Obituary
Came to my attention via those extra live tracks on Dylan’s Double Greatest Hits. What an album that was !
onths later, Dylan would agree to release a second “greatest hits” compilation, provided he could compile it himself, issue it as a double album, and include several older compositions which he had written but never issued himself. To accommodate this last condition, Dylan took it upon himself to hold a recording session at Columbia’s Recording Studios in New York. On September 24, 1971, in Columbia’s Studio B, Dylan recorded four songs with his friend, Happy Traum.
“He felt there were some songs that he had written that had become hits of sorts for other people, that he didn’t actually perform himself,” recalls Traum, “and he wanted to fit those on the record as well…So we just went in one afternoon and did it, it was just the two of us and the engineer, and it was very simple…we chose three [songs] on the spot and mixed them…in the space of an afternoon…Sometimes I wasn’t even sure if it was a final take until we would just finish and Bob would say, ‘Okay, let’s go and mix it.’”
“Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood)”, “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” and “I Shall Be Released” were recorded and selected for the compilation.
After the first para all text is a hamfisted cut and paste from Wikipedia.
Don’t be so hard on yourself, Junes…
Cheers , just made it hard to follow.
Sorry Junes, I am confused.
You first mention a double G Hits LP, and then talk about a follow-up G Hits, also a double, with the aformentioned live tracks included. I assume this second double to mean the one with the blue tinged over-his-shoulder cover photo; certainly one of the best compilation albums ever issued.
So what did the FIRST double LP G Hits look like, and was it ever issued in the UK/Europe/US? Cos I don’t think I’ve ever seen a double G Hits that came BEFORE the blue covered one with the live tracks on. Are you referring to some obscure Zimbabwean bootleg jobby? Or an Oz oddity we’ve never seen in the civilised world?
Understandably confused Foxy. The first para made reference to the Double greatest hits, the blue denim jacket one.
The rest of the post is about how that album came about including Traum’s involvement. There is no other greatest hits double album. There is a triple greatest hits Masterpieces only released in Oz but I digress.
Thanks mate! It’s bad enough working in IT on a day like today, without getting one’s Dylan compilations in a muddle.
RIP Happy.
Indeed quite Traum-atic
arf!
There was “Greatest Hits” which came out in 67 I think then the double was I believe “More Greatest Hits” in Europe and “Greatest Hits Vol 2” in North America. Not sure what it was called down under. The cover photo is from the Concert from Bangladesh
Note that the US and UK editions had slightly different track listings, as did the original Greatest Hits.
I used to enjoy his “Homespun” blues guitar lesson DVD’s back in the day before Youtube took over.
His work with Dylan was great and I wish they’d done more. Their minimalist approach resulted in my favourite versions of all those songs.
đź‘Ť
All this overt snubbing of Artie.