Page by: Author / Chronologer  Craig Pinkerton

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Great White Wonder   1Aa
source: Various 

Side one: 
Candy Man 
Ramblin' 'round 
Black Cross 
Ain't got no Home 
Death of Emmett Till 
Poor Lazarus 

Side two: 
New Orleans rag 
If you Gotta Go, Go Now 
Only a Hobo 
Sitting on a barbed wire fence 
Mighty Quinn (take 1) 
This Wheel's on Fire 

Side three: 
Baby Please Don't Go 
Interview by Pete Seeger 
Dink's Song 
See that my Grave is kept Clean 
East Orange New Jersey 
Man of Constant Sorrow 

Side four: 
I shall be Released 
Open the door, Homer (take 1) 
Too Much of Nothing (take 2) 
Nothing was Delivered (take 1) 
Tears of Rage (take 2) 
Living the Blues 

Sources:
Sides 1 & 3: All 'Minnesota Hotel tape' material (Minneapolis, Dec. '61) except: 
Interview from Broadside show 3-62 
Side 4: All Basement tape material except: 
'Living' - Johnny Cash Show May 1 1969 
Side 2: The six songs here, in order, are from: 
'Another Side' outtake June '64 
'65 outtake released as single 
'Times' outtake '63 
'Highway 61' outtake '65 
Basement tape '67 
Basement tape '67 

View: 
Next GWW release
Approximately
½ Of GWW
Berkeley version
Contraband version
Rocolian version
TMQ version 
Other versions

Read the 1969 'Rolling Stone' article about the release of this first bootleg album
© 1998 CD Pinkerton bobsboots.com
View enlarged images below

Front Cover
Album
Information: 
One of the most famous bootlegs of all time.  This is the first bootleg ever to be produced in the rock-and-roll era. Great White Wonder was originally released in the United States in July of 1969.  There was  little on this piece to identify it to the world.  It came out in a blank white gatefold cover, with blank white labels.  The only identifying mark whatsoever is the matrix number:  GF 001/2/3/4.  (gwa 1Aa version 1).  The name 'Great White Wonder' probably actually began as a joke when retailers needed to come  up with a name for this blank white album.  The term quickly became synonymous with Dylan in the bootleg  world however, and has since been used many, many times to refer to either the man or his work. © 1998 CD Pinkerton bobsboots.com

Later in the year this famous album was repressed.  This second repress, (gwa 1Aa version 2 )  can be identified only by the addition of the number "2" carved after the matrix on all four sides of the LP. 
© 1998 CD Pinkerton bobsboots.com
At about the same time that the album first made its appearance in the United States, a Swedish pressing began circulating in Europe.  The differences in this album and the previous is that this one had a very thin blank white gatefold cover, and a machine-stamped matrix BD 101 A/B. (gwa 1Ab).  It is not impossible that this is actually the first "Great White Wonder". 
© 1998 CD Pinkerton bobsboots.com
Towards the end of the year, one of the above pieces began appearing in the east coast of the United States in two separate blank white covers.  The matrix number has been completely scratched out, so it is not sure exactly which piece this is, or if it is actually a different pressing. 
This set is known as gwa 1Ac.© 1998 CD Pinkerton bobsboots.com
Hot Wacks, the book that  tries to chronicle bootlegs by every artist, claims that there is an original version of the above album with fewer songs.  It is doubtful, however, that this actually exists.© 1998 CD Pinkerton bobsboots.com

The quality on all of the above pieces is similar, and fairly good.  As the same master plates were used over and over, sound quality began to deteriorate somewhat. 

While these pieces, pressed in the last year of the decade, are fairly easy to chronicle ... things start getting a little more complicated from here on out.  There are no fewer than fifty separately identifiable albums that have either copied this material directly, or have released this material in varying qualities under the same title.© 1998 CD Pinkerton bobsboots.com
6 stars      NMP175

gwa 1Aa / b / c
Matrix: GF 001/2/3/4 
 

 
© 1998 CD Pinkerton bobsboots.com