Bootleg Series Archives

Album: The Bootleg Series Volume 1.

Year: 1963.

I know that it probably feels heretical to kickoff what will be a month or so of posts about the greatest musical artist (or really, the greatest artist in any field) of the past 50+ years with a song that remained unreleased until 1991. Even more heretical: this is going to be the only song from his pre-electric folksinger period, which is my least favorite (yup, that includes the 1980s) period of Dylan.

As I wrote back in 2006, everybody who loves Bob Dylan has their own Bob Dylan, and my Bob Dylan truly begins when he plugs in an electric guitar. I respect, like and even love several songs from the finger-pointing era, but they just aren’t my most favorites.

That said, this particular version of “Walkin’ Down The Line,” recorded as a publishing demo – and never released on any his early, is one of my favorites. For whatever reason, the melody and momentum get to me, as does his singing. Two bits stand out, for entirely different reasons.

First, is how he sings the the second verse:

My money comes and goes
My money comes and goes
My money comes and goes
And rolls and flows and rolls and flows
Through the holes in the pockets in my clothes

The way he wraps his voice around the repetition of the internal rhyme of "rolls,“ "flows” after “goes” and prior to “holes” and “clothes” is masterful. And remember, this is just a publishing demo.

My other favorite thing is the words of the third verse:

I see the morning light
I see the morning light
Well, it’s not because
I’m an early riser
I didn’t go to sleep last night

While I am an early riser, and my life was nothing like the guy in the song, there was a period in my life in the early 90s when one summertime adventure or another would keep me up all night. More than once during the summer of 1991 – when I was absorbing this whole amazing box set, back deeply in love with Bob Dylan for the first time in several years – I’d find myself walking home in the coolish Tower District dawn with this song in my head.

“Walkin’ Down The Line” official video

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

So first, the good news, courtesy of the A.V. Club: Bob Dylan is putting out The Bootleg Series Vol 8.

This one — subtitled Tell Tale Signs — concentrates on rare and unreleased music from 1989 – 2006, and can actually be seen as a companion to the very first Bootleg Series, especially since one of the songs on Tell Tale Signs is another version of “Series of Dreams,” one of the more talked-about tracks from that first collection, put out nearly 20 years ago.

It probably goes without saying that I love Dylan’s Bootleg Series discs, even if they contain songs I’ve already heard, because not only is the quality top-notch, there are always surprises. I’m very much looking forward to discovering what this one has in store. Best of all, as anybody who has the Genuine Basement Tapes knows, there’s always more where that came from.

Yet, this time, there is a problem.

Bootleg Series

Certain Songs #73: Bob Dylan – “Walkin’ Down The Line”

How The Bootleg Series 8 Will Lead to More Bob Dylan Piracy