From “Blonde” to “Blue”: Bob Dylan, Miles Davis Classics Coming on SACD and LP

Any label president would have killed to have Bob Dylan or Miles Davis on his company’s roster, but Columbia Records’ legendary Goddard Lieberson had the good fortune to have had both of these groundbreaking artists making their most important music on the red label under its watchful eye logo.  Since the advent of the compact disc era, there’s been no shortage of reissued music from these giants, and it’s already clear that 2012 will continue the steady flow.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has announced two new campaigns dedicated to Mr. Davis and Mr. Dylan.  Both of these seminal musicians will see a number of their most beloved albums reissued as both audiophile-quality vinyl and hybrid Super Audio CDs (SACDs) sometime in 2012.  (Release dates aren’t yet concrete.)  None of these numbered, limited-edition releases contain surround mixes, and the albums are presented in their original sequences only, with no bonus tracks appended.  All albums are in stereo unless otherwise noted, and as hybrid SACDs, the discs can be played on all CD players.

The jazz trumpeter’s Mobile Fidelity series takes in highlights from his first decade-plus at Columbia, beginning with his label debut, 1957’s Round About Midnight.  1958’s Milestones appears in mono, capturing the quintet of Davis, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones.  Kind of Blue (1959, with Davis joined by Adderley, Coltrane, Chambers, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb) has been reissued multiple times on SACD, but has been remastered from the original master tapes for this issue.   Sketches of Spain, from 1960, teamed Davis with noted arranger and orchestrator Gil Evans and his 18-piece orchestra; Mobile Fidelity promises that the new edition “digs deep to eradicate a dryness that many critics have found as an anathema to its overall enjoyment.”  1966’s live album Four and More was one of Davis’ final standards-based projects, recorded in New York in 1964 with Ron Carter, Tony Williams, George Coleman and Herbie Hancock.  Finally, 1969’s In a Silent Way is a departure from the other titles as Davis’ first excursion into fusion.  Williams and Hancock return, and the album also features John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter and Dave Holland.

Hit the jump to explore Bob Dylan’s Mobile Fidelity line-up, and also to find track listings for all releases!

Perhaps the biggest surprise about Mobile Fidelity’s commitment to Dylan on SACD is that, save one, each of the titles in this group has previously been released in the format.  In 2003, Columbia itself issued many of Dylan’s catalogue titles as hybrid SACDs, and many of those titles also included surround mixes.  As with the Davis reissues, Mobile Fidelity assures that the master tapes have been utilized for these definitive stereo remasters.  The one new-to-SACD title in the batch is 1975’s double-LP The Basement Tapes, recorded at The Band’s historic Big Pink, during the summer and fall of 1967.  While collectors await a full, authorized release of the untouched tapes, this SACD might be the next best thing!  The earliest of the remaining titles is 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, his second studio album.  The series continues with 1964’s Another Side of Bob Dylan and 1965’s Bringing It All Back Home before jumping to 1966’s sprawling Blonde on Blonde and the 1975 “confessional” masterpiece Blood on the Tracks.  (Of Dylan’s earliest albums, 1962’s debut Bob Dylan and 1963’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ have still never received SACD releases.)

No release dates have yet been set, but placeholder pages are up at Music Direct for both the Miles Davis and Bob Dylan titles.  You’ll find the complete track listings and catalogue numbers below!

Miles Davis, Four and More (Columbia, 1966 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2087/180G LP: LMF376, 2012)

  1. So What
  2. Walkin’
  3. Joshua
  4. Go-Go
  5. Four
  6. Seven Steps to Heaven
  7. There Is No Greater Love
  8. Go-Go

Miles Davis, In a Silent Way (Columbia, 1969 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2088/180G LP: LMF377, 2012)

  1. Shhh/Peaceful
  2. In a Silent Way/It’s About That Time

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959 – reissued Mobile Fidelity Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2085/180G 45RPM 2LP: LMF45010, 2012)

  1. So What
  2. Freddie Freeloader
  3. Blue in Green
  4. All Blues
  5. Flamenco Sketches

Miles Davis, Milestones (Columbia, 1958 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid Mono SACD: CMFSA2084/180G Mono LP: LMF374, 2012)

  1. Dr. Jackle
  2. Sid’s Ahead
  3. Two Bass Hit
  4. Milestones
  5. Billy Boy
  6. Straight, No Chaser

Miles Davis, Round About Midnight (Columbia, 1957 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2083/180G LP: LMF373, 2012)

  1. ‘Round Midnight
  2. Ah-Leu-Cha
  3. All of You
  4. Bye Bye Blackbird
  5. Tadd’s Delight
  6. Dear Old Stockholm

Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain (Columbia, 1960 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2086/180G LP: LMF375, 2012)

  1. Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio)
  2. Will O’ the Wisp
  3. The Pan Piper
  4. Saeta
  5. Solea

Bob Dylan, Another Side of Bob Dylan (Columbia, 1964 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2095/180G 45RPM 2LP: LMF379, 2012)

  1. All I Really Want to Do
  2. Black Crow Blues
  3. Spanish Harlem Incident
  4. Chimes of Freedom
  5. I Shall Be Free, No. 10
  6. To Ramona
  7. Motorpsycho Nightmare
  8. My Back Pages
  9. I Don’t Believe You
  10. Ballad in Plain D
  11. It Ain’t Me Babe

Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde (Columbia, 1966 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2097/180G 45RPM 4LP: LMF45009, 2012)

  1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
  2. Pledging My Time
  3. Visions of Johanna
  4. One of Must Know (Sooner or Later)
  5. I Want You
  6. Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
  7. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
  8. Just Like a Woman
  9. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)
  10. Temporary Like Achilles
  11. Absolutely Sweet Marie
  12. 4th Time Around
  13. Obviously 5 Believers
  14. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks (Columbia, 1975 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2098/180G LP: LMF381, 2012)

  1. Tangled Up in Blue
  2. Simple Twist of Fate
  3. You’re A Big Girl Now
  4. Idiot Wind
  5. You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
  6. Meet Me in the Morning
  7. Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
  8. If You See Her, Say Hello
  9. Shelter From the Storm
  10. Buckets of Rain

Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home (Columbia, 1965 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2096/180G 45RPM 2LP: LMF380, 2012)

  1. Subterranean Homesick Blues
  2. She Belongs To Me
  3. Maggie’s Farm
  4. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
  5. Outlaw Blues
  6. On the Road Again
  7. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream
  8. Mr. Tambourine Man
  9. Gates of Eden
  10. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
  11. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (Columbia, 1963 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA2081/180G 45RPM 2LP: LMF378, 2012)

  1. Blowin’ in the Wind
  2. Girl From the North Country
  3. Masters of War
  4. Down the Highway
  5. Bob Dylan’s Blues
  6. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
  7. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
  8. Bob Dylan’s Dream
  9. Oxford Town
  10. Talking World War III Blues
  11. Corrina, Corrina
  12. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
  13. I Shall Be Free

Bob Dylan and The Band, The Basement Tapes (Columbia, 1975 – reissued Mobile Fidelity, Hybrid SACD: CMFSA20082/180G 2LP: LMF382, 2012)

  1. Odds and Ends
  2. Orange Juice Blues (Blues for Breakfast)
  3. Million Dollar Bash
  4. Yazoo Street Scandal
  5. Goin’ to Acapulco
  6. Katie’s Been Gone
  7. Lo and Behold
  8. Bessie Smith
  9. Clothes Line Saga
  10. Apple Suckling Tree
  11. Please Mrs. Henry
  12. Tears of Rage
  13. Too Much of Nothing
  14. Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread
  15. Ain’t No More Cane
  16. Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)
  17. Ruben Remus
  18. Tiny Montgomery
  19. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
  20. Don’t Ya Tell Henry
  21. Nothing Was Delivered
  22. Open the Door, Homer
  23. Long Distance Operator
  24. This Wheel’s on Fire
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Joe Marchese
Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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0 thoughts on “From “Blonde” to “Blue”: Bob Dylan, Miles Davis Classics Coming on SACD and LP”

  1. Re the Dylan SACDs, apart from the Basement Tapes – which are a welcome if unlikely candidate for such a release – what’s the point? (unless the 2003 issues are out of print)

    1. Many of the 2003 SACDS are, indeed, out of print, including ANOTHER SIDE, BLOOD ON THE TRACKS and BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME. (FREEWHEELIN’ and BLONDE ON BLONDE still seem to be ready available.) I suspect these will prove attractive to those fans who missed out in ’03, as well as for those audiophiles interested in Mobile Fidelity’s remaster. Either way, they should sound terrific!

  2. Thanks for the info on these releases. I’ve been following news of them on various message boards for a few weeks but there hasn’t been much in the way of concrete detail. I am really looking forward to the mono mix of Milestones. The current Legacy release is in stereo, and the original Columbia Jazz Masterpieces CD had the first two tracks in stereo with the rest in mono that was shoved just to the left of the centre of the soundstage. Everytime I listen to it, my head drifts to that side of the sweet spot! Plus it just sounds thin and anemic. I’d be very happy if MFSL released all of Miles’ mono mixes on CD eventually, though I doubt that will happen. I believe all the titles they are releasing on this list save In A Silent Way were mixed to mono. Round About Midnight has only ever been available in mono, and though it’s not mentioned in your article, I am sure this version will be mono as well.
    Now I just want MFSL to set release dates for these!

    1. Hey Jason! Mobile Fidelity didn’t specifically mention mono in its information for ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT, but I, too, suspect it will indeed be heard that way. I also can’t wait for MILESTONES!

  3. I understand that the “Basement Tapes” LP has now been released from this series. Has anyone here picked it up? How is it? I am tempted to get it, but it’s unfortunate that the first release from this program is probably the worst recorded of all the albums. It won’t really give us much of an idea what improvement we can expect in the sound.

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