Record Needles in the Camel’s iPod

Bob Dylan's Tell Tale Signs - Deluxe Edition = $100+!!!

I am not writing to complain. It’s more about being confounded.

Like many other fanatical Bob Dylan obsessives, I am delighted with The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs which collects some swept under the rug gems from between 1989 and 2006 from the Bard of Minnesota. All of it further evidences the mighty reemergence of America’s greatest 20th Century music icon.

The quality of these unreleased and alternate versions in fact surpasses expectations.

Dylan’s latter-era croak is in many places here clearer than it is through the original released records from where these tracks were culled and being able to track the development of a song like “Mississippi” or hearing the great unreleased “Dignity” in two versions proves mind-blowing for serious Dylan fans and scholars.

What was it the man said?

“The times they are a-changing.”

At a time when the record industry is in a state of flux, struggling to sell physical product and trying to readjust its business model for the digital age. It’s even hard to even register a pulse on people who used to be really excited about buying music.

I’m the music writer jerk who waits to get the promo sent from the record company… and if it doesn’t come I just download it but, hell: my jaded ass was out Tuesday morning to buy this Dylan release.

Tuesdays.

Anyone remember the joy and rush of going out to buy new releases on Tuesday? There would be weeks where you’d buy nothing and others where you had five things in your hand.

Thanks to the digital age, I hardly ever do anything like that anymore but this week there I was again and I was genuinely excited.

Yes, the times are a-changing and part of the shift of the record business means a city like Buffalo can’t support any indie record stores. Barring the locally-based Record Theater - who are no question struggling but still doing a decent job - going out to buy music means malls and big stores. Not too really sexy or fun.

I can get excited about the price drop, however. I left with a Dylan double CD for $14.00. Even up until a year or so ago - before the air was almost totally out of the music biz’s retail balloon -  the cheapest Sony would let retailers sell a double disc of Dylan’s stuff was around $25.00.

So the new reality of buying physical music product - records I still call them whether it is vinyl or CD - is a good thing for the consumer, right?

Maybe not.

What happens the price drop is not across the board?

Banking on the Dylan fanatics having to have it all, Sony/Legacy issued the Tell Tale Signs - Deluxe Edition with an expanded book, 45 single and an all-important third disc of twelve tracks that properly completes and ties the collection together. The problem: its suggested retail price is $169.98.

I shall be released but I shall be very, very expensive.

Think about that price increase. The suggested retail jumps $150.00! With Sony selling the bulk of the Dylan’s back catalog at $10.00 each you could buy no less than 15 positively must-own Bob Dylan classics - like Highway 61 Revisted, Blonde On Blonde and Blood On The Tracks - for the price.

For the fans and collectors that’s of no use, though. We own them all, sometimes buying them three or four times over when you count remastered versions, vinyl and such. And there is an outcry.

The price gouging for the expanded set has set off a firestorm from commerce sites like amazon.com and even among the most ardent fans at the forum Expecting Rain where those who have always had to have everything Zimmy are crying foul.

Many think Sony has gone to far.

I have to agree. Being the kind of sucker who will spend the extra money for a special edition with extras, even I’m appalled at that kind of price jump. Yes, even I have my limit.

My answer solution? Bootleg the Bootleg.

A few minutes of searching “Tell Tale Signs 3 .rar” or hitting bit torrent sites should uncover it. Even if it’s hard to justify the extra hundred plus dollars to get Disc 3, it’s not hard to justify spending a few minutes online.