Never-Heard '60s Dylan Tapes #2 & 3: San Francisco 1964 & Berkeley 1965

November 27, 1964 - Masonic Memorial Auditorium, San Francisco, CA / April 3, 1965 - Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA

Photo courtesy Sunny Chanel

Today, I continue my examination of the recently-discovered Ray Andersen Dylan tapes at the Bob Dylan Archives. In part one I shared the story behind the tapes, and how they surfaced after decades. In part two, I wrote about the earliest tape, a stunning document of a legend-making show in Berkeley 1964.

This installment will cover the second and third tapes. They are, to refresh your memory:

• November 27, 1964 - Masonic Memorial Auditorium, San Francisco, CA

• April 3, 1965 - Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA

With the caveat that any newly-unearthed Dylan concert tape from the '60s is to be treasured, I was slightly less enamored with these two than with either the one I wrote about before or the one I’ll write about next. I’ll explain what’s on both tapes today, and why they don’t quite hit the heights of the other two to me.

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November 27, 1964 - Masonic Memorial Auditorium, San Francisco, CA

First up, San Francisco 1964. There’s a different tape of this show already circulating—it was released on the 1964 copyright set—which is one reason that this recording pales a bit next to Berkeley 1964 (but what wouldn’t? That tape was amazing.) However, this recording comes in better sound quality. It’s not night and day, but I was able to A/B test them a little, and it’s a definite step up.

It also includes four songs not on the circulating tape. Here are the songs, and the notes I jotted down in the Archives about each performance:

• “Mr. Tambourine Man”: Standard version

• “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues”: Crazy he’s still doing this after he called it a bad song months earlier in Berkeley. Lively harp intro. Still selling it though. Sounds great. Big laughs.

• “To Ramona”: Belting. Best singing so far. Wild harp too.

• “It Ain’t Me Babe” (w/ Joan Baez): They’re laughing when the tape kicks in. Was some BobTalk cut? Audience laughs at something unclear after “made of stone.” Not an obvious laugh line, so I’m assuming Bob or Joan did something amusing we can’t hear. Repeats ending chorus for big finish.

November 27, 1964 comes less than a month after the famous Halloween show released on Live 1964, and this tape feels and sounds quite similar. That might be another reason I wasn’t quite so high on it. All ten of the songs here were also performed at that show, and in a similar fashion. Baez duets on the same songs there too, among others.

Also, in stark contrast with Berkeley 1964 earlier in the year, BobTalk is almost nonexistent here. He simply says the name of the song, then starts to play it. Whether that’s because he didn’t actually say much, or because the taper pressed pause in between songs to preserve tape, is unclear.

Here’s the full list of what’s on the tape. The other six songs are all also on the other tape (though, again, the sound quality is somewhat improved on this).

1. Gates of Eden

2. If You Gotta Go, Go Now

3. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

4. Mr. Tambourine Man

5. Talkin’ World War III Blues

6. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

7. Mama, You Been on My Mind (w/ Joan Baez)

8. Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues

9. To Ramona

10. It Ain’t Me Babe (w/ Joan Baez)

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April 3, 1965 - Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA

Next up, the second never-heard-in-any-form-before show. Which is exciting! Less exciting: This is the worst-sounding tape of the bunch. A lot of hiss and clicks. It’s listenable, but not great. I imagine an audio engineer could polish this up and make it really special, but what I was listening to was just a digital transfer of the raw tape, and it was noticeably poorer than the other three.

I hope they do clean it up too, because it’s another historic show. This is one of the first shows since Bringing It All Back Home was released a week prior. It features the second known performance of “She Belongs to Me” and the third known performance of “Love Minus Zero/No Limit.”

Here’s the setlist, with the listening notes I took at the Archives:

• “It’s Alright Ma”: Focused, mesmerizing. He rips through all these wordy lines. Barely playing guitar while singing; sometimes almost a cappella. “Hole that he’s in” gets a big laugh from the crowd.

• “Love Minus Zero”: Beautiful harp intro. And another in the middle too. Big Harp Energy.

• “Talkin’ World War III Blues”: Surprisingly huge applause at start. Because it’s coming after two songs the audience didn’t know maybe? Wild harmonica. More big laughs for “Robert Frost said that.”

• “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”: Big recognition applause here too. The yelled version. One of those harp solos where he tries to hit every note on the instrument (complimentary?)

• “With God on Our Side”: Feels pedestrian, a bit phoned in. Is this one of those shows where he’s tired of the old stuff and anxious to get to what’s next? Except harp is still good. Just sings “Russians,” doesn’t add a bunch of other nationalities like he does in other shows.

• “She Belongs to Me”: Now we’re talking. Mesmerizing vibe again. Doesn’t fit with “With God” or other early stuff. Shoulda just done Bringing It All Back Home songs here, like drawing a line in the sand.

• “To Ramona”: Not (as) new, but seems to fit that vibe too. It’s the way he’s performing it. Languid, dreamlike, drifting. Great harmonica solo, psychedelic.

And that’s the third tape. I’m guessing this is not the complete show—seven songs is shorter than he was doing at the time, and I could hear cuts between songs (which also means whatever BobTalk might have happened was unfortunately not captured).

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Next up: The final tape, and the only electric one of the batch, from the lesser-known Fall ’65 Hawks tour.