Two Great Tastes

March 9, 2005 9:11 AM

Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. "As far as I could determine, this 1969 session features tracks from a CBS Studios session in Nashville, TN that did not see an official release." Nineteen largely unknown MP3s of the two greats singing together.
posted by BackwardsCity (44 comments total)

Whoops. Forgot to say, via the mighty Dust Congress.
posted by BackwardsCity at 9:16 AM on March 9, 2005

Yowza! Thanks, BackwardsCity!

I love bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash!
posted by Corky at 9:17 AM on March 9, 2005

I've had these mp3s for about a year now and had no context. I really dig that version of Careless Love. Thanks, yo.
posted by sciurus at 9:19 AM on March 9, 2005

of course, the first track on Nashville Skyline is from this session, the only one that made the cut
posted by poppo at 9:20 AM on March 9, 2005

I've enjoyed this boot for years... Check out, if you never have, the amazing words Johnny wrote about Bob in the liner notes of the Nashville Skyline album.
posted by LouReedsSon at 9:20 AM on March 9, 2005

[this is good!!!]
posted by jmd82 at 9:23 AM on March 9, 2005

Sorry, fixed link
posted by LouReedsSon at 9:25 AM on March 9, 2005

also of interest from this period of both of their lives are bob appearing on johnny's TV show and a documentary on johnny featuring them doing the session mentioned above

i'm at work so can't provide good streams for you, but scroll towards the bottom of this to see what i'm talking about
posted by poppo at 9:28 AM on March 9, 2005

Saved. To. Disk.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:30 AM on March 9, 2005

great, thanks.
posted by muckster at 9:36 AM on March 9, 2005

Very nice poppo... I have copy of Eat The Document (520MB mpg) where Bob and Johnny are singing at a piano at one point in the film.
posted by LouReedsSon at 9:36 AM on March 9, 2005

oh yeah there are some really great strange moments in that film. the one of bob in a taxi with john lennon is great too. they are both so high they can barely have a conversation
posted by poppo at 9:41 AM on March 9, 2005

i am right now searching desperately for the best johnny cash quote ever about how many cars he's crashed and boats he's sunk
posted by poppo at 9:46 AM on March 9, 2005

That's the one! And of course there's the usual Joan Baez appearences.

It's a decent film in that you get a feel for the personalities in it, and actually watch Bob create.

In Bob we trust.
posted by LouReedsSon at 9:52 AM on March 9, 2005

OMFG, this makes my day. I can't wait to see BD and Merle Haggard in Oakland next week (Tues.) Hope Dylan's not in one of his moods.
posted by prettyboyfloyd at 10:13 AM on March 9, 2005

I've had the Skyline Sessions for years. It's a great document of two of the greats collaborating. It's a testament to both artists' appeal beyond their specific genre. The Rubin Cash records really point up how Cash's music transcended genre. Please, though, I beg you, no-one post a link to "Hurt".
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:15 AM on March 9, 2005

Dylan has replaced multi-instrument player Larry Campbell in his current band with three new people, including a violin player. This latest version of the band is supposed to be a bit more country sounding. Dylan is still playing the piano and not the guitar in concert.

This Cash/Dylan collaboration isn't my favorite, but that is like saying, "That wasn't one of my better orgasms."
posted by flarbuse at 10:26 AM on March 9, 2005

I made a zip file so you can download all the songs at once. Also a .torrent file here.
posted by daHIFI at 10:30 AM on March 9, 2005

Good lookin out, daHIFI.

I'd rather drink muddy water and sleep in a hollow log.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:39 AM on March 9, 2005

This is crazy good. My fav is "Good Ol' Mountain Dew," because I've been singing it as a camp song for years and years. To hear it done by these two... Day made.
posted by PhatLobley at 10:43 AM on March 9, 2005

I have no words for the awesomeness of this...although I think my favorite moment is on That's Alright Momma when Cash tosses it to Bob and he has no idea what the lyrics are so Cash has to nudge him with the first line. Fantastic.

Which brings me to a question for those who have seen the above-mentioned film: Bob sounds timid and uncertain in these songs whereas Johnny is Johnny the Voice of God. Is Dylan just being respectful? Is he stoned to the bejeebus? I've never heard Dylan so cowed. It's strange. Maybe he is still trying out his Nashville Skyline voice and so isn't at 100%?
posted by spicynuts at 10:55 AM on March 9, 2005

Sorry you guys are killing my server and I have to take the .zip down. (What was I thinking anyways...) Yes I know the torrent's not working, I'll have to figure it out later..... Someone else who knows what thier doing should feel free...
posted by daHIFI at 11:10 AM on March 9, 2005

I'm already sharing this link with friends. Very nice stuff... I've always really liked Bob's more country stuff, Nashville Skyline especially. This is great.

Anyone have a line on lossless versions? Tried to do a search but came up with nada, and I'd love to burn these onto a CD. If I can get a lossless copy to work from prior to burning, all that much better...
posted by caution live frogs at 11:12 AM on March 9, 2005

Best link posted to MetaFilter in months. Thanks a million, BackwardsCity.
posted by kjh at 11:28 AM on March 9, 2005

Nice, thanks BackwardsCity!
posted by carter at 11:30 AM on March 9, 2005

awesome, indeed!
posted by gnutron at 11:34 AM on March 9, 2005

Yes! Thanks!
posted by orthogonality at 11:41 AM on March 9, 2005

Not to sound like an etree dork, but here goes, these mp3's really aren't very good quality, It sounds to me like there's a cassete hit or two in the lineage. something like Master Reel > Cassette > Cassette > CD > Rip. much better copies of all this stuff circulate.
posted by Gankmore at 11:46 AM on March 9, 2005

from the notes on the page from which this came "he called one day and asked if I wanted a cassette of the Cash session. He got it from a guy who found it in his attic, in a box marked "BDJC". That guy's father worked for CBS Nashville in 1969 and made a 1 inch mono reel-to-reel copy of the original session tape. He made Chris a cassette from the 1 inch tape. Chris copied the cassette, and gave me the original."

so that'd be

Reel > Mono Reel > Casette

though I think there's even another hit in there. I wonder if Chris didn't keep the original.
posted by Gankmore at 11:54 AM on March 9, 2005

Hehehee! Yay, yay, Bob Dylan faces the same problems all of us face when Trying To Sing a Song He Does Not Know. This makes me feel a little better about the bad recordings I have emitted in my day.
posted by By The Grace of God at 11:56 AM on March 9, 2005

Good, good stuff.
posted by BradNelson at 11:59 AM on March 9, 2005

I was just thinking about dylan today, having listened the prior evening to a CD I'd burned of an in-studio interview he did in 1962, when he was 20 -- it was before he adopted his cryptic, hostile style with journalists, and he sounded pretty much just like a kid in awe of both the artists he loved and this gift (it was becoming apparent) he had. The interviewer is pretty clued in, having known Dylan from back in Minnesota and seen him perform in 1959.
He plays about 8-9 songs in the course of the hour, and the quality is pristine.

Oh, and here it is for d'l. (via our own growabrain)
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:14 PM on March 9, 2005

I created Coralized links. Please, when pointing to stuff like this, be kind to the servers, OK?
posted by dhartung at 12:14 PM on March 9, 2005

I have the Gooding interview with performances that stupidsexyFlanders mentions. It is among my prized Dylan recordings. The performances are very, very good, and the sound quality is very clear.

I would say that his cryptic style with journalists is present there. Dylan is not fond of the truth in interviews or writings. I think that he views it all as art somehow. In that Gooding interview, he talks at length about traveling with the circus and being influenced by the freak show people. I am fairly certain that he never joined the circus, but he is happy to talk at length about it.
posted by flarbuse at 1:01 PM on March 9, 2005

Thanks, two of my favorites together. This is good stuff.
posted by fixedgear at 1:13 PM on March 9, 2005

Thanks backwardscity and stupidsexyflanders, these are great!
posted by verisimilitude at 1:17 PM on March 9, 2005

I fixed the torrent.
(not that it matters now....)
posted by daHIFI at 2:03 PM on March 9, 2005

Brilliant. Thanks.
posted by blag at 3:54 PM on March 9, 2005

gawd that dylan 62 recording is off the hook brill.
posted by alfredogarcia at 3:59 PM on March 9, 2005

Thanx....never ever enough Dylan.
posted by peacay at 6:05 PM on March 9, 2005

BackwardsCity and stupidsexyFlanders: Wondertwin powers activate!

And what flarbuse said: Zim's already the accomplished prevaricator, waffler, derailer in the '62 interview. In addition to the circus story (six years!), he claims to have arrived in Minneapolis from Sioux Falls, SD only three years before - and only then because it was "the only place you didn't have to go too far to find the Mississippi River..."
posted by Matching Mole at 12:52 AM on March 10, 2005

stupidsexyFlanders: What happened to Track 5? 6 is there but it isn't linked (found it by just trying 6.mp3, to see if it was there or not). 6 is conversation. 5 is supposed to be "Tell Me Baby", a Howlin' Wolf song. Somehow is missing...
posted by caution live frogs at 9:30 AM on March 10, 2005

(Apparently track 5 is also variously known as "Smokestack Lightning" or "Lightening" depending on how well the bootlegger can spell...)
posted by caution live frogs at 9:48 AM on March 10, 2005

Thank you..!! So very much!!
posted by Balisong at 11:25 PM on March 10, 2005