songs total and remove a selection of others, repackage it with a Microsoft Paint cover art job and be on your way. Yet here we are. It’s worth noting it each time because if not, there is a real chance the origins of each song are eroded, obscured by the constant compilations. A Joe Williams cover, it would seem, but then even the official Dylan page has nothing on this one.
Then it is up to the distributor not just to give audiences a new listen, but to inform them of the origins. If it were fished out of the cutting room or considered for release at one point, these are the details which make the bootlegging community stand out. Both origin and longstanding, historic purpose are included, and there are those out there talented enough to splice two halves of a better recording for an ultimate overlap. When this happens, when a show is picked through for those great moments, it is at least noted. It’s a minimum expectation we should have from those who hold these files and songs. The internet is already abysmal to use, but give it a few years, when it’s beyond use, and nobody knows where Quit Your Lowdown Ways originates. Then we’ll be sorry.
