That Eric Alper

Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963 on October 31, 2025. Preorders begin today here. A preview of the album, “Rocks and Gravel,” is available here.

Through The Open Window tells the story of Dylan’s emergence and maturation as a songwriter and performer, tracing his journey from Minnesota to the Greenwich Village bohemia of the early 1960s. Arriving amidst a global resurgence of appreciation for Dylan, the collection includes rare Columbia Records outtakes, recordings from intimate club dates, informal apartment sessions, and jam gatherings in long-gone musicians’ haunts. Many of these recordings are exceedingly rare, while others have never before been presented in any form.

The box set offers a unique account of Dylan’s early years, when he honed his craft and transformed traditional folk songs and lyric sketches into some of his most enduring anthems, including “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” The collection culminates with a previously unreleased, full recording of Dylan’s landmark Carnegie Hall concert on October 26, 1963—a show that marked both a culmination of his early rise and the end of the beginning of a monumental career.

“Of that time and those places, this collection is just a fragment,” writes author and historian Sean Wilentz in his 125-page liner essay. “Even so, as an aural record of an artist becoming himself—or in Dylan’s case, his first of many artistic selves—the collection aims to collapse time and space, not as a nostalgic reverie but as a living connection between the past and the present, the old and the new, which are never as distinct as we might think.”

The 8-CD Deluxe Edition features 139 tracks—48 never-before-released performances and 38 super-rare cuts—plus a hardcover book with Wilentz’s extensive notes and over 100 rare photographs. The 2-CD and 4-LP highlight editions feature 42 tracks.

Tracklist

Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963

Disc 1

1. Let the Good Times Roll – December 24, 1956, Terlinde Music Shop, St. Paul, MN
2. I Got a New Girl – May 1959, Home of Ric Kangas, Hibbing, MN
3. San Francisco Bay Blues
4. Jesus Christ – September 1960, Home of Bob Dylan, Minneapolis, MN
5. East Virginia Blues
6. K.C. Moan
7. Hard Travelin’ – Late 1960, Madison, WI
8. Pastures of Plenty
9. Remember Me – February 1961, Home of Bob and Sid Gleason, East Orange, NJ
10. Song to Woody
11. Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues – September 6, 1961, The Gaslight Café, NYC
12. Ain’t No Grave – Summer 1961, Home of Mell and Lillian Bailey, NYC
13. I Ain’t Got No Home – May 13, 1961, Coffman Theater, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
14. Death Don’t Have No Mercy
15. Devilish Mary – May 1961, Minneapolis, MN
16. Introduction: Riverside Church
17. Handsome Molly – July 29, 1961, Saturday of Folk Music (WRVR-FM), Riverside Church, NYC
18. Introduction: See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
19. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
20. The Girl I Left Behind
21. Introduction: Pretty Boy Floyd
22. Pretty Boy Floyd
23. Railroading on the Great Divide – October 1, 1961, Gerdes Folk City, NYC
24. Introduction: Fixin’ to Die
25. Fixin’ to Die – 1961, Folklore Center, NYC
26. I’ll Fly Away – Take 1 (Alternate Take)* – September 29, 1961, Carolyn Hester sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC

Disc 2

1. Introduction: In the Pines
2. In the Pines
3. Gospel Plow
4. Introduction: Young But Daily Growing
5. Young But Daily Growing
6. Man on the Street
7. This Land Is Your Land*
8. Pretty Polly – November 4, 1961, Carnegie Chapter Hall, NYC
9. Man of Constant Sorrow – Rehearsal (Alternate Take, Nov 20, 1961)
10. House Carpenter – Take 1 (Outtake, Nov 22, 1961)*
11. You’re No Good – Take 2 with Take 6 Insert (Alternate Take, Nov 20, 1961)
12. He Was a Friend of Mine – Take 2 (Outtake, Nov 20, 1961)*
13. Ramblin’ Round – Take 2 (Outtake, Nov 22, 1961)*
    Bob Dylan sessions, Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC
14. Story: East Orange, New Jersey
15. Stealin’
16. Po’ Lazarus
17. Dink’s Song*
18. I Was Young When I Left Home*
19. In the Evening
20. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
21. Cocaine – December 22, 1961, Home of Bonnie Beecher, Minneapolis, MN

* Previously unreleased unless noted
** Previously released on 50th Anniversary Collection 1962 and 1963 (Sony)