Subject: FAQ: rec.music.dylan Frequently Asked Questions (1 of 2)
Date: 5 Oct 1995 18:56:57 -0600
Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions

Posting-Frequency: 15th day of each month


*********************************************************************
             Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), part 1 of 2
                     for newsgroup rec.music.dylan
            Please email corrections and suggestions to:
                         howells@csd.sgi.com
*********************************************************************
                  Copyright 1994, 1995 Adam K. Powers
     This electronic document may be copied and distributed freely,
                provided that this notice remains intact.

CONTENTS:

Part 1 - What is available on Internet? (this article):
        0. What has been changed since the previous posting of the
                FAQ?
        1. Who is Bob Dylan?
        2. What is rec.music.dylan?
        3. Are you certain your e-mail address works?
        4. Is there a rec.music.dylan etiquette?
        5. How do I access rec.music.dylan?
        6. Glossary of terms and acronyms common to this newsgroup.
        7. Is there a Bob Dylan discography available online, or some
                way to order Dylan CDs via Internet?
        8. Where can I find lyrics, tablature and other Bob Dylan
                information via Internet?
        9. Is there some way that I can get lists of Bob Dylan
                concert tapes and unreleased recordings from past
                years?
       10. When and where will Bob Dylan be performing next?
       11. What is EDLIS?
       12. What if I want to talk about Dylan on-line at all hours?

Part 2 - Where else can I get information, off-line? (next article):
        1. Where can I buy Bob Dylan collectors' items?
        2. What books about Dylan's life and music are available?
                a. Bob Dylan biographies
                b. Studies of Dylan as a performer, lyricist, etc.
                c. Reference books
        3. Are there magazines about Dylan to which I could
                subscribe?
        4. I just read an article about Bob Dylan in my newspaper...
        5. What are bootlegs, and how do I find them?
        6. Has Bob Dylan appeared in any movies or film
                documentaries?

*********************************************************************

0. What has been changed since the previous posting of the FAQ
(7 July 1995)?

A new system for identifying changes is being tested for this outing
of the FAQ. Any line which is different has as its first character
"#". (This particular section is exempt :-)

Part 1:
- added details of a mail address tester to "3. Are you certain your
  e-mail address works?"

Part 2:
- Added the new Wanted Man contact address to "1. Where can I buy Bob
  Dylan collectors' items?"
- Added URL of Library of Congress library system to "2. What books about
  Dylan's life and music are available?"

Many thanks to Ron Lamers for a significant number of corrections and
additions.

------------------------------

1. Who is Bob Dylan?
====================
Bob Dylan is a singer, a guitar player, a song writer and a recording
artist. Born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Hibbing Minnesota in 1941, his
earliest circulating recordings date from 1958! His earliest
recordings on an unofficial bootleg LP date from 1960, his first
commercial release dates from 1962. He continues to write, record and
perform to this day.


2. What is rec.music.dylan? 
===========================
Welcome! This Usenet newsgroup is devoted to the discussion of Bob
Dylan, his music, and things Dylan-related. We welcome your
constructive comments on nearly any issue, even if it's only
tangentially associated with Bob Dylan.

There is no official Dylan fan club, so small packs of Dylan fans
band together to stay informed and carry on general discussion. This
particular Usenet newsgroup was founded mid-1989 by Tom Buckley.

Sometimes it seems that all we're interested in are upcoming tour
dates and clarification of fact regarding old recordings, but there
is often very interesting discussion of Dylan's lyrics themselves, a
reason that no doubt many of you read this newsgroup.  If you don't
see the sort of discussion you want, you're encouraged to bring it up
yourself! 

Many people criticise the content and tenor of postings on
rec.music.dylan but few praise those they like. If you see a posting
which is just what you like to see why not e-mail the poster
privately and say so. Many good posters stop posting because they say
they do not know if anyone is reading or liking what they do. The way
to shape rec.music.dylan to what you want is to encourage what you
like to see, and to contribute good postings yourself too! 


3. Are you certain your e-mail address works?
=============================================
98% of new posters who comment that nobody has answered a query
they made on rec.music.dylan turn out to have displayed an
e-mail address that does not function. This is so common that
it is very unlikely a correspondent answering your query will
do anything once they see that mail to you bounces. One of the
# best ways to test your address is to send mail to the "robot" at
# bouncer@nic.near.net  You should be sent two replies. If this
# does not work then contact the postmaster at your site.


4. Is there a rec.music.dylan etiquette?
========================================
You should already be familiar with Usenet etiquette. If not, the
newsgroups to read are news.newusers.questions and
news.announce.newusers. A particularly useful document is "Emily
Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette" by Mark Moraes
<netannounce@deshaw.com>, stored at rtfm.mit.edu in a document
called "part1" in the directory
/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet/emily-postnews/

As with all newsgroups, the best recommendation is for you to sit
back and read for a while before you make your first posting. That
way you can get a proper feel for the newsgroup. Then you will see
which postings you think are valuable and which are wasting space or
preventing good discussion.

rec.music.dylan is not moderated, so within reason anything goes.
However, certain types of postings are generally frowned upon. These
include:

o  Tirades against other readers of the newsgroup for their
opinions.

o  Failure to edit subject heading when replying via the digestified
mailing list [HWY61-L, see later]. Please ensure you edit the
subject line when posting a followup. Anyone seeing a posting
headed:

     SUBJECT: Re: HWY61-L Digest - 5 Mar 1995 

may well choose to ignore it altogether. 

o  Lists of favourite songs/albums, including Top Tens. This is a
discussion that reappears gradually more frequently as more and more
people discover rec.music.dylan. It is hard to imagine a posting
with less value and information content than:

      My top 20 favourite Bob Dylan albums, in order of preference,
      are:

         1. Blonde On Blonde
         2. Highway 61 Revisited
         3. The Times They Are A-Changin'
          .
          .
        20. The Basement Tapes

      Tell me what yours are!

If you are interested in lists of favourite song or album titles then
please do NOT post them to rec.music.dylan. You are instead directed
to the ALLMUSIC GUIDE [see later for details] for the views of past
and present readers on this issue. Polls on favourite albums and
songs are already available for hundreds of artists, including Bob
Dylan. And should you wish to add your vote to those already cast
then you are free to do so. [A Web page has been set up for this very
task! - see later].

This is NOT to say constructive discussions about WHY you place
certain songs in such high regard are not of interest. Far from it -
what are we all here for if not to discuss the songs?

o  Using rec.music.dylan as a easy substitute for personal research.
There are many resources available at your local library and over the
Internet (via FTP, GOPHER, the World Wide Web and Telnet). The
numerous Dylan-related areas are detailed later on in this FAQ. You
are strongly encouraged to consult this extensive material before
asking on the newsgroup. For example, instead of asking hundreds of
people for the setlist for 12 November 1981, you could simply look it
up yourself in Olof Bjorner's 1981 yearly summary (via FTP, GOPHER or
the WEB) or the three or four books available at your library. If the
research material proves inadequate then of course you should post your
question to the newsgroup stating this is so. In such cases you are
much more likely to get a response!
[See later for instructions on how to access this information via the
Internet]. 

o  Bootlegs. From time to time someone posts a request for contact
details of bootleg dealers. Answers to these questions should be sent
by private e-mail only. To post full details to the very public forum
of rec.music.dylan is to put the dealers at risk. This may be an
hysterical over-reaction to the real situation, but is it not best to
avoid Bob Dylan's work being the most likely target when those greedy
copyright lawyers finally hit the Internet in force? We all know Bob
Dylan always says yes when his lawyers ask him if they should
proceed, be it a computer company, a transit authority, or a ...

The objection to the posting of full trade listings is more along the
lines of bandwidth wastage. If you wish to set up a trade you are
best advised to send a polite e-mail message [see later].

o  Lists of names of other artists in which you are also interested.
This thread began a very long time ago and still odd postings appear
on the subject. For those who may be interested Steven Zawid

zawid@eden.rutgers.edu 

conducted a major poll on favourite other artists and he would be
interested to hear from you in e-mail as he builds up his statistics.
Steven asks that you include one choice as to who your favourite
non-Dylan artist is.


5. How do I access rec.music.dylan? 
=================================== 
If you have no access to Usenet News but you do have Internet access
then you could join a FreeNet in order to make use of free Usenet
News access. For example:

telnet yfn2.ysu.edu 

username: visitor 

follow the instructions for becoming a registered user and then read
rec.music.dylan whenever you please.

The majority of readers access this group through a newsreader (such
as rn, trn, tin or the like on Unix systems), but there is also a
digestified format that is sent to many others via email.  If you'd
rather read in that format (a long email sent to you once or twice
daily) this information will be of use to you:

--

"HWY61-L Digest".

The mailing list is owned and maintained by Maureen LeBlanc. (If you
experience any problems with the list or have any questions then
e-mail Maureen at HWY61-L-Request@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu)

To post an article to rec.music.dylan you need to use this address:

                    hwy61-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu

This is the ONLY address via which your messages will appear on
rec.music.dylan and the mirroring Digest.

There is a third address of which users of the Mailing list need to
be aware.

                    listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu

It is via this address that users communicate with the automated
LISTSERV to subscribe, unsubscribe and alter options.
 
ALL commands should be sent to THIS address. Leave the 'subject'
blank and on the first line of the body of the message type your
command. (If you experience problems try omitting your ".sig"
because the Listserv may be trying to interpret it as commands.)
 
Here are the various commands you can send (all to the above
address):
 
(a) To receive a help file on how to work with the listserv:

HELP

(b) To subscribe to the mailing list:

SUBSCRIBE HWY61-L firstname lastname

(c) To unsubscribe from the mailing list:

SIGNOFF HWY61-L

(d) The default setting is to send out the list in digestified
format. If you would prefer to be sent rec.music.dylan as-it-happens,
ie. each posting is sent to you as an individual message, then issue
this command: 

SET HWY61-L MAIL

To return to digestified format, issue:

SET HWY61-L DIGEST

(e) If you wish to suspend receipt of messages from the list for any
period of time you do not need to unsubscribe. Simply set your
selected option to 'no mail' by issuing:

SET HWY61-L NOMAIL

To resume delivery again, issue:
 
SET HWY61-L DIGEST

--

If you lack Usenet news access and want to post (without having to
subscribe to the mailing list), simply e-mail your posting to:

hwy61-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu

or

rec-music-dylan@cs.utexas.edu
   ^     ^
   N.B. - NOT . or _ / hyphens not full stops or underscores!


6. Glossary of terms and acronyms common to this newsgroup.
===========================================================
All areas of knowledge develop jargon and acronyms which inevitably
serve to keep outsiders out and to confuse newcomers. Medical doctors
complicate the simplest things with needlessly difficult terms and
abbreviations, computer experts often make the easy inaccessible to
newcomers with obscure terms and abbreviations by trying to
'simplify' communications, management consultants...  Well, you get
the picture.  People with a serious and debilitating Dylan habit can
also develop these tendencies. Watch for the following obscure
terms...

#Dylan = The name of the Dylan channel on irc.

BoB = Blonde on Blonde [1966] [not a typo for "Bob"!]

BotT = Blood on the Tracks [1974]

BIABH = Bringing It All Back Home [1965]

boot = bootleg 

bootleg = circulating copy of officially unreleased material in any
form.  The term is probably derived from 'bootleg' liquor, which was
sometimes smuggled in bottles strapped to one's leg during
Prohibition in the United States, 1918-1933.

Bootleg Series = The Bootleg Series 1961-1991, Rare and Unreleased, 
Volumes 1-3 [1991] - not to be confused with 'bootleg' above, this is
an official release that reveals many songs and performances from
throughout Dylan's career that were previously available only on
bootleg media.  The liner notes of this boxed set mention that
further volumes would be released, but no reliable source has been
able to determine if and when this might actually happen... 

BTW = By the way...
 
EDLIS = Exchange of Dylan Lyrics - Internet Service
[see question 8, below, for more information on EDLIS]

GAIBTY = Good As I Been To You [1992]

H61R = Highway 61 Revisited [1965]

Hurricane = The lead-off single from Desire [1976], which tells
Dylan's rather loose interpretation of the murder trial of boxer
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter; Carter is today a free man in Canada after
having endured a convoluted series of mistrials and legal wrangling.

IMO = In my opinion...

IMHO = In my humble opinion...

irc = Internet Relay Chat, an international live real-time
conferencing system with a channel called #Dylan.
[see question #9, below]

JWH = John Wesley Harding [1967]  This album (and its title track)
were mis-named after outlaw John Wesley Hardin.  Dylan's song has
very little to do with the story of the real Hardin; instead, it's
basically just a spin-off of Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd." Some
Dylan fans note the religious bent of this album and claim that the
initials 'JWH' really refer to the Judeo-Christian deity...

Krogsgaard = Krogsgaard's 1991 reference book, Positively Bob Dylan
[listed below in question 10c]. A Krogsgaard number would be in a
form such as [7/201]. This refers to item seven in the Krogsgaard
listing for event 201. Badly addicted rec.music.dylan readers can be
told such a number and then immediately sing the relevant item
without reference to the Krogsgaard book itself!

pirate = Illegal copy of officially released material. Also known as
a "counterfeit".

smiley =  An unusual punctuation device, presumably employed only by
computer-users, which looks like a sideways smiley-face:  :-) A
smiley usually means that a comment or article has been written in
jest, and should be read accordingly.  A common variant is ;-) with
the 'winking' eye.  There are many, many variants on the smiley, and
most are used to represent the flairs of spoken language that are
often hard to perceive in text.  :-(

tape tree = A 'pyramid' method of distributing tapes organized by
someone with a good or unusual tape that begs to be circulated. That
person posts an announcement to the newsgroup, asking people to send
email to him to sign up.  He collects the names of those interested,
and creates a 'tree' such that no one has to make an excessive number
of copies, and people with better tape decks make copies for those
without, etc.  The original tape is the 'seed'.  Those who receive
copies from the seed and make further copies are 'branches', and
those who receive copies from branches but don't copy for anyone else
are the 'leaves'.  Sometimes a person who makes copies is called a
'parent' and one who receives copies is a 'child'.  Each person who
receives tapes is expected to send tapes of other events in return to
their branch. If blanks are sent in lieu of recorded tapes, the
person sending blanks is expected to send double the number of blank
tapes to recorded tapes. A less common method is that the person sendng
blanks is expected to pay postage for both the tapes that sent and
the ones received. If trading with a DAT collector who is supplying
you with an analogue cassette, one blank DAT is adequate double
compensation should they not want any blank analogue cassettes from
you.

T-999 = Numbers like these are Townsend numbers.
 
Townsend number = A three figure number identifying a specific
bootleg CD as cited by Phill Townsend in his Strangers And Prophets
[listed above], or as cited in Isis [listed above].

UTRS = Under The Red Sky [1990]

WGW = World Gone Wrong [1993]

WWW = World-Wide-Web [see question 5, below]

ZZ = someone used to the vi editor in Unix posting from a different
and unfamiliar editor trying to end their posting...


7. Is there a Bob Dylan discography available online, or some way to
   order Dylan CDs via Internet?
==================================================================== 
It is beyond the scope of this document to give a true discography
for Bob Dylan, but here is a list of the standard U.S. release full-
length Bob Dylan albums:

Title                           Released        CD Order #
=====                           ========        ==========
Bob Dylan                       March 1962      CK 8579
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan      May 1963        CK 8786
The Times They Are A-Changin'   January 1964    CK 8905
Another Side of Bob Dylan       August 1964     CK 8993
Bringing it All Back Home       March 1965      CK 9128
Highway 61 Revisited            August 1965     CK 9189
Blonde on Blonde                May 1966        CK 841
Greatest Hits                   March 1967#     CK 9463
John Wesley Harding             December 1967   CK 9604
Nashville Skyline               April 1969      CK 9825
Self-Portrait                   June 1970       C2K 30050
New Morning                     October 1970    CK 30290
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2           November 1971#  C2K 31120
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid     July 1973       CK 32460
Dylan                           November 1973^  CK 32747
Planet Waves                    January 1974    CK 37637
Before the Flood                June 1974'      C2K 37661
Blood on the Tracks             January 1975    CK 33235
The Basement Tapes              June 1975*      C2K 33682
Desire                          January 1976    CK 33893
Hard Rain                       September 1976  CK 34349
Street Legal                    June 1978       CK 35453
At Budokan                      July 1978'~     C2K 36067
Slow Train Coming               August 1979     CK 36120
Saved                           June 1980       CK 36553
Shot of Love                    August 1981     CK 37496
Infidels                        November 1983   CK 38819
Real Live                       December 1984'  CK 39944
Empire Burlesque                June 1985       CK 40110
Biograph                        October 1985#   C3K 38830
Knocked Out Loaded              August 1986     CK 40439
Down in the Groove              May 1988        CK 40957
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1       October 1988   Warner Bros. 9 25796-1
Dylan and the Dead              February 1989'  CK 45056
Oh Mercy                        September 1989  CK 45281
Under the Red Sky               September 1990  CK 46794
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3       October 1990   Warner Bros. 9 26324-1
Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3        March 1991@     C3T 47382
Good As I Been to You           October 1992    CK 53200
World Gone Wrong                October 1993    CK 57590
Greatest Hits III
Unplugged                       April 1995      478374 2 (European)
 
This is NOT intended to be a complete discography by any means. Check
the discography file at ftp.cs.pdx.edu for more details on Bob Dylan
releases available on compact disc.
[see question 5 for help]. 
 
Notes:
'  Live album
#  'Greatest Hits' collection - *most* songs previously released
^  Recorded in 1970, outtakes from Self-Portrait
*  Recorded in 1967!
~  This is the Japanese release date - U.S. release was December 1978
@  Collection of previously unreleased material spanning 1961-1991...

Also of interest are the 30th Anniversary Tribute Concert double-CD
set; and Masterpieces, a triple-CD import collection that contains a
few songs not available elsewhere on CD.

To actually order CDs online, you can try the Compact Disc
Connection, a California-based mail-order company.

telnet cdconnection.com

No password is necessary.
Once you're logged in, the menus are fairly self-explanatory, and you
can make purchases with your credit card.

If you have a Web browser such as Netscape, Mosaic or Lynx and wish
to look at CD shops on the Internet, use these URLs:
 
ftp://netcom11.netcom.com/pub/howells/dylan.html

http://cdnow.com

There have been several 'best album' polls done on the music
newsgroups - the most comprehensive were the 'Usenet Artist Polls'
and are available by anonymous FTP from ftp.uwp.edu in /pub/music/uap
(many polls done on individual artists, not just Dylan).
 
The Dylan albums most frequently recommended by readers of r.m.d are
_Highway 61 Revisited_, _Blonde on Blonde_, _Blood on the Tracks_,
and _The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3_, although you'll find staunch
fans of nearly every album...

The Dylan you might like depends more on you than on the opinions of
others. You could describe in reasonable detail your musical,
political, religious and sexual tastes, post that on rec.music.dylan,
and ask for advice...

Additional material may be found at the various FTP archives
[see question 5, below].


8. Where can I find lyrics, tablature and other Bob Dylan information
   via Internet?
=====================================================================
There are three archive sites from which information regarding Bob
Dylan may be obtained by FTP [If the term "ftp" is meaningless to you
then ask a local computer guru to show you what to do...]:
 
ftp.cs.pdx.edu                  (Portland State University)
ftp.uwp.edu                     (University of Wisconsin, Parkside)
ftp.nevada.edu                  (University of Nevada)

Olof's yearly summaries of Bob Dylan concerts and recordings, plus a
number of transcribed interviews, concert/tape reviews, and similar
documents are available by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.pdx.edu, in the
directory /pub/dylan, and are maintained by Trent Fisher. This site
originated as a replacement to Anthony Kapolka's archives from the
early days of rec.music.dylan, but now includes all of Olof's
archives and other recent files.

Lyrics to a limited number of Bob Dylan songs, plus some guitar tabs
and other information by be found by anonymous FTP from  ftp.uwp.edu,
in pub/music/artists/d/dylan.bob.

Guitar tablature to many of Dylan's songs is available by anonymous
FTP from the alt.guitar.tab archives at ftp.nevada.edu, in
/pub/guitar/d/Dylan.Bob, and also /pub/guitar/d/Bob.Dylan (the
separate directories are probably due to an oversight or change).

An anonymous FTP session begins like this - at your prompt, type:

ftp ftp.uwp.edu  [or whatever site you'll be getting files from]

Enter 'anonymous' (without the quotes) when prompted for a login
name, give your E-mail address as the password.  Use either 'ls' or
'dir' and 'cd' to find your way to the proper directory.

There are also a number of Dylan-related World Wide Web (WWW) pages.
If you do not know what WWW is then you are best advised to ask a
friend or computer technician at your site. You will need appropriate
software (known as Web Browsers). Some examples: Netscape, Mosaic and
Lynx (a text only version).


WWW PAGES DEDICATED TO BOB DYLAN

http://reality.sgi.com/employees/howells/dylan.html
- "Bringing It All Back Home Page" (John Howells)
- Contains tour dates, setlists and concert reviews, yearly
chronicles from 1960 through 1993 (updated yearly), Frequently
Asked Questions about Dylan and the internet, EDLIS Dylan Covers
listing, etc.
 
http://bob.nbr.no
- "Expecting Rain" (Karl Erik Anderson)
- The Bob Dylan Who's Who, The Dylan Atlas, Jokerman, 1995 setlists
and concert reports, pictures, some sound clips, this FAQ, list of
EDLIS agents, etc.

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~n246543/
- "Ragged Clown" (Ben Taylor)
- Contains interviews, old postings to the newsgroup rec.music.dylan,
EDLIS Civil Rights articles on "Hattie Carroll" etc., links to all
Dylan areas on the Web, etc.

http://www.music.sony.com/Music/ArtistInfo/BobDylan.html
- Sony's Bob Dylan page. Sparse but worth checking every now and
then.

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~gv/project_home.html
- "Broken Words" (Giuseppe Valetto)
- A textual analysis of Bob Dylan's lyrics

http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~bdonalds/bob.html
- "Bob Dylan's 15th Dream" (Bryan Donaldson)
- You can vote for your favourite albums and songs here, etc.

http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/hpp?bobby.html
- "Bobby Page" (Tim Dixon)
- Currently under construction..

ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/mi/michel/Dylan/Dylan.html
- Graphics etc. (Steve Michel)

http://www.well.com/www/yudel/Dylan.html
- Bob Dylan: Tangled up in Jews (Larry Yudelson)


DYLAN-RELATED PAGES:

ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/brooklyn/WWW/People/JackKerouac.html
- Jack Kerouac home page (Marc Stein)

http://pubweb.parc.xerox.com/digitrad
- "Digital Tradition"
- This is a searchable text database of folk lyrics. It is updated
every few months and, as of April '94, contained over 4500 items. 
The latest edition is Oct '94. There are countless Dylan-related 
songs in this archive.
- People can download their own copy of the entire archive for their
Mac, PC, or a plain ASCII version:

  ftp.parc.xerox.com (California) or
  ftp.uwp.edu (Wisconsin) or

  (PC version only) send three
  formatted HD disks (5-1/4 or 3-1/2 inch) and a STAMPED, SELF-
  ADDRESSED mailer to Dick Greenhaus at:

      The Digital Tradition
      28 Powell Street
      Greenwich, CT 06831

      Phone:  203/531-7314
      E-Mail: digitrad@world.std.com

http://lcweb.loc.gov/homepage/lchp.html
- Library of Congress.

http://www.cm.cf.ac.uk/Movies/
- Internet Movie Database
- Can look up films such as "Don't Look Back" and, as with many
of these sources, you can add information to improve what they
list based on your expertise or reference books...


GOPHER SITE:

gopher://allmusic.ferris.edu/00/pop/d/dy/dylan.b 
- All Music Guide. 
- This is the location of the Bob Dylan entry. It includes a mini-
bio', list of albums and their tracks, reviews and ratings.

If you cannot find transcribed music online, you should be able to
find music to all the released albums from good music stores and
suppliers. The most recommended book source is  "Lyrics 1962-1985".
The lyrics 'database' on "Highway 61 Interactive" CDROM, released
1995, covers virtually all of the lyrics from this book, plus all
albums up to 1995. Many songbooks can also be purchased, for example
the book for Good As I Been to You is available from Special Rider
Music Sales, 8/9 Frith St., London W1V 5TZ, England.


9. Is there some way that I can get lists of Bob Dylan concert tapes
   and recordings from past years?
====================================================================
There is currently one electronic document that makes a good
reference guide, plus one essential book:

#1 - If you've got a little disk space to spare [approx. 1.5
megabytes], you can download Olof's year-by-year Bob Dylan archive -
which lists Dylan's public appearances and recordings, gives handy
reference tables of songs played on tour, and even lists recommended
tapes by tour!  The best part is that it's free for your own personal
use.  Don't try printing it out unless you've got the time & ribbons
- the combined total of all the files would be on the order of 600
pages...  How do you get it? ftp ftp.cs.pdx.edu, in the /pub/dylan
directory, the 1960.Z through 1993.Z files (they are compressed). 
 
#2 - There is a book called "Positively Bob Dylan" by Michael
Krogsgaard (this book is frequently referred to simply as
'Krogsgaard' on this newsgroup).  This tome numbers Dylan's
circulating performances and lists the songs performed at each and
every known circulating Bob Dylan recording through early 1991.
There are always gaps and changes as new tapes surface, but this book
is essential to the serious collector!  It provides a fast, easy
reference for identifying tapes and so on.  The main disadvantage
of such a serious book is that it costs about US$55. See item 11c
below for more information. 

There will shortly be a third option:

#3 - If you have an IBM PC compatible "DylanBase" may be of interest.
This is a DOS computer program designed by Keith Charles Marsh, with
data collated by Chris Cooper. Its objective is the same as
Krogsgaard's book, to detail all circulating (and uncirculating)
recordings. Regular updates are planned to maintain the accuracy and
completeness of the database. To find out more you can purchase a
demo disk, the price of which is fully refundable against the final
product. For this or other information write to: Keith Charles Marsh,
17 Stanley Road, Wellingborough, NN8 1DY, ENGLAND. At time of writing
(4 July 1995) the release of "DylanBase" is "imminent".


10. When and where will Bob Dylan be performing next?
===================================================== 
Since official announcements from Dylan's publicity office regarding
tour dates are rare, we have to rely on local people to look for
advertisements or call ticket agencies and then to inform the rest of
us.  If you hear of an upcoming concert in your area, please tell us! 
Set-lists from shows that you have seen recently are also
appreciated, even if you don't know the titles of all the songs that
were played.

Tour dates are usually posted piece-meal to the newsgroup, and
sometimes these postings will contain conflicting or confusing
information.  If your local ticket agency has no knowledge of a
concert date that you saw announced here, don't give up hope.
Agencies such as TicketMaster frequently do not know about particular
shows until a few days before they are authorized to sell tickets for
that show.  Some concert dates start out as rumors and never
materialize, but many rumors do become fact.  Be patient.

There is no mail-order for Bob Dylan concert tickets.

There are also Dylan hotlines you can ring on the telephone for the
latest information on Bob Dylan events:

USA: 303-243-8025 (The Rolling Tomes Hotline - the operator will ask
you to enter the "hotline access number" located in the lower right
corner of the back cover of the current Rolling Tomes catalogue. So
you must either have seen the catalogue or have contact with someone
who has...  See question 10, below. A touch-tone telephone is
required. The recording is updated at least weekly, more often when
news warrants it.)

UK: The Homer 'Warmline', maintained by Andrew Muir. Although this
used to be subscription-only, it is now open to all, free of charge.
The number is 0171 385 6119 (if dialling from the UK) or +44 171 385
6119 (if dialling from abroad).

UK: Wanted Man offers a hotline service to Telegraph subscribers
[see part two of the FAQ for subscription details].

The EDLIS Tours & Tickets agent compiles all the above info and
posts updated tour schedules to rec.music.dylan.


11. What is EDLIS?
==================
The Exchange Dylan Lyrics - Internet Service is an Internet wide
conspiracy to make available Dylan lyrics for the purposes of
research and/or private study.  Lyrics available are restricted to a
reasonable proportion. Any copying to evade purchase is wrong.
EDLIS consists of a number of loosely affiliated individuals who have
chosen to horde and distribute Bob Dylan information.  This service
includes, but is not limited to, information regarding: Bob Dylan
song lyrics, versions of Bob Dylan songs performed by other artists,
bootleg recordings, and tape trees.
 
If you post a request for specific lyrics (or for detailed boot CD
information) on rec.music.dylan you might find an EDLIS agent answers
your needs magically in your e-mail box. In return, EDLIS is always
in need of transcribed lyrics and information on compact discs, old
and new.  If you are able to type in or scan Dylan lyrics not
presently available on the Internet, please do so - the only reason
that EDLIS sends you anything is because others have contributed in
the past!


12. What if I want to talk about Dylan on-line at all hours?
============================================================
If no one in the same room as you wants to chat about Dylan 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year you might think you have an
insatiable desire. But there is relief! IRC! Internet Relay Chat. On
Internet Relay Chat there is always an international live real-time
Dylan conference - usually in English - waiting for you to join it.
At your Unix prompt type:

irc

and once irc is up and running type:

/join #Dylan

and what you type after that will be seen by all the others on that
channel. If all is quiet simply wait until the lull ends or learn how
to invite others in (/invite), change the topic (/topic) and so on.

Many arrange to meet at #dylan by prior arrangement through e-mail,
setting a time to rendezvous.  Bear in mind the time zones -
discussion tends to ebb and flow with New Zealanders and Australians
starting the day, as they begin to flag Europeans join, and Americans
are last to come in, though some #dylan people keep very odd hours
indeed.

Treat #dylan like a Paris street cafe.  If you want to be certain
that stimulating, interesting people are there when you are there,
bring them with you.

If Bob Dylan is performing in a country you can try to see who is on
from that country, such as Japan:

/who *.jp

And then use /invite to invite in unsuspecting irc-ers and ask them
about media coverage, whether they are going to the concerts or know
anyone who is, will they be taking a DAT recorder with them, etc etc
etc.

As with all esoteric computer matters, if the command irc is not
available on your computer, simply ask a local computer guru how to
ftp and compile what you need.

You could also logon by telnet to a limited version of irc:

telnet sci.dixie.edu 6668

Here are some other public access telnet sites for IRC on the
Undernet, which is NOT the main irc but will give you a feel for a
limited irc network:

  telnet wildcat.ecn.uoknor.edu 6677
  telnet wildcat.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766
  telnet skywarrior.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766
  telnet skyhawk.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766
  telnet skyraider.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766
  telnet intruder.ecn.uoknor.edu 7766

EUROPEAN SITES

  telnet telnet1.eu.undernet.org 6677
  telnet telnet2.eu.undernet.org 6677

VAX/VMS Users: use "telnet host.name /PORT=6677"

    telnet sci.dixie.edu 1 | sh

So long as you have full Internet access something should be
possible, and you can join in on the Dylan discussion via irc...

The standard #dylan teatime in London meeting in irc is daily at:

                        Kangerlussuaq
Fairbanks                   13:00  Reykjavik
  07:00                             16:00                     Petropavlovsk
                                     Trondheim                      04:00
                        St John's      17:00
                         13:30           Helsinki
                   Charlottetown   LONDON 18:00
          Hibbing     12:00         16:00   Moscow  Irkutsk
           10:00                             19:00   00:00
                  Greenwich            Paris
 San Francisco     Village             17:00 
     08:00         11:00           Lisbon      Bombay  Kyoto
                                    16:00       21:30  01:00  
       Gallup                      Monrovia        Singapore          Honolulu
        09:00                       16:00            00:00               06:00
                                       Lagos         Perth 
                   Quito Rio de        17:00         00:00 
                   11:00 Janeiro         Harare        Adelaide 
                         13:00            18:00         01:30  
                     Santiago                             Hobart   Dunedin
                      12:00                                02:00    04:00


(end part 1 of 2)
*********************************************************************
-- 

                                                           John Howells
                                                    howells@csd.sgi.com
                               http://reality.sgi.com/employees/howells
