Bob Dylan, 1963
The release of Bob Dylan's second studio album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan proved to be an immediate success for the up-and-coming folk singer. It was universally critically acclaimed and he was soon considered "the most vital of the younger citybillies". He recorded well over 30 songs for the album, cutting it down to the best 13. Unfortunately, however, initial copies of the album were quickly recalled and substituted by a new tracklisting, which removed the songs "Rocks and Gravel", "Let Me Die in My Footsteps", "Talkin' John Birch Blues" and "Rambling Gambling Willie", replacing them with "Masters of War", "Girl From the North Country", "Talkin' World War III Blues" and "Bob Dylan's Dream".
"I was surprised when they pulled those songs off the album like that. They basically just told me they were changing the tracklisting to have some of my newer songs on it, which I didn't really mind but I still wanted those songs out there."
- Bob Dylan, 2011
The young folkie insisted to the label to keep the songs that were taken down from the album preserved in some form. The record label compromised, releasing the four songs in the form of an EP, released some months after the album.
“Columbia did a pretty shitty job of promoting the thing, though I guess I can chalk that up to EPs not really being a popular format.”
- Bob Dylan, 2011
Four by Bob Dylan
Side A
01. Rocks and Gravel (2:21) [1]
02. Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie (4:11) [1]
Side B
03. Talkin' John Birch Blues (3:45) [1]
04. Let Me Die in My Footsteps (4:05) [1]
Released: June 10th, 1963
Released: June 10th, 1963
Track sources:
[1] - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, 1963 (original pressing)
The Beach Boys, 1963
1963 was a prolific and successful year for The Beach Boys. Having released two successful albums and scoring hits with the likes of "Surfin' USA", "Shut Down", "Surfer Girl", and "Little Deuce Coupe", it only made sense for their record company, Capitol Records, to want more material out of the band. The band hastily went into the recording studio days before their studio album Surfer Girl was set to release, recording 8 new songs bassist Brian Wilson had been working on as a response to the Capitol various artists compilation Shut Down. However, Capitol was unsure of releasing an album with previously released material, afraid that in particular the inclusion of the songs "Shut Down" and "409" would eat away at the profits from their own Shut Down album. As such, the band hastily recorded four more songs, two instrumental, and submitted the album under the name Shut Down, Vol. 2. The album was released only five weeks after their previous Surfer Girl, peaking at number 4.
Shut Down, Vol. 2
01. Shut Down, Part 2 (2:07) [1]
02. Custom Machine (1:38) [2]
03. Ballad of Ole' Betsy (2:15) [2]
04. Be True to Your School (2:06) [2]
05. Car Crazy Cutie (2:47) [2]
06. Cherry Cherry Coupe (1:47) [2]
Side B
07. All Dressed Up for School (2:24) [3]
08. In the Parkin' Lot (2:01) [1]
09. Spirit of America (2:23) [2]
10. No-Go Showboat (1:54) [2]
11. A Young Man is Gone (2:15) [2]
12. Denny's Drums (1:56) [1]
Released: October 14, 1963
Track sources:
[1] - Shut Down, Volume 2, 1964
[2] - Little Deuce Coupe, 1963
[3] - Little Deuce Coupe, 1963 (1990/2001 reissue)
Author's notes:
Hey folks. Sorry for the wait on this one. It took me a while because I wanted to do something with The Beach Boys for 1963 (in this case, the Little Deuce Coupe album without repeated material) however I didn't feel like that was enough for it's own post. Even then it took me a while to figure out exactly what to do with the album in a way that it still thematically works, and I think I came up with a pretty decent tracklist. I know I said I planned on posting two posts a month, however I don't think that'll be the case this month, however things should pick up from here on out. Thank you for reading.
I recently moved over from Windows to Manjaro which means I can't access Paint.NET so while I figure out GIMP comfortably I'm going to be outsourcing album covers, which I might keep doing from time to time. Credit goes to Feromount for the Shut Down, Vol. 2 cover, and to Reign (who also has a blog of his own) for the Four by Bob Dylan cover.
