"Searching For A Gem"

Bob Dylan's Officially Released Rarities and Obscurities



[The Official Rarities Yearly Lists] [Traveling Wilburys] [Online Performances (bobdylan.com)] [Online Performances (Other)] [Interviews with Bob] [VHS & DVD] [International Mono Releases] [International Stereo Releases] [Released Rarities] [Honourable Mentions] [Honourable Mentions Video] [Questionable Releases] [Questionable Video Releases]

For latest News, see here. For Site Updates, see here.



[The Official Rarities Yearly Lists]
The Rarities Header page for each decade now contains links to the other audio pages for that decade.
All clip art images used throughout the site Copyright © TASK FORCE ImageGALLERY by NV Tech

There's no chat facility on this site, but the Searching For A Gem Facebook page on the left allows you to discuss Dylan Official Rarities and International Releases.

The other major "Flying Pig" Bob Dylan projects!

"There are those who worship loneliness, I'm not one of them,
In this age of fibreglass I'm searching for a gem."

Bob Dylan, "Dirge", ©
1973/2001 by Ram's Horn Music

A list-in-progress of officially released but elusive recordings of Bob Dylan, compiled by Alan Fraser.

Before contacting me, read this site's Privacy Policy

All the songs listed in the Official Rarities section are cross-referenced by song title in these alphabetical pages.
A-E F-J K-O P-S T-Z


Living In Another Country: International Stereo Releases


Starlight In The East: Bob Dylan’s Unreleased Songs


Bob Dylan at the Movies: An Overview of all Films with Dylan Performances

The Blonde On Blonde Missing Pictures
Other Flying Pig Pages


6 Feb 2025:
Thanks to Sonny Boy McFitzson for news that Sony Music Japan are reissuing nine Dylan albums on vinyl on 26 Feb 2025 to coincide with the release of the film A Complete Unknown in Japan on 28 Feb. This will be Bob's first seven albums in stereo except The Times They Are A-Changin', Blonde On Blonde in stereo and mono (the first time these albums have been released in mono in Japan) and a new 2LP release of The Essential Bob Dylan with the Japanese title "Ryuukoukashuu" [流行歌集] meaning Collection Of His Hits. The film soundtrack album will be also released on LP and CD as well as a new Blu-ray release of The Other Side Of The Mirror: Bob Dylan Live At The Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965.

27 Jan 2025: It's been brought to my attention that several pages have some pictures missing. In every case the pictures are on the web site, both thumbnails and full sized. They are not being displayed correctly because of a problem caused by the enforced transition from Microsoft FrontPage to Expression Web 4 as the page editor. This looks trivial but is very difficult and time-consuming to correct, usually requiring multiple attempts. I am currently focused on populating the new database-driven web site with multiple entries of various types to make sure the queries work correctly, especially regarding variants of the same release. I have therefore decided no longer to spend time trying to restore the missing pictures on the current web site.

24 Jan 2025: Thanks to Juergen Wasser, Michel Pomarede and Sergio Mariano Romay for news that "Record Collector" (UK), Feb 2025, has an article about a previously unknown CBS UK EP found in the collection of David Howells, the then product manager for the UK. The catalogue number indicates it was intended for release in late 1965. This is a commercial copy, not a promo, but it's thought all the other copies must have been destroyed. It's expected to fetch around £2,000 at auction. It contains the earliest known appearance on a record of If You Gotta Go, Go Now! The EP has been added to 1965.

23 Jan 2025: Sad to hear about the deaths of Garth Hudson, the last surviving member of The Band, on 21 Jan, and Barry Goldberg from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band who backed Bob on stage at Newport in 1965 (played in A Complete Unknown by Justin Levine), on 22 Jan. Bob co-produced and played on Barry's 1974 solo Atco album.

   
BarryGoldbergUSFront.jpg (19395 bytes)
 
 


Google Search facility

There are now over 300 pages on this site - to search for specific entries, try here!

only search www.searchingforagem.com


I must offer grateful thanks to Philip Jump and Mike Ward of the award-winning Badlands Record Shop, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, for supporting this web-site and the provision of many Bob Dylan rarities including the very limited 50th Anniversary Collection series.


Bob Dylan's Official Rarities Pages


Official Rarities and Obscurities

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Traveling Wilburys

Online Performances (bobdylan.com)

Online Performances (Other)

Interviews with Bob

VHS & DVD
 
International Mono Releases

International Stereo Releases

Released Rarities

Index of International Releases by Country (work in progress)
 

Honourable Mentions

Honourable Mentions (Dylan's Roots)

Honourable Mentions - Blowin' In The Wind Covers

Honourable Mentions - Covers (Misc)

Honourable Mentions Video
 
 
Questionable Releases

Questionable Releases of Official Dylan Albums

Questionable Releases of Official Dylan Singles

Questionable Releases Video
 

"International Stereo Releases" is organised by album and split into "Regular Albums" (again with one page per album),  "Compilations" and "Stereo Singles (All Formats)".  The new "Index of International Releases by Country" will summarise both mono and stereo album and single releases by individual country.


Lists compiled from "Searching For A Gem"

All the pages below contain lists of tracks that aren't on Bob's regular albums. There is no overlap between them, in that each rarity is listed on one page only.

Mr. D's Apochrypha
"Mr. D's Apocrypha"

(Columbia releases with tracks that aren't on Bob's regular albums)

Bob's "Field Recordings" 1961-87
Bob's Early "Field Recordings" 1961-87

The Never-Ending Tour Official "Field Recordings"
Bob Dylan's Never-Ending Tour Official "Field Recordings
" 1988 Onwards

Bob's Appearances on Compilations
Bob's Appearances on Compilations
(including Film Soundtracks)

Duets with Bob
Duets with Bob

Bob Supporting Other Artists
Bob "On The Side"

Revised:07 February, 2025


Contacting Bob Dylan: This is a fan site with no connection to Bob - that means you can't contact him through me! I used to have a postal address for Bob's New York business office that I thought was correct, but I have since been informed by someone who wrote to that address that their mail was returned. I have never had an email address. I can only suggest you contact Bob's publisher Simon & Schuster or use the feedback page at www.bobdylan.com. I also have no means of helping anyone who wants to meet Bob Dylan or obtain his autograph!

Access the yearly pages from here by going to the Official Rarities Yearly Lists. Traveling Wilburys now have their own pages. "VHS & DVD" is now split into multiple pages, including pages for films and TV series with Dylan rarities and pages for films and TV series with Dylan album tracks. "International Mono Releases" now has a page per official album plus pages for compilation albums, mono 7" singles and mono 7" EPs. "International Stereo Releases" is split into "Regular Albums" (again with one page per album),  "Compilations" and "Stereo Singles (All Formats)". "Honourable Mentions" are items which don't qualify for these lists, but may be of interest to Dylan collectors. "Questionable Releases" and "Questionable Releases Video" are items sent in by contributors of dubious provenance.

[The Official Rarities Yearly Lists] [Traveling Wilburys] [Online Performances (bobdylan.com)] [Online Performances (Other)] [Interviews with Bob] [VHS & DVD]
[International Mono Releases] [International Stereo Releases] [Released Rarities] [Honourable Mentions]
[Honourable Mentions Video] [Questionable Releases] [Questionable Releases Video]

[News] [Updates] [Red Herrings] [Trading] [Other Pages]

All the songs listed in the Official Rarities section are cross-referenced by song title in these alphabetical pages.
A-E F-J K-O P-S T-Z


Viruses and Spam

The Searching For A Gem site is always under sustained attack from Spammers, with 13,300 messages once received in one day. These messages are filtered out, and the Spam filters mean that if you do not put "Dylan" in the subject of a message it will be deleted and not reach the Searching For A Gem mailbox. If you have sent a message and not received a reply, please send it again with "Dylan" in the subject.

I obviously have to make this site's email address openly available so it's open to abuse by third parties. Some correspondents use ISPs whose Anti-Spam policies wrongly reject replies from me as Spam. If I can't send a message to you, I'll post a reply on the Updates page. Therefore, if you're expecting a reply from me and haven't received one, please look there.


Mission

Privacy

Acknowledgements


 

For this site's mission and inclusion/exclusion policies, see here.

Before contacting me, read this site's Privacy Policy.


 

The list of people who've contributed to the site is now long enough to merit its own Thanks page!

Red Herrings

Traders

Links

For records that have been wrongly associated with Bob but definitely have no connection with him, see here. Sorry, for legal and other reasons it is not possible for this site to offer valuations of your Dylan rarities, for details of online Dylan traders, see here. For other Bob Dylan related sites that may be of interest to Searching For A Gem visitors, see here.


EDLIS "Gemologist"!

Searching For A Gem is compiled by:

Alan Fraser
Macclesfield, Cheshire,
England
For more information on England's Macclesfield, see . There is also a Macclesfield in North Carolina, USA, and two in Australia: one in South Australia (near Adelaide) and one in Victoria (near Melbourne)! All three towns were founded by Cheshire expatriates.

Alan has contributed to the UK magazines "Record Collector", "Q", "Mojo" and "Uncut" as well as to the "Village Voice", Dylan fanzines "Isis" and "The Bridge" and several books on Bob Dylan, and has also appeared on BBC Radio talking about this site. He is the co-author with Christoph Maus of "Bob Dylan Worldwide: The First Twenty Years". Alan is the EDLIS "Gemologist", for the EDLIS Parties and Gatherings Facebook page, go to .

For Alan's science fiction book reviews for the British Science Fiction Association's review magazine "Vector", go here .

 


Alan Fraser, UK - webmaster
Email: alanfraser87 AT gmail DOT com

Hans1.jpg (21549 bytes)
Hans Seegers, Holland - Dylan discographer and collector supreme (sadly missed)

The font used for the titles of each page is appropriately called "Jokerman", if you can't see it, download it here:

The original version of "Bob Dylan's Official Rarities" was hosted on Guilio Molfese's "Breadcrumb Sins" site and also appeared in "The Bob Dylan Companion", edited by Carl Benson, Schirmer Books, New York, 1998.

This site is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Larry "Lambchop" Eden, who followed Bob all over the world for many years, and sadly died in 2007. I bought part of his Dylan collection when he was raising money to move to India some years before. He's one of the few fans Bob has ever acknowledged from the stage, saying "This is Lambchop. He's been to more of my shows than I have!". Let's hear it for the Chopper!

Also remembering Hans Seegers, who died on 30 Nov 2022 aged only 71. Hans was a Dylan collector extraordinaire, whose extensive collection became a vital part of my Searching For A Gem website.


Larry Eden in his trademark Rolling Thunder hat, photo by "jackobob"

[The Official Rarities Yearly Lists] [Traveling Wilburys] [Online Performances (bobdylan.com)] [Online Performances (Other)] [Interviews with Bob] [VHS & DVD] [International Mono Releases] [International Stereo Releases] [Released Rarities] [Honourable Mentions] [Honourable Mentions Video] [Questionable Releases] [Questionable Video Releases]

[News] [Updates] [Red Herrings] [Trading] [Other Pages]

All the songs listed on this web-site are cross-referenced by song title in these alphabetical pages.
A-E F-J K-O P-S T-Z


A Flying Pig production

Listings © 1998-2025
The rights to material from all quoted contributors remain with them. Copyright of all included artwork remains with the various record and audiovisual companies and artists.