Date: Sat, 29 Jul 1995 14:21:36 -0500 From: "P. Bauer" (pbauer@BLUE.WEEG.UIOWA.EDU> Subject: Sources of Information about Sandy Gant? An article in the most recent issue of *The Telegraph* (John Roberts, *Dear Landlord: The A.J. Weberman Story*, 51 Telegraph 78-91 (Spring 1995)) includes the following description of the origin of a large number of early Dylan source tapes: "[S]uch was Weberman's fervor that he soon built up the greatest Dylan collection of his time, ... and most preciously, unreleased tape recordings. Here, Weberman found an ally, a tape-hungry fan called Sandy Gant. Almost all of the earliest tapes to come into circulation among collectors can be traced directly to Sandy Gant, who passed them on to Weberman, who himself passed them on to others eager to hear them. A.J. was happy to share the tapes with anyone who cared to send him a few dollars to cover the costs of tape and postage. The reason that you have tapes today of Dylan at New York Town Hall in 1963, at the Philharmonic Hall in 1964, recording demos for Leeds Music in 1962 and much more is that Sandy Gant took the trouble to 'liberate' them, and A.J. Weberman was happy to share his good fortune with others without thought of material gain." (pp. 83-84) I'd like to learn more about Mr. Gant and any known details of his "liberation" techniques. I've checked a number of biographies (Shelton, Heylin, Scaduto, and Spitz) and Expecting Rain's Who's Who to no avail. Anyone with suggestions about other places to check? Thanks in advance. Pat Bauer (patrick-bauer@uiowa.edu)
Subject: Sandy Gant From: Shiphour (shiphour@aol.com) Date: 17 Jun 1999 21:19:55 GMT Browsing through the dusty and wife-agitating Shiphour archives, I stumbled upon a yellowed clipping from the Village Voice of May 12, 1975. The title is "Dylanophile" and it looks like it may have been part of some kind of random notes column in the paper; no author is listed. Anyway, to preserve it for the HWY-61 archives in cyberspace, if nothing else, here 'tis. Dylanophile Sandy Gant sees himself as the curator of a large museum filled with the works of one man. The artist is Bob Dylan, and Gant's edifice is a 17-page computer printout discography of the singer's recorded performances. Now Sandy takes his work very seriously. The last thing he would want to be called is a fan. The 35-year-old computer programmer feels he's simply acting as a musical historian. He originally started his project in 1968 when the welter of bootlegged Dylan tapes, concert and club recordings, began to surface. "I felt there was a lot of misinformation floating around," he recalls. "Tapes were being lost, poor quality dubs were being made. I felt I should just paint a white line on the highway." "I don't want the discography sensationalized. I'm not the only one responsible for this documentation. Dozens of people have helped me put it together." Listed on the green-striped read-out that Gant sent me last week is every single Dylan recording that Sandy has been able to personally authenticate. "I won't add an entry unless I've heard the tape myself," he said. "And I have copies of practically everything." In the course of his collations, Sandy has talked to practically every self-styled Dylanologist from garbage-combing A.J. Weberman to the Torah-thumping Stephen ("Dylan is just a Jewish mystic") Pickering. "If you asked me which was crazier, I couldn't tell you," commented Gant. But everyone has contributed a fact here or a rumor there, so that Sandy's discography is now in its 100th edition, and includes such obscure moments in the composer's life as a 1961 tape of 23 songs recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a '66 interview in Sweden, a harmonica-playing stint for Booker T. and the MG's, and a '71 phone conversation with Weberman. Of course, Gant's project is still incomplete. He's now begun to sell copies of the discography ($2 from Box 21, Brooklyn, New York 11217), but he'd like people to write him about any recordings he might not have heard about. He isn't in the business of selling copies of the recordings in his archives, although he implied that occasionally he gives a few away. "I do treat the people who help out the project pretty generously," he said. "But basically I publish this, losing several hundreds of dollars a year on it, just to keep the record straight. But I don't want this blown out of proportion. The same thing happens all the time in jazz. I wouldn't want it to turn out any different than if this listing were about Louis Armstrong."
Subject: Re: Sandy Gant From: Bob Stacy (bstacy@usit.net) Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 02:48:14 GMT ... Thanks, Ship, for dusting off the archives and riding us back in history. And a big, big thanks to Sandy Gant wherever he may be. Those early Gant discographies (trusty old mainframe printouts) were among the most treasured of bibles, like roadmaps to the soul. Yep, quite a few may have lended a helping hand, but Sandy was the driving force and glue that compiled and bound it all together. A white line painter if ever there was one. -Bob Stacy
