Bob Dylan: NYC 1961-1964

by Ted Russell (Photographer), Donovan (Foreword), Chris Murray (Contributor)

For those who love or have collected early Bob Dylan bootleg albums, an archive of never before published photographs of the young Dylan, when he first moved to New York City in the early 1960s. It was in late 1961, photographer Ted Russell recalls, that he first heard about an "up-and-coming young fellow who was coming out with his first album." A freelance photographer on the lookout for good subjects, Russell was intrigued by a rave review from The New York Times of the raw-voiced folk singer. Russell’s subject was a twenty-year-old Bob Dylan, a young folk singer whom nobody knew, and Russell photographed Dylan in 1961. Bob Dylan is a window into the singer/songwriter who would go on to become one of America’s greatest musical the book contains photos of Dylan in his tiny Greenwich Village apartment, writing and practicing; snuggling with girlfriend Suze Rotolo; and performing at celebrated folk club Gerde’s. Bob Dylan is an important chronicle of the days just prior to Bob Dylan’s celebrity and the perfect tribute both for Dylan and rock history fans.

Genres: Music, Photography, History

144 pages, Hardcover

First published March 24, 2015

Reviews

[Kimmo Sinivuori · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book! Reading it feels like you have access to the service entrance of Valhalla and by entering it you get to see things that mere mortals should not have the right to see and you feel privileged. In this book we can witness the hardship that the normal Dylan encountered before the sky opened up and he became a god. This book is rock'n'roll of the highest order and should be bought by every self respecting music fan!

[Wendelle]

pics of Bobby D as a dorm room-style minstrel, hallway bard with relaxed self-possession and knavish glint in the eye

[Jack Waters · Rating 2 out of 5]

I took two stars away because there is a chronological mistake that, had the author hired me as the editor (wink, wink, future Bob Dylan biographers), could have been avoided.

Though the mistake is only a few weeks off, it's a big enough deal because of how the author frames the mistaken date. Indeed, the referent used to signify the event's mistaken chronology is what makes the event infamous. The photographer writes that he was assigned to an event, the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee's Bill of Rights Dinner in which Bob Dylan received their Tom Paine Award "a few days before the JFK assassination." Dylanophiles know why this dinner is infamous, and thus why this chronology is bunk (the event was December 13, 1963).

Bob Dylan, still early into his career, stunned the audience with his speech: "I got to admit that the man who shot President Kennedy, Lee Oswald, I don't know exactly where -- what he thought he was doing, but I got to admit honestly that I too -- I saw some of myself in him. I don't think it would have gone -- I don't think it could go that far. But I got to stand up and say I saw things that he felt, in me -- not to go that far and shoot. You can boo but booing's got nothing to do with it."

It's easy to see how the mistake was made, and how the editor perhaps justified the mistake. The book shows a scan of the photo assignment's paperwork. The assignment seems to be dated a few days before the assassination.

But the book's paragraph isn't clear enough that the "few days before" refers to the assigning or the assignment; since the event is infamous because of Dylan's bewildering commentary on JFK's assassin in his speech, it should have been rewritten for further clarity at the very least.

It's a big deal because the audience of the book (read: folks like me) is the very same audience that would know this is a mistake. A reader feels let down with such mistakes, especially since there isn't much text in the book (it's a photo book, after all).

The photos (mostly of pre-ascendant Dylan) are lovely and fun, and the introductory poem by Donovan is decent. But the mistake is simply unforgivable.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mostly photos - not a lot of reading. But mostly photos I'd never seen.