Expecting Rain

Even if we did, chances are he'd google up some wild story out of an obscure out-of-print book out of which to fabricate his reply. He's not exactly known for historical accuracy.

>>So I guess no-one could drop Bob a quick email to get him to straighten this one out for us? =)


It seems Dylan always responds in reverse opposition so I would frame the question like-
"Whatever you do, Bobby, don't tell anyone where the "Ramblin' Round Tape" was recorded"

I think that's the best approach. It used to be called "child psychology".

By the way, on the second tape, in the Guthrie songs 'VD blues', 'VD waltz' etc, what does 'VD' stand for? And what are those songs? (Are they meant to go together as a set, or...?)

V.D. = venereal disease

Thanks.

By the way, does anyone know if we're sure of the timing of the first recording? Is it definitely in May or could it have been earlier? I'm surprised that the influence of John Lee Hooker is so visible on the second recording and not the first one, which, if done in May, would have been straight after Dylan supported Hooker at Gerde's in April...

Anyone know if it could have been done a little before his gigs with Hooker?

ahh, to be young, naive and innocent again!

To be fair, it's a rather outdated term. They're STIs or STDs these days.

Do they still call Gonorrhea "the clap"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeyipYTS ... ata_player

No ideas on this one then?

By the way, Dylan today is on the cover of a French daily paper! Because of the soon-to-open exhibition about him at the Cité de la Musique, Paris.

"Those songs," usually known as the "VD Quartet," have an interesting history. See

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=49371&p=770634

I've still never been able to determine exactly how - or why - Guthrie came to write them, although I lean to the theory that he may have been commissioned by the U.S. Dept. of Health. The "Quartet" is actually either a sextet or septet, as there are at least six songs dealing with VD in the Guthrie archives.

Thanks Fred for the info, and thanks kikjess for the link - I do believe there are still people out there who collect printed stuff. I'm one of them.

I see the enterprising exploiters at ISIS are selling their new bootleg of the May 1961 Ramblin' Round tape, giving people the opportunity to pay 30 dollars for what went around for free, plus a picture and a blurb.

The blurb will surely say "best available copy", which always means the best THEY had available, which in this case seems to be not very good.

For fairness' sake, this is not an ISIS / Chrome Dreams product, they're just selling it the way they're selling other releases, because the recording just entered the public domain in the UK, which is where they are.

You say "fair" I say "naive".

I believe ISIS is making this disk and several other disks they sell. The bigger giveaway was the Folksingers Choice bootleg they "only carried", with liner notes by "Bailey Derrick" or somesuch.

Also, I believe this pressing is not yet available anywhere else.

They also sell other disks with older tracks by Guthrie and others.

It's not a pretty sight.

Point taken. I guess legality is the keyword here. They can reach a reasonably big market with these things, and noone's gonna stop them.

Still their selling the Weberman DVD (which they did not produce) is offending me far worse than this.