Audio: Bob Dylan Records ‘Lily of the West,’ ‘Mr. Bojangles’ & More – June 1970

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In August of 1969, Bob Dylan began the sessions that would result in Self-Portrait, New Morning, Dylan and, many years later, Another Self-Portrait.

The sessions continued into 1970, and during the first five days of June 1970 Dylan recorded many songs at Columbia’s Studio E in New York.

People tend to dismiss the album titled Dylan, but some of these recordings are pretty cool. Give them a listen.

“Lily of the West”:

Lily of the West by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

“Mr. Bojangles”:

Mr. Bojangles by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

“Mary Anne”:

Mary Ann by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

“Big Yellow Taxi”:

Big Yellow Taxi by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

“The Ballad of Ira Hayes”:

The Ballade of Ira Hayes by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

“Can’t Help Falling In Love”:

Can't Help Falling in Love by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

“Sarah Jane”:

Sarah Jane by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

“A Fool Such As I”:

A Fool Such as I by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

“Spanish Is the Loving Tongue”:

Spanish Is the Loving Tongue by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

1 thought on “Audio: Bob Dylan Records ‘Lily of the West,’ ‘Mr. Bojangles’ & More – June 1970”

  1. I’ve long felt that the album was half-good. Personally, I could have done without both of the Elvis covers, as well as the Joni Mitchell song and the sub-standard (when compared to the “Watching The River Flow” b-side) “Spanish Is The Loving Tongue.” “Lily of the West” could have been an early partial inspiration for “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.” My favorite, though, was the rockin’ “Sarah Jane.” On the 1973 vinyl album, the songwriting credit on the label for that song was left blank, leaving me to speculate (I didn’t yet have Odetta’s version) that Dylan had written it for his wife. All I had as far as background was the Scaduto biography, so I didn’t know Sara’s middle name, nor, off-hand, how many children he had, both of which, in hindsight, were clear indications that he hadn’t written it. Still, I believe that something of the spirit of their shared love comes through in the performance. Perhaps that’s why he changed the title from “Rock-A-Bye My Saro Jane,” who knows?

    For years this was a difficult album to obtain, as it was out-of-print. After iTunes offered a complete collection, you could cobble-together the MP3s from there (and may still be able to do so). It’s also included in the recent CD complete collection box-set, and it would be nice if Sony saw fit to allow those of us too cheap to re-purchase that which we already have to be able to get an individual CD of it.

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