This weekend I’ve been celebrating the 54th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s arrival in New York on January 24, 1961.

Toward the end of that year, after he’d been gigging around, after he’d met John Hammond and been signed to Columbia Records, but prior to recording his first album, on September 6, 1961, Bob Dylan performed at the Gaslight in New York.

His set, which included an appearance by Dave Van Ronk playing guitar and singing harmony vocals on “Car, Car,” was recorded on a reel-to-reel and you can hear it right now.

Some of these songs appeared on the first official Bootleg series set. Others have yet to be officially released.

The order of the songs has apparently been rearranged by whoever put up this YouTube clip.

Set List (apparently the songs have been ordered differently than when they were performed).

He Was A Friend Of Mine
Car, Car
Man On The Street
Song To Woody
Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
Pretty Polly

This is the correct order of the set according to www.BobDylan.com:

Man On The Street
He Was A Friend Of Mine
Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
Song To Woody
Pretty Polly
Car, Car

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[Last August I published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of the book. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]