EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY
Great White Wonder is probably the most famous bootleg album of all time and one of the earliest as well, being released in July 1969. It is a double album with a total of 25 cuts – electric songs and acoustic songs, quiet songs and fast songs, guitar songs and piano songs, solo performances and others with a full rock band, a dramatic recitation of a poem called “Black Cross” (or “Hezekiah Jones”), an interview with Pete Seeger, and a strange story called “East Orange, New Jersey” where Dylan complains about playing in a chess club there and relates a dream he had where they paid him in chess pieces rather than money. The music is fantastic, without question, but the album has a real personality as well. It is a simply amazing album that is unlike any that I know of that have been released by Bob Dylan or anyone else.
(September 2017)
