Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/answers/rec/music/dylan-faq/part1

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Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan,rec.music.info,rec.answers,news.answers
Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!quads!akp1
From: [e-mail] (Adam K. Powers)
Subject: FAQ: rec.music.dylan Frequently Asked Questions (1 of 2)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: rec.music.dylan
Summary: Information for fans of singer/musician Bob Dylan
Keywords: FAQ, Dylan
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Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 22:10:51 GMT
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         Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), part 1 of 2
             for newsgroup rec.music.dylan
            Please email corrections and suggestions to:
             [e-mail] (Adam K. Powers)
               Last update: 28 February 1994
************************************************************************
CONTENTS:

Part 1 - What is available on Internet? (this article):
    0. What has been changed since the previous posting of the FAQ?
    1. What is rec.music.dylan, anyway?
    2. Glossary of terms and acronyms common to this newsgroup.
    3. Is there a Bob Dylan discography available online, or some
        way to order Dylan CDs via Internet?
    4. Where can I find lyrics, tablature and other Bob Dylan
        information via Internet?
    5. Is there some way that I can get lists of Bob Dylan concert
        tapes and unreleased recordings from past years?
    6. When and where will Bob Dylan be performing next?
    7. What is EDLIS?
    8. What if I want to talk about Dylan on-line at all hours?

Part 2 - Where else can I get information, off-line? (next article):
    9. Where can I buy Bob Dylan collectors' items?
    10. What books about Dylan's life and music are available?
        a. Bob Dylan biographies
        b. Studies of Dylan as a performer, lyricist, etc.
        c. Reference books
    11. Are there magazines about Dylan to which I could subscribe?
    12. I just read an article about Bob Dylan in my newspaper...
    13. What are bootlegs, and how do I find them?
    14. Where can I get a copy of...?

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0. What has been changed since the previous posting of the FAQ?

Nothing.  I plan to make changes once the tape tree is rolling...


1. What is rec.music.dylan, anyway?

Welcome!  This Usenet newsgroup is devoted to the discussion of
Bob Dylan, his music, and things Dylan-related.  We welcome your
comments on nearly any issue, even if it's only tangentially associated
with Bob Dylan.  This newsgroup is not moderated, so anything goes;
but certain subjects are generally frowned upon, such as tirades against
other readers of the newsgroup for their opinions...

Bob Dylan is a singer, a guitar player, a song writer and a
recording artist. Born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Hibbing
Minnesota in 1941, his earliest circulating recordings date from
1958! His earliest recordings on an unofficial bootleg LP date
from 1960, his first commercial release dates from 1962. He
continues to write, record and perform to this day.

There is no official Dylan fan club, so small packs of Dylan fans band
together to stay informed and carry on general discussion.  This
particular Usenet newsgroup was founded mid-1989 by Tom Buckley.

Sometimes it seems that all we're interested in are upcoming tour dates
and clarification of fact regarding old recordings, but there is often
very interesting discussion of Dylan's lyrics themselves, a reason
that no doubt many of you read this newsgroup.  If you don't see the
sort of discussion you want, you're encouraged to bring it up yourself!

If you have no access to Usenet News but you do have Internet
access then you could join a FreeNet in order to make use of free
Usenet News access. For example:

telnet yfn.ysu.edu

username: visitor

follow the instructions for becoming a registered user and then
read rec.music.dylan whenever you please.

The majority of readers access this group through a newsreader
(such as rn on Unix systems), but there is also a digestified format
that is sent to many others via email.  If you'd rather read in that
format (a long email sent to you once or twice daily), read this:
************************

** FOR YOUR REFERENCE ** (Highway 61 Digest)

The service addresses, to which questions about the list itself
and requests to be added to or deleted from it should be directed,
are as follows:

    Internet: [e-mail]
              [e-mail]

    BITNET:   HW61-Req@Virginia
    UUCP:     ...!uunet!virginia!highway61-request

You can send mail to the entire list (and rec.music.dylan) via one
of these addresses:

    Internet: [e-mail]
    BITNET:   HW61@Virginia
    UUCP:     ...!uunet!virginia!highway61
************************
The Highway 61 Digest is maintained by Doug Poulin <[e-mail]>

If you lack Usenet news access and want to post, simply e-mail
your posting to:

[e-mail]
   ^     ^
   N.B. - NOT . or _ / hyphens not full stops or underscores!


2. Glossary of terms and acronyms common to this newsgroup.

All areas of knowledge develop jargon and acronyms which inevitably
serve to keep outsiders out and to confuse newcomers. Medical
doctors complicate the simplest things with needlessly difficult
terms and abbreviations, computer experts often make the easy
inaccessible to newcomers with obscure terms and abbreviations
by trying to 'simplify' communications, management consultants...
Well, you get the picture.  People with a serious and debilitating
Dylan habit can also develop these tendencies.
Watch for the following obscure terms...

#Dylan = The name of the Dylan channel on irc.

BoB = Blonde on Blonde [1966] [not a typo for "Bob"!]

BotT = Blood on the Tracks [1974]

BIABH = Bringing It All Back Home [1965]

boot = bootleg

bootleg = circulating copy of officially unreleased material in any
form.  The term is probably derived from 'bootleg' liquor, which
was sometimes smuggled in bottles strapped to one's leg during
Prohibition in the United States, 1918-1933.

Bootleg Series = The Bootleg Series 1961-1991, Rare and Unreleased,
Volumes 1-3 [1991] - not to be confused with 'bootleg' above, this is
an official release that reveals many songs and performances from
throughout Dylan's career that were previously available only on
bootleg media.  The liner notes of this boxed set mention that further
volumes would be released, but no reliable source has been able to
determine if and when this might actually happen...

BTW = By the way...

EDLIS = Exchange of Dylan Lyrics - Internet Service
[see question 7, below, for more information on EDLIS]

GAIBTY = Good As I Been To You [1992]

H61R = Highway 61 Revisited [1965]

Hurricane = The lead-off single from Desire [1976], which tells
Dylan's rather loose interpretation of the murder trial of boxer
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter; Carter is today a free man in Canada after
having endured a convoluted series of mistrials and legal wrangling.

IMO = In my opinion...

IMHO = In my humble opinion...

irc = Internet Relay Chat, an international live real-time
conferencing system with a channel called #Dylan.
[see question #8, below]

JWH = John Wesley Harding [1967]  This album (and its title track)
were mis-named after outlaw John Wesley Hardin.  Dylan's song
has very little to do with the story of the real Hardin; instead,
it's basically just a spin-off of Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd."
Some Dylan fans note the religious bent of this album and claim that
the initials 'JWH' really refer to the Judeo-Christian deity...

Krogsgaard = Krogsgaard's 1991 reference book, Positively Bob Dylan
[listed below in question 10c]. A Krogsgaard number would be in a form
such as [7/201]. This refers to item seven in the Krogsgaard listing
for event 201. Badly addicted rec.music.dylan readers can be told such
a number and then immediately sing the relevant item without reference
to the Krogsgaard book itself!

pirate = Illegal copy of officially released material.

smiley =  An unusual punctuation device, presumably employed only by
computer-users, which looks like a sideways smiley-face:  :-)
A smiley usually means that a comment or article has been written
in jest, and should be read accordingly.  A common variant is ;-)
with the 'winking' eye.  There are many, many variants on the smiley,
and most are used to represent the flairs of spoken language that are
often hard to perceive in text.  :-(

tape tree = A 'pyramid' method of distributing tapes organized
by someone with a good or unusual tape that begs to be circulated.
That person posts an announcement to the newsgroup, asking people
to send email to him to sign up.  He collects the names of those
interested, and creates a 'tree' such that no one has to make an
excessive number of copies, and people with better tape decks make copies
for those without, etc.  The original tape is the 'seed'.  Those who
receive copies from the seed and make further copies are 'branches', and
those who receive copies from branches but don't copy for anyone else
are the 'leaves'.  Sometimes a person who make copies is called a 'parent'
and one who receives copies is a 'child'.  Each person who receives tapes
is expected to send tapes of other events in return to his/her branch.
If blanks are sent in lieu of recorded tapes, the person sending blanks is
expected to pay postage for both the tapes that he sends and the ones he
will receive; another method is to send double the number of blank tapes
to recorded tapes...

T-999 = Numbers like these are Townsend numbers.

Townsend number = A three figure number identifying a specific
bootleg CD as cited by Phill Townsend in his Strangers And
Prophets [listed above], or as cited in Isis [listed above].

UTRS = Under The Red Sky [1990]

WGW = World Gone Wrong [1993]

ZZ = someone used to the vi editor in Unix posting from a
different and unfamiliar editor trying to end their posting...


3. Is there a Bob Dylan discography available online, or some
way to order Dylan CDs via Internet?

It is beyond the scope of this document to give a true discography
for Bob Dylan, but here is a list of the standard U.S. release
full-length Bob Dylan albums:

Title                           Released        CD Order #
-----                           --------        ----------
Bob Dylan                       March 1962      CK 8579
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan      May 1963        CK 8786
The Times They Are A-Changin'   January 1964    CK 8905
Another Side of Bob Dylan       August 1964     CK 8993
Bringing it All Back Home       March 1965      CK 9128
Highway 61 Revisited            August 1965     CK 9189
Blonde on Blonde                May 1966        CK 841
Greatest Hits                   March 1967#     CK 9463
John Wesley Harding             December 1967   CK 9604
Nashville Skyline               April 1969      CK 9825
Self-Portrait                   June 1970       C2K 30050
New Morning                     October 1970    CK 30290
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2           November 1971#  C2K 31120
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid     July 1973       CK 32460
Dylan                           November 1973^  CK 32747
Planet Waves                    January 1974    CK 37637
Before the Flood                June 1974'      C2K 37661
Blood on the Tracks             January 1975    CK 33235
The Basement Tapes              June 1975*      C2K 33682
Desire                          January 1976    CK 33893
Hard Rain                       September 1976  CK 34349
Street Legal                    June 1978       CK 35453
At Budokan                      July 1978'~     C2K 36067
Slow Train Coming               August 1979     CK 36120
Saved                           June 1980       CK 36553
Shot of Love                    August 1981     CK 37496
Infidels                        November 1983   CK 38819
Real Live                       December 1984'  CK 39944
Empire Burlesque                June 1985       CK 40110
Biograph                        October 1985#   C3K 38830
Knocked Out Loaded              August 1986     CK 40439
Down in the Groove              May 1988        CK 40957
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1       October 1988    Warner Bros. 9 25796-1
Dylan and the Dead              February 1989'  CK 45056
Oh Mercy                        September 1989  CK 45281
Under the Red Sky               September 1990  CK 46794
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3       October 1990    Warner Bros. 9 26324-1
Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3        March 1991@     C3T 47382
Good As I Been to You           October 1992    CK 53200
World Gone Wrong        October 1993    CK 57590


This is NOT intended to be a complete discography by any means.
Check the discography file at ftp.cs.pdx.edu for more details
on Bob Dylan releases available on compact disc.
[see question 4 for help].

Notes:
'  Live album
#  'Greatest Hits' collection - *most* songs previously released
^  Recorded in 1970, outtakes from Self-Portrait
*  Recorded in 1967!
~  This is the Japanese release date - U.S. release was December 1978
@  Collection of previously unreleased material spanning 1961-1991...


Also of interest are the 30th Anniversary Tribute Concert
double-CD set; and Masterpieces, a triple-CD import collection
that contains a few songs not available elsewhere on CD.

To actually order CDs online, you can try the Compact Disc Connection,
a California-based mail-order company.

telnet holonet.net

username: cdc

Once you're logged in as cdc, the menus are fairly self-explanatory,
and you can make purchases with your credit card.

There have been several 'best album' polls done on the music
newsgroups - the most comprehensive were the 'Usenet Artist Polls'
and are available by anonymous FTP from ftp.uwp.edu in /pub/music/uap
(many polls done on individual artists, not just Dylan).

The Dylan albums most frequently recommended by readers of r.m.d
are _Highway 61 Revisited_, _Blonde on Blonde_, _Blood on
the Tracks_, and _The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3_, although
you'll find staunch fans of nearly every album...

The Dylan you might like depends more on you than on the opinions
of others. You could describe in reasonable detail your musical,
political, religious and sexual tastes, post that on
rec.music.dylan, and ask for advice...

Additional material may be found at the various FTP archives
[see question 4, below].


4. Where can I find lyrics, tablature and other Bob Dylan information
via Internet?

There are three archive sites from which information regarding Bob Dylan
may be obtained by FTP [If the term "ftp" is meaningless to you then ask
a local computer guru to show you what to do...]:

ftp.cs.pdx.edu            (Portland State University)
ftp.uwp.edu            (University of Wisconsin, Parkside)
ftp.nevada.edu            (University of Nevada)

Olof's yearly summaries of Bob Dylan concerts and recordings, plus
a number of transcribed interviews, concert/tape reviews, and similar
documents are available by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.pdx.edu,
in the directory /pub/dylan, and are maintained by Trent Fisher.
This site originated as a replacement to Anthony Kapolka's archives
from the early days of rec.music.dylan, but now includes all of Olof's
archives and other recent files.

Lyrics to a limited number of Bob Dylan songs, plus some guitar
tabs and other information by be found by anonymous FTP from
ftp.uwp.edu, in pub/music/artists/d/dylan.bob.

Guitar tablature to many of Dylan's songs is available by
anonymous FTP from the alt.guitar.tab archives at ftp.nevada.edu,
in /pub/guitar/d/Dylan.Bob, and also /pub/guitar/d/Bob.Dylan (the
separate directories are probably due to an oversight or change).

An anonymous FTP session begins like this - at your prompt, type:

ftp ftp.uwp.edu  [or whatever site you'll be getting files from]

Enter 'anonymous' (without the quotes) when prompted for a login name,
give your computer address as the password.  Use either 'ls' or 'dir'
and 'cd' to find your way to the proper directory.

If you cannot find transcribed music online, you should be able to
find music to all the released albums from good music stores and
suppliers.  For example, the book for Good As I Been to You is
available from Special Rider Music Sales, 8/9 Frith St., London W1V 5TZ.
[Thanks to Frank <[e-mail]> for that info.]


5. Is there some way that I can get lists of Bob Dylan concert
tapes and recordings from past years?

There is one electronic document that makes a good reference guide,
plus one essential book:

#1 - If you've got a little disk space to spare [approx. 1.5
megabytes], you can download Olof's year-by-year Bob Dylan
archive - which lists Dylan's public appearances and recordings,
gives handy reference tables of songs played on tour, and even
lists recommended tapes by tour!  The best part is that it's free
for your own personal use.  Don't try printing it out unless
you've got the time & ribbons - the combined total of all the
files would be on the order of 600 pages...  How do you get it?
ftp ftp.cs.pdx.edu, in the /pub/dylan directory, the
1960.Z through 1993.Z files (they are compressed).

#2 - There is a book called "Positively Bob Dylan" by Michael
Krogsgaard (this book is frequently referred to simply as
'Krogsgaard' on this newsgroup).  This tome numbers Dylan's
various performances and lists the songs performed at each
and every known Bob Dylan recording through early 1991.  There are
always gaps and changes as new tapes surface, but this book is
essential to the serious collector!  It provides a fast,
easy reference for identifying tapes and so on.  The main
disadvantage of such a serious book is that it costs about US$55.
See item 10c below for more information.


6. When and where will Bob Dylan be performing next?

Since official announcements from Dylan's publicity office regarding
tour dates are rare, we have to rely on local people to look for
advertisements or call ticket agencies and then to inform the rest of
us.  If you hear of an upcoming concert in your area, please tell us!
Set-lists from shows that you have seen recently are also appreciated,
even if you don't know the titles of all the songs that were played.

Tour dates are usually posted piece-meal to the newsgroup, and
sometimes these postings will contain conflicting or confusing
information.  If your local ticket agency has no knowledge of a concert
date that you saw announced here, don't give up hope.  Agencies such as
TicketMaster frequently do not know about particular shows until a
few days before they are authorized to sell tickets for that show.
Some concert dates start out as rumors and never materialize, but many
rumors do become fact.  Be patient.

There is no mail-order for Bob Dylan concert tickets.

There are also Dylan hotlines you can ring on the telephone for
the latest information on Bob Dylan events:

USA: 303-243-8025 (The Rolling Tomes Hotline - the operator will
ask you to enter the "hotline access number" located in the lower
right corner of the back cover of the current Rolling Tomes
catalogue. So you must either have seen the catalogue or have
contact with someone who has...  See question 9, below.
A touch-tone telephone is required. The recording is updated at
least weekly, more often when news warrants it.)

UK: 071 385 1114 (The Homer 'warmline', maintained by Andrew Muir.)

UK: Wanted Man offers a hotline service to Telegraph subscribers
[see question 9 for subscription details].


7. What is EDLIS?

The Exchange Dylan Lyrics - Internet Service is an Internet
wide conspiracy to make available Dylan lyrics for the
purposes of research and/or private study.  Lyrics available
are restricted to a reasonable proportion.  Any copying to
evade purchase is wrong.  EDLIS consists of a number of loosely
affiliated individuals who have chosen to horde and distribute
Bob Dylan information.  This service includes, but is not
limited to, information regarding: Bob Dylan song lyrics,
versions of Bob Dylan songs performed by other artists, bootleg
compact discs, and tape trees.

If you post a request for specific lyrics (or for detailed
boot CD information) on rec.music.dylan you might find an
EDLIS agent answers your needs magically in your e-mail box.
In return, EDLIS is always in need of transcribed lyrics and
information on compact discs, old and new.  If you are able to
type in or scan Dylan lyrics not presently available on the
Internet, please do so - the only reason that EDLIS sends you
anything is because others have contributed in the past!


8. What if I want to talk about Dylan on-line at all hours?

If no one in the same room as you wants to chat about Dylan 24
hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year you might think
you have an insatiable desire. But there is relief! IRC!
Internet Relay Chat. On Internet Relay Chat there is always an
international live real-time Dylan conference - usually in
English - waiting for you to join it. At your Unix prompt type:

irc

and once irc is up and running type:

/join #Dylan

and what you type after that will be seen by all the others on
that channel. If all is quiet simply wait until the lull ends or
learn how to invite others in (/invite), change the topic
(/topic) and so on.

Many arrange to meet at #dylan by prior arrangement through
e-mail, setting a time to rendezvous.  Bear in mind the time
zones - discussion tends to ebb and flow with New Zealanders
and Australians starting the day, as they begin to flag
Europeans join, and Americans  are last to come in, though
some #dylan people keep very odd hours indeed.

Treat #dylan like a Paris street cafe.  If you want to be
certain that stimulating, interesting people are there when
you are there, bring them with you.

If Bob Dylan is performing in a country you can try to see
who is on from that country, such as Japan:

/who *.jp

And then use /invite to invite in unsuspecting irc-ers and
ask them about media coverage, whether they are going to the
concerts or know anyone who is, will they be taking a DAT
recorder with them, etc etc etc.

As with all esoteric computer matters, if the command irc is not
available on your computer, simply ask a local computer guru how
to ftp and compile what you need.

You could also logon by telnet to a limited version of irc:

telnet sci.dixie.edu 6668

So long as you have full Internet access something should be possible,
and you can join in on the Dylan discussion via irc...

(end part 1 of 2)
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