Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home - Acoustic Version (1965)

In my opinion, Bob Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home" is one of the greatest albums of all time. The website acclaimedmusic.net, which aggregates critics' ratings, has it as the 85th best album of all time. I'd put it even higher than that, maybe in my top ten. 

Up until this album, all of Dylan's recordings had been acoustic. But with this album, he boldly released rocking music recorded with a full band, kicking off the folk-rock music trend. However, only half the album was done with a band. The first side was, but the second side was just Dylan and his acoustic guitar, like all his previous albums. 

What if Dylan's move to rock came later and this album was done in a purely acoustic format? I've put together such a version. It turns out that version is possible because he did record acoustic versions for most of the full-band songs. (By comparison, his next album, "Highway 61 Revisited," was even more electric, and he didn't bother with acoustic takes, so making an album like this wouldn't work.) Most of these versions have been released on "The Cutting Edge" official box set, but scattered here and there. All I had to do was gather them up and put them in the same order as the released album.

However, there was a snag: I couldn't find any acoustic version of the song "Maggie's Farm." All the other songs for the album had multiple studio takes, but that song was done in just one take, with a full band. It's a very rocking song, probably the most rocking one on the album. To make matters worse, when Dylan played concerts later that year, he only did it with a band. In fact, those live recordings are even more rocking.

So how could I made an acoustic version?! I resorted to using the Spleeter sound editing program. I've talked about this problem a lot in the last month or two. It can do great things, but within limits. Turning the one electric studio version of "Maggie's Farm" into an acoustic version is pretty much beyond its limit. It could take out the drums and bass, mostly, but one still gets the rocking electric guitar. Furthermore, by making such a drastic change, some noticeable sonic flaws were created here and there. Like I said, Spleeter has its limits. But I didn't want to leave the song out altogether. And I didn't want to include it unchanged, because it would stick out like a sore thumb. So I figure this is the best of my bad options. Thank goodness there's only a problem with this one song.

I could have simply posted the second side of the album (the last four songs) as it is on the official record, since that's all solo acoustic already. (With the exception of a bass player on "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.") However, I thought that would be rather boring. So I tried to come up with alternate versions that had the same sound quality as the album versions. For "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," I found a nice version from "The Cutting Edge" release. For the other three, I used performances done for the BBC in May 1965, a few months after the album was released. These had audience applause after each song, but the audience was very polite and didn't trip over the music at all. I simply cut the songs before the applause kicked it, making them sound just like studio takes. 

Admittedly, these alternate versions of the second side songs don't sound that different. Dylan had been playing them in concert for months before the album was released, and his versions were very consistent from performance to performance at that time. But still, I figure little differences may make this a more interesting listen.

This album is 49 minutes long, which, weirdly enough, is two minutes longer than the official studio album.

01 Subterranean Homesick Blues (Bob Dylan)
02 She Belongs to Me (Bob Dylan)
03 Maggie's Farm [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
04 Love Minus Zero-No Limit (Bob Dylan)
05 Outlaw Blues (Bob Dylan)
06 On the Road Again (Bob Dylan)
07 Bob Dylan's 115th Dream (Bob Dylan)
08 Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)
09 Gates of Eden (Bob Dylan)
10 It's Alright, Ma [I'm Only Bleeding] (Bob Dylan)
11 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15105784/BobD_1965c_BringingItAllBackHmeAcoustic_atse.zip.html

At first glance, you might think I just used the official album cover for my cover, and added the words "Acoustic Version" at the bottom. But while I aped the look of the official version, I actually used a different photo taken at the same photo session. If you look at the official cover, you'll see it has a swirly blur effect added around the edges. There are many other differences, such as a fallout shelter sign prominent in the lower left corner.