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Bob Dylan announces epic 1965-1966 box set: ‘The Cutting Edge’

by Jay Gabler

September 24, 2015

Bob Dylan completists, heads-up: it doesn't get much more complete than this. Vol. 12 of Dylan's official "Bootleg Series" will cover the years 1965 and 1966, and the collection's most expansive edition will include every single take of every single song from Dylan's seminal albums Bringing It All Back HomeHighway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde.

Other volumes in the Bootleg Collection have ranged widely across Dylan's career—the career-spanning first three discs in the collection, sets that have focused closely on Dylan albums like Self Portrait and The Basement Tapes, rare live recordings—but this 12th installment focuses in on the heart of Dylan's legacy, the three most crucial and transformative albums in his oeuvre.

The Cutting Edge 1965–1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 will be released on Nov. 6 in two-disc, six-disc, and 18-disc versions that offer various levels of detail—and price points—for fans on different tiers of the Dylan fandom. Each of the three albums in sequence has more alternate versions than the last, reflecting Dylan's progressively more expansive approach to his work in the studio.

The biggest version of the set, featuring "every single note recorded by Bob Dylan in the studio in 1965/1966," will be published in an edition of only 5,000. Its 379 tracks will run $599.99, and will come with bonuses including a 180-page book, a leopard-skin-print spindle, new pressings of the nine mono 45s that Dylan released during that period, and—ironically, given the fact that this is a "Bootleg" release—a certificate of authenticity.

What's next for the Bootleg Series? "We've always wanted to do one of pre-album stuff where Bob is just singing songs in Greenwich Village coffeehouses," a source close to the artist tells Rolling Stone. "We'd also love to revisit Blood on the Tracks, Infidels, Oh Mercy and the gospel albums."

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