Bob Dylan 50th Anniversary Collection Released In Europe

Late last month, a new Bob Dylan album hit the market in Europe in limited quantities that would make a fan of the songwriter drool.

Bob Dylan

The 50th Anniversary Collection is a four-CD, 86 track set centered around studio outtakes and live material recorded by Dylan in 1962.

Only about 100 copies were released to select record stores and fans who found out about the recordings were able to download the collection for about $130. As far as the company is concerned, that’s it for now.

So what is the story behind this release and why in such a limited quantity? It all has to do with European copyright laws and protecting material outside of a fifty year window. A source for Sony Music told Rolling Stone:

“This isn’t a scheme to make money. The copyright law in Europe was recently extended from 50 to 70 years for everything recorded in 1963 and beyond. With everything before that, there’s a new ‘Use It or Lose It’ provision. It basically said, ‘If you haven’t used the recordings in the first 50 years, you aren’t going to get any more.

“The whole point of copyrighting this stuff is that we intend to do something with it at some point in the future, but it wasn’t the right time to do it right after he released Tempest. There are other things we want to do in 2013 though.”

The album is already up on eBay for around $1,000 and copies are floating around on illegal download sites. As far as the U.S. goes, we might see this material in some future archives set but not now as our copyright laws are much more liberal and there is no need to rush the tracks to the market to protect them.

You can also expect to see copies of Dylan’s first album in Europe from a number of different labels as it went into the public domain as of January 1.

For those with the money to buy one of those 100 elusive copies, here’s the track list.

Disc 1
Going Down To New Orleans (Take 1)
Going Down To New Orleans (Take 2)
Sally Gal (Take 2)
Sally Gal (Take 3)
Rambling Gambling Willie (Take 1)
Rambling Gambling Willie (Take 3)
Corrina, Corrina (Take 1)
Corrina, Corrina (Take 2)
The Death Of Emmett Till (Take 1)
(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle (Take 2)
Rocks And Gravel (Solid Road) (Take 3)
Sally Gal (Take 4)
Sally Gal (Take 5)
Baby, Please Don’t Go (Take 1)
Baby, Please Don’t Go (Take 3)
Milk Cow (Calf’s) Blues (Good Morning Blues) (Take 1)
Milk Cow (Calf’s) Blues (Good Morning Blues) (Take 3)
Wichita Blues (Going To Louisiana) (Take 1)
Wichita Blues (Going To Louisiana) (Take 2)
Milk Cow (Calf’s) Blues (Good Morning Blues) (Take 4)
Wichita Blues (Going To Louisiana) (Take 2)
Baby, I’m In The Mood For You (Take 2)
Blowin’ In The Wind (Take 1)
Blowin’ In The Wind (Take 2)
Worried Blues (Take 1)
Baby, I’m In The Mood For You (Take 4)
Disc 2
Bob Dylan’s Blues (Take 2)
Bob Dylan’s Blues (Take 3)
Corrina, Corrina (Take 2)
Corrina, Corrina (Take 3)
That’s All Right, Mama (Take 1)
That’s All Right, Mama (Take 3)
That’s All Right, Mama (Take 5)
Mixed Up Confusion (Take 3)
Mixed Up Confusion (Take 5)
Mixed Up Confusion (Take 6)
Mixed Up Confusion (Take 7)
Mixed Up Confusion (Take 9)
Mixed Up Confusion (Take 10)
Mixed Up Confusion (Take 11)
That’s All Right, Mama (Take 3)
Rocks And Gravels (Solid Road) (Take 2)
Ballad Of Hollis Brown (Take 2)
Kingsport Town (Take 1)
When Death Comes Creepin’ (Whatcha Gonna Do?) (Take 1)
Hero Blues (Take 1)
When Death Comes Creepin’ (Whatcha Gonna Do?) (Take 1)
I Shall Be Free (Take 3)
I Shall Be Free (Take 5)
Hero Blues (Take 2)
Hero Blues (Take 4)
Disc 3
Hard Times In New York Town (Mackenzie Home Tapes)
The Death Of Emmett Till (Mackenzie Home Tapes)
I Rode Out One Morning (Mackenzie Home Tapes)
House Of The Rising Sun (Mackenzie Home Tapes)
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (Mackenzie Home Tapes)
Ballad Of Donald White (Mackenzie Home Tapes)
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (Gerde’s Folk City)
Talkin’ New York (Gerde’s Folk City)
Corrina, Corrina (Gerde’s Folk City)
Deep Ellum Blues (Gerde’s Folk City)
Blowin’ In The Wind (Gerde’s Folk City)
The Death Of Emmett Till (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Stealin’ (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Hiram Hubbard (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Blowin’ In The Wind (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Rocks And Gravel (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Quit Your Low Down Ways (Finjan Club, Montreal)
He Was A Friend Of Mine (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Let Me Die In My Footsteps (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Two Trains Runnin’ (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Ramblin’ On My Mind (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Muleskinner Blues (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Muleskinner Blues (Part 2) (Finjan Club, Montreal)
Disc 4
Sally Gal (Carnegie Hall Hootenanny)
Highway 51 (Carnegie Hall Hootenanny)
Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues (Carnegie Hall Hootenanny)
Ballad Of Hollis Brown (Carnegie Hall Hootenanny)
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (Carnegie Hall Hootenanny)
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (The Gaslight Café, NYC)
No More Auction Block (The Gaslight Café, NYC)
Motherless Children (The Gaslight Café, NYC)
Kind Hearted Woman Blues (The Gaslight Café, NYC)
Black Cross (The Gaslight Café, NYC)
Ballad Of Hollis Brown (The Gaslight Café, NYC)
Ain’t No More Cane (The Gaslight Café, NYC)