One of, if not the earliest recording of Bob Dylan singing original songs. An extremely brief tape, just a minute and a half, but valuable all the same to those who appreciate music history. You cannot head into this and listen for enjoyment. The Kangas Tape is more for those who want to hear how it began. What the influences of the time were doing to a young Dylan, who recorded four songs here. When I Got Troubles would release as part of The Bootleg Series, Volume 7, but the rest of what features here is an interesting moment in the early years. He was not far from a move to New York City, where he would pursue a whole different sound from the one present in The Kangas Tape. Those No Direction Home efforts brought out some of the very best early years moments, and the Martin Scorsese documentary of the same name applied some wonderful, necessary context. Such is the case for The Kangas Tape.
A recording from the home of Ric Kangas is what The Kangas Tape is. Just like The Hotel Tapes in Bonnie Beecher’s apartment or The Bucklen Tapes also shared by Swingin’ Pig, the early days of Dylan’s career provide more of an understanding of his influences than anything else. It’s not meant to document the songs he would soon sing, though the folk fundamentals are in place on the Beecher tapes. Here is Dylan playing around with the popular style of music, the chart-toppers from his days as a seventeen-year-old. Just a year later and that interest would shift to Woody Guthrie and the folk heroes of the time, those artists who influenced the rapid rise of a folk hero. Hearing what came before it adds a brilliant and necessary context for the first albums Dylan released. He was never a folk singer first, he was a rock and roller who found interest in folk music, and used it as a platform.
His adaptations to folk are genuine, and you can hear the softer, slower touch of the genre fundamentals at play on The Kangas Tape, but you can also hear the flow and style of Buddy Holly, too. Just about anyone, from Dylan to Paul McCartney and the rest of The Beatles, was influenced by Holly. Before there was a folk flourish to his work, before the Guthrie influence, was a clear rock and roll clarity. It was not Dylan affecting the genre, but being affected by it. It’s a style which would come to life soon after his folk days, be it with Highway 61 Revisited and the electric guitar or decades on with shows in the 1980s, completely reliant on the rock and roll attitude. It’s that attitude which can be heard here, even if the tempo is slower than what traditional rock enthusiasts may expect.
Just listen to Dylan croak along on the few seconds available of The Frog Song. It’s not about finding a voice or imparting wisdom for the genre. It’s a teenager fooling around on a guitar which would go on to serve him and a wider audience in the years to come. Crucial not because of the quality, surprisingly decent given how old the tape is, but because of what inspiration can be pulled from it. Following your influences, learning from them and adapting their style to something cool and contemporary, that is the route of success for so many artists. Dylan is not an exception to the rule, you can hear as much on The Kangas Tape, a brilliant document of how the early years were for one of the all-time greats.
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