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Rundown Rehearsal Tapes
source:  Rundown Recordings from 1978

Tracks:
Disc one
Like A Rolling Stone *(1)
It's All Over Now Baby Blue (1)
It's All Over Now Baby Blue (2)
Blowin In The Wind
Maggie's Farm
Like  A Rolling Stone (2)
The Man In Me
To Ramona
Most Likely You Go Your Way
Simple Twist Of Fate
Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat
If Not For You
I Threw It All Away
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Going Going Gone
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome
Simple Twist Of Fate
My Babe*
Like A Rolling Stone (3)*
Disc two
Just Like A Woman (1)*
Just Like A Woman  (2)*
Blowin' In The Wind  (1)
Blowin' In The Wind  (2)
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight *
The Man In Me *
You're A Big Girl Now *
Don't Think Twice *
I Threw It All Away *
Love Minus Zero *
Maggie's Farm *
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Simple Twist Of Fate *
To Ramona *
If You See Her Say Hello *
Disc three
I Don't Believe You 
Going Going Gone *
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
The Times
If You See Her Say Hello
The Man In Me
I Don't Believe You
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
You're A Big Girl Now
Knockin' On Heavens Door
It's Alright Ma
Forever Young
Repossession Blues
One Of Us Must Know
Girl Of The North Country 
Disc four
We'd Better Talk This Over
Coming From The Heart
I Threw It All Away
Maggie's Farm
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Simple Twist Of Fate
To Ramona
If You See Her Say Hello
I Don't Believe You
Love Minus Zero
Stop Now (1)
Stop Now (2)
Coming From The Heart (2)
Bonus:
Am I Your Stepchild?
Do Right To Me Baby
Coming From The Heart (3)
More Than Flesh And Blood
Review:
Stunning!! This eagerly anticipated 4 CD release truly delivers. Excellent soundboard tapes of most recordings. It includes 2 Booklets and a poster. Absolutely 100% superb package. The photos are incredible. There is also quite a bit of * new to CD material, all in as good a sound as exists. The only minor package problem is that disc 2 is mislabeled as disc 1. This gives the false impression of there being two disc #1s... but the second disc contains the disc 2 material. (To be on the safe side, check the catalog number at the right side of each disc. The true disc 1 is catalog GDD009. Disc 2 is GDD010). The included information is incredible as well. Edited from the sleve notes: this set compiles all of the known recordings from the month and a half of rehearsals that preceded the 115 date world tour of 1978. Held at a small converted two story rehearsal space in downtown Santa Monica that was the legendary Rundown Studio.  It also includes, for the first time, more than a full CD's worth of previously uncirculated recordings from the desk tapes of then engineers Arthur Rosato and Joel Bernstein. The newly circulated songs are asterisked accordingly *.  The first CD opens with one of those new recordings, a full blown arrangement of Like A Rolling Stone that's quite different from the one utilized on the tour.
Note: 8 tracks on this 4cd set are (most likely) unintentionally repeated - Disc Two - Maggie's Farm, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Simple Twist Of Fate, To Ramona, If You See Her Say Hello, I Threw It All Away, Love Minus Zero,   Disc Three - I Don't Believe You - these tracks reappear on Disc Four with very different sound characteristics (i.e. although they are very different mixes taken from different source tapes, they are in fact the same performances). It's likely that a source tape mis-attribution is to blame for this error. 
This set has been reissued in the Far East with identical packaging, but with four full color picture disc CDs.

Thanks to Ian Stafford for scans
Thanks to Ramblin' Man for info
Thanks to Mike McGarr for info
© 2002 Ramblin' Man/ CD Pinkerton Bobsboots.com
View enlarged images below

Front
CD 1&2
Poster
Back
Book One:
Front
Inside
Back
CD 3
Book Two:
Front
Inside
Back
CD 4
Information:
source:
DISC 1:
Track # 1: January 1978 
02 - 14: December 30, 1977 
15 - 17: Early January 1978 
18 - 19 : January 1978
DISC 3:
1-2:   January 1978
3-12: January 30, 1978 
13-15: February 1, 1978
DISC 2: 
January 1978
DISC 4:
1-10: April 1978
11: June 8, 1978
12: May 2, 1978
13: May 1, 1978
Disc 4 Bonus live tracks: 14: Oakland, November 13, 1978 
                           15: Miami, December 16, 1978 
                           16: St.Paul, MN, October 31
17: (Not listed on package) More Than Flesh And Blood (Written By  Dylan/Springs)   Studio recording, unknown date (post 1978)  and location. Performed By Helena   Springs.

Manufacturer / Catalog No.
White Bear   /GDD  009/010/011/012
This set was reissued by a Japanese company, using the same packaging as this original White Bear release.
 
Released:
May 2002
reissued in July
Quality:
8 stars
Other commercial releases of Rundown
Darkness at the Break of Noon
Moving Violation
Rundown Rehearsal (reissue)
Rundown To Maggie
Download covers for printing
single
double
double
double
double
Bob's Boots ref  # BB-r32

Edited From Sleeve Venue Info:
The first CD opens with an arrangement of Like A Rolling Stone that's quite different from the one utilized on the tour itself, before introducing a first ever CD transfer of the complete December 30th 1977 tape.  This particular rehearsal comes at a time when the touring band was still in a state of flux, with Denny Siewell on drums, Jesse Ed Davis on guitar and Katie Segal and Debbie Dye Gibson on backing vocals.  It also features Dylan figuring out a piano arrangement of It's all over now baby blue, as well as versions of three songs that failed to appear on the tour; Most likely you go your way, Leopard skin pill box hat and If not for you.  Though this is a first generation digital transfer of the cassette master, this is one recording not from the mixing console, but recorded by one of the musicians with a boom box. (hence the slightly recessed vocals).  However, it remains a fascinating insight into the embryonic stage of rehearsals at this point.
Tracks 15-17 on the first CD gain come from a first-gen digital transfer of a tape that has generally only circulated in mediocre quality, from high generational recordings.  This session featured a different drummer, (Bruce Gary), as well as a unique 1978 arrangement of the Blood On The Tracks classic You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.  Finally, the CD concludes with a teaser of the goodies to be found on CD2... a previously uncirculated take of the old blues standard My Babe.
The second CD continues in the same vein, and features a full disc worth of uncirculated gems (save for versions of  Blowin In The Wind and Ballad Of A Thin Man previewed on the legendary Genuine Bootleg Series: Third One Now set.  Every song is presented complete, with false starts kept to a minimum, and a number of outstanding arrangements from the early 1978 shows are first realized here (notably I Threw It All Away, The Man In Me and If You See Her Say Hello. The latter is a  magnificent arrangement that, thankfully, is represented in three separate guises on this collection (given the paucity of actual live performances)... it never made it past the first four gigs!!). These recordings feature the backing vocalists Helena Springs and Jo Ann Harris, although the drummer(s) is unknown. 
The third CD concludes these new recordings with fully realized versions of I Don't Believe You and Going Going Gone.  These are followed by what many Dylan fans choose as their favorite Dylan rehearsal recording, bar none... the January 30th 1978 tape. Again, it has been transferred from the master cassette direct to DAT. It has never before sounded this good!  Continuing with some important arrangements discarded early in the tour; Tomorrow Is A Long Time, and Knockin' On Heavens Door receive their definitive renditions.  A lovely play-through experience which concludes, fittingly, with a new transfer from a first generation cassette of the equally renowned three song tape from two days later that Dylan personally gave to a reporter who was interviewing him for a cover story on Renaldo and Clara. The February 1st rendition of Repossession Blues is another holy grail recording for the bobcat fraternity, here transferred in all of its' pre-Dolby, original, expansive glory.
The fourth CD jumps ahead to the end of the first leg of the tour, and the recruitment of a new bass player/ bandleader, Jerry Scheff. (of Elvis Presley fame).  Scheff replaces a disenchanted Rob Stoner.  This so called Scheff Audition tape appears here in a new transfer from a first generation cassette, and features two new Dylan compositions in incomplete but fascinating versions.  We'd Better Talk This Over will appear in a matter of days at the Street Legal sessions, but with some subtle lyric changes. Coming From The Heart will have no such luck, despite being the best of the songs co-written with backing singer Helena Springs.  However, just to show the song in all of its 
stages and splendor, at the end of the audition tape is a complete recording from the Rundown made immediately after the Street Legal sessions. Along side it are two distinctly different recordings of the Dylan-Springs unreleased original Stop Now
The Bonus Tracks rounding out this overview of the Alimony Tour Rehearsals are three notable forms of Dylan originals debuted on the American leg of the tour. Do Right To Me Baby
and Coming From The Heart are one-off 1978 debuts. Do Right, would of course, would be the first public performance of  a Slow Train song.  Finally, there is a soundboard recording of Am I Your Stepchild? from the Oakland show.  This particular performance, which is quite different from the version on Genuine Bootleg Series Vol.1, was apparently used for copyright. More Than Flesh And Blood (Written By  Dylan/Springs)  is the final track, but it's not listed on the package. It's a studio recording, unknown date (post 1978) and location. Performed By Springs.

So there you have it. Songs and arrangements are raw and reborn from one of Dylan's most overlooked years -- when he played to something close to 3 million people in a single year, and wowed just about every one of them.  Oh..., and then found Christ.... 

© 2002 Craig Pinkerton - Site by eve, Incorporated